Best Ways to Deal With a Harry Potter Hater.

Yes, believe it or not HP Fans, there are actually people who do not adore our little black-haired, super-genius, evil-defeating hero known as Harry Potter. These foolish muggles overlook the greatness of The-Boy-Who-Lived, thinking him nothing more than a silly little child.

When you come upon such addle-brained and unenlightened people, simply try some of these well proven strategies to cope with their narrow little minds:

1. Make sure they are healthy. Find out if they have had a recent check-up. A head injury could account for their confusion on the subject. Check their pulse and peer into their eyes to be sure they are breathing and not in a coma.
2. Be friends. Assure them that you understand how much better the Jedi in Star Trek was. Always salute them with “Live Long in the Force.” This is sure to please.
3. Squeal in horror as you recognize a Death Eater in disguise. Shout “Death to Voldemort,” and run away screaming.
4. Express your sympathy about their being dyslexic. No wonder they haven’t read the books yet poor things!
5. Gently pat their hand and assure them it’s alright to be afraid of the unknown. Offer to teach them the “Lumos” spell if they’re also afraid of the dark.
6. Send them frequent HP updates, including new movies, the upcoming theme park, each character’s film career and whatever other interesting tidbits you can find. Tell them “you don’t know what you’re missing – let me show you.”
7. Remark on how much they look like a Harry Potter character. Argue with yourself over which one they remind you of most. “Hagrid - no, Dumbledore – certainly not, ahh, I have it – Dobby!”
8. Report them to the Ministry of Magic. These are obviously criminal masterminds whose resistance to the esteemed Mr. Potter is simply a reflex of their dislike for any “meddling goody-two-shoes.”
9. Assume they are a pessimist who thinks everyone is terrible. Suggest you can teach them skills to become as optimist as you have been inspired by the heroics of Harry and his friends. Offer to give them numerous examples.
10. Check them into the nearest psychiatric hospital for examination. Nothing but mental impairment sufficiently explains their lack of adoration for our favorite hero. :0)

Check out this fun video on You Tube.

For more ways to annoy Harry Potter Haters.

P.S. Check out my other web site Bright Days for a look at the upcoming Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, FL. Opening Spring 2010.

Lessons of the Fool.

Jester by Todd Sternisha

It’s April Fools Day! Time for some light-hearted silly nonsense. A chance to relax, un-wind and let our worries sit on the sidelines for a little while. Too often we only see a jokester and a half-wit. Today let’s look at some of the lesson the fool can give us.

King’s funny man. Whenever I think of a fool, I think of the image of the court jester, there to provide entertainment for the king. The fool could say or do things that would normally get you thrown in the dungeon, yet as jester, he was safe from this doom. The fool could poke fun at serious subjects and by share a unique perspective by seeing things from an opposite viewpoint than everyone else.

Being a fool isn’t necessarily foolish – it could be good sense. Fools see the humorless as funny, and the amusing as significant. Turning a topic upside down helps you see all sides of it. Fools also knew the importance of seeing the humor in life. While the peasant might not have seen a funny side to having their pig killed by a run-away horse cart, the fool could see the feast that would result!

Foolish doesn’t mean stupid. Often people mistake the idea that if you are foolish, you are incompetent or incapable of learning. However while many fools may have been clumsy or socially inept, they were far from dumb. A fool could provide entertainment to the richest and noblest people in the kingdom. He rubbed shoulders with the brightest minds and best thinkers around.

Fools understand the value of a good laugh. Jesters and performers, many fools were called upon by their king to be of service by providing a diversion from worries and fears during times of hardship and strife. By poking fun at the royal family, the castle and other “off limit” topics, the fool could help the general population relief their stress through laughter and fun.

To be a fool, you have to be brave. Think about what it was like to be a fool. Wearing some ridiculous get-up, acting like a buffoon, taking on taboo subjects in the name of comedy. Not every fool was a beloved figure. To do your job and do it well, you must take risks. And you must be content in knowing that you have value even if everyone else thinks you’re worthless.

Being will to be foolish shows the greatest wisdom. In your own life there are many times when you feel foolish. You may make a mistake in an important presentation. Or have to apologize for a thoughtless comment made in haste. Having the courage to take a chance, to risk looking stupid is the surest path to enlightenment. When you break out of your comfort zone, you know you are heading towards learning and growth.

