Why Is It Hard To Live Healthy?

Why is it so hard to live healthy?

The Happy Hospitalist recently pointed out that we could prevent 80% of premature death by following some very basic health rules: don't smoke, eat healthy, exercise often, and don't get fat. He then notes out that only 10% of people do all four. Happy says the other 90% of us are “fat smoking lazy food-junkies,” and he doesn't want to pay for healthcare for such stupid people.

Are Americans really that stupid? No, but we do often ignore the basic rules of healthy living. Why? We learned this stuff in health class as kids, but why is it so hard to actually do?

The answer lies in history. The diseases that kill people now are not the same ones that threatened our ancestors. The human mind comes pre-programed with survival instincts for a completely different world. Up until just a few generations ago humans survived on the edge of starvation. Life involved a lot of work and there was barely enough food to go around. Starvation ended the lives of millions, and the many malnourished were at much higher risk from death when confronted with infection or violence. These things killed our ancestors far more often than heart disease or cancer.

The human body is built to live on low-calorie high-fiber foods while doing a tremendous amount of physical exertion—bodies always need these “healthy” things, but your ancestors never needed to look for them any more than they needed to look for oxygen.

The human mind, however, is finely tuned to constantly search out high calorie foods and ways to avoid strenuous work. Your ancestors didn't find these luxuries often, but they were constantly striving for them. An avoided exertion or a caloric meal could make the difference between life and death.

Only in the last 100 years or so have we reached a point technologically in the US where high-calorie foods are unlimited and a person can go indefinitely without any real exercise. We created the world in the shape of our instinctual desires and now it is killing us.

But our brains did not change quickly like the world around us. Your mind still works like that of a sustenance farmer preparing for a long winter. When millennia of human survival instincts tell you to skip the work-out and eat seconds you cannot help but pay attention. Happy Hospitalist threatening you with cutting you off his insurance plan isn't going to change your behavior much. You don't even really worry about getting heart disease in a few decades either, your brain is much more preoccupied with that famine it keeps expecting to show up.

Doctor D has never found that name-calling or threatening people with premature death does much to motivate them to live healthy. When doctors order people to eat better and slim down patients often go to crazy quick-fix diets that usually do more harm in the long run. It is just difficult for the human mind to accept a healthy lifestyle that runs contrary to our instincts.

Doctor D is not saying lifestyle change is impossible, but that it is difficult. Change requires understanding and respecting the power of instinctual drives. Most people who eat too much and avoid exercise don't even know why they do what they do. Doctors commanding patients to "just live healthy" is about as useful as telling an addict to just stop getting high or a depressed person to just cheer up.

Instincts have a strong influence on us, but they are not irresistible. It takes significant motivation, insight, and encouragement to resist the power of survival instincts. Doctors who understand this will do more for their patients' health than doctors who simply order patients to be healthy.

Masking Drug Use

As previously mentioned, diuretics can be used to reduce the presence of drugs in urine samples. Other compounds, including epitestosterone, plasma expanders and secretion inhibitors, can be used to reduce the presence of banned substances in blood samples.

Epitestosterone
Epitestosterone is a biological form of testosterone that does not enhance performance. Drug tests for testosterone typically measure the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E ratio). An athlete can inject epitestosterone, lower the T/E ratio and hide the use of testosterone. By itself, epitestosterone has no real harmful side effects.

Plasma Expanders
Plasma expanders are substances that are used to increase the fluid component of blood. They are used to treat victims of shock, trauma and surgery. Athletes can use these substances to dilute the concentration of banned substances (EPO) in their blood. Most side effects include moderate to severe allergic reactions.

Secretion Inhibitors
Many drugs and foreign substances have structures that are shaped like organic acids. In the body, these organic acids are removed by a protein in the kidney that transports organic acids. If this protein can be blocked, then these drugs or foreign substances would not appear in the urine. Doctors use these inhibitors to treat gout. However, the drugs can be used to manipulate the results of urine drug tests. Possible side effects include nausea, vomiting, allergic reactions and kidney problems.

Masking Pain

What about Cortisone? Cortisone is one of the adrenal cortex hormones. Clinically, it is injected to reduce inflammation in injuries and allergic responses. The advantages and side effects of its use are the same as with ACTH.

Along with training and performing to be a world-class athlete comes the pain of injuries. Sometimes, athletes try to mask their injury pain with drugs, including narcotics, protein hormonesand local anesthetics.

