Category: life

Posted on

5 Industry Secrets Funeral Directors Want to Keep Buried

No one likes talking about funerals or thinking about the end of our lives (or the lives of our loved ones), but the hard fact is that we’re all going to have to face death, and that often involves a funeral.

So it’s best to be informed when it could mean thousands of dollars and your eternal resting place, right? Yes. And below are 5 things funeral directors would really rather remain a secret.

#1. Embalming is optional.

If you plan the viewing and burial (or cremation) quickly enough, embalming is an extra, not a requirement.

#2. So is having the deceased present at the funeral.

They charge you extra to have your loved one’s body present at the funeral, but it’s not actually required. Consider this: a celebration of life might be more convincing if people weren’t staring at the dead person, rather than remembering them alive.

#3. Caskets don’t have to be super expensive.

Funeral directors want to steer you toward mahogany and bronze, but the fact is, you can pick one up at Costco, Walmart, or Sam’s Club for a much more reasonable price (if you don’t mind sailing into the afterlife in a more modest boat).

#4. In fact, you can even rent them.

It might sound squicky at first, but if you’re a practical person who realizes that your body is eventually going to turn back into dirt and dust, anyway, you can rent your casket. The body rests in a cardboard liner inside the casket and then is buried (or cremated) without it.

#5. Their “bells and whistles” options aren’t what they appear.

They might try selling you a “protective casket” that includes a rubber gasket to seal the casket so tight it will slow or stall decomposition. Not only is the opposite true – moisture and gases get trapped inside and some caskets have even exploded because of it – but, I mean. Why delay the inevitable?

The more you know – your grandkids could pay off some of their student loan debt with the extra cash!

The post 5 Industry Secrets Funeral Directors Want to Keep Buried appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Sandwich-Loving Vegan is Shocked to Discover That Mayonnaise ISN’T Vegan

Vegans are notorious for how passionate they are about their lifestyle, a passion which sometimes borders on being annoyingly overzealous. Even the ones who aren’t the “militant” stereotype portrayed by the media are still very knowledgeable about what they put into their bodies.

That’s why it’s so strange (and slightly hilarious) that one particular vegan didn’t even know that mayonnaise has egg whites in it!

An anonymous guy who works at Subway told this story.

“Yesterday I had a chick come in, she told me she wanted a Veggie Delight,” he began. “As I went to get the bread she asked me if I could change my gloves cause she was vegan and I had been handling meat. I did that, no problem, perfectly reasonable request. I get her breast, toast it and put all the veggies she wants on it, I start to wrap up her sandwich when she says, ‘Can I get some mayo?’”

This is where things went hilariously sideways.

Photo Credit: iStock

The employee said to the vegan: “You know mayonnaise has eggs in it right?”

“THIS. GIRL. JUST. STOOD. THERE. SILENT,” he wrote. Then she said: “N-no it doesn’t, I get mayo every time, are you sure?”

After confirming that, yes, he was sure, the girl “stood there with such a distraught and defeated face. I had shattered this poor girl’s world.”

AND IT GETS BETTER. The employee asked again whether she wanted mayo on her sandwich, AND SHE SAID YES.

Photo Credit: iStock

“So I gave her her mayo, wrapped her sandwich up and charged her for her sandwich, she was silent the whole time,” he said. On her way out, he called “Have a nice day!”

“She just looked at me, sighed, ‘yea, I’ll try’ and walked out. And that’s the story of how I taught a vegan that mayonnaise is, in fact, not vegan.”

Better late than never. FYI, mayonnaise is just eggs with oil, lemon, vinegar, and seasoning.

The post Sandwich-Loving Vegan is Shocked to Discover That Mayonnaise ISN’T Vegan appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

15 People Reveal What Their Childhood Bullies Grew Up to Be

At some point in your life, you probably had a bully. Sadly, it’s just too common of a phenomenon. I remember in 2nd grade there was this kid who’d keep trying to beat me up in the playground and always made fun of the lunches my mom packed me.

Do you remember your childhood bully? Hopefully, it wasn’t you doing the bullying – though if you were, maybe reflect a little on that and apologize? I don’t know, don’t ask me.

AskReddit users shared their personal stories of what happened to their childhood bullies. Let us know if any resonate with you.

1. Acting out

“The bully was just a kid acting out. He’s parents were struggling financially and he had around 7 little siblings. He was probably being neglected and I noticed his younger sister who was about 12 at the time was always taking care of the little ones while their parents worked. I actually bumped into him and a mutual friend years ago and I felt really bad. He lost so much weight and looked like he was definitely taking drugs – I heard a lot of rumours and it looked like it was true.

