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With the new year comes plenty of resolutions we all vow to keep up with the best of intentions. But by February 1, our resolve has often waned as life gets in the way and things go back to how they were. What we all need a little more of is motivation.

When we participate in something collectively, it’s easier to meet goals and maintain the enthusiasm to get things done. While the support of a friend or two is great, imagine having the power of an entire online community cheering you on and offering advice along the way.

This is where the Daily Decluttering Challenge Facebook group comes in. This online community offers easy-to-implement advice for decluttering, organizing, and cleaning up your home and your life with support from 125,000 members.

“By building a network of people who can support and encourage you along the way, you can make progress towards your goals faster and more effectively. Remember, no one achieves success alone, and having a strong support system can make the difference in a goal set versus a goal achieved,” says Kristin Burke, a goal achievement coach.

In addition to tips for tidying up around the house, members share advice on how to tackle one thing at a time, where to donate excess items, and what they do to exercise more willpower to avoid buying new things.

For anyone hoping to declutter their lives in the new year, this Facebook group has the perfect challenge to get you started.

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Beginning in January, members kicked off 2024 by focusing on junk mail, emails, and drawers for the first week. Then they will move into different areas of the house, breaking it up into one room a week. There will also be 17 different community chats that offer additional tasks to challenge you every 2-3 days and encourage you to keep going and know you’re not alone.

Here are a few tips from Stacey Smith, the group admin, to get you started:

1. Start small. Set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes and see what you can accomplish during this time.
2. Focus on a single area at a time. A lot of the group members recommend focussing on a flat surface area, such as your bedside table or an area near where you sit. Keeping a space decluttered that you always see can inspire you to take the next step.
3. Take pictures of your progress. You don’t always notice the progress that you’re making, so taking a before and after photo of your decluttering projects can help you see the transformation you’re making.
4. Break up your tasks. If you get overwhelmed, take a step back and break your project up into smaller tasks. For example, if you’re working on a junk drawer, start by getting rid of all the trash and broken items first so it becomes more manageable.
5. Don’t worry about how long it takes you. If it takes you a week to clean out a single drawer, that’s OK. It isn’t a race. The clutter didn’t happen overnight, so you can’t expect to have it cleared out overnight, either.

If you’ve got decluttering on your list of 2024 resolutions, this Facebook group is for you. Don’t be one of the 43% of people who quit their resolutions by the end of January. Instead, let the online peer support keep you motivated for January and all year long.

Frasier Crane began his TV life ignominiously. The character that came to define Kelsey Grammer’s life was initially little more than the dorky, snooty, socially awkward psychiatrist Shelley Long’s Diane Chambers had started dating at the top of Cheers‘ third season. Diane, of course, still much preferred Ted Danson’s Sam Malone, but Frasier proved an endearing character, and the showrunners kept him hanging around Cheers right through the end. Diane made a few appearances on Frasier’s titular spinoff, though usually only in dreams. And now that the good doctor has his fancy new reboot, he’d like her back once more.

Per Entertainment Weekly, Grammer appeared on Kelly Clarkson’s daytime chat show, where he confessed that he “would like to see Diane come back.” It wouldn’t be just a novelty. He thinks Frasier and her have some unfinished business, that he needs to “put something to bed” with her, so they “end up with a nice thing between them.”

Though Frasier bounced back from Diane but good, marrying (for a time) Bebe Neuwirth’s far more similar — and far more uptight — Lilith, it was always clear Frasier never totally got over her.

“When I first got the role, the key to Frasier for me was that he loved her with his whole heart, that he loved with all of his being. And that actually defined who he is,” Grammer reflected. “He’s been that way ever since. He just goes in wholeheartedly with everything — and that’s what makes him funny.”

So will Frasier and Diane meet once more to bury the hatchet for good? Possibly! Long’s turns as Diane is one of sitcom history’s all-timer runs, and it’s always a treat to see her.

The new Frasier streams on Paramount+.

(Via EW)

History is full of great stories about bitter battles between loyal opposition. In basketball, there was Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. In the ’80s, harsh political battles were fought between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. But all of these rivals respected their opposition as competitors in their respective fields. Now, a year-long battle between a cleaning crew and a street artist can be added to history’s legendary battles between loyal opposition.

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Mobstr is a London-based street artist famous for the sarcastic typographic-based graffiti he’s written across London’s walls and billboards. His cat-and-mouse relationship with an unidentified city worker began on July 17, 2014, and would continue for an entire year.

