How To Sing Happy Birthday In Italian (And English) May 3, 2011

Happy Birthday Laura!!!

How To Sing Happy Birthday In Italian!
Tanti Auguri a te,
Tanti Auguri a te,
Tanti Auguri a (insert name),
Tanti Auguri a te!

Come Si Canta La Canzone Di Buon Compleanno In Inglese
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear (inserite un nome)
Happy Birthday to you!

For more videos, follow me on my new vlog Italicana www.italicana.com to check out interesting and fun videos on Italian culture, customs, fashion, food, traveling and living the bella vita!

Italian Easter Roadtrip May 2, 2011

I’ve started a new blog Italicana! Please visit my new site for more videos, photography and all the fun and cool things to do in Italy!

50 Reasons to Take a Mini-Retirement Now: Number 41 April 8, 2010

You could be snowboarding in fresh powder in the Italian Alps…

50 Reasons to Take a Mini-Retirement Now: #42 March 27, 2010

Because you can.

I can’t quite my job/take a leave of absence. I can’t sell or rent out my house. I can’t pull my kids out of school. I can’t get out of debt. I can’t save enough money. I can’t travel the world. I can’t live a mobile lifestyle. Does this sound familiar? Well, I have news for you…all of the above, you can. There is no one stopping you from doing all of these things, except yourself. And, with the right planning and resources, you can do all of the above without as much difficulty as you may think. I recommend voraciously reading Tim Ferriss’s blog for a plethora of lifestyle how to’s and advice.

Many people accept failure even before they actually try. “That is too difficult” or “I could never do that,” many say. But, don’t lie to yourself! If you are willing to put in the work, most things are possible, the biggest deterrents though are either fear or laziness, not your inability to do something.  With enough perseverance, hard work and education, most everything is possible–especially, lifestyle change.  Don’t ask, if you can do something….just do it.  You can. No permission needed.

Learn English with Cindy Swain March 24, 2010

50 Reasons to Take a Mini-Retirement Now: Number 43 March 22, 2010

In 100 years it won’t matter.

That’s one of the phrase’s my dad use to tell me when I was growing up as a child. He use to tell me that line when I was upset over not getting an A+ on a test, losing a basketball game or  lamenting over some other trivial matter.  “In 100 years it won’t matter,” that  little phrase would instantly bring me back to reality and the obvious truth that we all have about a 100 years to live and then life on earth is over. Done end of story, that’s all we get so why waste time complaining when we can be living!

What you do or don’t do, in the end, doesn’t matter. Now, you can take those words in a negative or positive spin; meaning that, “who cares what I do now, I’ll just be lazy because nothing matter anyways” and you spend your days letting life pass you by; or, you can take a positive approach to the phrase and say that, “I’m going to make these 100 years one hell of a ride” doing everything you’ve dreamed of, defying your fears, pushing away your doubts and living your life to the fullest because you realize that in the end…big pause here…in 100 years it won’t matter. When you realize this,  there is no reason not to always aim higher than you can reach and always strive for what seems impossible.

50 Reasons to Take a Mini-Retirement Now #44 March 6, 2010

Anyone can make a lifestyle change.

And, sometimes, all it takes is a little inspiration:

50 Reasons to Take a Mini-Retirement Now #44 March 5, 2010

Technology masks tradition.

When I was traveling throughout Southeast Asia, some of my favorite photos I took were of men and women working in rice paddy fields.  I walked past many rice farmers dressed in pointy straw hats, their ankles deep in mud, as they threw stalks of rice into the ground of a steep mountain slope.  It was nothing I had ever seen before. It was serene, it was beautiful.

Now flash forward to the future and imagine a rice planting machine. It is not as serene, nor so beautiful. On one hand, I am a proponent of technology because the work, for rice farmers in Southeast Asia today and other parts of underdeveloped nations who are using traditional methods, is extremely laborious and tedious taking away  time spent with family and friends.  However, with that being said, witnessing first hand these traditional methods while they still exist is indescribable, and is something I am extremely grateful and fortunate to have seen in my lifetime, because, like everything in this world, change is inevitable.

50 Reasons to Take a Mini-Retirement Now: #45 March 2, 2010

Taking a risk is better than living with a “what if” that will haunt you until you die.

Whatever kind of trip or mini-life-pause your thinking about, do it now. It’s like meeting a really hot guy/girl in a bar, on a park bench or in line for a sandwich and you want to talk to him/her, but, for what ever reason, you let the moment pass and he/she walks away.   There is nothing worse than living with the heartache that something could have happened.

That feeling sucks.  Now multiple that by a million, and that’s the sensation you will feel when you are on your deathbed looking back at your life.  It won’t be heartaching, it will be heartbreaking.

50 Reasons to Take a Mini-Retirement Now: #46 February 25, 2010

Make the world how you want it.

My dad owned his own business. Yet, since we were young he always preached these words, “Flying is my dream, you need to pursue your own.”  He never expected us to get involved with taking over the business, in fact he deterred it.  He wanted me, and my brothers, to find our own path, to make the world how we want it–to do the things that we wanted to do. To think big then work hard towards achieving our own goals.  To blaze our own trails instead of following the beaten path.  This type of support is priceless. I have the world as my canvas, and the freedom to paint any picture I can imagine.

Often times, we have people in our lives, or society in general, that expect certain things from us. They hold us to a certain caliber, constricting our ability to create the world how we want to imagine it. Instead, we need to conform to what already exists.

My question to you is, why? Why listen to others when this is your world too, you can lead it how you see fit. Why feel guilty if you want to break free from the typical constraint of school>university>marriage>kids>house/dog>35 years of working>retire> lifestyle?

If you could wholeheartedly choose without any influence or pressure….how would you live your life? Imagine it, then do it; because, in the end, why the hell not! It’s your life.

Remember:

“Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.”--Helen Keller