Narcotics
Narcotics are used to treat pain and include substances such as morphine, methadone,Vicodin, Percocet and heroin. Narcotics are highly addictive, and the "high" associated with their use can impair mental abilities such as judgment, balance and concentration. Also, athletes who continue to compete with an injury run the risk of further damage or complications.

Protein Hormones
Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) is a naturally occurring protein hormone that is secreted by the pituitary gland and stimulates the production of hormones from the adrenal cortex. These adrenal cortex hormones are important in reducing inflammation in injuries and allergic responses. So, by using ACTH to stimulate internal adrenal cortex hormones, an athlete could mask an injury. Possible side effects include stomach irritation, ulcers, mental irritation and long-term effects (weakening bones and muscles).

Local Anesthetics
Local anesthetics, like those your dentist or doctor use, are used to mask pain in the short-term without impairing mental abilities. They include novocaine, procaine, lidocaine and lignocaine. Athletes may use them so that they can continue to compete while injured. The major problem with their use is the possibility of further aggravating an injury.

3-Building Mass and Strength

Mass- and strength-enhancing drugs used by athletes include:

• Anabolic steroids
• Beta-2 agonists
• Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG)
• Luteinizing hormone (LH)
• Human growth hormone (HGH)
• Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1)
• Insulin

Anabolic Steroids
A steroid is a chemical substance derived from cholesterol. The body has several major steroid hormones -- cortisol and testosterone in the male, estrogen and progesterone in the female. Catabolic steroids break down tissue, and anabolic steroids build up tissue. Anabolic steroids build muscle and bone mass primarily by stimulating the muscle and bone cells to make new protein.

Athletes use anabolic steroids because they increase muscle strength by encouraging new muscle growth. Anabolic steroids are similar in structure to the male sex hormone, testosterone, so they enhance male reproductive and secondary sex characteristics (testicle development, hair growth, thickening of the vocal cords). They allow the athlete to train harder and longer at any given period.

Anabolic steroids are mostly testosterone (male sex hormone) and its derivatives. Examples of anabolic steroids include: testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, androstenedione (andro), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), clostebol, nandrolone.

These substances can be injected or taken as pills. Anabolic steroids have a number of possible and well-known side effects, including: jaundice and liver damage because these substances are normally broken down in the liver; mood swings, depression and aggression because they act on various centers of the brain.

In males, the excessive concentrations interfere with normal sexual function and cause baldness, infertility and breast development.

In females, the excessive concentrations cause male characteristics to develop and interfere with normal female functions. The drugs can stimulate hair growth on the face and body, suppress or interfere with the menstrual cycle -- possibly leading to infertility; thicken the vocal cords, which causes the voice to deepen, possibly permanently; interfere with the developing fetus in pregnant women.

Beta-2 Adrenergic Agonists
When inhaled, beta-2 agonists relax the smooth muscle in the airways of asthma patients by mimicking the actions of epinephrine and norepinephrine, substances that are secreted by sympathetic nerves. However when injected into the bloodstream, these drugs can build muscle mass (anabolic effect) and reduce body fat (catabolic effect). The anabolic effect appears to directly affect building proteins in the muscles, which is independent of nervous or cardiovascular effects. Some examples of beta-2 agonists include:

• Clenbuterol
• Terbutaline
• Salbutamol
• Fenoterol
• Bambuterol

Some of these substances are permitted in inhaler forms with written medical consent.

The major side effects include: nausea, headaches and dizziness because these substances constrict blood vessels in the brain; muscle cramps because they constrict blood vessels in muscles; and rapid heartbeats or flutters because they stimulate heart rate. We'll look at human growth hormones in the next section.

2-How Performance-enhancing Drugs Work

Why Some Athletes Use Drugs

Athletes face enormous pressure to excel in competition. They also know that winning can reap them more than a gold medal. A star athlete can earn a lot of money and a lot of fame, and athletes only have a short time to do their best work. Athletes know that training is the best path to victory, but they also get the message that some drugs and other practices can boost their efforts and give them a shortcut, even as they risk their health and their athletic careers.