Learn from the fool. Open your mind to new possibilities. See the absurdity in the comedy of life. Be brave, be yourself, and don’t underestimate the value of a good laugh now and then. Have a little fun and know that foolishness is more than it’s cracked up to be.

New Ideas to Spice up Your Life.

Jumpin’ in the rain by Tony the Misfit

When life gets a little too routine, and each day is the same as the one before you can find yourself feeling restless, fidgety and bored. Here are a few ideas to help you add a spark of creativity to your week and shake things up a bit:

• Go underground. Go back in time through millions of years as you explore the strange and exotic formations of stone and mineral deposits. Transport yourself to a different realm and beat the summer heat in cool cave retreat.
• Take your spouse on a date. Plan a surprise date without your spouse’s knowledge. Go to a show, have a romantic dinner, attend a music concert, go dancing or see a comedy act. Just have fun and spend some time together with just the two of you.
• Wear different clothes. Use bright colors, add accessories like belts, hats, sparkling jewelry, a fancy suit or whatever makes you feel good.
• Escape from technology. Go on a 4 hour cruise and leave your cell phone behind, just you and the gleaming blue sea. Camp in a rustic hut and leave the laptop and organizer at home. With no TV, newspaper or radio, you’ll notice the sweet pine-scented air and hear the birds singing all day.
• Be someone else. Go to a costume party and dress entirely different than your everyday life. Volunteer with a house project and learn skills like painting and carpentry. Or join a community event and help out with decorations or fundraising. Find new passions and skills.
• Do something romantic. Take a horseback ride through rolling green pastures and have a secluded picnic for two. Rent a room by the ocean and make love to the sound of the surf. Go for a midnight skinny-dip or sensual shower.
• Eat somewhere new. Grill outside and eat in the pink and orange rays of the setting sun. Have a meal at the park while the kids run around and tire themselves out. Eat at the beach where the salty sea air stimulates your appetite. Set the kitchen table with your best tablecloth and fancy dishes and have a feast.
• Do something crazy! Is it raining outside? Great! Go outside and do your own rendition of “Singing in the Rain.” (Beware that if you sing as well as dance you may scare away even more people with your voice alone.) Put on some old clothes and splash through some mud. It’s summertime – you won’t catch a cold. Have fun, let loose and just be silly!

19 Unusual Stress-Busting Tips.

What?!?! by dizznbonn

When life gets too serious, here are a few goofy tips to lighten up and bust that stress out of your life:

• Write a nasty letter in invisible ink.
• Roll down a grassy hill to shake up your world.
• Find a place to hide. (Try the park, your car, the garage or anywhere else you can remain undisturbed for a few hours.)
• Eat funny food. Try goldfish crackers, cherry flavored gummy bears or Scooby Doo ice cream.
• Play basketball and imagine your adversary’s face is the ball. (Ditto for baseball, tennis and soccer.)
• Load a squirt gun with bubble mix and practice your shooting.
• Keep a drawer of crazy buttons and bumper stickers sayings. Put up a wacky motto for the week.
• Go to the pool or run through the sprinklers to “wash your worries away.”
• Have a good sniff. Spritz on your favorite perfume, massage your head with relaxing lavender essential oil or keep your car smelling pine fresh – whatever puts a smile on your face.
• Wear all black to express your feelings. Or dress in all pink to improve your mood.
• Paint your feelings using finger paint.
• Surround yourself with puppies by visiting a local shelter.
• Crank up the music. Listen to some childhood favorites to bring back happy memories.
• Crush and destroy. Find a stuffed animal, gel stress ball or other squishy object and shake, slam, and crush it as you talk about what’s bugging you.
• Become someone else. Escape your problems by adopting a new accent, look or name temporarily. Refuse to answer to your true identity until you feel better.
• Buy a punching bag and get it out of your system. (You’ll get in shape and get those “feel-good” endorphins at the same time.)
• Lie on the grass and cloud watch or star gaze. If you’re still alive after 15 minutes, get up, brush yourself off and continue your day in a better frame of mind.
• Buy some bubble wrap and spend 10 minutes popping them. (I don’t know why but for some reason this always makes me smile.)
• Chew some bubble gum and see how big a bubble you can blow.
• Shake it off. Starting with your left leg, raise it up slightly and shake it as if something were stuck to your shoe. Do the same with the right leg, then your left arm and right arm and finally your entire body. Don’t know why but this works really good. You may have to repeat two or three times to get the full effect.