He couldn’t look at me in the eyes I felt terrible for him. His friend and him disappeared from social media so I don’t know what happened to him now but I really hope he’s okay.”

2. What a story

“Her parents divorced, then her local celebrity dad went to prison, then her mom killed herself, then her grandparents died.

Her dad got out of prison and died when she was almost out of high school. The family money was gone on the divorce, dad’s legal defense and the 2008 housing crisis so she ended up working a shitty job.

She ended up dropping out of college two years in and joining a cult run by a dentist. Supposedly found Jesus, and is still in that cult.”

3. No longer a bully

“He got his sh*t straight, and he’s working as a carpenter. Good for him!”

4. Hasn’t changed

“I didn’t get along with most of my classmates until my junior year. We were from a tiny school and were together since kindergarten. Our junior year we kind of collectively thought, “Well, that was dumb,” and started getting along. All but one are lovely people.

The one that’s not a lovely person? I know because my mom arrested him post high-school. She was booking him and asked him if he had any money to post bond. He said, “I don’t need money. I got bitches.” Sure enough some woman, married to someone else, if I remember right, came and bailed him out.

So, yeah. He hasn’t changed.”

5. The bully speaks

“Well I’m ashamed to say that I was actually a bit of a bully in school, I used to pick on a guy who was taller than I was, I can’t even remember why. One day I finally made him crack and he had had enough and left right in the middle of class to go home.

I felt so terrible I called him that night to apologize for what I did to him. Turns out, we had a lot in common, we became friends, great friends actually, and I was the best man at his wedding. Still best friends to this day.”

6. Uh oh

“He became a TSA agent.”

7. Man…

“Crashed his car in Grade 12 and died.”

8. Hmmmmm

“Most of them are nurses or work in the healthcare field. It worries me.”

9. Classy

“She sells It Works! and describes herself on Facebook as a “business owner, mom, wino.”

10. Depressing

“There was an asshole in my high school who would mercilessly bully and torture a friend of mine who was a stereotypical nerd but a fantastic artist. In our final year nearing graduation the asshole bought a really fancy car and would show off by driving dangerously around the streets. He got into an accident by hitting a semi-truck on the highway. He’s forever bound in a wheel-chair, while my friend became an animator at Pixar.”

11. Catfished!

“She ended up being caught as a catfish on the T.V. show. My old school mates had a field day with that.”

12. Top 500

“My bully who convinced everyone that I’m a nerd and that I should be bullied because I played videogames is now like top 500 in overwatch or something while I’m stuck in diamond lol.”

13. Maybe trying to make up for her past?

“She became a school guidance counselor. ? “

14. OMG

“There were many, but probably the worst of bad seeds didn’t make it much past high school. He was dicking around with a pistol at a party and when called on it said “What?! It’s not even loaded!” before putting it to his temple and pulling the trigger. Needless to say, it was loaded.”

15. Sad story

“He hanged himself in jail.”

The post 15 People Reveal What Their Childhood Bullies Grew Up to Be appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Husband Surprises His Wife with a Trip to Disney, and Now We’re All Crying

When two people decide to spend the rest of their lives together, they can never know for sure what’s waiting for them. It’s a risk you take, but you believe you’ve picked the best person to have by your side for whatever comes next – for better or worse, sickness and health, all of that.

Kate and David Pipe met because of her parents. They encouraged her to ask a man she’d never met as a wedding date, but she refused. When he emailed her about it, though, something made her reply.

They ended up dating, and, two years later, in 2009, they tied the knot.

Photo Credit: Kate Pipe

After a year or so of marriage, Kate and David decided they were ready to have a baby, and that’s when they came face-to-face with the “worse” part of their wedding vows – they weren’t able to get pregnant on their own.

“It’s a hopeless feeling when you realize that you are the statistic that needs intervention to have children. And when that intervention fails month after month after month, it’s devastating… and all you can do is try again next month.”

Most of the burden of getting the treatments fell on Kate’s shoulder’s, a never ending and complex task that David recognized and appreciated more than he could say.

“She used to get up at 5am and drive 90 minutes each way to a clinic in downtown Toronto and get blood drawn, do some testing, and be back at work before 9am. She did this between 10-15 times per month for months and months.”

The couple went through 7 rounds of intrauterine insemination, suffered two miscarriages, and finally tried one round of in vitro fertilization that was… extra successful.

Kate got pregnant with triplets – two boys and a girl.

