Cost-saving tips to keep your fur kids in kibble

The ASPCA estimates that the average cost of food, basic supplies, medical care and training for a dog or cat is between $700 and $875 a year. Over the lifetime of a 14-year-old dog or cat, the cost of pet ownership can total more than $12,000. Depending on the health of your animal and other factors, some estimates are as high as $38,905.

Luckily, there are several smart ways that you can help reduce pet expenses without skimping on your furry friends health and well-being. Consumer savings expert, Regina Novickis, shares these purr-worthy tips:

1. Buy in bulk (without bulking up your pet) - To maintain the health of your pet and the health of your wallet, avoid overfeeding, but do purchase larger quantities of food. Usually the larger the bag, the less expensive the item is per unit. Consider buying in bulk and splitting the costs of food and treats with a friend or neighbor. Purchasing more may also qualify you for further discounts.

2. "Paws" to find a promotional code before you buy - Prices for pet supplies are often cheaper online than in stores, and many sites offer promotional codes to increase your savings. If you leave the promotional code box blank on a retailer's checkout page, you could be paying more than necessary. Check out PromotionalCodes.com, CouponWinner.com and PromoCodes.com, which all organize thousands of online coupons for pet retailers like PetSmart, PetCo, SitStay.com and others.

3. Do your homework: The key to saving money is comparing prices. When shopping for flea and tick medications, for example, always compare money-saving codes among brands that offer the same or similar products to find the best value. CouponWinner.com features a unique coupon-comparison tool called the CouponScout that allows you to easily compare coupons from up to five retailers.

4. Avoid buying pet prescription products from your vet: Buying prescriptions at the veterinarian's office can bite into the budget, particularly if your pet has a chronic condition or requires ongoing treatment. Unless your pet needs immediate medication, shop for prescription medications online. Visit sites like 1-800-PetMeds and PetCareRX.

5. Groom your own pets: A one-time investment in a few high-quality grooming tools can pay off in the long-run. Professional grooming can run upwards of $50 per visit, so a do-it-yourself approach can amount to significant savings. Some pets that are more sensitive to being handled (i.e. rescued pets) may also fare better with a hands-on approach at home instead of a being exposed to a potentially stressful, foreign environment.

Source http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/pets/detail?entry_id=86813

Top Tips For Finding The Right Plan

Today’s health insurance consumers find themselves midstream between the insurance market that existed prior to the passage of health care reform and the fully reformed market the law envisions.

The following tips were compiled by eHealthInsurance.com to help you find the right plan for your needs this year:

• Take advantage of “midstream” health reforms—When shopping for new individually purchased health insurance, you can now benefit from reforms that did away with lifetime limits for most benefits, expanded coverage for preventive care services with no out-of-pocket cost, made it possible to keep your adult children on your plan until age 26 and improved access to coverage for children under age 19, even if they have pre-existing conditions.

• Comparison shopping can save you money—Compare plan rates and benefits from multiple carriers to find the best fit. Ask yourself which benefits you value most (and which you don’t need) and what you can afford. Then work with a licensed agent who represents multiple insurers to get a more complete picture of what’s available. It doesn’t cost anything extra to work through an agent and the savings can really add up.

• Focus on plans that your favorite doctors accept—Just because you’re changing health insurance plans doesn’t mean you want to change doctors, too. Ask your doctor or use the “Plans with my Doctor” tool when reviewing quotes at eHealthInsurance.com to find out which plans he or she accepts.

• Take another look at Health Savings Accounts—They often have lower monthly premiums than lower-deductible plans. Funds deposited in the accompanying Health Savings Account (which you have to open separately) get special tax treatment. Health care reforms require all new HSA-eligible health insurance plans to provide coverage for a host of preventive care medical services, at no out-of-pocket cost to you.

• Mixing and matching plans might save you money—If your employer doesn’t pay anything toward monthly premiums for dependents or if some family members need less medical care than others, consider purchasing a separate individual plan for your spouse or children. Just don’t cancel any current coverage until approved for a new plan. Work with a licensed agent to learn more about what rules may apply in your situation.

