About three years ago, this dog suddenly appeared in my life: His name is Pushkin (after the poet Pushkin from Russia, also with curly hair) and he instantly hopped into the hearts of my family, my neighbors, and friends. Now I understand which impact this dog has on my life. I want to tell you what Pushkin had taught me to live a better life.

Be Outside

A quite usual phenomenon of us people living in the 21st century is that we’re going less outside than we should. We’re sitting a lot at home or work, not really interested in the environment around us. But with Pushkin on my site, I was forced to go outside, and I just can say that these long walks with my dog were a big change in my life. At once I started to realize where I’m really living, not just a little uninteresting village in the south of Germany, more a region with many interesting places and routes. In addition to this, the fresh air, birds sounds, and the quiet creek we often pass was very slowing down my daily hectic, almost like meditation. I wasn’t thinking about all the tasks I’ve to do, I only focused on the present — and my dog sniffing and running all around me. …

Wintertime means to most gardeners a compulsory pause: Cold temperatures and frost make it nearly impossible to grow any food on your own. But there is a way to avoid this break, indoor gardening. By setting up an indoor garden, you’ll be able to grow and harvest food, even in the coldest times. Really everyone can create a little garden in front of his window and watch the small plants growing. To create a perfect garden inside your house, you’ve to comply with some things.

Preparation

Before you grab your shovel, pots, seeds, and soil, we’ve to prepare some things:

At first, the position of your garden. Your crops need as much sunlight as they can get. The more sunlight, the better your harvest will be. Look around in your flat or house: A window which is directed to south/ southwest would be ideal for your crops (on the northern hemisphere). Especially in winter, the location has to be as sunny as possible because the strength of the sun is a lot weaker than in summer. If you have no window with enough sunlight, you can use grow lights. …

Apple should be a name known by everyone: The company with the bitten apple as their logo is the most valuable in the world and one of the most profitable ones. But how can this be the case if a phone costs about $1000? Who buys a phone for this price? Why do people give Apple such high amounts of money? You can answer these questions with Apple’s best marketing strategy: Upselling.

1.Marketing Strategies, Exposed: Apple’s way to generate enormous profits Definition of Upselling

Upselling is a special sales technique used by companies like Apple that invites us, the customers, to buy expensive items or upgrades for the product you want to purchase. Simple said the sellers try to sell you more than you actually want. This is exactly what Apple does on their website. …

Plants, I can say so much about them: They are everywhere, producing the oxygen we need to live, decorating our houses and gardens, and just being nice to look at. But did you know that plants can improve your life quality? Or your health? Even your concentration and sleep?

Better Air Quality

You probably know that plants produce oxygen. But in our homes, the oxygen level is normally a lot lower than outside, which results in the fact that you can’t concentrate and focus if you’re sitting in a room that isn’t aired. …

In our modern society, stress belongs unintentionally to our daily lives: We’re working too much, running from one meeting to the next one, everything without any time for ourselves and our needs. A way to fight against it is meditation. But how does meditation influences our lives, what are the benefits, and how to meditate?

1. Less Stress

Stress can have a huge impact on our lives, our sleep is bad, we can’t concentrate probably, even depression and anxiety can be possible effects. These are caused by a hormone called cortisol, also known as “stress hormone”.

Mindfulness meditation can help us to handle our stress. Mindfulness means to concentrate on the present without being distracted by memories, thoughts, or emotions. Because of that, we aren’t focusing on things we have to do in the future or situations that happened in the past. Also, mindfulness meditation reduces the production of cortisol, the reason for our stress. When we’re meditating, we finally take some time for ourselves and our body, furthermore to organize and clear our thoughts. …

I’m sure you’ve stumbled upon this Livestream once: A girl, studying, a cat in the background, accompanied by slow and relaxing music. This Livestream is not the only one, there are dozens of Livestreams or playlists full of these chill beats and vibes. This kind of music is called Lo-Fi and has millions of fans from all around the world. What is this kind of music, where does it come from, and why are so many people fans of it?

Definition: What is Lo-Fi?

Lo-Fi, or Lofi, means “Low Fidelity” and is the opposite of Hi-Fi or “High-Fidelity”. Low Fidelity describes music which sounds like it was made with simple technical equip and also unclean, dusty, or scratchy. Often you can hear vinyl cracking, rain, or even bird sounds in the music. Also, Lo-Fi is sample-based, this means that a song consists, for example, out of a drum pattern or some chords, which repeat over and over again, followed by other instruments and beats. A big aspect of Lo-Fi is offbeat, you might not hear it instantly, but the beats, kicks, drums, etc. are a little bit off the rhythm, which makes the music sound more human. …

You may have heard of a little company by the name of Atari. It was once a giant of the video game industry. In fact, Atari is largely credited with building a home console market in the first place. Although it saw enormous success, the Atari of the ’70s and ’80s ultimately collapsed — and almost took an entire industry with it.

1972. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ATARI
WHEN PONG CONQUERED THE EARTH

Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari in California in 1972. Initially, the company designed arcade games. Their first breakout hit was the iconic Pong — a game that almost represents the DNA of video games in some sense. …

About six months ago I had the idea of making my own little game without any prior knowledge. I wanted to learn how to make games, how to finish one, and how to publish it. Now, six months later, I still haven’t been able to finish my game and I’m stuck in development. Throughout the process I discovered several pitfalls to my approach, which I’d like to share with you here.

Please note though, I don’t want you to get discouraged from your project, whether you’re making a game or something else. I just want to share my experience and share what went wrong. …