What are your favorite ways to have fun and loosen up?

7 Ways to Improve TV News:

Capture from TV tuner card by mrebert

The news is often depressing, sad, dreary and just plain unwatchable. Sure we may need a little bit of information about the state of the world, but it seems to me there might be a few places to they could improve the delivery. Here are few ideas of my own:

1. After every horrible, unhappy story, show pictures of cute, fuzzy baby animals.
2. No speculators please. Don’t guess or imagine what horrible possible scenarios may occur, or why an unspeakable atrocity was committed. Stick to the facts, or don’t do the story at all.
3. Put it on at 2 a.m., when hardly anyone is awake or watching TV.
4. Skip the pictures and descriptions of the brutal mutilation of some hapless victim. Whether in the morning, noon or 6 p.m., this is a definite appetite destroyer.
5. Have circus clowns as hosts to help take your mind off the negative reporting.
6. No more so-called experts please. Just ask the people on the street – they’re right just about as often, and are not nearly so smug about it.
7. Put on 2 positive stories for each negative one shown. (Yes they are out there, you simply have to look.)

Here are a few more freebies:

• Stop all those flashing headlines and tickers running across the screen. They are enormously distracting. Save that stuff for when something truly devastating occurs.
• Skip the celebrity updates. Unless one of them has cured cancer we don’t need to know. That’s what talk shows and Inside Edition are for.
• Don’t report about the same problem more than twice in one week unless you’ve suddenly come up with a solution of your own.
• Every hour flash a black screen with the message “Time for a news break. Please enjoy this musical collage of playful puppies.”

Answers to the Energy Crisis.

Picture by Lollie-Pop

In these stressful days when gas prices keep us home more often, and the TV is full of nonsense and hype, we all need a little comedy relief. It seems everyone and their mother has an idea to offer to solve our energy problems. Here are just a few more ideas. . .

• Foot Power: The Flintstones is the inspiration for this idea. No more high gas prices. Now we use the power of our feet. Stinky, dry and rough, or with long yellow nails, suddenly feet are beautiful. We could launch Pedal Power Plants in every gym in America.
• Celebrity Power: Everywhere you look there are celebrities; newspapers, TV, Internet and more. At the next award show simply line the red carpet with lots of wind generators. All that hot air could power us for a year.
• Weed Power: Why bother with corn-based ethanol? Instead we could use crab grass, dandelions, thistles and more. All those nuisance, fast-growing weeds that do nothing but get in the way. At the rate they grow we’ll be energy independent in 6 months.
• Bean Power: This one is self-evident, but easily overlooked. Simply take 1,000 people or so and have a free bean tasting event. Then lock them all in a steel tanker. Viola – a free source of natural gas.
• South Park Power: As any fan knows, if we simply put Butters in charge of Imaginationland our troubles will quickly disappear. All it takes is a little mind power and poof – instant resolution. No messy processing plants or waiting needed.
• Psychic Power: This is another no-brainer. Gather the top ten psychics from across the nation together and have them give us the answers. After all, they’re psychics - they already know exactly what we need to do.
• Hoof Power: Bring back horse travel. Just think of the income generated by all the necessary street cleans, boot makers and corral builders. It will instantly lower fuel costs, with the added bonus of boosting the economy.
• Berry Power: Have the government issue every citizen a new Blackberry device – complete with a paid service plan. We could all communicate instantly via email, text message and phone, thereby reducing the need to actually go anywhere.

What creative solutions do you have for the energy crisis? Leave your great ideas in the comments section. Thanks for stopping by and have a fun day!

F.U.N.

Frequently

Useless

Nonsense

That is essentially what fun is all about. It’s about letting go. Just enjoying the moment and forgetting your worries and problems. Your problems won’t disappear just because you take a minute or two to have a laugh. No, they’ll be right there waiting for you when you’re done.

So go ahead, stand on your head, have a silly face contest with your cat, watch Scooby Doo or the Flintstones. Relax and let go. Have dessert before dinner, blow bubbles for your dog, read Mother Goose & Grimm or play your kid’s video game. Fun is about letting your hair down, taking it easy, breathing deeply and lots and lots of laughter.

