1-Year Blog Anniversary

It's been long time since I didn't write anything, because I've been busy with a lot of things, but now I'm back! I decided to write this article now, because I have a good reason for that! This blog just turned One Year since it exists and has over 20,000 visitors:-) This is great and I'm very happy that I've reached until here, thanks to you my readers!

Honestly, when I started writing on this blog, I didn't know anything about blogging. My cousin Rody, was the one who was telling me all the time: ''Cris, if you like to write, you must have your own blog and write there, how everybody is doing these days.'' So, I thought about her advise and decided to give a try. Now, I can say that I like blogging very much and I really enjoy it :-)

I'm glad that my articles were useful for some people and entertaining for others. Through this blog I've met some nice people and I learned so many things. It was a good experience for me:-)
For the New Year 2014 I wish to write more articles and to get more visitors and loyal readers. Happy New Year my dear friends!:-)

THE TRUTH ABOUT MONEY

Why only some people are getting rich while others starve?
In recent years money has been devalued by 680%. There is so much money in the world that if we take out all the money from the bank and spread throughout the earth, would get a layer of 10 cm. Money--the world's blood, has become water.

Money is power and energy. In order to attract money, first you have to get back with your mother, sister, grandmother and wife.

Money cannot come to that one who is not ready to become a millionaire. Therefore you need to understand what you mean by the word wealth. You must learn to receive but also to give. Ask yourself why so many multi-millionaires are doing charity intensively?

If we give 50% from the money we get for a good deed, we will always have money. But if we spend 100% on us, then eventually they will go from you. The money that remained must be divided into 3:
25%-for the rainy days
10%-to help your relatives in need
15%-to spend for us

The main rules for getting wealth are:
1. Keep clean the main places where you live, like the kitchen, the bedroom and the corridor.
2. Don't spend money on first day you receive them. Put them in a safe or in a box and only the second day you can spend an amount not too big.
3. The wallet must be red. Arrange the 500 banknotes separately from banknotes of 100. Also, put them length-ways. Take photos out and what you have in your wallet; just leave the bank cards and money.
4. Count your money with clean hands and only in the morning, because if you count them in the night,  money goes away from you.
5. To get rich demand or borrow money from a rich person and keep them unchanged. The money of rich people or rich countries attract wealth.
6. When you do what you love, the money will come definitely.
7. If money starts to come from somewhere you should not change the sphere of activity or try to open other doors.

WHAT TO TO IF YOUR JEWELS GO BLACK

As any Christian person, I used to wear around my neck a silver cross with different colored crystals. I bought it in a silver shop in Dubai with my amazing friend Leonora Osaigbovo. We almost got into a fight for it, because she loved it too:-) But then she said ''Okay Cris, you can have it.'' And from that day, I didn't like to take it off even when I'm taking shower.

Recently I noticed that the metal blackened. I had no idea why! So, I started to look for an answer and I found few interesting things about it.

When silver comes in contact with air(oxygen) it oxidizes or turns an iridescent black.

Also, this signifies that the person's body chemistry may be changing or perhaps it's a result of reaction to the wearer taking more and more medication as they get older. Extreme heat and perspiration can cause a person acidity to rise above the threshold.Those that have lowers levels of ''acidity'' might wear jewelry and have no problems but once they have headaches and need to take tablets then their level of acidity will be taken over the threshold which causes the wearer to make the jewelry go black. 

Other reasons might be higher levels of stress, going through hormonal changes in women. Also when youngsters go through that ''acne'' stage they can cause their jewelry to go black.

Some might notice that they've been wearing jewelry all their life and all of a sudden they turn it black or dark.

Sometimes just leaving jewelry in a box for a long time turns it black.

Blackened silver is one of the hottest trends in jewelry today. But I like the silver to be shiny. And to remove the black color from my jewelry I found two great and very easy tricks:

1. Place your silver jewelry into a container( put a flat piece of aluminium foil in the bottom of it) and then cover them with bi-carb. Pour boiling water over the top of the jewelry and you'll see the black ''fizz'' out. Then rinse with cold water and dry your silver with a silver cloth. If the black hasn't gone add a little more bi-carb on your silver and do it again. The bi-carb reacts with the aluminum foil to dissolve the black tarnish on the jewelry. The boiling water assists in the process. Once it's clean rinse your jewelry thoroughly in cold water and dry with hair dryer.

