What would happen if you went to the soil and said, Give me some fruit. Give me some plants? The soil would probably respond, Excuse me, sir, but you're a little confused. You must be new here. That's not the way the game is played. Then it would explain that you should plant the seed. You take care of it. You water it and cultivate the soil. You fertilize it. You protect it and nurture it. Then, if you do it well, you will get your plant or your fruit sometime later. You could ask from the soil forever, but it wouldn't change things. You have to keep giving, keep nurturing, for the soil to bear fruit ― and life is exactly the same way.

Dear Ms. Griffin, I recently received my paycheck for the twoweek period ending February 15, and it was $75.00 short. For this period I should have been paid $875.00. Instead, my check was for only $800.00. I believe I know why there may have been a difference. The $75.00 additional pay for this period was the result of my having put in five hours of overtime on February 8 and February 12. This overtime was not reflected on my current paycheck. I have double-checked with my supervisor, Gloria Arrelo, who assured me that she recorded my overtime on the time sheets she sent to your office. She has kindly given me a copy that I have scanned and have attached to this email to confirm my hours. Sincerely, Robbie Burke

A study by Terry A. Hartig, a psychology professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, tested a random group of individuals. He asked them to carry out a forty-minute sequence of tasks designed to exhaust their directed attention capacity. He then instructed participants to spend forty minutes either walking in a local nature preserve, walking in an urban area, or sitting quietly while reading magazines and listening to music. He found that after this period those who had walked in the nature preserve performed better than the other participants on a standard proofreading task. He reported that the greater the exposure to outdoor activities in green spaces, the better people were able to focus their attention.

Facilities managers should be aware of and take advantage of available resources to help companies meet the challenges of safety issues. Since power failures are rare, for example, it is nearly impossible for people to remember what to do when they occur. So training is needed to keep memory fresh and provide practice so that actions are properly performed. One such remedy is regular training. Some safety topics require more time to finish, but that should not be a limiting factor in learning about ways to keep workers safe. After all, workers are an organization's most precious assets. Always have regular safety training sessions, usually every year, and practice sessions quarterly.

《Parien Day at the Stamford Symphony》 An opportunity to attend a symphony concert: Ragtime Rendezvous • The Stamford Symphony has offered us a stack of tickets for our Parien students, parents, and staff at the reduced rate of $ 30.00 per ticket (original price $ 50.00). Each ticket purchased allows one student free admission to the concert. • There will be a brief lecture on the program beginning at 1:45 p.m. prior to the performance. • The concert will be held at the beautiful Palace Theater in Stamford at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 21. Please order your tickets from the Parien Music Office prior to April 5. For more information or to request an order form, please call the Music Office at: 655-3981. The order form will not be available online. Parien Music Department

《Forests for the Future Essay Competition》 1st Prize: $1000 2nd / 3rd Prizes: $500 Entry Deadline: April 15, 2013 Competition Guidelines: • Answer one of the following three questions: - Why is it important to conserve forests? - What is threatening the health of forests where you live? - What is a possible solution to help conserve forests for the future? • Essays must have no more than 750 words. Details: • Open to high school students, grades 9 - 12. • Winners will have their essays posted on our website. Among the winners, only the first prize winner will have his/her essay published in our magazine. • Winners will be announced by May 31, 2013.

《Orientation Information》 Please join us for the New Students' Orientation on Friday, August 23, 2013. During the orientation you will have the chance to learn about our school curriculum and meet our teachers and fellow students. Time: • The orientation will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. • Admission for guests begins at 10:30 a.m. Location: • Rockwell Cage in the Johnson Athletics Center • Please note that Rockwell Cage is not airconditioned: guests should dress accordingly for the outdoor temperature. Seating: • Freshmen will be seated on the 1st floor. • Room for guests will be prepared on the 2nd floor. There will be a performance by the seniors at the end of the orientation.

