I listen to a lot of talk radio while in my car and was not surprised by my fellow Chicagoan's reactions to Brett Favre's retirement: joy, sadness and about time! People were happy and yet sad to see one of the all time greats in the history of sports retire. He beat the Bears more times than I care to remember never gloating and then took it like a man when he lost.

So, it is your first day at your new job and you don't really know what to expect. You have been to the office before but only briefly at the interview and have got a first impression about the company. But, how much do you really know about the office etiquette and how you are expected to behave? Well, there are some simple rules and guidelines to abide by so that you will take to your new workplace like a duck to water.

Clear thinking is crucial for carrying on a conversation, making decisions, and practically everything we do. Thinking can be clouded by a host of conditions including stress, dehydration, and poor nutrition. Now, studies reveal that rejection and criticism have a significant influence on how well a person thinks.

In a series of experiments at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, participants were exposed to a series of situations that resulted in manufactured rejections.

A celebrity is the term used to describe someone who is famous and attracts attention from the general public and the world's media. Traditionally, a celebrity would gain the title by his or her work or achievements in a particular field of expertise. Actors, musicians, politicians and inventors have all become celebrities in the past. However, as we fall deeper and deeper into the cesspool of the 21st century a new celebrity has arrived - the nobody.

Homes and offices that are built without regard to productivity hardly ever work effectively. Productivity, and with it human effectiveness and relationships, are influenced by the environment within the four walls.

Research has shown that people who live or work in a space not designed for human productivity generally do not collaborate as well in it.

When somebody we know loses a loved one, or when we ourselves encounter the pain of loss, sometimes there really are no words to express how we feel. We may find ourselves grasping for just the right thing to say, and sometimes, even when we have the best intentions at heart, we often still end up saying the wrong thing or we end up not saying anything at all.

When we think back on all the occasions of our lives, be it something as grand as a wedding, or a graduation, or a birthday, or even something as mundane as a trip to the hospital, or a date with a loved one, flowers were surely present. Whether they came in a huge bundle of carnations and tulips and roses, or whether it was just in a form of a single red rose, there seems to be just the right kind of flower for every mood.

Supposedly love makes the world go around. If that's true, we need more love to make it go around peacefully. In China people are given a holiday to procreate. Maybe - like so much else - the solution for more love is being "Made in China".

Cynics would say money makes things happen. It makes the lights go on in our houses and on Broadway.

How many times have you thanked someone else today? It's very common to go for days without saying thank you to anyone these days, but it's also a sad state of affairs. When we forget to be grateful for the things we have and the things that others do for us, we can reduce our chances of gaining more from our life. In a sense, when we lose the ability to thank, we begin to lose the ability to take things into our life.

Have you heard the term katoey or ladyboy before? These creatures have been encountered by many first timers (and even some second and third timers) in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, much to the chagrin of the unsuspecting mark. What is a katoey? It is quite simply a transsexual or transvestite and they are quite common in Thailand.

The thing is that many of the Thai ladyboys are actually quite beautiful and unless you know what to look for can be easy to miss, even if you are close up and personal with them.