2. Clean your jewelry with toothpaste, using an old toothbrush. Then rinse with cold water.

I hope this article will help you:-)

TITUS SPINU

Today is 1^st of June 2013 and as we know it is Children’s Day. From the morning I thought about my sweet and cute nephew-Titus Spinu. I was so curious, what is he celebrating today- Children’s Day or his Birthday? Well, let me explain. Two days before, it was the Birthday of  his father and Titus told his mother that he wants to celebrate his Birthday next, right after his father’s Birthday. She told him that his Birthday is in July and they are going to celebrate Children’s Day very soon, but Titus didn’t agree with that. He said that he wants a party for his Birthday, with cake and gifts and clowns. He was too upset because all the children from his kindergarten already celebrated their Birthdays but he didn’t.

Titus, will turn 4 years old on 20^th of July and in present he’s going to kindergarten. He lives with his parents in Chisinau, the capital of Republic of Moldova but he loves to travel a lot. But he has a problem-he doesn’t like to sleep anywhere else, apart from his bed at home.

Almost every child start saying the first word mama, but Titus, did the opposite-he said tata (from Romanian-’’father’’) at 6 moths, and then he said mama at 8 months. Now, he has a perfect diction and he’s very smart and ingenious.

His hobbies are: playing with different toys, playing games on the computer, making sport with his parents (riding bicycle, swimming, to ride the scooter, and ride the sleigh in winter at the mountain) and watching cartoons.

Looks strange to me, but at his age, Titus is very fond of fashion. He loves to wear elegant clothes, like black suit, especially with bow-tie.

Books are another passion of him. He got a big collection of children books and encyclopedias for kids.

Recently he appeared in the magazine for kids ’’Odorasul’’, where he was the groom and his colleague from the kindergarten, was the bride.

At the end I would like to mention, that Titus is a very good and lovely child, who listen his parents, who like to learn everyday something new and who is bringing joy in our family J

COMPETITION OR COOPERATION?

If you want to be good: be competitive. If you want to be the best: Cooperate!
It is said that we can't have success as long as there isn't competition; any product loses its value if it's not compared with other and therefore one of the most important business practices to reach the top brings up the competition. And not just business acquaints us with it; a study by a prestigious U.S. university showed that 85% of ways for the award of marks is based on competition: quizzes, games, tests, etc. In other words we are taught to depend on competition as the only source of motivation to get a good result. But up to what point exactly is effective competition?

It is not hard to imagine what would happen in a world where all people would follow than the personal interests of everyone. Such a world would pretty much resemble wilderness ''natural state'' described by Thomas Hobbes (1588- 1679) in his famous book Leviathan. Having a pessimistic view of human nature, Hobbes believes that, through his native heritage, man is being governed by aggressive instincts, anytime minded to attack with extreme cruelty toward peers to satisfy all his desires immediately.

Competition brings out the best in us. Competition builds character; it strengthens our self-esteem. However, the possibility of being humiliated is always present in competition. Losing can be so frustrating that it can bring about aggression.

Psychologist Dr. Robert Anthony said "we are here to create, not to compete," which helps us to understand that to achieve our goals, to truly succeed, you need first of all to cooperate.

What is cooperation? Cooperating means, according to explanatory dictionary, working together with someone, to collaborate, working in common. It implies mutually agreed-upon goals and possibly methods, instead of working separately in competition, and in which the success of one is dependent and contingent upon the success of another.

Cooperation and competition are important forces in today's world and social psychologists are attempting to understand how groups, and even nations, can learn to increase cooperation.

We can choose to cooperate, not compete. I believe that will make you a better competitor, you will perform better, and you will have more fun.
Yet big business, the educational system, the health-care community, and most parents continue to encourage competition, almost totally neglecting the power of cooperation.

Furthermore, researchers have shown that too much competition may cause poor health. And, not surprisingly, cooperation increases creativity. Unfortunately, most people are not taught cooperative skills.
People who are cooperative and help others also experience a type of ''high'', which might better be described as calmness or sense of freedom from stress. They tend to feel good.

Although there's no doubt that a cooperative environment increases the number of ideas, improves the quality of the outcome, and facilitates a better working environment, cooperation must be done in such a way as to protect the integrity of the project at hand.
In conclusion--which works better, competition or cooperation? The answer, without equivocation, is cooperation. Cooperation is ''the royal road to success''.

Read one more article about ''How to deal with competition'' here.

EASTER IN MOLDOVA

The Easter holiday is a very special event for all the Christians and it’s been always my mom’s favorite holiday. Happy Easter!

