Little Jeremy is in desperate need of your help.  He has Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and needs a bone marrow donor.  Please register and you can make a real difference.  Even if you’re not Jeremy’s match, you might be able to save another child (or person’s) life.  It doesn’t take but 5 minutes to fill out an online form and a test kit will be sent to your house.  Being a bone marrow donor can make save a life.

Here is Jeremy’s Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/JeremyNeedsYou

And this is the bone marrow registry’s website:

http://marrow.org/Home.aspx 

Please take just a few minutes out of your day and register.  This kid needs our help and let’s do all that we can.

The number one thing that really chaps my ass is people’s lack of manners. I’m not talking about when you forget to say “thank you” to a barista when you’re running out the door because there’s a meter maid about to give you a ticket. We all have lapses where we are preoccupied and not paying attention. I’m talking about common courtesies that should be shown to others in everyday life. It’s so simple, will get you so much farther, and used by so few people.

The other day I came home to find a car with its rear bumper blocking my driveway. Normally, I don’t sweat it because parking is hard to find where I live. Well this guy had a foot of space in front of him. Okay… Maybe he was in a rush. Happens. Then I see him come back an hour later, go to his car, retrieve something, and walk off again. Oops. Some simple courtesy would’ve saved him a $90 ticket.

If you’re a self-centered prick who’s thinking: “Pssh. People don’t deserve common courtesy. I’m special and they better respect me.” Well Mr. “I’m the Man”, fuck you very much and quit reading. But for everyone else, being polite has a huge return-on-investment. Opening a door for a woman, saying “please” and “thank you”, giving up your seat on the bus to an elderly person, and not being a general dipshit to people will get you far. Ask anyone who’s worked in a service job and they’ll tell you the same thing.

Being polite and courteous (and I’m not talking phony politeness, people can sniff that out in a second) takes a few seconds but can have great returns. Ladies love it, you’ll get better service, get you free stuff, and it can even get you out of a ticket. I know it sounds cliché, but women DO watch how you treat people. Being rude to a waiter will just get spit (if you’re lucky) in your entrée. Courtesy can be the difference between a 2^nd date or not. Snapping your fingers at a bartender makes him get everyone else’s drink first and waters down yours. Knowing your order, saying thanks, and leaving a decent tip can get you your next drink for free. Snapping at a cop will just get you as many citations he can possibly think up. When was the last time you watched “Cops” and saw someone get out of a ticket by calling the cop a pig?

Will everyone respond to politeness? No. Some will take it as a sign of weakness. But you can be polite without being a doormat. For every one person that doesn’t acknowledge it, five will. How you act towards other people is one of the most apparent things that reflect your upbringing. Like a woman once told me years ago, “show me a polite man, and I’ll show you a man who was either raised right or had gotten the shit kicked out of him at one time or another”.

One of the number one categories of things we look for when browsing our local pharmacies is skin creams, and these can have a variety of different purposes and uses. Here we will look at some of the basic kinds of skin creams, what they are used for and how to select them.

Basic Kinds

Moisturizers: Moisturizers are skin creams that are simply designed to help provide our skin with moisture. These can help our skin to look more supple and less wrinkled, and at the same time they can help to prevent signs of dryness such as flaking – particularly useful for the cold weather. Many moisturizers also come with a range of nourishing ingredients, such as vitamin E which can help the skin to repair itself after injury.

Anti-Wrinkle Creams: Anti wrinkle creams have a range of different ingredients in them that claim to help prevent the skin from visibly ageing. This is accomplished in a number of ways, for instance by including antioxidants which protect the skin from damage from free radicals, by including a small amount of sun block, and sometimes other more controversial ingredients such as collagen. Here though you need to be careful and note that the particles that make up collagen are actually too large to penetrate the top layers of the skin, meaning it’s unlikely to have any effect on the skin. In fact all anti-wrinkle creams should be regarded with a sceptical eye, as many of them are not at all highly effective and instead are just a clever marketing ploy. One study found that even the most expensive products only showed around a 10% improvement in the appearance of wrinkles over 12 weeks, and another study has suggested that using a simple moisturizer is just as effective as an anti-wrinkle cream.