“I cycled past this wall on the way to work for years,” Mobstr wrote on his website. ” I noticed that graffiti painted within the red area was ‘buffed’ with red paint. However, graffiti outside of the red area would be removed via pressure washing. This prompted the start of an experiment. Unlike other works, I was very uncertain as to what results it would yield.”

Watch the video below and see what happens:

This article originally appeared on 09.23.17.

Gordon Ramsay is not exactly known for being nice.

Or patient.

Or nurturing.

On his competition show “Hell’s Kitchen,” he belittles cooks who can’t keep up. If people come to him with their problems, he berates them. If someone is struggling to get something right in the kitchen, he curses them out.

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His whole TV persona is based on being the world’s worst boss.

Ramsay went on Reddit and allowed users to ask him any question they wanted.

So when a fellow cook asked him a sincere, deeply personal question about what to do when you’ve hit a roadblock in your career, you could probably guess what was coming.

Indeed, I thought the guy was making a terrible mistake pouring his heart out to a chef as notoriously tough as Ramsay:

“My hopes and dreams are nowhere to be found as I scale and portion salmon after salmon, shelling pods after pods of broad beans.
…
Sometimes I look out the tiny window and I can see people walking around the streets, enjoying the sunlight, while I’m here, questioning my dedication to this art as I rotate stock in the cool room, getting frost bitten, but the fear of the chef stops me from stepping outside to warm up.
…
The closest thing to feeling any kind of joy I get is those rare moments when I walk through the dining room near the end of service to get some coffee for everyone, and there will be a few diners left, idly sampling those little petite fours that we’ve painstakingly ensured are all perfectly round, identical, and just plain delicious. Then, one of them will stop the conversation they’re having with their company, look up from their food and say, ‘Thank you, chef. This is delicious,’ and making the previous 14-hours of sweat and tears kind of worthwhile.

My question is, how did you deal with it? How the fuck did you deal with all the bullshit, Gordon?”

But the way Ramsay responded? Totally amazing. And completely unexpected.

Turns out, real-life Gordon Ramsay? He actually can be a really kind, big-hearted dude.

He’s sympathetic to the guy. Not just because he’s a good person. But because he’s been there.

Working in restaurants is a tough, tough business. As of 2012, the average salary for cooks was less than $23,000/year. And those who are just starting out often have to work unglamorous, tedious jobs that no one else wants to do. Ramsay didn’t have fancy culinary school training. He rose up through the ranks putting in long hours for low pay in kitchens all over the world. That’s why he gets it.

Which brings up another point.

Diet Dieting GIF by Bobbi DeCarlo – Find & Share on GIPHY

When we go out to eat, we, as a culture, tend to behave … how should I put this?

Let’s go with “not like perfect angels.”

Of course, no one likes getting the wrong order. Or waiting a really long time for a meal. Or eating something that doesn’t taste the way you expect it to.

But it’s important to remember that the people behind the food, like Ramsay’s anonymous letter-writer, might be working 14-hour days. Or might be a recent immigrant who speaks limited English, trying to support a family thousands of miles away. And possibly making very little money. And sure, they screw up sometimes. But we all screw up at our jobs sometimes.

Because they, like the rest of us, are human beings.

Which is why saying…

“Thank you, chef. This is delicious.”

Could mean everything to someone.

This article originally appeared on 04.22.15

Remember Ted? The talking, cussing teddy bear comedy was Seth MacFarlane’s attempt some 12 years back to break into the movies. It worked, too, although follow-up attempts, including the Ted sequel, failed to live up to its success, sending him skulking back to the small screen. Now Ted himself is about to belatedly join him there, too, with a new series that operates as a prequel (sort of, more on that in a sec). But when is it supposed to land?

The answer is: very soon indeed. All eight episodes of Ted, as it’s of course called, are due on Peacock on January 11, a mere two days off as of this writing. What time will it be available? Peacock tends to drop their new shows around 8am day of release.

As we said, Ted is only a sort-of prequel, set between the opening stretch of the first film, which showed a young boy named John Bennett wishing sentience upon his teddy bear, and the main events of the film, which show John as an adult, played by Mark Wahlberg. The show is set in 1993, when John is still relatively young and played by Max Burholder. MacFarlane reprises his role as the voice of Ted, sounding once more pretty much just like Family Guy’s Griffin.

Though the first Ted, at least, is one of Wahlberg’s biggest hits, it’s also one of the films of which he’s most ashamed (alongside Boogie Nights). Back in 2015, he even asked then-Pope Francis to forgive him for doing such a lewd motion picture. Marky Mark is not returning.

Ted hits Peacock the morning of January 11.