Photo Credit: Kate Pipe

“Once you get pregnant, that’s not guaranteed either, so you are constantly living in a state of worry, just hoping that it works out… But the thought of having three babies at the same time never scared David or me, we just wanted to make sure they were safe.”

The babies were a blessing in so many ways. They were a gift the couple had been hoping and praying for during the whole, difficult process – and they helped ease some of Kate’s pain, too.

“I always felt that we would get those babies we lost to miscarriage back, and that’s what we feel happened with the triplets.”

Their babies were born healthy and are now happy toddlers, but David never forgot the dedication and sacrifice his wife showed while they were trying to conceive. So, he decided she deserved a surprise trip to her favorite place in the world.

Photo Credit: Kate Pipe

“She really deserved way more than a trip to Disney World, but we both love it there, and I really thought she needed to get away.”

Disney was a perfect choice, though; Kate had loved it since she was a child, and she and David honeymooned there years earlier – before marriage, and all of the heartache they managed in order to get their beautiful kids.

They’ve even already taken their kiddos, and are planning to make another trip for their fifth birthday.

David really wanted the trip to be a surprise, so he went all out, contacting her boss to rearrange her schedule and working with family members to make sure the triplets would be cared for while they were gone – he even packed her bags for her and didn’t tell her they were on their way to the airport until the very last minute.

“He didn’t tell me anything until we got on the bus that takes us to the airport and he said ‘we’re going on a plane’ and that was it. He said nothing else until he took that video.”

We’ll get to the video in a moment.

Kate was blown away by all David had gone through to plan a surprise trip just for her, even managing the kids’ schedules down to the very last detail.

Photo Credit: Kate Pipe

“He is truly an unbelievable husband and father. So many of my friends and family came together to support this surprise. It makes me emotional thinking about how lucky we are and how lucky our children are to be surrounded by so many kind and loving people.”

Her husband’s incredible act of love and kindness has left Kate on the lookout for ways to repay him, and show him how much he means to her and the kids.

“Now I just keep thinking ‘how am I ever going to top this surprise?’  It’s a challenge now that I think about often, how to create a surprise as epic and incredible as he deserves.”

She and David want you to know even though struggling to conceive is a “lonely feeling,” that “so many couples go through infertility struggles.”

Here’s that video we promised you!

I hope that all of you have such a bright, shining moment at the end of your journeys, too.

The post Husband Surprises His Wife with a Trip to Disney, and Now We’re All Crying appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

10+ Millennials Remember the Things They Miss Most About the 90s

Nostalgia is a pretty universal aspect of the human condition. Every generation has looked back at their own childhood and thought “Ahhh, those were the days!”

Well, millennials who grew up during the 90s are no different. If you’re one of them (or just love the 90s) then these 15 memories are probably going to spark more than a few of your own.

#1. Basic necessities

“Honestly, I miss life before the internet and cell phones/texting became basic necessities.”

#2. A bit carried away

“Climbing trees, making dens in the woods, knocking on your friends door on a Saturday morning without phoning first, ‘are you playing out?’ Summer holidays spent in the half sunny alleys and fields behind the cul de sac. Asking my dad to record my tv shows onto vcr and him always getting the audio wrong from not turning the volume up on the cable box. Those little blue chocolate wafers my Nan had and the way she made toast. My parents watching Inspector Morse after I went to bed and how the radio was always on in the kitchen. The plum tree outside my bedroom window when it blossomed. School mornings getting colder and how my Mum got the car warmed up in the winter before we left. Our dog. My home. My self when I was young and the world was still magical.

Sorry I got a bit carried away.”

#3. Most of all

“8bit graphics, rainbow windbreakers, roller rinks still being cool, AOL, Nickelodeon. But most of all, just being a carefree kid.”

#4. A sense of innocence

“Amazing music, comfy clothes, cheap gasoline and a sense of innocence and optimism about the future.

Also being around my high school classmates seven hours a day, five days a week September through June could be a mixed blessing then, but I sure miss them now.”

#5. The good stuff

90s cartoons!

#6. When you got home

“I miss being safe from bullies when you got home. Like when I was in school I would get shit from someone, but once I got home that stopped. With the way we are all connected now through the internet and social media, I probably wouldn’t have escaped it like I used to be able to. I feel bad for kids that are bullied in school nowadays because they can’t escape the bullying by going home if they have any sort of presence on the internet.”

#7. The highest virtue

“Vintage clothes were the epitome of cool. It’s still weird to me that now it’s cool to wear expensive clothes, much less ones with obvious labels.

Also related, the idea of “not selling out” as the highest virtue. The idea that the coolest people of the 2010s are influencers with sponsored posts couldn’t be more anti-90s.”