I was staying at a hotel in Tokyo. I had been a guest for about ten days and was returning to my room in the middle of an afternoon. I took the elevator to my floor. Entering the room, I immediately sensed that something was wrong. Out of place. Different. I was in the wrong room! Someone else's things were distributed around the head of the bed and the table. My first thoughts were, What if I am discovered here? How do I explain my presence to a Japanese person who may not even speak English? I checked my key again. Yes, it really was mine. Clearly they had moved somebody else into my room. But where was my room now? And where were my belongings?

The above graph shows the change in the population of book readers between 2011 and 2012. Overall, the percentage of book readers declined from 78 % in 2011 to 75 % in 2012. The percentage of printed book readers in 2012 was smaller than that of printed book readers in 2011. In 2012, the percentage of those who read e-books increased by 7 % compared to the previous year. The ownership of e-book reading devices increased between 2011 and 2012. About onethird of the population owned e-book reading devices in 2012.

Hairdressers are constantly servicing clients who come in with a picture clipped from a beauty magazine and tell the stylist, This is the look I want ― cut my hair like this. A stylist can just do the cut, take the money and tell the customer that she got exactly what she wanted. But a good stylist knows that what a customer thinks she wants is often not what she really wants. The look in that picture will frequently not be the look on this particular customer. Good stylists know that their job is not just perfectly executing the cut they were asked for. They know how the face and bone structure and the condition of the hair would change the look in the client's favorite picture.

Sometimes athletes need to be allowed to practice their skills on their own before they receive feedback. That way they can determine what is working and what isn't and can become more mindful of their strengths and weaknesses. If you attempt to provide assistance when athletes would prefer to practice on their own, you may be wasting a lot of time and breath. When athletes realize that their best efforts are producing unsatisfactory outcomes, they are usually more motivated to hear what you have to say. In other words, athletes are responsive to assistance when they fail to achieve the outcome they were hoping for. A coach's challenge, then, is to remain patient until these and other types of teachable moments arise. The reward for such patience is athletes who are motivated to hear what you have to say and eager to incorporate your suggestions.

When we are children, our bodies grow automatically. A year goes by, and we become taller, stronger, more capable of doing new things and facing new challenges. I think many people carry into adulthood a subconscious belief that mental, spiritual, and emotional growth follows a similar pattern. Time goes by, and we simply get better. We're like Charlie Brown in Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip, who once said, I think I've discovered the secret of life ― you just hang around until you get used to it. The problem is that we don't improve by simply living. We have to be intentional about it. Musician Bruce Springsteen commented, A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be. No one improves by accident. Personal growth doesn't just happen on its own.

Suppose you are attending an NBA basketball game. If everyone is sitting, someone who stands has a superior view. Spectators usually can see well if everyone sits or if everyone stands. Sitting in seats is more comfortable than standing. When there is no cooperation, everyone stands; each spectator does what is best for himself or herself given the actions of other spectators. If all spectators sit, someone, taking what the others will do as a given, will stand. If all spectators are standing, then it is best to remain standing. With spectator cooperation, the solution is for everyone to sit. The problem is that each spectator may be tempted to get a better view by standing. The cooperative solution needs to be attained ― in this situation, everyone remains seated.

Can you recall what you bought for your dinner on the same day last month? Probably not. How about this then: herdsmen of the Swazi tribe of East Africa are able to remember in great detail each cow or bull bought a year ago, including who sold the animal, whether it was a bull, a cow, or a calf, its age and appearance, and what it was bartered for. Impressive, huh? Cattle have tremendous social and economic importance in the Swazi tribe. When the psychologist Barlett tested these same men on other kinds of detail, their memory wasn't better than the average person's. The conclusion we can draw from this is that we tend to remember what matters most to us.

A goal image is a target set in your mind. It is a clear image of something you commit yourself to achieving. A goal image is what motivates you. Imagine it's a warm summer day and friends are going to the club to play a round of golf, or to the beach to relax. You, however, are going to the gym to work out. Why? Because you have a picture in mind of being on the Olympic team, and that goal image directs you to the gym and to the training necessary to achieve your goal. Similarly, instead of leaving the office after closing a sale and going to the club to play golf, the account executive turns back to the phone, making the calls necessary to achieve a target she has set for herself.