As far back as ancient Greece, athletes have often been willing to take any preparation that would improve their performance. But it appears that drug use increased in the 1960s. The precise reason for the increase is uncertain, but we do know that anabolic-androgenic steroids were made available for sale during this period and the East German government began giving drugs to its athletes in an attempt to excel on an international level [source: The Guardian] [source: Sports Injury Bulletin]. Athletes may also misuse drugs to relax, cope with stress or boost their own confidence.

Athletes may have several reasons for using performance-enhancing drugs. An athlete may want to: build mass and strength of muscles and/or bones; increase delivery of oxygen to exercising tissues; mask pain; stimulate the body; relax; reduce weight or hide the use of other drugs.

The classes of drugs used for these purposes are shown above. Most of the drugs shown are banned outright in Olympic competitions. However, some of these drugs, such as cortisone and local anesthetics, are allowed with certain restrictions in Olympic competition because they have legitimate clinical uses. We'll look at each major class of drug and tell you about the dangerous side effects.

How Performance-enhancing Drugs Work

"If I could give you a pill that would make you an Olympic champion -- and also kill you in a year -- would you take it?" Dr. Gabe Mirkin asked competitive runners that question in advance of a Washington, D.C., road race in 1967. Of the approximately 100 athletes who returned Mirkin's questionnaire, more than half responded that they would take the pill.

The prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs in sports has increased in the 43 years since Mirkin, a physician and sports medicine expert, handed out his survey. The desire to win is, naturally, ever present while, at the same time, new research and technologies have expanded the number of options for cheating your way onto the podium. For example, today's performance-enhancing drugs come in many forms other than a pill ("the cream and the clear," a testosterone-based ointment described by accused athletes in court testimony, comes to mind), but the results they produce are still highly sought after. Professional cycling has been repeatedly rocked by revelations and allegations of drug use. Every two years as the Olympic Games begin, we hear about athletes using or at least being tested for performance-enhancing drugs. Major League Baseball is still trying to repair its image from the steroid era. And the list goes on.

Some athletes get away with using drugs; others wind up suspended from their sport or even in jail, and still others die prematurely. It's a risky and complex game within a game that plays itself out on a public stage. In this article, we'll discuss why some athletes take drugs, what the major classes of drugs and their side effects are, and how people test for drug use.

the Dangers of Sleep Deprivation

Recognizing the Dangers of Sleep Deprivation

If you regularly get less sleep than your brain requires, then you are, by definition, sleep deprived. Every year, thousands of sleep-deprived people are involved in automobile and industrial accidents, and their sleepiness is frequently cited as a contributing factor in the accidents. The National Sleep Foundation believes the problem is so pervasive that it has established a national Drowsy Driver education program to inform people about the dangers of driving while sleep deprived. But an increased risk for accidents is just one part of the consequences you may suffer if you continue to deprive your brain and body of the sleep they require to keep you healthy.

Problems associated with poor sleep

If you're sleeping poorly on most nights, you probably feeling pretty pooped. If you can keep your eyes open long enough, read through the following list of problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation.

If you're sleep deprived, you may:

• Age more rapidly

• Be more susceptible to colds, flu, and other infections

• Display an increased risk of accidents due to sleepiness and poor coordination

• Experience more emotional problems, including depression and anxiety

• Feel irritable and experience mood swings

• Forget important information

• Have reduced ability to deal with stress

• Increase your risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and death

• Show poor judgment, poor concentration, and an inability to make decisions

Unfortunately, if you're stumbling around like a zombie during the day because you're sleep deprived, your sleepiness could pose a real danger for you and those around you.

Sleepiness and driving

U.S. roadways and highways are littered with the corpses of drunk and sleepy drivers and their victims. The National Highway Transportation Safety Association reports that sleepy drivers are involved in as many crashes as drunk drivers. And sleepy driving accidents tend to be more violent than drunk-driving accidents because even the drunkest driver has some sort of ability to react and respond to an emergency situation, even if that ability is impaired. A driver who is asleep doesn't react to the emergency situation at all because he or she is completely unaware.

Public awareness of drunk driving is high, but sleepy driving is barely on the radar. Sleepy drivers cause more than 100,000 traffic accidents every year, accidents that could all be prevented if everyone made sure they had enough sleep before operating a motor vehicle. According to the National Sleep Foundation, drowsy-driving accidents cause 1,550 unnecessary deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in property losses and lost productivity every year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 1 million accidents are caused annually by driver inattention. Two of the highest risk factors for inattentiveness behind the wheel are sleep deprivation and fatigue. Sleepy drivers aren't just putting themselves at risk by getting behind the wheel; they're putting their passengers as well as other drivers and their passengers at risk. They are also a threat to pedestrians.