Corticosteroid Creams: Corticosteroid creams are creams that contain topical steroids. These have the ability to regulate the inflammation response that is in turn controlled by the immune system and this can stop redness and swelling at the site of injury or irritation. Corticosteroids can thus be used to treat a variety of conditions including sun burns in some cases and a variety of rashes and skin conditions such as butterfly rashes. Some corticosteroids will be prescription only, and you should always check with your doctor before using these creams – as using them to treat infection misguidedly for instance may worsen the problem.

Antiseptic Creams: Antiseptic creams are creams that act as disinfectants and kill bacteria in that area. This is very useful for instance if you have cut yourself on something that may be dirty, or if you have an ingrowing hair, as they can help to prevent infection. This is a real problem and something you should consider whenever you have an open wound – the staphylococcus bacteria responsible for the MRSA ‘super bug’ exists on the skin of 1 in 3 healthy adults, so it only takes a small cut to give them an ‘in’ and to lead to an infection that could be serious.

Steven Hill is passionate of fitness and is aware of the top euro pharmacies available in the market. He decided to help other fitness lovers with best euro pharmacies online available through his blog.

I’ve known men who’ve kept all kinds of dogs during my day… everything from Chihuahuas to Rottweilers. And yet, regardless of the breed, there is a bond between man and dog that can’t be replicated anywhere else. If given the choice between his dog and his wife, I daresay that many men in the pure and secret honest of their heart would elect to keep the dog.

One reason is that our feelings for dogs, and indeed animals in general, are incredibly uncomplicated. Even with your best friend and your partner, there’s always a mixed bag of feelings that includes good and bad. Dogs, on the other hand, love you no matter what. You probably scarcely remember the time you had to clean up her vomit or the irritating hours spent house training her during her puppyhood. Rather, you think only of the gentle creature who lays down beside you at night or stares up admiringly at you every morning.

This hints at another reason why men love dogs so much. They are empty vessels and mirrors, not to mix metaphors, at the same time. They reflect ourselves back at us, but it’s always our best self, the self that we most want to be that we see looking back at us through the eyes of a dog. It’s the self we most want to be, the self that we are on our best day when everything is going exactly as we would like.

A bit of history is in order. Dogs were almost certainly the first domesticated animals. Humans benefited from the warmth provided by the dogs, as well as their ability to alert the camp to intruders. Dogs, for their part, found that life was easier with humans. They had to spend less time hunting and had more time for procreation. Further, while dogs are low to the ground, bipedal humans were able to protect dogs from predators better.

Yet of all the animals domesticated by man, dogs are far and away the most connected with human beings. As anyone will tell you, cats don’t have owners — they have human servants. Smaller pets like guinea pigs or rats are certainly cute and have some personality about them, but it would be hard to argue that the bond between man and rat is the same as that between man and dog. For whatever reason, human beings and dogs are in sync with one another, quite likely because they’ve been together as long as they have been: We have grown with dogs as much as they have grown with us.

Tonight, there are literally millions of dogs in shelters in desperate need of a home. If you’ve always wanted a dog, consider one of these dogs before a puppy. Not only do you get to skip past all the awful housebreaking stuff, you’re literally saving a life in many cases. This will make the bond between you and your new pooch even deeper.

It’s not that women don’t like sports. It’s just that men with no interest in sports are sort of anomalous. We might disagree on what sport is best or what team we cheer for, but men are more or less united on the idea that sports are a good thing. So deeply ingrained is this feeling that Movember, the largest fundraiser in the world for prostate cancer research, is also the biggest charity funding boys sports programs throughout the world. So what is it about sports that men love so much?

The answer is, of course, different for every man and different for every sport. With baseball, it’s the psychology of a pitcher versus a batter and the strategy of base running. For football, men appreciate the gritty battles fought over mere inches of territory. In hockey, the physical violence is part and parcel of what makes the sport great. But all sports, be they team sports or otherwise, have one thing in common: At their root, they’re all about struggle.

Struggle, of course, is one of the ways that we define ourselves as men. When looking back on your life, it’s fair to say that your proudest moments were a time when you overcame great adversity, or proved yourself in some way, or accomplished something that you thought you never could. Part of what makes the reward of crossing the finish line so sweet is looking back on the obstacles that you overcame before you got there. The greater the wager, the greater the gain.

You know… all that shit.