#8. I didn’t appreciate it enough

“I spent the 90s on college and grad school, mostly. I miss having a life where my job was just to think, learn and mature. I didn’t appreciate it enough.”

#9. Some sort of game

“Starting high school in 1990. Good music. Rap rock and even pop. Getting outside. Calling people on an actual house phone to set up the weekend. Meeting girls by actually meeting and talking to them in person. You actually had to have some sort of game to even get a number. We worked hard and played hard. People weren’t so sensitive.”

#10. The news wasn’t 24/7

“Stop watching the news. I stopped a couple of years ago and I’m happier. Most of it is irrelevant anyway. Think about it this way. What have you learned from the news in the past year that has directly affected your life? Of those things, what’s the likelyhood of you finding out about it through other means. If the answer is high, just stop watching.”

#11. Instant win

“Instant win contests.

You could buy a bottle of Coke, win another bottle of Coke and immediately turn around to get another one for free.

Now you have to go online, enter some code somewhere and it sucks.”

#12. Like I was at an Irish funeral

“When I would be sitting in my living room apartment and looking at my CD shelf and seeing my Pink Floyd Pulse disk blinking that beautiful red blink. I always wondered when the exact time and date it stopped was because I would have popped that disc in and proceed to drink like I was at an Irish funeral.”

#13. All you had to do

“All you had to do was just go outside. We always found something to do and had a blast. My kids never go outside unless they have a specific activity planned ahead.”

 

#14. Improvised WWF

“Improvised WWF (it was still the WWF back then) matches on my trampoline with buddies.

Also NOT having the internet for every little thing made stuff like Pokemon game glitches the stuff of legend.”

#15. Having all my hair

“The music. The sense the world was improving. Having all my hair.”

Let me know when they invent a time machine, okay?!

The post 10+ Millennials Remember the Things They Miss Most About the 90s appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Meet the Man Who’s Been Living on a Cruise Ship for 13 Years, aka “The Captain”

He has taken his lunch and dinner every day at the same corner table now for thirteen years. Slim and distinguished, the passenger is lovingly known by the Seven Seas Navigator crew as “The Captain.”

Photo Credit: Forbes

Morton Jablin is 94 years old, sharp, and quite elegant-looking. So, why has he chosen to spend the last 13-years on a boat?

Jablin was born and raised in Brooklyn before he went abroad with the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence in WWII. After he returned to the States in 1946, he worked as a pharmacist, married his wife Charlotte and raised two children. He eventually started a successful lace-making business.

Throughout their marriage, Jablin and Charlotte traveled all over the world on various cruise lines. When Charlotte passed 13 years ago, Jablin decided to make his globetrotting full time and settled on the Navigator as his new home.

Living on the ship has allowed Jablin to keep a simple routine – one that ensures he knows where everything is, which is particularly important because he is steadily losing his eyesight and is now 90% blind. Other than the occasional doctor appointment, he no longer participates in shore excursions. “Charlotte and I had already been everywhere.”

His corner table in the Compass Rose Dining Room is permanently reserved for his daily lunches and dinners and is set for him exactly the same way for every meal.

Photo Credit: Regent Cruises

His suite has been customized to meet his needs, and he exercises daily by walking on a deck that is usually empty. Casinos aren’t his thing, but he enjoys the onboard musical performances.

Family visits him when the ship docks in Miami, and he can always call them on his cell phone. Although other passengers will sometimes start conversation, Jablin really considers the crew as his friends and family.

Jablin summed up his life at sea this way. “I couldn’t achieve this lifestyle anywhere else. If I need a nurse or doctor, someone is in my cabin within five minutes. No matter what the time of day, if I need something, someone is here in 10-15 minutes. If I weren’t on this ship, I would have to have someone living with me.”

“Where else could I feel this secure and safe? Life on board couldn’t be better,” he said.

He kind of has a point, don’t you think?

The post Meet the Man Who’s Been Living on a Cruise Ship for 13 Years, aka “The Captain” appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

There’s a Championship for Excel Spreadsheets, and a 17-Year-Old Just Won

Ahhh, good ol’ Microsoft Excel! It’s that program we all lie about how well we know on our resumes, and then just spend half a day Googling it when someone actually asks us to do something slightly advanced on it.  But, there are some folks out there who aren’t exaggerating their Excel mastery at all.

An international competition for Excel spreadsheets took place in Anaheim, California, recently. The competition is limited to participants from ages 12 to 22.