Source http://www.napsnet.com/articles/65890.html

Healthy Weight Loss Tips

When you start to think about slimming down and getting into shape it is advisable to explore healthy weight loss tips. Although there are many popular methods available to facilitate major changes in the body some of these methods are not only ineffective, but even unhealthy and dangerous. Doing this the right way is vital for real success.

It is, of course, very tough to wade through the misinformation and contradicting ideas on this subject. Figuring out the healthiest method for reducing fat will be important for quick results, but more importantly, results that will last. At the end of the day, one will need to begin creating a calorie deficit, which means eating fewer calories while burning fat with exercise.

One of the most unhealthy tactics that is commonly employed is simply avoiding meals. Not only is this very dangerous, but it really does not provide any long term results. A big part of shedding weight is keeping a person’s metabolism working properly. In order to do this, an individual will need to eat regular,nutritious meals and perhaps take some dietary supplements like those recommended by Holland and Barrett.

Although skipping meals is not advisable, reducing the size of meals may can be an effective strategy. Many experts agree that 5 small meals a day is a good place to start. They recommend reducing the size of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, while having a small, healthy snack between these meals.

It’s not enough to simply eat less, however. Creating health-conscious meals that are natural and good for the body will be a key step in the right direction. Fast food and other things that are high in sugar, calories, and saturated fat will sabotage efforts. Instead, try things like lean meat choices, various types of vegetables, fruit as an ideal snack, and other sources of whole grains and fiber. Be sure to consume plenty of water as an ideal, fat burning beverage.

Exercise must not be ignored. Those who get active will see much faster progress, and that progress will be much more sustainable. Cardio like running, swimming, or using a stationary bike is great. Be sure to also build lean muscle mass through resistance training. Placing muscle onto the body will greatly help with boosting metabolism.

Those who are exploring some healthy weight loss tips are in luck. There are a variety of health-conscious tips that can help someone lose weight, and taking the healthiest road possible is definitely advisable. Begin this process by learning to control calories, creating healthier meals, and beginning an ideal and safe exercise routine.

It is possible to get more info on fat burning foods diet by visiting the Fat Burning Foods internet site where it is possible to get access to over 100 amazing fat burning foods to assist you to lose weight naturally.

Source http://uknewsreporter.co.uk/healthy-weight-loss-tips/6712164/

Tips for improving nightly sleep habits

Millions of Americans are doing little things that sabotage their sleep and they just don't know it. Getting some good shuteye could be as simple as changing a few little habits.

Health experts believe we are a nation of insomniacs. Numerous studies show driving on little sleep is as dangerous as driving drunk.

Doctors say many sleep problems may be because by a few bad habits that can be fixed.

For most of us, sleeping is simple. but if it's tough for you, you're not alone out there.

Studies show 75 percent of us have sleep problems more than once a week. Pauley, 47, knows all about that. He's a sleep disorder patient.

"When you can define your week as 'I had a good week because you slept through one night out of seven,' that was a little disturbing," said Pauley.

Sleep specialist Dr. Bruce Thomas says adults need seven to nine hours of rest each night. Routinely miss that mark, and you can boost chances for obesity, substance abuse and more.

"You'll have an increased risk for type-2 diabetes, increased risk of depression," said Thomas.

First, cut out the booze before bed. While it's a sedative, alcohol prevents deep sleep and encourages light sleep.

Second, watch the clock. If you're not snoozing 15 minutes after hitting the sack, get back up. Stressing over sleep can prevent it.

"It's like your head's packed with cotton and everything is muted," said Pauley.

If you're like Pauley and want to try sleep aids, use them only as a last resort.

"The longer you take them, the more dependence you develop on them, the more side effects you can have, and interactions with other drugs," said Dr. Thomas.

Pauley boosted his vitamins and balanced his hormones, which are other natural options.

