Trim the base of the tree trunk once you take it home. Use a handsaw or chainsaw to remove at least half an inch off the end. If you get your tree from a nursery or store, staff may be able to trim the trunk of the tree for you when you purchase it. Just make sure you are able to get the tree into water shortly thereafter. If you want to shorten the tree slightly to fit the height of your ceiling, cut off a larger portion of the trunk. Just remember that you will likely need a decent section of the trunk clear of branches to fit it into a tree stand. Trimming the trunk is essential to the tree absorbing water and staying fresh, so make sure you cut off at least a half inch even if you don't need to alter the height at all. Cut off any branches of the tree that appear dead, discolored, or overly dry. Make sure that you are not removing so many branches that there will be large chunks of the tree missing when you're done. If a tree looks like it has a lot of dry or dead branches to begin with, don't buy it. Test dry branches by gentling shaking them and observing how many needles fall off; if more than half, the branch is probably too dry. Also bend needles in half; they should snap if from a fir tree and not break at all if from a pine. Use pruning shears, hedge clippers, or a shearing knife to remove any branches. Locate the most central, vertical branch at the top of your tree and trim it to about 10 inches if it is any longer. The top center branch is important to keep and trim to a sturdy length so you can use it as a support for a tree topper, like a star or angel, if you choose to decorate with one. Remove any other longer branches that appear to be competing for the center branch. Trim the ends of any branches that stick out from the overall shape of the tree, keeping it a generally uniform cone shape, or however you want your tree to look. In general, for the classic look, you'll want the base of the branches to be widest with the circumference getting gradually smaller as you go up to the top, which ends in a tapered point. The ideal proportion for most Christmas trees is a "two-thirds taper," which means that the base of the three is two-thirds as wide as the height. So, a six-foot-tall tree would ideally have a four-foot-wide base. Try to cut as little of the branches as possible, sticking to the lighter green new growth. Don't cut into the old growth (which is characterized by a darker green color, usually) unless you have to.
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One-sentence summary -- Cut off some of the base. Remove dead or dry branches. Trim the top of the tree. Shape the rest of the branches.

High potassium levels usually happen because you have another underlying condition. This means your doctor needs to treat that condition in order for you to fully recover. Although sometimes dehydration or medications are to blame, high potassium levels can be caused by a very serious condition, like kidney disease. Here are the common causes of high potassium: Dehydration Medications, such as beta blockers Overuse of potassium supplements Acute kidney failure Chronic kidney disease Addison's disease Type 1 diabetes Destruction of red blood cells Your doctor will do a complete blood count (CBC) to check your potassium levels. Until your levels are under control, it's best to allow your doctor to do regular labwork. This will help them determine if your condition is improving or not.Although you may feel some discomfort, blood draws usually aren't painful. Additionally, your doctor will likely take the sample in their office.
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One-sentence summary -- Talk to your doctor if you don't know what's causing your high potassium levels. Get regular blood tests to monitor your potassium levels.

Ask the part of you that is totally caught up in the mood what is so upsetting and what it needs. Let your mood be a messenger of whatever is bothering you so that you can decide whether or not to take action. You may then ask what would make it feel better in the immediate moment (like screaming into a pillow or smashing an egg) Be careful, ladies. Women have a tendency to spend more time than men ruminating (without benefit) on the negative mood, so use this tool with caution. You may want to put a time limit on how long you spend focusing exclusively on the bad mood. Asking yourself silently or through journal writing, is there a reason for your moodiness? If there is a reason that you can point to, is there anything that you can do to change it? If you can't put your finger on why you feel the way you do, is there anything that you can tell yourself to feel better? Even though figuring out what's going on may not change your mood entirely, it will give you a better idea of the best things you can do to alter your state of mind. We have the remarkable faculty of imagination, which allows us to create in our minds the feeling of being elsewhere. Since it's not always possible to make a change in your physical location, try envisioning a time when you felt very differently from how you do now. The happier and more positive the memory is, the more capable of transforming your current mood it will be! You can increase the effectiveness of channeling positive memories by using visualization techniques. Visualization techniques help you enliven the memory by helping you use visual cues. You can learn more about visualization here Consciously acknowledging that it's there, even if you don't like it, will put you more at peace. Sometimes it's best not to shy away from your mood or resist it aggressively, knowing that it will pass in due time. In these cases you may want to lay low until you're feeling a bit better (out of respect for others and for your own long-term goals).
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One-sentence summary -- Tune into your murky mood. Examine the moment more closely. Channel positive memories. Accept your mood.

PowerPoint presentations are useful to provide an overview, a general description of a given topic. Your presentation should not be encyclopedic. Don't go overboard including every little detail, citation, or factoid which may inform the conversation on the issue you're presenting. Too much information will burn your audience out and you'll be left with a bunch of people more interested in lunch than in what you have to say. Keep the presentation about you, not the slideshow. The slides are there to support what you have to say. They should be just one part of your presentation, not the whole thing. PowerPoint presentations are at their most effective and powerful when they adopt a clean, minimalistic style. For instance, if you have one slide whose heading is "Habitats," with three bullet points beneath reading "Forest," "Desert," and "Ocean" with a description of each habitat following, you would do well to instead allocate three separate slides to the three different habitats, and include a summary and image of each on the appropriate slide. Your PowerPoint slideshow should always be designed to reinforce your verbal explanations with visual images. Sometimes it works to put words on a screen, but generally, your text should be limited. Do you need the graphics as a starting point from which you will explain results, trends, predictions or specific outcomes? Are you using visuals merely to keep your audience engaged, to provide humor, and/or to accommodate diverse learning styles? These and other relevant questions should guide your decision-making process when settling on the right number of slides for your presentation. Go through your entire presentation and ask yourself if you really need a given slide. If the answer is no, or if you find you can deliver the info verbally instead, eliminate it.
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One-sentence summary --
Provide the right amount of information. Break complex slides down into several simple slides. Include audiovisual support only as needed.