The top prize went to John Dumoulin, a 17-year-old from northern Virginia. He’s never worked in an office — he’s in high school, and he works at Chick-fil-A part-time.

John first learned about the competition through an IT class at school. He scored the highest score on the Microsoft Excel 16 certification exam in Virginia, leading him to a national competition and then the international competition, where he won $10,000 in prize money.

John says he was surprised to learn that people actually take these competitions very seriously.

“Some of the foreign countries, they’ve been training for hours and hours and hours on end,” he said.

Photo Credit: Excel Easy

“When you first meet the international students, everyone’s friendly, but when they find out you’re competing against them in the same category, they get this fire in their eyes. They want to win.”

“Most of us in an office think that we know how to use Excel. These kids really know,” said Aaron Osmond, general manager of Certiport, the company that runs the competition.

The post There’s a Championship for Excel Spreadsheets, and a 17-Year-Old Just Won appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

20+ People Reveal the Moment That Changed Their Whole Perspective On Life

One of my favorite shows on Netflix, Big Mouth, has a moment where all the characters sing a song called, “Life is a F***ed Up Mess,”and I definitely believe it.

That said, sometimes there are just experiences that we have to go through in order to learn and grow as a person. Whether it be from travel, heartbreak, or a number of other incidents, here are some examples of people whose perspectives on life were totally changed thanks to a single experience.

1. Bucket List

After my dad died in 2014 of Huntington’s Disease, a fatal genetic disorder, I decided to get tested in late 2015. I am gene positive. Meaning, I will develop the disease at some point later in life, but am not currently showing symptoms. Although I’m only 26, I’ve begun working towards my bucket list and only 2 months ago, crossed off my #1 wish of visiting Germany. It was two weeks of everything I could have asked for. I have a relatively successful career, which I enjoy and am thankful for, which allows me to check off these items from my bucket list.

Knowing that my life expectancy is maybe 40 at best, based on my CAG repeats, it’s given me the chance, or maybe the reminder, to live my only life as well as I can.

2. Hard Times

Getting injured, having multiple surgeries, and having to quit my teaching job and go on long-term disability. Being on disability really sucked, and I have more compassion for people who are permanently disabled. I also understand homelessness better. I’d probably be homeless myself if I didn’t have parents who could help with some of the medical bills.

3. Simple Pleasures

Getting high at a music festival. My buddy and I got hungry so we got chicken strips. We sat down on the dirty ground and enjoyed our chicken strips amongst other festival goers. I realized how nothing is more important than being somewhere you love with people you love. No fancy restaurant, no expensive food, no flashy jewelry… just my bud and I having a blast. Will never forget that.

4. Moving On

I’m in my early 20s, and got dumped by my first serious girlfriend a few months ago. I really liked her and she was pretty into me, but I was constantly trying to please her and was letting her walk all over me because that’s what I believed women wanted. I never stood up for myself when she would flake/take hours to text and I think she lost respect for me because of that. Her excuse was that “she wasn’t ready” but I know I was at least partially to blame…

Instead of sulking and begging, I took the breakup as motivation to hit the gym, meet new people, read books, further my career, work on social skills, etc so that at least if she doesn’t want to give it a second try, then a better girl will take her place. I’m so much happier now because of it.

5. Still Here

Drug/alcohol addiction, followed by recovery.

I just shouldn’t even be alive. I told a psychologist I expected to be dead by 25. But I’m 25, not dead, sober for several years, and somehow getting a Ph.D. I literally had no idea how to stop drinking; I wanted to, but couldn’t. Somehow it happened, though. And now when I get super stressed at school, or when people bug me, I just remember the fact that I shouldn’t even be alive. All of my problems immediately become laughable and absurd when I do that.

So I’d say I learned not to take things so serious, because at the end of the day, I’m still just right here.

6. High On Life (And Drugs)

I’ve never had any truly religious or deep meaningful experience in my entire life. Sure I’ve had fun. But I’ve never really got a deep life altering, paradigm shattering experience in my entire life. Everything was just humdrum until I started experimenting with psychedelic drugs.

I was a vocal atheist and thought everybody who believed in anything like that was totally stupid. Not saying I am religious now because I’m not, but I was such a closed minded person about stuff like that.

Psychedelics showed me the potential for love. Both for myself and others. It opened me up to seeing how consciousness and existence is so much more than I ever thought it was and it showed me how to see the world a lot differently than I currently was. Also showed me just how insanely beautiful and wonderful everything truly is.

I lose sight of it all the time, but deep down those experiences are still with me.

