A Little Bit of Everything For Dummies

by John Wiley & Sons

Fast Ethernet or 100BaseT cable: Buy a cable for each PC that won’t be using wireless. You want an Ethernet cable, which resembles phone cable but with slightly thicker jacks. Ethernet cable is sometimes called Ethernet RJ-45, Cat 5, Cat 5e, Cat 6, Fast Ethernet, LAN cable, 100BaseT cable, or 1000BaseT cable. The names usually include a number relating to the cable’s speed rating: 10, 100, or 1,000. (Big numbers are faster, so opt for the fastest you find.)

Turn on the router, the computers, and the computers’ peripherals. Turn on the router first, then the computers and their monitors, printers, modems, and whatever else happens to be connected to them.

Normally, anything you delete on your own PC ends up in your Recycle Bin, giving you a last chance at retrieval. That’s not true when you’re working on a file within a networked PC’s folder. When you delete a folder on a networked PC’s folder, the file is gone for good — it doesn’t hop into the Recycle Bin of your own PC or the networked PC. Beware.

Nous nous amusons toujours.

If they can light a small spark, they may have a chance. But if all they do is fight the whole time they’re away, then rather than waste time in a relationship that’s going nowhere, they may as well split up and begin a new phase of their lives.

People who hold rational philosophies are generally less prone to emotional disturbances, such as anxiety and depression, and are more readily able to solve problems.

When you hold an attitude of personal responsibility for your feelings and actions, you’re more able to find creative solutions, and your belief in your ability to cope with adversity is heightened. You empower yourself by focusing on your ability to influence the way you feel even if you can’t control events.

Accepting reality and striving to improve it where wise and achievable can help you save your energy for creative thought and action.

Accepting that you’re an individual and have the right to live your life, just as other people have the right to live theirs, is a pretty good recipe for happiness.

Life’s unfair to pretty much everyone from time to time – in which case, perhaps things aren’t as desperately unfair as you thought. If you can accept the cold, hard reality of injustice and uncertainty, you’re far more likely to be able to bounce back when life slaps you in the face with a wet fish. You’re also likely to be less anxious about making decisions and taking risks. You can still strive to play fair yourself, but if you accept that unfairness exists you may be less outraged and less horrified if and when justice simply doesn’t prevail.

Accept yourself, independent of overt approval from other people in your life. Having a preference for being liked, appreciated and approved of by others – but not believing that you need approval – means that your self-opinion can be stable and you can weather disapproval. You may still behave in ways that are more likely to generate approval than disapproval, but you can also assert yourself without fear. You can consider praise and compliments a bonus rather than something you must cling to and work over-hard to maintain.

Romantic relationships can enhance your enjoyment of life, but they’re not essential for you to enjoy life. Holding this attitude can help you to feel good about yourself when you’re not part of a couple and may lead you to make more discerning partner choices in future since you will choose, rather than be compelled, to be with someone.

Healthy, robust and successful people are often able to tolerate temporary discomfort in the pursuit of longer-term goals.

When you reach a certain age, you need to look after yourself because nobody else is going to do so for you. If you can keep yourself healthy and content, you’re better able to turn your attention to caring for the people in your life that you love.

Of course you will experience times when putting someone else’s needs before your own and making personal sacrifices is a good choice.

Self-interest means being able to care for others very deeply. When you’re self-interested, you’re able to meet your own needs and take a keen interest in the welfare of other people in the world around you. You can also determine when you’re going to put yourself second for a period of time because someone else’s need is greater than your own – which is where the ‘enlightened’ part comes into play.

Loads of evidence indicates that people are happier and healthier if they pursue interests and hobbies.

One of the arts of maximising your happiness is to pursue personally meaningful goals, such as furthering your education, participating in sport and exercise, developing skills, improving relationships, or acting in ways that contribute to the sort of world you’d like to live in, for example by doing some voluntary work. Try to structure your life to ensure that you have some time for personally meaningful pursuits. Check that the things you do in life reflect what you believe is important. As far as we can tell, life isn’t a dress rehearsal.

Healthy and productive people tend to be prepared to tolerate a degree of risk and uncertainty.

sure-fire recipe for worry and inactivity. Safety (or more accurately, the illusion of complete safety) comes at a cost – fewer rewards, less excitement, fewer new experiences. The fact that you don’t know what the future holds is grounds for calculated risks and experiments, not avoidance, reassurance-seeking or safety precautions.

Risk is inherent to existence. You know that you’re mortal and therefore destined to die one day but, in order to remain sane, you keep that knowledge on the outer track of your daily consciousness. You live in an uncertain world every single day of your life. Embrace it, enjoy it and relegate it to your peripheral vision.