Sports is that on a microcosmic level. We get to live out the ups and downs of personal struggle vicariously by watching other men do it on a field of battle made of green grass or ice or hardwood. In the case of the MMA craze, this struggle becomes very basic and naked: No balls, no equipment, just one man and his brains and brawn against another, and may the better man win.

It’s not all about vicarious living, however. If it were, the detractors of sport might have some merit to their arguments. While there certainly is an element of identifying yourself in the struggles of others, it’s more accurate to say that men identify with the struggles of others. Because, if you can’t have your own hard-won victory, what’s better than seeing one of your bros do it? Think of your hometown team as a sort of collective friend and you’re starting to get the idea.

Finally, sports provide ties that bind. Before the days of lucrative multi-million dollar contracts and free agent clauses, many professional football players had to spend the season sleeping on friends’ couches and getting support from the booster club before returning to their factory jobs after the season was over. The roots of professional sport provide a clue about team loyalty and why we identify so closely with our hometown boys.

It can be a bit silly to intellectualize something as physical as sports. However, there’s more to it than just a bunch of muscle-bound men fighting each other for control of a ball. Thinking about the deeper implications of the game — whatever your game is — provides a richer and more meaningful experience at game time.

Coffee Shops

Coffee shops are sort of the thinking man’s bar. The meat market aspect isn’t as pronounced, but no one is going to think you’re a little weird for starting up a conversation. You’ll find a more intellectual quality of women in a coffee shop. Bring a book, sit down and read and look for your opening to chat a woman up about what she’s working on or reading. Offer to buy her a drink — except instead of liquor, it’s going to be coffee.

Dog Parks

You don’t need a dog to pick women up at the dog park. You can fly solo, but it’s better to borrow a friend’s dog if you don’t have your own. Sitting there on the bench with a chick, you have an easy entrée to conversation: your mutual love of dogs. If you use a friend’s dog, mention early that it’s not yours, but that you love dogs and you’ve always wanted one. Talk to her about her dog and what type of dog you would get if you could get one. Then broaden the conversation to the usual topics: music, movies, jobs and anything else that pops into your mind.

Online Dating

Lots of people are meeting partners through online dating and it’s not hard to understand why. You can peruse a number of partners and have your pick. This is a particularly effective method for men over 30. Studies show that the older you get, the more women you have interested in you. Even if demographics aren’t on your side, online dating makes it pretty easy to sort through a large amount of women in a short period of time. You don’t have to spend a lot of time getting to know someone before deciding if you’re interested in a date. It’s sort of like an online dating catalog. Don’t underestimate this tool.

The Gym

The gym is a great place to meet a woman. You know she’s into exercise and keeping in shape, so you don’t have to worry about her looks falling apart as she ages. A great way to chat a woman up at the gym is to talk about sports. Whether you’re talking about the sports you participate in or the sports you like to watch, you’ve got something to talk about. One thing about picking up women at the gym: You need to be tactful and sensitive. If a woman seems a bit put off by your approach, you should consider cutting bait quicker than you might do in another venue.

Classes

Taking a class is always good. It allows you to enrich yourself and meet new people — and by people we mean women. Acting classes are probably the best place to meet women. You’re not going to have a ton of competition. A lot of the men there aren’t that interested in women in the first place. Further, there’s a lot of automatic intimacy. You’re running scenes together, sometimes including physical contact between you and other women. Best way to chat a woman up at an acting class? Ask her to run lines. Anywhere else? Invite her to a study date.

Barbershops

Barbershops are a great place to be a man. In fact, you’re going to know that you’re in a barbershop because you’re mostly surrounded by men. One key way to know that you’re in a salon and not a true barbershop is if there are women there who aren’t escorting a four-year-old boy. What are you going to get out of hanging out in the barbershop? Well, mostly a place for mindless chatter about sports, your job or anything else that pops into your mind. Read yourself some men’s magazines, watch what’s on the television, gab about whatever, or just sit back and enjoy some comfortable silence.

Dive Bars

Dive bars are a tricky thing to find in this day and age. Hipster urbanites have made a lot of headway into burning down the dive bar. But you’ll know you’re in the Real McCoy when all you see are blue-haired old ladies and dudes wearing Benevolent Order of Elks trucker caps non-ironically. Women tend to avoid dive bars, especially the kind that are going to have you ruminating on your recent romantic failings on a night when you’re trying to drink them off your mind. They’ve also got great tunes on the juke for you to ruminate over whatever is bothering you.

