We all know there’s no manual on how to raise our kids, but over the years we’re learning from various scenarios what works and what doesn’t and there aren’t really any shortcuts you can take.

Here are some steps you can take to make your life a little less stressful from sheknows.com:

1. Start by taking a step back

If you have a screaming infant, a tantrum-bound toddler, or a tween with too much attitude, it’s hard to stay calm. So make sure your child is someplace safe — a crib or a safe room of the house for a younger child, denied access to car keys for an older one — and take ten minutes for yourself.

If you need to run the shower to drown out the screams, so be it. But take ten minutes to pull yourself together. Call your best friend, update your Facebook status, or even paint your nails. Do something that will take your mind off the immediate situation.

2. Set a timer

When you go back to the kids, set a timer. You can handle the crying, the homework battles, the whining, or whatever for ten minutes, right? You might find that it’s petered out by the time the timer dings. If not, the timer itself often provides distraction for younger children. For older ones, you can simply say, “I’m sorry, your time is up. You can move on, or you can go to your room to continue.”

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Lionsgate and Tyler Perry appear to be tossing their hat into this year’s Oscar race.

The studio announced this morning that Perry’s next picture, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” will premiere on Nov. 5 … and not in 2011 as was expected.

The star-studded film, an adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s landmark 1975 stage study of the African-American female experience, packs Anika Noni Rose, Kerry Washington, Janet Jackson, Kimberly Elise, Phylicia Rashad, Loretta Devine, Tessa Thompson and Thandie Newton into its ensemble.

Clearly, the studio feels Perry’s drama can compete in the annual awards race. Perry had success just last year as a producer for Lee Daniels’ “Precious,” which won two Oscars (for screenplay and co-star Mo’Nique).

This is a very good sign for Lionsgate, a vote of confidence for Perry, and a shakeup for the still forming Oscar picture. SOURCE

Janet Jackson & Phylicia Rashad Film “For Colored Girls…” Scene [VIDEO]

“For Colored Girls…” First Promo Shot [PHOTO]

When asked about her mother,who has been divorced from Fishburne since Montana was two years old, here’s what she had to say:

“My mom just says, ‘I love you.’ We don’t talk about it every day. She wants me to be happy and doesn’t want me to get dragged into the dark side of porn.” That dark side, Montana says, includes drugs and destructive behavior from “low self-esteem.”

Get more at popeater.com

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With the Labor Day weekend poppin’ off about now, it’s easy to get caught up in drinking beers at the cookout or on the beach. In case you don’t want to totally blow your diet, here’s a list of the lowest calorie beers! (Scroll down for the list of the highest ones too!)

Beers With The Lowest Calories

1. Beck’s Premier Light: 64 calories
2. Amstel Light: 95 calories
3. Anheuser Busch Natural Light: 95 calories
4. Michelob Ultra: 95 calories
5. Natural Light: 95 calories
6. Miller Light: 96 calories
7. Heineken Light: 99 calories
8. Budweiser Select: 99 calories
9. Coors Light: 102 calories
10. Corona Light: 105 calories

Break these 5 fitness rules now!

Beers With The Highest Calories

1. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot: 330 calories
2. Samuel Adams Boston Lager: 180 calories
3. Guinness Extra Stout: 176 calories
4. Pete’s Wicked Ale: 174 calories
5. Harpoon IPA: 170 calories
6. Heineken: 166 calories
7. Killian’s Irish Red: 163 calories
8. Long Trail: 163 calories
9. Molson Ice: 160 calories
10. Anheuser Busch Natural Ice: 157 calories

Now you can worry a little less about packing on the pounds while still having a good time. Have fun and be safe this weekend!

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See the photo over at PopEater.

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At the risk of offending my buddy Dubs—who understandably doesn’t like seeing his government name in print—I’ve gotta reproduce this stellar piece of insight he hit a bunch of us with in an e-mail earlier today.