People who drive for a living have an even higher risk of being in an accident while driving. Approximately 47 percent of all truck drivers report that they've fallen asleep at the wheel at least once during their driving careers.

Sleepiness and industrial accidents

The list of industrial accidents caused, at least in part, by sleepy workers in key positions reads like a "Who's Who" of disaster headlines over the past several decades.

Pilot fatigue and the resulting diminished judgment were given part of the blame for the 1999 American Airlines crash in Little Rock, Arkansas. Sleep deprivation was also involved in the accident with the Staten Island Ferry that crashed into the dock at full speed in October 2003. The assistant captain piloting the ferry made no attempt to slow the boat down because he was sound asleep at the controls. Many other disasters were caused by key personnel who made bad decisions because they were operating on too little sleep.

Many industries are finally waking up to the fact that allowing their employees to work with too little sleep is dangerous. However, just as many employers ignore the fact that humans require adequate sleep to function well. So for every intern program that now allows its young doctors to sleep six hours every night, you still have a program that pushes its doctors to perform on one or two hours sleep (or no sleep), and that lack of sleep can lead to serious medical mistakes. Even worse, these programs may require house staff to work back-to-back shifts with no break in between. Increasing pressure has come to bear on work schedules during medical training in the wake of several high-profile wrongful death cases.

person2

Everyone has a favourite famous person. The famous person could be an actor, a singer, an artist, a historical figure or somebody else. My favourite famous person is Michael Schumacher.

He is a pilot in Formula 1. He was born on 3rd January 1969 in Hurm-Henmulchein, Germany. Now Michael lives in Switzerland. He is 174 cm tall and weighs 75 kg. He is married. His wefe’s name is Korina, and they have a daughter – Jina-Maria, and a son – Nick.

Michael started racing with a dodgem when he was just 4 years old. He started his racing career in Formula 1 in 1991. His first place in the starting grid was in 1991 for Jordan Honda and in his next race he raced for Benetton. His first place was at Spa, Belgium. He has been a world champion in Formula 1 seven times: in 1995 and 1996 with Benetton and in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 with Ferrari. In 2004 he won over 10 races.

He has records for being world champion seven times, for the most wins in a season, and many more.

His hobbies are football, fitness exercises, mountain bike riding, and some others.

I would like to point out that in my opinion Michael Schumacher is really a great person and a great Formula 1 pilot. I admire him very much.

person

I have many friends but Karol is my best friend. He is very nice; maybe just once in a while he is not. Below I will describe him for you.

He has black hair, green eyes, and a middle-sized nose. In general, every day he wears different clothes but not different pair of shoes.

Karol is keen on sports. He likes swimming. During the summer he and I go to the pool and play water polo. He is crazy about boxing. He does not like football and computer games. Sometimes we play basketball but he is not keen on this sport.

My friend does not like studying, and he does not like waking up early. He is usually late for the first school lesson.

Our gang often go out for walks. We sit on some benches and talk about girls, problems and other things.

My friend is very nice and I enjoy my time with him. I really enjoy his company. I value our friendship very highly.

I Love Bears!

What’s your favourite animal? Is your favourite animal the lion? Is your favourite animal the tiger? If it’s either of those, go to hell. You can also go to hell if it’s any other animal aside from the one I’m about to report to you as being the best, because it is: Bears. Bears is the best animal of all, and I don’t need science to prove it, because I have magic, but I also have science to prove it, the dopest science available, that comes straight from the honeycomb hideout. Bears have created the best music, the best wrestling holds, the best whiz beer t-shirts(I’m not going to bring this up later in the article so I’ll tell you now I’m talking about Bear Whiz Beer T-Shirts), and the best sleeping that exists on the planet earth. You might think it’s easy to go to sleep, but a bear can sleep your ass off. You have no idea how hard a bear sleeps. God, you just have no idea, just don’t even talk to me about it, God.