Some say having fun is overrated, but let me tell you – they’re lying! Fun is the opposite of serious. It means loosening up, in body and mind, and feeling at peace. Fun doesn’t always mean being silly or acting like a child. It is simply doing activities that you enjoy, that make you smile or feel good. It could be reading a book, taking a nap, or even watching TV (as long as it’s not the news).

We all crave fun. When we let the rules slide, even temporarily, we feel creative and energetic. You know you’re having fun when you start a project and next thing you know it is 8 hours later you’re spouse is calling you for dinner. Only something that totally engages all your senses can captivate you so thoroughly.

If you haven’t had fun in a while, or need a refresher, check out my top ten ways to have fun outdoors and 10 cheap ways to have fun. Also check out my other web site (Brighter Days for you and me!) and my Increase your fun page. Good luck and enjoy!

Freaky Friday Fun - Why evil is so gosh-darned fun!

Thanos by Corvusonline.

Halloween is almost here, and with the temperatures dropping and darkness creeping in earlier each night, one is drawn into the web of mystery and terror that is evil. Not evil as in real-life bad guys out to get you (think IRS agents and the cable company), but those deliciously naughty men who revel in telling it like it is, with no B/S or politically correct nonsense.

Movie and book villains are so wonderfully appalling because they are so utterly different from anything we know in our daily lives (thank goodness). They break numerous laws without getting caught, and wear the most bizarre clothing and accessories ever seen. These guys plot and plan with such intensity they could have been millionaires ten times over if only they had applied their genius to another field.

Bad guys attract us with their superior confidence and then keep us captive with ropes, chains or laser-tracking guns aimed at our heads. They show us the extreme opposite of good and by doing so allow us to forgive our own blunders and mistakes and those of others. What’s a forgotten birthday card compared to destroying the planet with a plague of zombies intent on eating our brains?

So You’ve Decided to be Evil is a hilarious romp through the minds of madmen of every type and variety. Based on Neil Zawacki’s great book (which I own); How to be a Villain: Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans, and More! With its eye-opening sections such as “The Forces of Darkness,” where you quiz yourself on your evil tendencies and find out how to choose your own nefarious nickname, this site is a must-read.

If you’ve ever wondered how ruthless criminal masterminds get there start, you’ll find this site to be very revealing. Don’t miss “Fashion for the Evil Doer,” and of course “Careers for the Evil Doer,” will get you started with job opportunities. This enlightening guide to the odd and bizarre world of evil masterminds and dark overlords will have you guffawing and grinning in minutes. Check it out today!

I want to be a dreamer and a silly-heart.

Halloween_K Uploaded on December 6, 2005 by chad050

One of my favorite funny movies is Uncle Buck. Childish, irresponsible Buck Russell is asked to take care of his nieces and nephew while his brother attends a funeral. One of my favorite scenes is when Uncle Buck is talking to 6 year-old Maizy’s school principle. She tells him that “She is a dreamer and a silly-heart. I doubt she takes one thing in her career at this school seriously.”

Like Buck, I don’t want to see any “serious” 6 year-olds. The joy of childhood is short and too easily forgotten. The playfulness, their open attitude, a willingness to see the good in people and enjoy the moment are hallmarks of the young. Too many adults have forgotten they were ever children at all. Indeed, some of them are so severe and close-minded I wonder if they were ever young.

Let’s not let the magic of childhood disappear. Our imaginations are one of our most important skills. Lack of imagination means fewer new ideas, repeating the same mistakes over again and leads to a dull mind. Daydreams let us “play” inside our heads where no one else can intrude. We can have a mini vacation in the Caribbean or invent a car that can drive itself. All it takes is a willingness to be a little silly.

Instead of believing it when we see it, we can believe it and then see it. It gives us the advantage on our competition because our life view helps us see things that others wouldn’t. Two people looking at the exact same scene see two totally different things. It could help you design a new product, start your own company, or write the next best-selling novel. You’ll never know unless you try. So start dreaming today!

Smile File: A silent fool.

Goose talking to mink Uploaded on April 5, 2007 by EcoSnake

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)
16th president of US (1809 - 1865)