I want to teach my bf to swim this year! He is from NYC and had a couple lessons as a kid but just never really got the fundamentals down and is not comfortable in the water. Whereas I am a beach bum, ocean swimming, former water polo player. I love the water and I want to teach him to, too.

I read somewhere once that breathing out as your left foot hits the floor helps.. Lifehacker has written something similar http://lifehacker.com/exhale-on-your…

The Art of Killing was a very hard movie for me to watch but I was glad for the experience. My uncle was kidnapped by Suharto’s gangsters for being a suspected communist even though my only image of him is in an all white suit, driving a Mercedes Benz and owning a factory. I remember one particular moment when the…

I do the same exact things, in fact I find that taking care of the older neighbors scores points and “favors” with the wife, the adult children of the older neighbors have shown their appreciation in many different ways; tickets to sporting events, pizzas and cash. I just call it “banking good karma”.

I get the idea of New Year’s Resolutions, I just feel like there’s so much hype around them that it sets people up to fail. (Maybe that’s just my experience.)

Instead, each year at the end of the year, I write down little important or impactful lessons I learned (or relearned, often) over the year. I call them…

Agreed.

Oh you have said my biggest agony. Especially when they are sitting on the bench with weights scattered around them and yapping away.

I think there are several things wrong. The hand position is definitely wrong, but I also prefer a very different foot position . When I throw a left hook, my left foot is turned out slightly, and all of my weight is on my left foot. (You should be constantly circling clockwise if you are righty)
Key thing to keep in…

I learned the thumb-up technique in a Muay Thai (kickboxing) class and we wore 16oz gloves. I would guess that keeping your thumb up is more important without a glove since there isn’t any thing between your fist and the target.

I wonder if it’s different when you’re wearing a boxing glove.

The only part that is wrong is the hand position.

Well spake. One also needs to realize that when your partner is ‘venting’ about something, that something may not be the actual problem that created the fuss. Often it’s an accumulation of little things, sometimes it’s really about something that happened some time back, and sometimes it’s really about someone or…

The Masked Man too!!!!

I absolutely agree with this. My mom was athiest, as am I, and she was my best friend. When people tried to comfort me by telling me that she was with god, or in heaven looking down on me, it made me want to scream. Don’t assume that what you would find comforting applies to everyone. I just wanted people to tell me…

I hated that one when my grandmother died. She had a long battle with Alzheimer’s and it was excruciating watching her decline.

One of the most brutal comments for me was when people would say about my dad “he’ll always be with you.” No, he is gone, that’s why it hurts so damn much.

I think the “in a better place” thing only works if there’s a lead-in to it. If the grieving person says something about heaven or the deceased being reunited with loved ones or eternal peace, then that’s a clue that “in a better place” talk will be comforting. But absent such cues ... no.

Ugh. Yes, seconded.

Even if you know their beliefs it’s a pretty dicey thing to say. Someone at my church who does grief counseling did an event that I think of a “how not to be a dick to grieving people” and point one was not to use those cliches.

This made me teary eyed. I’m sorry you lost your mom