The topic was T.I. and the fact that the rapper was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana and two possibles (codeine and ecstasy; pardon the Spades slang).

Here’s what Dubs wrote:

T.I. and the rest of his ilk still don’t believe in the hip-hop police.  It is amazing [that they find the fact that] there is a dossier on every well-known rapper and their movements are tracked by most major police departments hard to believe.  How the hell do you think Lil’ Wayne got popped in three different states on the same charges, weapons and drugs, and none of the stops have been deemed “stop for cause”?

Now, most of us have heard of the Hip Hop police. I doubt however that many people have considered why there would be a need for such an entity.

Article continues after T.I. and Tiny Arrested Gallery:

If you were thinking that the Hip Hop police exists to protect rappers who, for some reason, tend to face violent death with more frequency than do other musicians, then you’d be wrong.

The Hip Hop police exists for the same reason that the FBI’s old COINTELPRO existed: to discredit anyone in the Black community with the intelligence, charisma and natural leadership ability necessary to inspire a movement.

‘Discrediting’ being only the first goal, of course. If you lived like a monk (see: Malcolm X, the later Dr. King, Fred Hampton), you had to be killed.

Murder could be tied in with the Hip Hop police as well because after seeing that a rape accusation, multiple shooting and subsequent conviction didn’t diminish Tupac’s standing in the Black community—in fact, it did just the opposite—was anybody surprised that Pac died violently?

Were or are we surprised that of the only men ever accused—and even this is done clandestinely—of killing the Notorious B.I.G., David Mack and Amir Muhammad, one of them, Mack, is a former cop?

Or should the murders of Biggie and Tupac even be considered “crimes” since a crime is a transgression against the State and, all things considered, those two deaths seem so obviously State approved?

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Bethany Storro spoke to the media for the first time since the acid attack on her face earlier this week that resulted in serious skin damage.

“Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?” an unidentified woman said seconds before splattering a cup of acid on the 28-year-old’s face in Vancouver, Wash.

Storro told reporters, “Once it hit me, I could hear it bubbling and sizzling in my skin. It was the most painful thing. My heart stopped, I almost passed out.”

Storro said she doesn’t normally wear sunglasses, but amazingly bought sunglasses just 20 minutes before the attack, saving her eyes from damage.

Read more at NYDailyNews

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It’s long been a myth that African-Americans can soak up all the sun they want and not have to worry about skin cancer. The truth is that people with darker complexions need to protect themselves from those UV rays just as much as people with lighter skin.

Here’s some info on skin cancer in African-Americans from SkinCancerInfoOnline.com:

Although the rates of occurrence of various types of skin cancer are lower in African Americans, they are not zero. African-Americans can develop skin cancer, and when they do, the outcome is often more serious than it is for other Americans.

One reason why the outcome of skin cancer is often poorer in African-Americans is that the disease is often diagnosed at a more advanced stage, when treatment is more difficult. Also, the type of melanoma most frequently found in African Americans is acral lentiginous melanoma, which is more dangerous than the types of melanoma that predominate in white Americans.

Shocking isn’t it? Here’s some tips on how to spot skin cancer:

Among African Americans, melanomas occur mainly on body sites that are not pigmented, such as the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, and the skin beneath the nails. Other sites at which melanomas occur relatively often in African Americans are the mucous membranes of the mouth, nasal passages, and genitals.

Like people of other heritages, African Americans should develop an awareness of the moles on their bodies and be alert for new or changing moles. In addition, African Americans should examine their fingernails and toenails for suspicious changes, which may include brown or black colored stripes under the nail or a spot that extends beyond the edge of the nail. Anyone who notices such changes should see a doctor promptly because they may be signs of melanoma. Melanoma that is detected and treated early can usually be cured.

Go get that sunblock and a stylish hat and protect yourself this summer! For more info on skin cancer among African-Americans click here.

Click here for 10 things you shouldn’t tell your doctor!

A cargo plane has crashed near a busy highway in Dubai.