7. Rags to Riches to Rags

So after a family member died I inherited almost $78,000,000. My family and friends attitudes changed completely after hearing the news. People I didn’t even know of started contacting me, almost everyone I knew asked me for money, the number of ‘friends’ I had doubled. About a week later, the lawyer that handled the last will contacted me saying there was a closer relative that they had missed. I went back to being normal and found out who my real friends and family were.

8. Take the Time

One of my best friends passed away unexpectedly last August. I didn’t keep up with messaging him every once and a while and slowly grew apart. He messaged me a week before he died simply saying “I miss you.” I forgot about replying like some people do and I got a call the following week from another friend saying he died. I was devastated because I had no idea he was ill. Later that day I was looking at my inbox and noticed his message and it floored me. I still beat myself up over it because all I had to say is “I miss you too we should catch up.” But I didn’t and he’s gone. It was a harsh lesson but it changed me, and no matter what I take the time to reply to any message I get from someone I care about.

9. Hugs Work

Up until I was a teenager, I didn’t like my sister much. She didn’t like me either. Then, one day, I read that hugging someone makes your brain release chemicals that make you trust that person more. I didn’t buy it, so I jokingly told my sister that it means we have to start hugging our enemies to give them a false sense of security, and stuff like that. Then we jokingly hugged and we continued to hug every day for a while.

And you know what? It’s weird, but it actually worked! She’s my best friend now.

10. Eat More Salad

I had been eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for about a month straight. I was in college. These things happen. Anyway, I had a little bit of cash put together, so a buddy and I went to TGIFriday’s. The waiter came, and as I was ordering my food, for some reason, inexplicably, I had to have a salad. My friend looked at me like I had grown a second head. He demanded explanations. There were none.

So I ate the salad. Literal chills started racing up and down my spine. It was like a religious experience.

So, I told my friend to order a salad. He was understandably concerned at this point. Why was this important all of a sudden? What’s the deal with the salad? I said, “Order. A. Salad.”

We still talk about it sometimes. That was 15 years ago.

Uh… so, the moral of the story is don’t eat so many sweets and vegetables are a required part of your diet.

11. Count Your Blessings

I traveled a lot early in my career. I spent a lot of time in quite a few poor countries.

I went to Haiti 6 times in my life to work. The poverty and corruption was like nothing I had ever seen before or really since. People would beg and beg for the scrap lumber from our shipping crates to build their houses. When they built a house, it was about the size of the walk-in closet in the first home my wife and I bought.

Ever since then, I have never complained. I have a nice house. Nothing extravagant, but it is a nice house. I have money to put food on the table. I have multiple grocery stores within a 10 minute drive from me and I can buy anything I want to eat. I have a job that pays well and I enjoy working at.

I don’t let the inconveniences of life bring me down. If I feel sorry for myself about something, I remember the really poor people I have come across in my travels (as opposed to what I call American poor) and I am instantly thankful for what I have.

12. Gone Too Soon

A few years ago I lost a long time friend of mine in a car accident. He fell asleep at the wheel on the interstate and crossed over into oncoming traffic, hitting a semi. We had known each other since we were 5 and went through grade school, middle school and high school together. He was 25 when he passed. I knew he had struggled with depression for a long time, but at the time of his passing he was actually in a really good place in his life. He was doing what he loved and had been dating a girl for a few years. He was happy!

So it really made me think if I were to suddenly be gone tomorrow, am I happy with where I’m at? I wasn’t, and I started to make a lot of life changes after that. I had been overweight for a long time and started working on my health and I’ve lost around 85 lbs since then. I got into a career I love and enjoy doing everyday. I stopped stressing about stupid things too. It’s not worth it. I tell my family and friends I love them a lot more frequently than I used to. And I always, always, ALWAYS make sure I get enough sleep before I have a long drive to make.

13. No Apologies

A random stranger in passing. When I was about 16, I accidentally stepped into an elderly woman’s way while walking down a narrow walkway. We did the awkward dance trying to pass one another, as we passed each other I turned and said “I’m sorry!” to her.

She turned back to me and with a stern, but oddly charming, tone says “Don’t you ever apologize for your existence. Just say excuse me and be on your way.”

At first I took what she said as her being rude. Then I walked away and let it sink in for a bit and since then it’s stuck. I always say excuse me now if I’m in someone’s way.

14. Enjoy Life

Gaining a friend and talking to said friend. Up to that point in my life I had lived on the internet and became something of a space exploration fanatic dead-set on pushing humanity into the cosmos. My plan in life was to work as hard as I could toward that goal, without any room for anything else.