When bears were first created by God, even God wasn’t ready. You’ve probably wondered if God could create a sandwich so big even he couldn’t eat it. Well, that’s the kind of sandwich he was trying to make on the day he created bears, a bear sandwich, and it worked because the bear mauled him and God died and Nietzche wrote about it. The bear escaped into the annals of history, also the forest, running at a speed of thirty miles per hour. I already brought up how hard a bear sleeps and I got pretty broken up about it because I was jealous of them but I’ll relent here and describe it fully because bears sleep too amazingly hard for me to not extend them their full due. You probably sleep about eight hours a night, because you want to wake up in the morning. Guess what, bears sleep for two months, because bears never want to wake up. They don’t give a crap about life or you or anything. Their lives just go on for reasons too deep for you to possibly fathom. They’re the coolest animals in the world.

Bears aren’t all show either, they’ve got brains too. You remember how Yogi Bear was “Smarter than the average bear”, right? That was really saying something. He had men killed in laboratories. I don’t feel at all comfortable even thinking about him. The average bear is smarter than most humans, as bears are the smartest animals found in nature. This fact is verified by their consumption of a strict diet of sweet golden honey, nature’s best food, beating out even poisonous silver mercury for nutritive content. Honey saves for an unlimited period of time and can be consumed even after thousands of years of storage, which is why bears love to leave a huge coffee cup full of honey right next to their beds before they go to sleep for two months so when they get up they can chug the whole thing and face a new day of performing works of genius. Panthers tried this with milk and died from bacterial poisoning, but bears never did because they knew the first time around to use honey, because bears are so smart.

Bears are so smart that their inventions have been a constant boon to mankind since earliest days. Mankind’s favorite sport, wrestling, can be cited as being almost entirely a bear invention. Bears, like most geniuses, are natural pacifists, and in ancient times when humans used to try to run up on them to beat the tar out of them so they could steal their honey and drink it in front of their huge insane aggro bonfires, the typical bear response would be to simply throw them as hard as they could towards the sea, where the humans would usually land, due to the incredible power of bear arms. This maneuver was known as the bear throw. Sometimes these humans would return from the sea, seaweed wrapped fists spiked with shards of coral, still hungry for bear blood and now vengeance on bearkind as well, at which time what would usually happen is a bear would turn toward such an oncoming human, open it’s arms, and stonily embrace them in a vice-like grip. While slowly squeezing the human to death the bear would then whisper in bear, in a voice just barely audible above the sound of the human’s snapping bones and suffocated dying gasps, “I… ALWAYS… LOVED… YOU.”, a maneuver known as the bear hug, a variant of which is still used by modern wrestlers.

Teddy Roosevelt once said “If I could get close enough to a bear to hug one I would, but even armed with a gun I fear to. Someone construct for me a small bear doll to hug in the stead of that act,” a proclamation which incited the invention of the teddy bear. It was moved by this same spirit that I recently created a Youtube video of a montage of photos of bears set to the song “Kiss Me Through The Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, but even that wasn’t enough for me to express to bears how important they are to me, which is why I felt I had to write this article. Bears might live in caves, but on a deeper level, inside those caves, is where gold is, and that is what bears build their computers out of. If you are a bear and you are reading this article on your golden computer right now, know this: I love you.

konular

The Best Day of My Life 1

Everyday is the best day of my life. Each day is very special to me. I cannot duplicate all the events that have happened on a particular day. Bits of sad and joyous moments make up ones day for even in one’s thoughts only, these moments can be felt. But what is really in a day? A day is the same yet different with another day. More or less the same pattern goes but the contents vary.

Let me take you to my own journey through a typical day. Upon waking up in the morning, it is a delightful routine to talk to God immediately. I thanked Him for blessing me with a new day in my life again. Imagine if God allowed me to lose my breath over some horrible nightmare while I am asleep or maybe allowed a plane to crash on the roof of our house…Instead, in just a little while at breakfast, I was able to insist that my teen-ager son should drink his glass of milk, and I am still able to fix my husband’s tie. Yes it is still a busy day so with hurried hugs and kisses we bid each other goodbye.

I have noticed that the office is unusually cheerful today. Many cared to say “thank you” and my boss is grinning too. Ah, I remember, the deadline for that important company report was met already. Unlike yesterday, it was a trying day at the office hence, every office mate I see has a crease of frown on his forehead and my boss had gone nuts. But today, well, another day in the office have come and gone and it was a “warm” office day.

The dinner is sumptuous; it took me more than an hour to prepare it. As my family gathers around the table eating, they cannot wait to report what happened during the day. My son exclaimed with joy as he relives how he kicked that soccer ball right through the goal and my husband prided over how he closed the insurance deal. And me? I just smiled with their victories for the day. That night, I again thanked God for the chance of being able to enjoy life.