It was a meeting of West Coast legends on this week’s episode of Anderson .Paak‘s Apple Music 1 radio show, .Paak House Radio. Joining the “Come Down” hitmaker in the studio was Oakland rapper, Saweetie.

Dressed in their most funkadelic outfits, the two put their music knowledge to the test. In a game of Name That Tune, moderated by songwriter and producer Rogét Chahayed, the two acknowledged songs by Drake, DRAM, Travis Scott, and even Mozart, after only hearing seconds of audio from the songs.

The game proved to be one of high stakes, with both artists demonstrating impressive musical knowledge. But you’ll have to listen to the full episode to find out who won.

Elsewhere in the interview, Saweetie opened up about growing up in the church, where he grandparents were pastors.

“I was a church baby. Monday through Monday,” Saweetie said. “I mean, my parents was out, you know, and my grandparents would babysit me. So, I’d be at the church with them.”

She noted that she still makes offerings to her church, however, she opts to “cut checks” now that she’s living that icy girl life.

You can watch a preview above and listen to the episode of .Paak House Radio here.

Saweetie and Anderson .Paak are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

A mouse caught in the act of tidying up a cluttered tool shed…it’s something you’d expect to see in a Disney movie, sure. But real life? Not so much.

But this delightful sight was indeed something seen in the flesh by retired postman and avid wildlife photographer Rodney Holbrook living in Wales. And luckily, thanks to Holbrook setting up a special night vision camera and the internet, it’s a sight we all get to enjoy.

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Holbrook, 75, told the BBC that he first began suspecting something when food he had set out for the birds kept ending up in some old shoes being stored in the shed. This went on for about two months, prompting him to set up the camera.

And lo’ and behold, the black-and-white footage revealed a tiny mouse gathering up small objects like clothes pins, plastic lids, string, and placing them together in a small box. This happened night after night, earning him the nickname “Welsh Tidy Mouse.”

Welsh Tidy Mouse was most likely exhibiting the rodent typical behavior of hoarding, especially considering the box being used contained bird feed. Holbrook suspects he was using objects to hide the food, inadvertently Marie Kondo-ing the workspace.

And while most of the time a mouse found in a shed would probably be viewed as a pest—particularly due to the damage they can cause to the expensive equipment lying around in there—Holbrook and Welsh Tidy Mouse have established a mutually beneficial relationship. Holbrook even told the BBC “I don’t bother to tidy up now, I leave things out of the box and they put it back in its place by the morning.”

Folks who watched Welsh Tidy Mouse in action were equally enchanted by its wholesome sprucing.

“I could sit and watch this little mouse-that-could for hours. Incredible.”

“Such an industrious little fella. Very impressive. Sweet.”

“He’s better than a lot of humans I know!”

“I loved the way he held the plastic cup with both hands before carrying it in his mouth to the box.”

“Thanks for this bit of happiness in all our current gloom news.”

Of course we want to be mindful of damage or infestations, but it’s also good to remember that we ultimately cohabitate the planet with all of Earth’s creatures. That can lead to some pretty marvelous, in the case, outright magical, interactions if we allow it.

One of the strangest things about being human is that people of lesser intelligence tend to overestimate how smart they are and people who are highly intelligent tend to underestimate how smart they are.

This is called the Dunning-Kruger effect and it’s proven every time you log onto Facebook and see someone from high school who thinks they know more about vaccines than a doctor.

The interesting thing is that even though people are poor judges of their own smarts, we’ve evolved to be pretty good at judging the intelligence of others.

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“Such findings imply that, in order to be adaptive, first impressions of personality or social characteristics should be accurate,” a study published in the journal Intelligence says. “There is accumulating evidence that this is indeed the case—at least to some extent—for traits such as intelligence extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, and narcissism, and even for characteristics such as sexual orientation, political ideology, or antigay prejudice.”

Reddit user Gisgiii posed a question to the AskReddit subforum “What is a subtle sign that someone is really intelligent?” and the answers painted a clear picture of how smart people behave. They tend to be great communicators who understand their audience and are more concerned with getting things right than being right.

Here are 18 of the best answers.