I don't know how is to celebrate this beautiful day in other country in the world, that’s why today I would love to tell you how we celebrate it in my country—Moldova.

Easter is the most sacred holiday of the Christian calendar, followed by Christmas. Every year Easter is celebrated in spring. The meaning of the Easter represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Seven weeks before Easter, every Christian is fasting (he must refrain from eating meat and dairy dishes), take care of his soul through acts of giving and charity. In this period every family is concerned about general cleaning—both the house and the whole household, to celebrate Easter in a clean environment. People renew their wardrobe for Easter, same as the earth dress new greenery and flowers.

For Easter, Christians dye red eggs. They are preparing other dishes as well, such as: baked lamb, roast lamb, sausages, and various salads. According to tradition in Moldova on Holy Thursday, housewives bake bread with cheese and sponge cake.

The night of the resurrection, believers go to church for religious service and holy the Easter dishes. Foods brought to the church in this night are a symbol of rebirth and fertility.

Arriving home, before they sit at the table, Christians are washing with fresh water, in which they put a red egg, a white egg and few coins, ’’to be clean, healthy, and rich all year round’’.

When they seat at the table, the Christians don’t eat before saying the words ’’Christ is risen!’’ The answer ’’truly he is risen!’’

''IT WASN'T MY CHOICE'' BY CRISTINA TURCAN

Today, I want to share a good news with all of you-MY NOVEL ''IT WASN'T MY CHOICE'' IS FINALY ON SELL ON AMAZON.COM!!!:-)

Yeah, that's such a release and happiness after the long journey of writing the book. I was dreaming about this moment since very long time, but I never imagined that it will be that much work to write a novel and to prepare it for sell. Thanks God I achieved one of my dreams:-)

 My friend, Leonora Osaigbovo, who is a writer as well, was telling me all the time: 'Cris, every day your book is not on Amazon, you lose money! You have get it out and put your book on sell!'

When I finished writing the novel, I had to find an idea for the cover design of the novel and I decided to make it very simple and mysterious. So, on the old cover I had two red apples on a white background. Of course the two red apples were having a deep meaning and everybody could take them as :two choices or two persons, or two places etc. But, I don't want to talk about the meaning of the old cover, because now the novel has a new beautiful cover. Why did I decided to change it? Well, because few people told me to do that, saying that the book looks like a diet book or a book for cooking. And, obviously I didn't want that; I din't want to confuse people, that's why I had to look for a new designer to design for me a new cover.

I was lucky to find a great designer and artist, called Ludmila Bouros, from Republic of Moldova, who designed the new cover the way I wanted. She was very patient working with me and at the end she gave me the cover i had it in my mind. Hopfully now, everybody will understand that it's a novel and it's a contemporary romance, set in Dubai. And for people who are curious if the novel is inspired from my life in Dubai, I will say-YES!:-) For those who want to have an idea about what the novel is about, read the resume on my previous article about this book: http://cristina-turcan.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-first-novel-it-wasnt-my-choice.html

By this way, I would like to thank to the FirstEditing Company from England, for the professional editing of my book. David, the editor who did the great editing of my novel, is amazing and very professional editor. It was a pleasure working with him!

Before Amazon, the novel came out as first eBook in English language on Bestseller.md, were you can find it in Mobi (Kindle) and ePub format at eBooks/ Literature and Fiction category. Here is the link for those who want to get a copy: http://www.bestseller.md/it-wasnt-my-choice-ebook-by-cristina-turcan.html

And I want to say loudly to everyone that the novel is out now on Amazon.com, as eBook in Kindle format. Get your copy right now: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C09MWO6

At the end, I want to thank first to my family-mom, sister, brother and brother in law for their support and for believing in me. Also, I would love to thank to all my friends and all the people who showed me support, love and apreciation. I'm very grateful to all of you and hope do not disapoint you ever! 

Please follow me on Twitter@cris_turcan and my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/OfficialCristinaTurcan

FEW TIPS HOW TO STAY FOCUSED TO YOUR GOALS

In the busy lifestyle of today, I’m facing problems focusing on my main goals. I keep distracting myself all the time and forget what the priorities of my life are. Distraction of work, home, friends, socializing, events and everything else constantly compete for my attention and dedicated time. It takes time to stay focused and achieving our goals and it’s so easy to fail. As a result we often give up and think our goal is unachievable.