Until I met my friend. She was much more normal than me (normalcy was something I disdained at the time), but not any less dedicated academically. She wanted to excel in life, but also enjoy it. It was the latter part that I had been missing.

15. Expand Your Horizons

To me it was definitely travelling.

And, not to sound like that guy, but by traveling I don’t mean two days in a hotel by the beach in some third world country, I’m talking several years in total immersion. Worked there, slept there, ate, met people, got drunk, got mad, fell in love, got heartbroken, split up, fell in love again, made money, lost at least as much, learned how to greet locals the proper way, and why how I’d do it in my country isn’t okay here, the whole thing.

16. Full Circle

For me it was a small comic, it had a picture of a girl at various ages of her life.

Age 6:”I love mommy”

Age 16:”I hate my mom!”

Age 30:”Mom was always right…”

Age 45:”I wish mom was here”

It really hit home and made me change for the better. I started helping my mom around the house and built an amazing relationship with her till now.

17. Power of Empathy

An anthropology course I took in University. The professor told us that when we look at different cultures we have to “make the strange familiar, and the familiar strange”.

So basically you need to look at cultures outside of your own and try to see them with empathy. Really try to look at it as if it was your own culture, that it was normal, or something you grew up with. And to do the opposite with your own culture.

Taught me a lot about looking at my own culture with a critical eye, and looking at other cultures with empathy.

18. Lesson Learned

I was dating a girl for 2 years and was so damn certain she was the one. She was passionate, confident, and could light up a room when she entered. At the same time, we were very different in that regard and I struggled to stay balanced in something that I wanted so badly to work.

Anxiety and a lack of motivation were a serious pattern for me. She pushed me, tried to say that it was important to her that I got a grip on things but I just couldn’t come to terms with it. In the end one day while driving back to her place she told me she couldn’t do it anymore and that she felt I wasn’t ready for a relationship. I needed to learn to believe in yourself or I would always leave people staring at a wall of nerves.

The experience hit me like a bombshell and for a long time I felt like I wasn’t going to make it through. I just wanted to do anything to stop feeling defeated. One day while sitting there and thinking I realized that I let my fears rob me of someone I deeply cared about. It had to stop and I needed to get help.

I reached out to my folks, explained to them what I was going through and got help. After spending some time planning what I wanted out of life I began committing everyday to building back to a place where I could be proud of what I was doing. I never forgot what she said to me, and while it hurt a great deal it made me realize that I was defeating myself out of enjoying life.

Last year I saw her for the first time in 5 years. She was engaged, had moved to a new city and was happy as ever. I thanked her for helping me to realize what I was doing to myself and wished her the very best.

Every time I struggle, or start to doubt myself I remember what that experience taught me. If you are going to lose something, don’t let it be because you defeated yourself. Take charge, do your best and accept the outcome – but don’t sell yourself short.

19. Dumb Luck

Growing up I was absolutely miserable. Being the fat kid in school, no attention from girls, very very few friends, more athletic family members who would single me out and pick on me. This went on through high school unfortunately.

When I was 19 things began falling into place for me through sheer dumb luck. I was (wrongly) diagnosed with ADD and the adderall they put me on caused me to lose 70 lbs in ~2 months, then the family came into some money as a result of a medical malpractice suit that killed my grandmother a few years earlier and my dad paid for me to study Japanese in Japan for 6 months.

Losing the weight and going to Japan were exactly what I needed to shake off my miserable former self. I had finally done something I could be proud of and it just kept catalyzing more and more positive changes in my life. It’s weird to think I spent the first 20 years of my life hating myself, hating the world, hating my family, just as such a miserable guy. I love all those things now.

20. Beauty in Heartbreak

Had my first real breakup last year. For a while, I was devastated and truly depressed. However, after a while I began to discover more things about myself and what I wanted and what I liked. I began to appreciate things and people that I took for granted before. 2016 was one of the worst years of my life, but I can confidently say that so far 2017 is the best year of my life. I’m still single, but I’m truly happy with that and with myself.

21. Love Isn’t Magic

It showed me that love is not magic. It’s something that has to be worked at together. When one party can’t or won’t do equal work, the relationship fails. It feels amazingly good when it works and feels amazingly bad when it breaks down. The fact that my fairytale image of my parents marriage failure led me to (at least try to) have a more realistic view on life. No amount of want alone can make things happen in relationships. It’s like carrying a really big fish tank: it’s difficult with two people, and it’s pretty amazing to move things along to new places, but one person can’t do it. If someone isn’t invested in moving it along, it will drop and break. And it’s a real big mess to clean up and deal with all alone.