Shower of relaxation: Imagine taking a warm shower. As the water cascades across your body and down your legs, it carries with it all discomfort and distress, leaving you refreshed and invigorated.

Honey treatment: Imagine a mound of warm honey perched on the crown of your head. As it melts, it runs down your face and head and neck, covering your shoulders and chest and arms, and gradually enveloping your whole body down to your toes. Feel the sensuous wave of warm liquid draining away all tension and stress and leaving you thoroughly relaxed and renewed.

Peaceful place: Imagine a safe, protected, peaceful place — perhaps a forest, a meadow, or a sandy beach. Experience the place fully with all your senses. Notice how calm and relaxed you feel here; now allow that feeling to permeate every cell of your body.

Body scan: Beginning with the crown of your head, scan your body from top to bottom. When you come to an area of tension or discomfort, gently allow it to open and soften; then move on.

Relaxation response: Choose a word or brief phrase that has deep spiritual or personal significance for you. Now close your eyes and repeat this sound softly, again and again.

One of the great paradoxes of meditation is that you can’t reap the benefits until you drop all your expectations and accept things the way they are. Then the benefits come back to you a thousandfold.

The point is not to do it right, but just to do it — again and again.

this chapter. The central responsibility of a leader is to provide the climate necessary for creating growth and success.

Socialization and Civility

Tools of the Trade

Truth be told, you can spend quite a few hours happily knitting away with nothing more than some spare yarn and an old pair of knitting needles.

Yarn is made from short fibers that come from animals or plants or are synthetic. The fibers are combed, or carded, to align them into a soft untwisted rope (called roving). Then they’re spun (twisted) into a strand or ply of yarn. This single ply is usually combined with other plies to form the final yarn.

Marrying Wine with Food

Tannic wines include most wines based on the Cabernet Sauvignon grape (including red Bordeaux), northern Rhône reds, Barolo and Barbaresco, and any wine — white or red — that has become tannic from aging in new oak barrels. These wines can Diminish the perception of sweetness in a food Taste softer and less tannic when served with protein-rich, fatty foods, such as steak or cheese Taste less bitter when paired with salty foods Taste astringent, or mouth-drying, when drunk with spicy-hot foods

Some wines that often have some sweetness include most inexpensive California white wines, White Zinfandel, many Rieslings (unless they’re labeled “dry” or “trocken”), and medium-dry Vouvray. Sweet wines also include dessert wines such as Port, sweetened Sherries, and late-harvest wines. These wines can Taste less sweet, but fruitier, when matched with salty foods Make salty foods more appealing Go well with sweet foods

Acidic wines include most Italian white wines; Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé, and Chablis; traditionally-made red wines from Rioja; most dry Rieslings; and wines based on Sauvignon Blanc that are fully dry. These wines can Taste less acidic when served with salty foods Taste less acidic when served with slightly sweet foods Make foods taste slightly saltier Counterbalance oily or fatty heaviness in food

High alcohol wines include many California wines, both white and red; southern Rhône whites and reds; Barolo and Barbaresco; fortified wines such as Port and Sherry; and most wines produced from grapes grown in warm climates. These wines can Overwhelm lightly flavored or delicate dishes Go well with slightly sweet foods

Dark chocolate with California Cabernet Sauvignon

Building Out Your Profile

Chapter 16: Joining the Conversation

Recall the old aphorism “You have two ears and one mouth because you should listen twice as much as you talk.”

The Perfect Date: Person and Place

The best places to meet people are ones in which You can see clearly, hear clearly, and respond honestly. You have an interest in what’s going on, increasing the likelihood that you’ll have something in common with anyone you meet there. The atmosphere feels safe and familiar.

Places of worship:

Bullshit places!

Going Global

The Sun Never Sets – But It Don’t Shine Either

The point is that no one ever sat down and said, ‘Right, this Empire then. Which bits of the world are we going to need?’

After all, if you take somewhere over, you’ve got to defend it and maintain it, and doing so costs money.

On the one hand, the Empire was an appalling story of greed, cruelty, massacre, genocide, theft, and pretty cynical self-interest by white Europeans exploiting weaker people all over the world. But Empire was also a tale of high hopes and dreams, of enormous energy and enterprise, of people who really did believe they were making the world a better place and helping those less fortunate than themselves. The Empire spread huge technological and political advantages all around the globe, but it did so at a terrible and shameful cost in human suffering. For historians, getting the balance in the story right can be tricky.