The Best Days Of My Life 2

Every day is the best day of my life. Each day is very special to me. I cannot duplicate all the events that have happened on a particular day. Bits of sad and joyous moments make up ones day for even in one’s thoughts only, these moments can be felt. But what is really in a day? A day is the same yet different with another day. More or less the same pattern goes but the contents vary. Let me take you to my own journey through a typical day. Upon waking up in the morning, it is a delightful routine to talk to God immediately. I thanked Him for blessing me with a new day in my life again. Imagine if God allowed me to lose my breath over some horrible nightmare while I am asleep or maybe allowed a plane to crash on the roof of our house…Instead, in just a little while at breakfast, I was able to insist that my teen-age son should drink his glass of milk, and I am still able to fix my husband’s tie. Yes it is still a busy day so with hurried hugs and kisses we bid each other goodbye. I have noticed that the office is unusually cheerful today. Many cared to say “thank you” and my boss is grinning too. Ah, I remember, the deadline for that important company report was met already. Unlike yesterday, it was a trying day at the office hence, every office mate I see has a crease of frown on his forehead and my boss had gone nuts. But today, well, another day in the office have come and gone and it was a “warm” office day. The dinner is sumptuous; it took me more than an hour to prepare it. As my family gathers around the table eating, they cannot wait to report what happened during the day. My son exclaimed with joy as he relives how he kicked that soccer ball right through the goal and my husband prided over how he closed the insurance deal. And me? I just smiled with their victories for the day. That night, I again thanked God for the chance of being able to enjoy life. Life’s lessons are being taught everyday and no one single day can claim...

One Place I Would Like To Visit On A Class Trip New York City

One place I would like to visit on a class trip

New York City is the one place I would very much like to visit on our next class trip.

New York City is very large and has lots of exciting and educational activities, such as

going to the theater, museums, landmarks and shopping. New York City is located in the

state of New York, only 30 minutes to Newark Airport in New Jersey. It makes a perfect

place for a class trip. The tourist season runs the entire year, making visiting time

flexible.

New York City is usually packed with people making the city look very overcrowded.

Often there are so many people on the sidewalks you have to walk in the street. People

are walking in every direction. You will even see horses and buggies waiting to pick up

tourist for a tour of the city,. The place looks very congested, and it doesn?t look like

such an enjoyable class trip spot at first, but with a little bit of the spirit of adventure

there is tons of things to see.

New York City has beautiful skyscrapers.

One unique place, the Twin Towers, is very neat. It towers above all the other buildings.

It has an elevator that can take you up over 100 stories in about three minutes. When you

reach the top there is an observation area where you can see the entire city and

surrounding islands. One of the other interesting places in the Intrepid. The Intrepid is an

actual retired aircraft carrier. It is now open to the public for a small fee. The Intrepid has

been left the same as it was while in active duty, so you can observe original aircraft

carrier weapons and equipment. We could walk from the Twin Towers to the Intrepid, as

they are both located in the lower part of New York City.. We could make the walk in

less than a half-hour. Another day we can go to the Museum of Natural History, where

among other things, there are real dinosaur bones.

New York City has lots of activities to do at night also. It doesn?t have to be strictly...

The Place I Would Like To Visit

Busy city sidewalks; yellow taxis and wide streets; hot dog stands on every corner; Central Park covered in a blanket of snow; the Statue of liberty and all of its glamour; the bright lights of Times Square; world's famous designers shops on 5th Avenue and last, but not least ice skating on a central park - this is what comes to mind when I picture New York City..... I haven't traveled to a city that can even come close to comparing to Manhattan. I haven't travelled to manhattan to, but this is the only place in the world i would like to visit.

A lot of people go to New York to see this magnificent city with many famous sights which should be visited. I would love to take a trip to the Statue of Liberty, which is one of the best landmarks of NY. Also, NY is famous for its scycrapers. It looks most spectacular at night. It would be my favourite place in the world- a city that never sleeps, a city that stands alone, and a city that is truly one of a kind. I've been reading books about NYC and I'm still watching TV series about it. I could't forget this fabulous sights i've seen on TV.There is no place like this and there is certainly no other place like New York in the world, which is why i would love to visit.