22. What’s In a Grade?

I locked myself in a bathroom stall and literally beat myself up for 15 minutes. I cried for many days afterward.

Soon enough, I got sick of living in this misery. I wanted to let go and accept it so I could just be happy. But to be happy in spite of such a grade would mean redefining my values.

Panicked, I looked up whether I could still stand a chance at Caltech, my dream university, if I got such a grade. The general consensus was “eh, pick somewhere else.”

That was it! Not “no, you suck,” not “no, Caltech wants smart people.” Just pick somewhere else.

So now I’ve truly accepted the loss of my valedictorian status, as painful as it may be. There’s nothing I can do about it now, and looking back, I can see that all this grade anxiety did nothing but crush my spirit. Now I centrally define myself as a friend, reader, learner, inquirer, helper, and daughter of God, identities that will endure my whole life – not as the tenuously hanging valedictorian.

The post 20+ People Reveal the Moment That Changed Their Whole Perspective On Life appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

FDA Warns Parents Not to Let Babies Use Teething Jewelry

As a parent, there’s nothing worse than seeing your little one in pain while you stand by, powerless to stop it. And while cutting teeth is just a painful rite of passage, the popularity of “teething jewelry” at least gave parents the illusion they were doing something to help.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kendra Raymer Blog (@kendra.raymer) on

But After the strangulation death of an 18-month-old, the Food and Drug Administration is officially cautioning against it.

“We know that teething necklaces and jewelry products have become increasingly popular among parents and caregivers who want to provide relief for children’s teething pain and sensory stimulation for children with special needs. We’re concerned about the risks we’ve observed with these products and want parents to be aware that teething jewelry puts children, including those with special needs, at risk of serious injury.”

And if you’re sitting there thinking you’d never put your baby to bed wearing a necklace, well, you’re not in the clear – a 7-month-old baby died after choking on a teething bracelet while his parents were in the room with him.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Khansa Khadijah Wijaya (@khansakhadijahwijaya) on

“Choking can happen if the jewelry breaks and a small bead enters the child’s throat or airway,” the report continued. “Strangulation can occur if a necklace is wrapped too tightly around the child’s neck or if the necklace catches on an object such as a crib.”

The FDA also reminds parents that they don’t recommend the use of “teething creams, benzocaine gels, sprays, ointments, solutions, or lozenges for mouth and gum pain” either, and suggests following American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines for soothing teething pain.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by ?Mella? (@cbyem) on

Those include rubber teething rings (cold is best!) or rubbing the irritated gums with a clean finger.

It’s hard to watch, parents, and even harder to have patience with a constantly irritated infant, but according to the FDA, the risks of using the jewelry to mitigate everyone’s pain is too much.

My advice? Try a large, peeled carrot right out of the fridge. Works like a charm!

The post FDA Warns Parents Not to Let Babies Use Teething Jewelry appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Neighbors Sue Owner of this “Flintstone” House Because it’s So Ugly

Unless you live in a town where every house looks the same, you’re probably familiar with the Ugly House. You know, that house in the neighborhood that’s painted a bizarre shade and/or looks like it was designed by an alien architect. The Ugly House is charming, but it also offends some neighbors.

In Hillsborough, California, the Ugly House is known as the Flintstones House.

Photo Credit: Distractify

The owner, Florence Fang, is obsessed with the Flintstones, and the property looks like the cartoon come to life. The house is rounded, red and purple, and it’s surrounded by fake dinosaurs. Also, the words “Yabba Dabba” are spelled out on the lawn.

You’ve gotta hand it to Florence for commitment!

Apparently, the neighbors are fed up with this house’s appearance, because the owner now has a lawsuit filed against her. BY THE WHOLE TOWN. Poor Florence.

Photo Credit: Distractify

Honestly, ugliness aside, the idea of a Flintstones House is pretty neat, like something that should be open for tours. Kids would love it!

But not everyone agrees. The lawsuit claims that Florence “created live-safety hazards that required immediate correction to protect visitors to the property.”

In the past, the Hillsborough building department has issued citations, $200 in fines, and stop orders to Florence over the house. They claim her additions were “designed to be very intrusive, resulting in the owner’s ‘vision’ for her property being imposed on many other properties and views, without regard to the desires of other residents.”

If you’re wondering who on Earth this Florence woman is: she’s a businesswoman, philanthropist, and former newspaper publisher. She also has no intention of giving in to the lawsuit. Watch out, neighbors.

The post Neighbors Sue Owner of this “Flintstone” House Because it’s So Ugly appeared first on UberFacts.