"The energy level was up and I think the first person to pick up on a more bright disposition was my wife," said Pauley.

More sleep, happy wife, happy life: a pretty good combination.

And if you're a woman who tends to use the snooze button more than your mate? There's a reason: A new English study says women need more sleep than men, about 20 more minutes each day.

Source http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/health/your_health&id=7950139

Tips to help you prevent the flu

With February only a few days away, Missouri health officials are still urging people to get their flu vaccinations. Annual outbreaks of the seasonal virus usually occur during the late fall through early spring. In a typical year, approximately five to 20 percent of the population will get it.

While this flu season may not be as intense as previous years, getting your flu vaccination should still be a top priority.

“I think this season is milder to than previous seasons” said Adair County Health Department Nurse Lori Guffey. “We’ve still had a lot of people come out this year. We’ve administered, as of Tuesday, 4,070 flu vaccinations so that always helps decrease the flu.”

Guffey said washing your hands thoroughly and often as well as covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough will greatly reduce your chances of catching the flu.

For more tips and to find a clinic near you, click here.

Source http://www.heartlandconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=569631

Animation and the Academy

The number of animated movies that have been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars can be counted on one hand. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991) was the first, breaking the veritable glass ceiling; Disney-Pixar’s Up (2009) was the second nomination in over a decade; the latest Oscars have DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon and Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3 as two nominees.

However, animation historians Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi said on their website CartoonBrew.com that James Cameron’s Avatar could have counted as an animated feature when nominated for Best Picture last year if it had been submitted to that category, based on the Academy’s rules.

“Due to the tremendous advances in digital technology associated with image-making, animation has been incorporated into live-action film-making to the extent that it can be difficult to define a film or character within a film as animated or not,” said Chuck Grieb, associate professor of entertainment art and animation at Cal State Fullerton.

Kimberly Neebe, president of the Pencil Mileage Club Club (a student organization at Cal State Fullerton focusing on animation and cartooning), said that after Beauty and the Beast was nominated, a separate category was created for Best Animated Feature in 2001.
Neebe said it was almost a way to divide it from the other films, and until Up, another animated movie hadn’t been nominated for Best Picture.

“They had to better themselves to get into that category,” Neebe said.
Neebe said such improvements included evoking greater emotion.

“More people cried at the beginning of Up than they did at Finding Nemo,” Neebe said. “We’re getting better each time.”

Lilly Hull, secretary of the Pencil Mileage Club, said more Best Picture nominations have to focus on the story and scripting.

“If you look at things like Up, Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, they follow a very old rule,” said Lilly Hull, secretary of the Pencil Mileage Club.

She explained it was a rule of three — the final product had to appeal to a child, her mother and her grandmother. That could make a classic, appealing to all three generations.

“You didn’t limit yourself to only things for a second grader, or only adults,” Hull said.
However, completely apart from the Academy are the Annie Awards — as its website reports, it’s “animation’s highest honor.”

” (Animators) value the Annie Awards more than we value the Oscars because it’s by our peers for our peers,” Neebe said. “For the Oscars, it almost seems like a little group of old men in a room voting with no input from the general public on what they want to see.”

Whether it is a separate awards ceremony or a separate category, animated movies don’t seem to be acknowledged as movies first.

Dana Lamb, chair of the Visual Arts Department and entertainment art and animation program coordinator at CSUF, compared animation’s history of exclusion to the treatment of comedies at the Oscars.

“Why don’t comedies get more Oscars? There can be tremendous acting and storytelling in comedies, and yet they can be dismissed,” Lamb said.

Lamb explained that with all the laughter they inspire, comedies can be seen as lacking in drama.

“People will dismiss it as superficial,” said Lamb.

Comedy is a genre, while animation is not ? it’s a medium, a vehicle for stories from all sorts of genres and for different audiences.