I think the best season to visit the city is winter time. When the Central park is covered in a blanket of snow, Christmas atmosphere is all around the city... Before Christmas there's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, with its giant balloons, singers, bands and movie stars...

But the only way to feel the glory of this remarkable city is to visit it. The trip to NY, especially Manhattan, would give me nothing but joy, amazement and most important the pride to visit such a magnificent city. I would love to visit it one day and raise my own children in NY. The city where the dreams come true.

"My home"

There are many kinds of houses which differ in their looks, features and lots of other things. But no matter how much they look different, they all have the same definition, the place where you feel safe, comfortable and settled. As for me, I like modern houses. They are, in my opinion, more up-to-date and more attractive.

I live in a spacious modern two-stories house in the center of Saudi Arabia's capital city, Riyadh. When people look at my house from the street, they see, right away, the high trees around my house and the brickwork roof of it.

When you enter the front door you can see the huge chandelier in the top of the entrance hallway. Also, you'll definitely notice the white marbled stairs up to the first floor.

In the first floor, there are two bedrooms, one bathroom and a large living room. The living room, which is the room that I really like in my house, has two big sofas and a very nice massage chair. And with an amazingly huge LCD screen in it, it is quite nice for watching movies and having some popcorn at night!

My home, for me, is very important. Everyday when I come back from work and close my front door, I have a nice feeling that my day was special. Without a house that you like, you can never go on with your life.

Dream House

My Dream House

Ever since I was ten years old I have known what kind of house I wanted to live in. A house that is on the lake and after I start a family it will be considered a loving home.

One of the most important details about a house is the location. My house will be located where it is quiet and peaceful. My house will be located on a small private lake, but about two hundred yards off the edge of the lake. The best location for this would have to be in Minnesota. Minnesota has beautiful lakes with great houses around them. If it would happen to rain a lot, I would want my house to be far enough away that it will not get damaged.

I want my house to be located where it is warm in the summer and cold in the winter. I think the best state for that to happen is Pennsylvania. It is just so beautiful there all the time.

The structure of a house is a very important part of construction of the house. The house is going to have two stories and a full basement. There will be windows with shutters on each side of the house. There will also be windows in the basement where some of the ground has been dug out so light can get into the basement. There will be a deck facing the lake around the first and second floor of the house. The purpose of having the deck in that position is so anybody can go out there relax, and watch all the people in boats go by. There will be double sliding glass doors leading out to the decks. There will be an outside staircase leading up to the second floor.

The house will be painted dark green with dark cherry front and back doors. The deck will also be dark cherry so it will match the rest of the house. The roof will be made of gray asphalt shingles.

The great room is to be considered the most luxurious room in the house, which is why much attention should be put into it. The great room is going to be the room that holds all books, awards, and certificates that I have received or bought in my lifetime. It...

My Grandma's House

When I was six years old, there was a snowstorm out at my grandma and grandpa Anschutz's house. The snow gathered higher than my dad's head in some places, and it was so high that we could go sledding off the snow banks. The snow was almost two feet deep in my grandma's yard, which made it hard to walk up to their two story white house. When we did get inside the house, the warmth of the stove consumed me, and the sweet smell of my grandma's delicious baked cookies and candy was everywhere. My grandma's house is a warm place where I feel at home and safe away from the bustle of my everyday life.Each year when Christmas time rolls around, my grandma decorates her house with a couple hundred little snowmen gathered throughout the years. Almost every Christmas, we give my grandma a little snowman to add to her enormous and ever growing collection. She has one snowman that has its arms connected together so its hands are entwined; she hangs candy canes on it for us to eat. We dip them in sweet hot chocolate as we sit and watch Disney movies on their dusty old television.The living room has an old brown couch sitting in the corner with a lamp and another chair next to it. The T.V. is in the opposite corner so you can see it from all angles of the room. When we go over to their house, my grandma always used to make us wear slippers from her slipper bag so we didn't get slivers from the old wooden floor. The living room and the dining room are separated by an old chair and the wall only goes half way through then curves off. The dining room has a big table usually covered in a snowman table cloth that sits right in the middle of it. Every year around Christmas my grandma makes oyster soup and we sit at their old table and eat it until we're sick.When we have Christmas dinner the one thing to fear is the dreaded "kiddie" table. Every child wants to sit at the adult table, but they get told to go in the living room and sit at a small old rickety card table. The reason for our deep hatred of the "kiddie" table is not the table itself or even the aspect of it, but the chairs we are forced to sit in. My grandma has three old antique chairs that have baboon faces with their mouth's open, so that when you sit in them you feel like you are about to be eaten. After sitting in the chair for a little bit you get used t o it and have time to enjoy the salty ham that my grandma cooks.After Christmas dinner we all gather in the living room to open the presents that we have bought for each other. My grandma has a little artificial Christmas tree that she sets on a table and we all set the presents cautiously under it. When no one's looking the children all go under the tree and snoop for the presents we are going to be given.Around Christmas time my grandma has afternoon coffee at her house; she invites all my aunts and my mom's cousins. If this particular group of people gets put together the sounds of laughter tend to get louder than a screaming banshee. They sit around the dining room table, and talk about "the good old times," also known as their bean walking days. Sometimes they all break out into songs they remember from their childhood. On one particular sunny summer afternoon they sang about a little boy who poops on his slide and his mother yells at him. This song never fails to make my sister and I laugh.My favorite part of my grandma's house is the kitchen. My grandma cooks things all day long and the aroma fills the whole house with its sweet smell. My spot at the kitchen table is to my grandma's right and across from my grandpa. My grandparents always have cookies that my grandma has cooked and candy on her counter; there is even a jar especially for M&M's, my dad's favorite treat.