Officials said the plane had suffered technical difficulties as it attempted to land at Dubai International Airportand that emergency services are on the scene, close to the Emirates Road and Dubai Silicon Oasis.

Al Arabiya television reported that plane’s crew had been killed. It said that the plane belonged to an unidentified US company.

Click here to view photos:

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Another month, another grim jobs report. We lot 54,000 jobs in July. Most of those — in fact, 114,000 of them — were expiring census jobs. The private sector added jobs slowly but steadily, posting 67,000 in gains. This report doesn’t really tell a story of recovery nor of recession. It’s just stagnation: We’re not falling back into the hole, but nor are we getting out of it. No wonder the White House is looking for further stimulus measures.

The unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.6 percent, from 9.5 percent, the Labor Department said, as hundreds of thousands of people rejoined the labor force.

Private employers, meanwhile, created a net of 67,000 jobs, better than expected but below the 107,000 positions they added to payrolls in July. Overall, the nation shed 54,000 positions, but that was driven by the elimination of temporary Census jobs, which was widely anticipated.

Read more at WashPost

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One of the trapped Chilean miners is going to have some explaining to do after his wife ran into his mistress at the mine’s entrance.

Britain’s Sun newspaper reports the wife of Yonni Barrios, Marta Salinas, was stunned and upset to find his girlfriend Susana Valenzuela also conducting a vigil for him.

Salinas told the newspaper: “Barrios is my husband. He loves me and I am his devoted wife. This woman has no legitimacy.”

But The Sun reported Valenzuela as saying the 50-year-old miner was going to leave his wife for her.

Text continues after Pictures of the week gallery…

“We are in love. I’ll wait for him,” she told the paper.

Barrios has been valuable to authorities in trying to get the miners out, using his first-aid training to treat sick colleagues.

They miners were located late last month, more than two weeks after becoming trapped in a shaft collapse on August 5.

The newspaper report comes as Health Minister Jaime Manalich said all 33 miners trapped underground would soon be able to see and talk to loved ones through a video link.

The morale-boosting technology will be made possible by lowering a fibre-optic cable to the men, who were cut off deep down in the San Jose mine by a cave-in more than four weeks ago.

“They will be able to have private conversations with their families through a TV screen,” Manalich told reporters.

Family members will most likely be restricted in what they can say, as is already the case with written notes read first by authorities to make sure there are no remarks that could create false hopes or lead to despair.

Read entire article WAToday.com

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Detroit hasn’t screamed this loud at a baseball park since Kirk Gibson was hitting home runs in the 1984 World Series. Hip-hop history was made as Jay-Z and Eminem co-headlined the Motor City’s Comerica Park (home of the D-Town Tigers for the past decade) on Thursday night (September 2), the first of two shows on consecutive nights.

While Jay’s high-grossing touring schedule helped him to top this year’s Forbes’ “Hip-Hop Cash King” list, Eminem took a much-needed sabbatical to deal with a myriad of personal issues. Now beyond his darkest hour, Em had one of his brightest moments ever onstage. Not only did he gift his hometown with a seemingly endless string of hits, he pulled off some major surprises. After D12, 50 Cent and the G-Unit — acts that fans likely expected — came out for performances with Em, Slim Shady pulled off a shocker. Dr. Dre came out, first stunning the people then delighting them with smashes.

Read more at MTV

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The Baltimore Sun is reporting that a man who was recently released from prison is being accused of stabbing one man to death and injuring seven others.

A 28-year-old man who was recently released from prison was charged Saturday night in what police described as a bloody melee that left one dead and seven others wounded at a high school reunion in Cherry Hill earlier the same day.

James L. Dixon of 900 Kevin Road was charged with fatally stabbing Carrington McNutt and injuring at least seven others at a Walbrook High School reunion for classes 1995 through 2005 at the Patapsco Arena on Annapolis Road, said Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman.

“One individual basically went on a stabbing rampage,” he said.

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