1. They draw wisdom from multiple sources.

“They draw wisdom from multiple sources. Wait but that might be more wise than intelligent… But I guess those two tend to be seen together a lot,” — Puzzlehead-Engineer

2. They know their audience.

“They can switch up the way they talk to match the person they’re talking to without sounding condescending. They listen to how others learn and explain it in that person’s language of understanding,” — Wynonna99

3. They develop a keen sense for their job.

“I used to work with a doctor – Tom Howard – and the day I realized he was a genius was the time he guessed every single condition a patient of mine had based on minute pieces of information about him,” — Yodei_Mon

4. Curiosity.

“They are curious about everything. To be intelligent you need to be knowledgeable and you can’t be knowledgeable if you are never curious,” — soup54461

5. They’re great at conveying ideas.

“When they explain something they make you feel intelligent,” — gwoshmi

6. Considerate questions.

“They spend time thinking before asking a question,” — ParkMan73

7. They make hard ideas simple.

“They effortlessly communicate complex concepts in a simple way,” — joculator

8. They know what they don’t know.

“They know when their knowledge ends and say something to the extent of ‘i don’t know and anything else i say on this topic is ignorant speculation,'” — blutoboy

9. They ask great questions.

“They can ask really good questions.”

“Edit: to anyone not understanding what mean, I’m talking about people who ask “really good questions”, not just any questions, really good ones. I don’t know how one would achieve this skill(I know I haven’t),” — milkmanbran

10. They don’t pretend to know everything.

“They aren’t afraid to say they don’t know the answer to a question,” — xchernx

11. They change their minds with new information.

“They admit to changing their mind about something,” — FarAwayAdventure

12. They pivot well.

“They apply knowledge from one realm into a new and relevant situation,” — soubestitch

13. They are open-minded.

“They can genuinely consider an idea which opposes their worldview without necessarily accepting it,” — paidshill29

14. They use analogies.

“People who use analogies to explain concepts to others. It’s a form of code-switching and integrating concepts on the fly and is a clear indicator someone is both socially and conceptually intelligent,” — SwimmerAutomatic2488

15. They don’t argue.

“I think intelligent people are more willing to calmly debate/discuss, rather than argue. Like, you explain to them why you disagree, and they listen to you and ask further questions about your viewpoint before offering a different perspective; as opposed to an unintelligent person, who would just resort to insults when other people disagree with them,” — AngelicCinnamonBun

16. They learn from mistakes.

“Admitting when they’re wrong and being willing to learn from mistakes,” — siyl1979

17. A sense of humor.

“Humor. I think that truly funny people are often very smart and cognizant of the different ways an idea can be humorous on several levels. They also know their audience. I think the difference between say a Jeff Foxworthy and a Dave Chappelle and a Bo Burnham is their audience and their interests,” — biscuitboi967

18. A love of learning.

“They say they love learning and they learn something new every day. Then they listen more than talk,” — throwingplaydough

This article originally appeared on 12.04.21

You wear extra chunky sweaters. You’ve never met a mitten you didn’t like. You may even keep a lap blanket at work.

You’re one of those people who is always cold. And you are not alone.

— (@)

Inside or outside, you just can’t seem to get warm. This characteristic of yours manifests itself in extra blankets, wild heating bills, and enough complaints that you start going hoarse.

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But surely there’s a scientific reason as to why some people are always cold, right?

It can’t just be random chance that has doomed you to a life of perpetual shivers. I reached out to an expert to learn more.

Dr. Christopher Minson is a professor in the department of human physiology at the University of Oregon. One of his primary research interests is thermoregulation, that’s how the brain and body interact and adapt as we heat and cool. Plainly put, he is the perfect guy to answer a few questions from #TeamCold.

(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

Upworthy (UP): So what is actually happening in the body when a person gets chilly?

Dr. Chris Minson (CM): In the simplest of terms, feeling either cold or warm means that the temperature “set point” of the body is being challenged by thermal inputs throughout the body, including in the brain, the blood, the spinal cord, our organs, our muscles, and our skin. Part of our brain collects all of those thermal inputs and essentially compares them to what body temperature it wants to hold. So if your skin temperature is lowered, even though the rest of your body is still at a comfortable set-point, you will feel cold — in some cases, cold enough to make behavioral changes like putting on a sweater.

UP: Is there a reason this seems to largely impact women?

CM: The people who feel “always cold” will typically have lower muscle mass relative to body surface area (typically, women and older people). Their actual body core temperature may not really be below normal, but they feel cold because their body is telling them to conserve heat.

There have also been limited reports that women have a higher density of blood vessels at the skin surface, which would make them more sensitive to cold. However, there hasn’t been enough good data collected on this theory to confirm or disprove it.

This also explains a frequent frustrations about women and men in relationships…

CM: A common complaint by women and men in relationships is that women’s feet are often very cold, especially in bed. That goes along with the lower body mass to surface area relationship in women. As their body works to conserve heat, it vasoconstricts blood vessels in the extremities (hands and feet) to keep the core warm. This reduced blood flow results in cold hands and feet in women more than men.