When you leave the smell of the sweet, salty, and delicious food fades from your nose, and the last thing you see is my grandma waving at us out the window. We make the long drive down their driveway and turn left onto the highway leaving me with a warm and full feeling, I look up into the dark night sky and think of all the fun times I have had there with my family.

My Best Friend Phineas

Phineas was my best friend. We did everything together, from school to just having fun. He was always with me, always by my side. Of course, he was my only room mate at Devon. I feel like I know Phineas better than anyone, maybe even better than he knew himself. I saw all sides of him as if, I was a part of him. I remember coming back to Devon, when we first went back to our tree and we were having fun and he was calling me “pal” and I thought “we were the best of friends at that moment.” He once told me I was his “best pal”. Phineas was like… like a God to me. It seemed to me that he just did everything so well and got away with everything. He seemed invisible. Everyone seemed to love Phineas and look up to him. He could do anything at Devon and not get in trouble. Like that time he wore I pick shirt and I thought for sure he was going to get in trouble, but Phineas came up with such a reasonable explanation and got away with it, I will never forget that. I was not just Phineas’s best friend… I was part of him and he was a part of me.

Phineas was a leader. He was very outgoing and would do everything his own way. Phineas would try new things, he would do things even if it risked getting into trouble like when he wore the pink shirt, even though he would get away with everything. Phineas was never a follower, he’s different and does everything his own way. Phineas was very creative and adventurous. He comes up with new games and groups such as the

A Friend

A friend is a person with whom we spend most of our time. It is very important to spend enjoyable with them. The time we spend with our friends is precious and shouldn’t be wasted. There are some characteristics that a friend should have such as being intelligent, having sense of humor, or being reliable. In my opinion, the most important characteristics, which were mentioned, is having sense of humor.

To my way of thinking, a friend doesn’t have to be very intelligent because getting higher grades is not important for all the people. I can’t judge my friend when she gets low marks. It also doesn’t mean that she is successful, she can be very creative and succeed in arts or music. So we should never judge people according to their intelligence. A person who is not very intelligence can be a very helpful and friendly person.

Sense of humor is a very important characteristic that every people should have. If one doesn’t have a sense of humor, then he doesn’t care about other people’s feelings and behaves very badly, thinking only of himself. I don’t what that kind of person to be around me, because he makes everybody around him uncomfortable because of his selfishness. If one has a sense of humor, than he is there whenever you are in need of him, he does everything he can.

Sense of humor brings other characteristics such as being helpful, thinking of other people. And all these characteristics are very important for a friendship to be long lasting. I would like my friend to listen to my problems and give me advices. His thoughts are very important for me because I’m sure he thinks the right way objectively. He thinks of a matter deeply and helps me to make my decisions. If my friend hadn’t had a sense of humor, he would not try to help me and leave me confused with my problems. If my friend hadn’t had a sense of humor, he would not take me to the cinema when I had problems with my parent, I would be in my room crying and thinking how to solve...