Boxing Gyms

A lot of guys are into the MMA craze. There’s just one problem with this: You’re almost certainly going to be the guy who gets paired with a chick for a matt roll when there’s not gender balance. Boxing gyms operate in a wholly different way. Your training is largely individual and when you do get down to scrap, you’re going to do it with another dude of roughly your weight and experience. Not only is great physical exercise, it’s also a great way to network (you gain a lot of respect and give a lot of respect after you’ve spent time in the ring with a another guy) and you’re going to gain a huge amount of confidence.

Fraternal Order

Fraternal orders do have a bit of “NO GURLZ ALLOWED” stink, but you aren’t going to find a lot of childish tomfoolery here. Fraternal orders offer a number of attractive perks. First, you can often get dirt cheap drinks at the lodge. Second, you can network with other men in the community — often powerful men who can help you to further your career as someone once helped them to further their own. Finally, fraternal orders often donate large sums of money to charity. Fewer things feel good quite like doing good.

Sports Clubs

You aren’t going to get away from the ladies at the local cycling club. But you might find it a prudent way to get some exercise (and some man time) by joining a club that is explicitly or implicitly is for men. Think things like flag football (you aren’t going to find a lot of chicks there) or segregated sports (men and women might both play basketball and volleyball, but they rarely do so together). Get to know some guys, get some exercise and get away from the women for a couple of hours every week.

What Is Acne?

Skin lesions result from plugged hair follicles on your face, neck, chest, back and shoulders. Acne may appear as blackheads – open areas of the hair follicles that become plugged with oil, dead skin cells and bacteria and turn dark from exposure to the air – or as whiteheads, which are simply blackheads with a closed surface. You may develop red bumps called papules, or pimples, nodules or cysts. Both nodules and cysts are the result of secretion build-up below the skin and can be painful. Acne is not an infection, but sometimes bacteria can grow in the follicles and cause a secondary infection. Acne scars are most likely to result from secondary infections or from further skin irritation, such as squeezing pimples. For a more extensive explanation, read on or check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acne_vulgaris

What Causes Acne?
Hormonal influences are a major factor, which is why teenagers, pregnant and menopausal women are more likely to have this problem. Oral contraceptives may also make acne worse. Although greasy foods and chocolate have long been targeted as acne causes, there is no evidence that this folklore is true. But carbohydrate-rich foods such as breads, chips and pasta that increase blood sugar may be a factor. Dairy products may also be an acne trigger. Contrary to popular opinion, dirty skin does not promote acne. Oily skin creams or other oily products may make acne worse, as excess oil is one of the factors that promotes the development of blackheads and whiteheads. Other risk factors for acne include a family history of the condition, friction or pressure on the skin – this includes constant cleaning or scrubbing too hard, as acne tends to get worse if the skin is irritated.

How do I Deal with it?
Don’t expect to be able to cure acne. Even prescription medications usually result only in improvement, not perfectly clear skin. Treating acne involves four factors: reducing oil production, increasing skin cell turnover, decreasing inflammation and combating infection. Over-the-counter skin cleansers and lotions often contain benzoyl peroxide, resorcinol, salicylic acid or sulfur; they may cause skin irritation, dryness and flaking. Prescription treatments often contain vitamin A preparations or antibiotics that you apply to the skin; they may also have side effects such as burning, stinging, redness or peeling. Other possible treatments for severe acne include oral antibiotics, oral contraceptives (women only), laser or light therapy, chemical peels and a drug called isotretinoin used for cystic acne. Expect that any treatment will take as long as eight weeks, and you may find your skin is worse initially.

Well, What Am I Supposed to Do?
Most acne problems respond to self-care. Wash acen-prone areas with a gentle cleanser – don’t scrub, because irritated skin is more prone to breakouts. Use an over-the counter lotion that contains benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid to help dry oily areas. Avoid oily or greasy skin products, sunscreens or heavy cosmetics. Keep your hands, hair, hats and similar potential irritants away from your face. Don’t pick or squeeze blemishes. Be cautious with the sun. Sometimes it makes acne worse and some acne medications make you more sensitive to the sun, although a little bit of sunshine may help in some cases. Eat well – a balanced diet with adequate protein, carbohydrates and fats promotes skin health. Consider exploring alternative therapies, such as tea tree oil, fruit acids, zinc supplements and brewer’s yeast. But do your homework, as some of these may have side effects. If all else fails, be patient – acne doesn’t last forever.