I love people who have goals in life. Means they are fighters, ambitious, and want to achieve something in their life. Obviously, I met plenty of people who don’t have goals in life, they are happy with their job or car, the country they live in, and they don’t want anything more. Wow, that’s unbelievable for me and I don’t even want to be friend with such people. So, this article is definitely not for them!

Most of the people like to set up a list of goals at the beginning of every year. Well, I do it twice: at the beginning of the year and on my birthday, in the morning. This is fun and is the first step in making a significant progress on those goals. First of all, you have to understand what you want your goals to be, before starting doing something!

There can be many reasons for our waning interests, such as not seeing visible progress as quickly as we’d like, so we begin to feel that our efforts are a waste of time. Or we feel confused about the steps we need to take to make our dream a reality.

Since this is a common problem for many people, I’m going to offer some helpful tips to re-fuel your fire:

            Concentrate on 1- 3 goals. Pick 1-3 goals, which are the most important to you, and stick to them. Don’t bother yourself with other goals, until these goals are achieved.

In this way, you’ll make much more progress, compared to when you juggle across 4-7 goals and make little progress in them.

Create a vision board. Creating a vision board helps you to visualize your end goals more clearly, which definitely will inspire you to take consistent action. Get the pictures which represent your goals and dreams; you can cut them from magazines or print them from the internet. Then stick them to a board and put it in your bedroom or your office, so you could see them every day. Every time you see the board, it motivates you and reminds you to take action so as to move forward.

Create a plan. Build your plan for reaching your goal. Your plan becomes your road map and helps you determine the best course to follow.

If you just set a huge goal, it can be discouraging- especially when you don’t achieve it after some time. When that happens, some people may procrastinate on the goal altogether. That’s why, if you have a plan worked out for your goal, it becomes easier to stick to it. All you have to do is to follow the actions you have planned for the day. Usually, I write down the plan of the next day, right before to go to sleep. So, I’m clear about the plans for the following day and when I sleep, my brain can think about new strategies.

Most of us are great at planning, but not so great at taking the actions! ;-)

Be clear on why you’re pursuing the goals. If you keep giving up on your goals halfway, perhaps you were never serious in them to begin with. For me, if I’m really serious about a goal, I’d never give up on it.

Write about the ways it will improve your life and make you feel more fulfilled. Then make sure to read this description every day, even more than once a day, if you need to. Keep that vision STRONG in your mind.

Do not make a goal out of something you do not have already as a great passion in your life. Use something that inspires you and gives you certainly and confidence. Then plan it much bigger and go for it!

 Discover a purpose to help drive you. Have you ever thought that a purpose is like a driving force just like fuel for a car? Without a reason that is big enough, you will hardly make it.

Is it the million dollars you have in mind or is it the boat you can buy if you accomplish the goal?

Have goal buddies. Goal buddies are people who share similar goals with you. They help to remind you about your goal, spur you when you feel unmotivated, give you new ideas on how to achieve your goal, keep you on track among others. Your goal buddies can be your friends, or people whom you meet with similar interests.

Measure  your progress. Record your daily progress. This can tell us if we are on track or if we need to make adjustments to either our plan or activities. You need to measure your progress on a regular basis as it gives you some control.

 Minimize distractions. Get rid of as much temptation as possible that deviates from your focus on your goal. If for example your goal is to exercise more and you have identified watching TV as a distraction, don’t turn on the TV until you have achieved the tasks relating to your goal. Saying Yes to your big goals means that you must say No to other things. Decide what can or should be eliminated from your schedule. This might be socializing, spending time on social media, getting caught in funny videos on YouTube, or watching television.

Work your goals into your daily plan. Do something towards achieving your goals every day. The best way to achieve your goals and maintain your focus is to do something that will make it happen each and every day. Even if it’s only 15 minutes each day, it is better than not doing any goal related activity at all. Give your goal daily attention and you’ll remain more focused and at a better chance of achieving your goal. 

It's even more important to keep a clock beside while you are working, to tell how much time is left to complete each high priority task, same as Facebook engineers and designers are doing.

It’s now known to most people that Thomas Edison failed 999 times before he succeeded in inventing the lamp in the 1000^th trial. But what if Thomas wasn’t focused on his goals? :-)

All successful people know that reaching success is a matter of trying and trying until they get what they want.

If you want to be successful you must focus on goals, in business or personal affairs.

What goals are you working on right now? Are you staying on track toward them, or are you struggling? Let me know your thoughts and tips in the comments…