“When you look at Lion King, it wasn’t about cute animals; it was about parents and children, about the shame of a young boy who felt responsible for the loss of his father,” Lamb said. “That’s pretty dramatic stuff, as opposed to lighter comedy. There was an undercurrent of very serious drama, even with the music and comedic elements.”
Brandon Strathmann, assistant professor of entertainment arts and animation at CSUF, discussed how animated movies could be just seen as full of cute animals.

“There’s a preconception that cartoons are kid’s material,” Strathmann said. “And that’s mainly due to Saturday morning and afternoon cartoons.”

Strathmann said another preconception is that the computer does all the animation.
“There’s more of a human touch involved in the process,” Strathmann said.
Neebe talked about the animator’s desire to improve.

“We had to go back and make ourselves better and prove it wasn’t just some computer spitting images out,” Neebe said.

Strathmann said if there were no animators or humans controlling the motion, it wouldn’t be animation, but a special effect instead, like makeup.

Yet recently with Up, How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 following in the footsteps of Beauty and the Beast, more animated films are being nominated for Best Picture.

“One of the reasons why there are more nominations for animated pictures is because there are more of them than in the past,” Strathmann said.

He listed Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Blue Sky Studios, Sony Pictures Animation and other start-up companies as examples.

“I think this current generation of artists and people grew up seeing the classic Disney cartoon boom that ran through Oliver and Company to Pocahontas,” Strathmann said. “These kinds of blockbuster films were considered higher cinema.”

Chuck Grieb, associate professor of entertainment art and animation at CSUF, talked more about the history of animation, explaining that it was rejuvenated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, beginning an expansion of the market and the general public and filmmaking industry’s acceptability of animation as something more than children’s films.

“Some of this change in perception may have been the result of the adult viewers who had grown up watching and loving animated cartoons, preparing a more receptive adult audience for the animated features produced in the late ’80s and on,” Grieb said.
Disney experienced particular success in the ’80s, influencing other major studios to explore animated movies, attracting live-action filmmakers like Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

“3-D digital animation created a new aesthetic for animated films, an aesthetic that seemed to find acceptance with an older audience more quickly than the traditional cel-painted stylistic associated with the ‘children’s’ fare of the past,” Grieb said. “PIXAR found quick and consistent success with their focus on strong stories based on solid characters. DreamWorks/PDI’s success with the more adult-oriented Shrek reinforced the idea that contemporary animation, especially 3-D digitally animated animation, was acceptable adult entertainment fare.”

Strathmann also said the increasing popularity of video games could be a factor in more animated films being nominated for Best Picture.

“People are used to playing video games that are in 3-D, and that makes these environments more acceptable and interesting to people,” Strathmann said.

Within the medium of animation, Strathmann said 3-D or computer-generated animation may be considered a higher art than 2-D or hand-drawn animation, given that other than Beauty and the Beast, only 3-D movies have received the nomination (and even the hand-drawn Disney classic had 3-D elements in its iconic ballroom scene).

“They’re ‘realer’-looking than flat 2-D,” Strathmann said. “3-D animation seems to have something to do with the public accepting animation as more grown-up.”

Strathmann said this idea of animated films being applicable to Best Picture could be spreading due to online articles and discussion.

“The Internet is where everything is these days,” Strathmann said.

The idea could also be thrown around within the Academy itself. Strathmann said those who vote in the Academy have more people among them who are employed in the computer-animated aspects of movie-making, and who are more aware of computer animation.

“There’s more of a voting base and more of an awareness of 3-D animation,” Strathmann said.

He also said more animated features being accepted for Best Picture prove beneficial.
“It’s good for animators. It means there’ll be more animated movies made,” Strathmann said. “There’s more of an opportunity for free expression.”

Neebe was reluctant to label the increase in Best Picture nominations for animated movies as a clear pattern, describing it more as hit-or-miss.

“Lately we’ve had a lot of hits,” Neebe said. “It’s always a case-by-case basis.”
Final decisions on the victor for Best Picture and other awards will be announced Oscar Night, March 7.

Source http://www.dailytitan.com/2010/12/13/animation-and-the-academy/