E-mail Etiquette

Staying current with e-mail etiquette and diplomacy takes a little finesse. We extol the virtues of reputation, responsiveness, and cooperation in business. We become passionate apostles about what the "customer" wants and how to increase sales, productivity, and profitability through better communication. But with sloppy or lazy e-mail habits, you risk undermining your expensive campaigns and you invite snickering among employees and outbursts from customers.
Here are the latest e-mail tips and a review of e-mail diplomacy.
• Make the subject line specific. Think of the many messages you're received with the generic subject line, "Hi" or "Just for you."
• When replying to or forwarding an e-mail, clean up the document. Rebecca Morgan, a communications consultant in California says, "I just received an e-mail from someone who had received it from 12 other people. I don't need to see that." Use the "BC" or blind copy command more often than the "CC" or carbon copy command. In the message you forward, delete the extraneous information such as all the "Memo to," subject, addresses, and date lines.
• When replying to a question, copy only the question into your e-mail, then provide your response. You needn't hit reply automatically, but don't send a bare message that only reads, "Yes." It's too blunt and confuses the reader.
• Address and sign your e-mails. Yes, the To: and From: say who's corresponding, but beginning the message with the person's name "Mo," or "Dear Mo," helps customize it. Sign your name, "Sincerely, Curly" or provide a signature line for people to know who you are and where they can reach you.
• DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS. TOO INTENSE, and you appear too lazy to type properly. This is still a written medium. Follow standard writing guidelines as a professional courtesy.
Revisit periodically how you conduct business over e-mail.

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Are You Using Guilt As A Weapon

Using guilt as a weapon may get you what you want in the short term, but it is a dangerous tactic that will undermine your relationship and rob you of intimacy with your partner. Have you ever found yourself turning to your special someone and saying "If you loved me you would" or ending an argument with "don't worry about me" and sighing deeply? If so, you may be using guilt as a weapon.

Guilt-tripping your partner often takes the form of "if you loved me you would" or "I don't see why you can't just" statements. Both of these set up tasks that your partner must perform to your satisfaction in order to be accepted and worthy of love. Setting up tests like this says to your loved one "I don't believe that you love me. Prove it." It attacks your partner and requires that they start from the beginning and prove their love all over again.

One of the most painful ways to wound your partner with guilt is to bring up past hurts and wrongs. No matter what your partner has done in the past or how sorry they are for doing it, there is absolutely nothing they can do today to take it back. Bringing up past behavior is a cruel way to punish someone. If you choose, you can torture them with it forever and it will never go away. Loving someone requires forgiving the past and letting it go. If you honestly can't let go of something that has happened then you cannot be in a relationship with that person. It simply does not work.

Using guilt is never an act of love, it is always an act of violence. It may masquerade as ‘brutal honesty' but the true intention of guilt is always to wound, to hurt and to break down. Whatever it is we're after, guilt aims to make the other person suffer. So why do we do it?

If you find yourself using guilt as a weapon in your relationship, the answer to why you're doing it is in you, not your partner. Ask yourself why you feel threatened in this relationship. Is there something in the past that you cannot forgive? Is there a good reason for you to be afraid? Do you have trouble trusting people? Do you suffer from low self-esteem? Do you feel that the relationship is moving too quickly? Take some time to get to the root of your fear and ask yourself :
is this relationship worth it?
do I really love him/her?
do I want to be in this relationship?
what is holding me back?

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Online world and kids - tips to pretect kids online

Today's kids are living in a whole new world - one that's practically unrecognizable to anyone who grew up in the twentieth century. Blogs, ipods, MSN, nexopia, myspace, peer-to-peer…if this sounds like Greek to you, then you're not part of this new world. But your kids are.

With the rate at which technology changes now, most parents have been left in the dust and don't have a clue about what's available to their kids. How many times have you asked your teen for help with the computer? I know I've done it many times. They're far beyond me in their understanding of the technology, and that makes it a real parenting challenge.

Nevertheless, we cannot hide behind the excuse that “I just don’t understand technology." You’ve got to go there. You've got to be brave enough to say, "I will do whatever it takes to understand what's out there, and I'll engage with it alongside my kids." You cannot guide them and protect them from something you know nothing about. It may be intimidating, but ignorance is not an option.

Move the computer
Computers in the bedroom are a recipe for trouble. Kids are much more likely to be getting into areas online that they should not be going if they can do so behind the closed door of their own room.
Recent studies have shown that up to 30% of teenagers have internet access in their bedrooms, and 10% of kids as young as 8 also have it. In addition, some parents allow kids to have computers in their rooms that aren't hooked up to the internet, not realizing that if their next-door neighbours have wireless internet access (as many people do), the kids can often access it without even being connected.

I'm not advocating that you turn your home into some kind of police state where your kids have no freedom. You don't need to be peering over their shoulder every time they're on the computer. But the bottom line is you’ve got to protect your kids by giving enough supervision that they’re not going to go places that are problematic.

Talk to your kids
You need to take the step of actually engaging with your kids about these issues. At the end of the day, when you ask them about their day at school, ask them as well what happened in their online world today - because it truly is a huge part of their world. You need to acknowledge that and be a part of it.

Your kids need you. They need your time, attention, encouragement and guidance.

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5 Make-up Mistakes to Avoid

1. WAAAYYYY too much blush - Blush is supposed to look natural, flushed, pretty. Think J.Low. She's got it down. Apply your blush before ANY other color on your face. If you look like you could throw on lip gloss and mascara and run out the door, you're good!

2. The dreaded blue eyeshadow a la 1960's. Okay, I think whenever someone is in that dreaded "color" shadow mode, it's because someone at some time said "gee! that looks great honey!" When it painfully didn't. We're suckers for a compliment. Someone likes that blazer I'm wearing and I'm wearing that thing 3 days in a row.

3. Navy blue, dark blue, any blue. - Anything with blue, dark blue or grayish blue around your eyes really brings out the dark blue undereye circle under it. Copy a color on your face that you don't like in your makeup, and it'll look worse. Way worse. Case in point: a red dress with sunburn. See? Doesn't work. Go warmer, chestnutty, bronzy in shadows and liner instead. Trust me.

4. "You're looking a little tired. Are you feeling ok?" - We've all been there. If people ask if you're tired when you aren't it's could be your makeup. Incorrect make-up color choices can actually make your skin look tired. How? By unintentionally wearing colors that have gray in them. A grayish pink blush, a grayish mauvey lipstick, a grayish eyeshadow -- even your foundation might be gray. All that gray can make you look tired by bringing out the gray in your skin.

5. The old school overdrawn lips. Overdrawing the lips does NOT make your lips look bigger. It can make youlook like a clown. So how do you fake the illusion? It's in the color and the shine. Yes - shine! Start our with a lighter color, think about a nude pink. Look for a shade that mimics your lip color, or is 2 shades deeper than your actual lip color. Apply to your lip line and not a millimeter more. Then add shine.

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