If after finishing this article, you’re looking for ideas for acne treatment or you are up against a wall, try out this website: http://www.acnetreatment.net/.

Richard Heilenman likes to write about travel, style and skin care.

There’s a lost art of being a man. In a world of baseball caps, t-shirts and board shorts, there are all too few bespoke suits, custom-made hats and leather-soled shoes. The problem isn’t the men themselves. Indeed, if my writing career has taught me anything, it’s that men are hungry, voracious even, for a space to be manliness.

It’s easy to put the blame on other places it doesn’t belong. Feminism, for example, has absolutely zero to do with the loss of what I might call “high” masculinity. Blame things like the counterculture, a loss of social capital and deindustrialization, but don’t blame women and don’t blame yourself.

Still, isn’t being a man the one thing you cherish more than anything else? I know it is for me. I take great joy in the minor rituals of manliness — shaving or going to the barber, for example. But it’s more than just the little external things. Being a man has so much to do with your very being, it informs the way we walk, the way we talk, the way that we do everything that we do. And let’s not forget that 99 times out of 100, what a man does is ultimately what he thinks a man should do.

While I’ve heard literally dozens of women talk about how they’d love to be a man for at least a day, I’ve never heard a man echo quite the same sentiment. Men tend to be more confident with themselves in this manner. Any recourse to the old lines about male supremacy just don’t hold water. Women are increasingly the breadwinners, especially among married couples. And yet, there has been no corresponding increase (at least in my solipsistic experience) in the number of men who’d like to swap places. Put in a direct fashion: What would it take for you to want to be a woman, even for a day or two?

Now think about the best moments of your life. Your proudest accomplishments. The memories that will always stick with you. I’d be willing to bet that most of them are in some way inexorably tied with being a man. Because, let’s face it, there are few things better than being a man. You can see the sense of purpose and action in everything from some teenage punk on his skateboard to a stockbroker heading off to the office to make millions. Because while it manifests itself in different ways around the world and during different eras, one thing is certain: There’s something to this business of being a man.

And it’s something most of us wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

Social Networks and Socializing

Social networks are a cool way to find someone in Japan with the same interest as you. Isn’t it better, though, to have someone down the street with the same interests as you? Like any other tool, social networks are what you make of them. But the point is to get off the computer and doing something in the real world.

Social Capital

There’s an idea in sociology called social capital. Basically “social capital” are things like Elks Clubs, houses of worship, bowling leagues, condo associations and just about anything else that you can think of. American society’s social capital is probably at an all time low. I’d wager that the growth of social media is a response to, and not a cause of this. Suburban sprawl seems a far better culprit for why everyone is walled off in their homes. Compare to European society where people do little in their homes, save for sleeping.

Lessons From The Past

In bygone days, a man wasn’t much respected unless he was involved in his community. Not everyone found it a good use of his time to engage in philanthropic organizations (or bowling leagues for that matter), but most men found some place that was neither home nor work to spend a goodly chunk of his time. Often this third place served several functions: Socializing, getting away from the problems and pressures of home life and making connections for business and pleasure. Whether organized around a specific activity or vaguely “fraternal,” men found it prudent to become involved in their communities.

Getting Involved Today

You might be surprised to find out just how many ways there are for you to get connected to your community even in a world of diminished social capital. Groups like the Masons have long been around, quietly existing under the radar, with their less-sexy cousins the Elks and the Rotarians also kicking around. Laugh all you want — they’re a great place to make business connections. Most city recreational departments offer a way for you to relive your glory days of sport or at least get out and get moving. It’s cheaper than a gym membership and it’s a lot easier to motivate yourself to go play flag football than it is to go run on a treadmill. Plus, there’s a good chance that the connections you make with other men at such events will pay dividends in the future.

Broadening your real world social network is important for your mental, physical and financial health. Don’t be a lone wolf. Making and keeping connections with other men is an important part of keeping yourself sane in a world of demands on your time, as well as a way of being connected to your community. It’s not only good for you, it also makes you a better man.