Seasickness can occur anytime you board a sea vessel and ruin your entire cruise trip. Fortunately, there are effective ways to prevent or relieve it. As soon as you feel the beginning effects of seasickness, go to the deck of the ship and stare at the horizon. Another step you can take right away is to eat a small meal, such as crackers, some fruit or vegetables. You can also use herbal remedies via taste and smell to relieve seasickness. Chamomile or lavender aromatherapy or essential oils have a calming effect and help prevent seasickness.

I look for lip compression or disappearing lips during interviews or when someone is making a declarative statement. This is such a reliable cue that it will show up precisely at the moment a difficult question is asked. If you see it, that doesn't necessarily mean the person is lying. Instead, it indicates that a very specific question served as a negative stimulus and really bothered the person. For example, if I ask someone, Are you hiding something from me? and he compresses his lips as I ask the question, he is hiding something. This is especially accurate if it is the only time he has concealed or compressed his lips during our discussion. It is a signal that I need to push further in questioning this person.

In Hawaiian, aloha means both hello and goodbye. Are you ready to say aloha to an old Hawaiian shirt and aloha to a festive new pillow? Now let's begin making a new pillow out of your old shirt. Button the shirt and iron it. Turn it wrong side out, and sew the armholes closed and the bottom of the shirt closed. Now turn the shirt right side out. Begin stuffing it through the neck hole. Making sure you fill the arms, keep going until the entire pillow is full up to the neck opening. Press the neck down flat, so the opening is closed. Flip the collar up and sew straight across so the hole is closed. Flip the collar back down again, and now you've got a cool pillow!

One day a pair of cardinals had built a nest in a tree right outside the window I faced. Day after day, I watched the parent birds feed their newly hatched chicks, and I watched the chicks grow. At first I could barely spy on them over the nest's edge, but soon their heads stretched way out of the nest. The parent birds took turns flying in to fill their begging mouths that got bigger and bigger. Then one day the parent birds flew close to the nest - but didn't fly in to feed the chicks. Instead, each time they neared the nest, and the baby birds opened wide to receive their meal, the parent birds changed courses and flew away. That was the day the little ones left the nest: One by one, they climbed up onto the nest's edge and eventually hopped clear of it and onto a branch, all the while coaxed by the mother or father, who kept flying by, then flying away. What surprised and delighted me was that the parent birds did not push the little ones out of the nest. Nor did they simply stop coming by, so the chicks would have to come out to find food. By flying close and then flying away the parent birds led their offspring out. It seemed clear to me that the little birds finally left the nest in order to find their parents, who they could see were out there flying around.

It was a short flight. I'd brought only a carry-on bag, so I didn't have to go to the baggage claim. A quick stop by the restroom and I'd head down to the lower level, where my friends were going to pick me up. Then I saw it. A cute little stuffed dog, sitting all by itself on a bench in the main terminal area. Some poor kid was probably heartbroken at having lost it. Okay, God, I thought, if that dog is still there when I get out of the restroom, I'll trust you to show me what to do with it. Sure enough, the dog was still there, slumped over like a tired traveler. I picked it up, stuck it in my bag and headed out the door. I'd just gotten outside when my cell phone rang. Becky, we're going to be late. The traffic is really bad, one of my friends said. Don't worry, I said. I'm outside the departures area. I'll just wait here. I stood by the curb chatting with my friend until I noticed a young woman talking loudly into her cell phone, looking frantic, with a little girl at her side. Mom, we've been here for twenty minutes at least! Are you sure you're in the right place? The tension grew in her voice. I touched her gently on the arm. I think I know what's happening, I said. Your mom is at arrivals; this is departures. I pointed at the sign. Relief washed over her face. Mom, I'm sorry, we're on the level for departures. I got mixed up, she said. The flight was so stressful, and I've been running all over the airport. Your granddaughter lost her stuffed dog somewhere. I pulled the stuffed dog out of my bag. The woman almost dropped her phone. The little girl squealed and gave me a hug. Just then my friends arrived. I waved to the woman and her little girl, then climbed into the car. Sorry, we didn't figure on traffic being quite that bad, one of my friends said as we pulled away from the curb. Maybe they were late for a reason.