So there you have it: Your brain is simply an overworked project manager trying to keep you alive. But there are a few things you can do about it.

UP: If you are a person who is always cold, is there anything you can do to “retrain” your body, so to speak?

CM: One of the best things someone can do is to increase their fat-free mass (muscle). This will increase overall metabolic rate (although it’s not easy to do.)

Another thing a person could do is undergo cold-stresses, such as allowing themselves to be exposed to very cold temperatures for short periods of time. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s been suggested that this could decrease the sensation of feeling cold. An example is putting the shower on ‘cold’ for a short period of time in the shower. Not easy to do, and you would want to build up to a full minute each day, but in some people it can help them to decrease the feeling of being cold.

UP: There are a lot of jokes at the expense of people who are always cold, but at what point does it go from “I’m always cold, and it’s a quirky thing about me” to “I’m always cold and I should probably see my doctor”?

CM: There is the possibility that someone’s perpetual coldness could be caused by abnormally low thyroid hormone levels, and that can be verified with a blood test. That is by far the rarer condition, but taking hormone supplements if medically needed can help. If a person is quite lethargic, has low motivation, and is always cold, it might be worth having thyroid hormones evaluated.

So if you are a lap-blanket wearing member of #TeamCold, don’t fret.

You are strong. You are capable. And unless you have pain or some of the symptoms Minson mentioned, there is likely nothing wrong with you. Our bodies just require different things of us, and yours requires that you have to deal with an overly-air conditioned-society. My sincerest apologies. On behalf of #TeamHot, your next cocoa is on me.

This article originally appeared on 02.13.18

The marketing for the MCU’s latest, Echo – in what more and more seems like a never-ending cavalcade of content – is both baffling and fascinating. Marvel is keenly aware of the criticism that their storylines are harder and harder to follow for the casual fan – now requiring an almost near Herculean effort for someone who is behind to catch up with all the threads, and a good number of them these days wind up going nowhere. (Speaking of Herculean efforts, remember when Hercules showed up in Thor: Love and Thunder?) It’s probably safe to say Marvel had a 2023 it would like to forget for multiple reasons.

Look, I am, for the most part, caught up. (I still haven’t finished Secret Invasion and at this point that is looking more and more unlikely.) But, yes, I feel it. I used to be honestly excited to watch a new MCU entry. Now it feels like work. This should not feel like work. It’s starting to feel like I watch this stuff to be a completest, and I’m not even a completest anymore. So Marvel has come up with the new “Marvel Spotlight” designation to, in theory, signal to viewers that Echo is different and doesn’t connect with the larger MCU universe. Which is kind of bizarre because that’s blatantly not true. True, there is, thankfully, no talk or explorations of multiverses here or a bunch of portals opening up in the sky (at least not through the first three episodes), but it certainly connects to the rest of the MCU as much as, say, She-Hulk did. In the first 30 minutes of the first episode, three prominent Marvel characters show up that have been in other things. Oh, also, this is a direct continuation of the Hawkeye series so I truly don’t understand the claim it has no connection to anything else. But I sort of understand why Marvel wants to make this claim because it is less reliant on the broader universe than other shows and movies have been. But if a viewer has seen literally nothing else, there will probably be a few, “Wait, who is this guy?” moments. Also, this particular criticism has more been directed at the movies than the Disney+ shows. People don’t love the idea of having to watch multiple episodes of a series just to watch The Marvels at the theater.

Oh yeah, as stated, Echo picks up where Hawkeye left off. As we saw in Hawkeye (and we see again here), Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) has shot Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), in the face – presumably killing him but we all know that wasn’t going to happen. Maya, now on the run from Kingpin’s goons, flees back to her home in Oklahoma where her family and friends don’t exactly welcome her back with open arms and are not thrilled with the danger she’s bringing back with her. Maya isn’t exactly in hiding, more, let’s say, regrouping as she enacts her plan to take over Kingpin’s empire.

What does set Echo apart from other MCU properties is Maya herself has no real supernatural powers. She does not have the ability to shoot laser beams from her body. The show does focus on her prosthetic leg and that she can’t hear, but neither of these traits limits her true power of basically a killing machine. Which, for the context of the show, earned it the first MCU “Mature Audiences” designation. Which basically means its tone (and lighting) is more similar to the Marvel Netflix shows than what we’ve seen on Disney+ to date.

Echo is a show I want to like but didn’t quite get there. As much as Echo wants to distinguish itself apart from the rest of the MCU – especially the more recent efforts that have turned off a lot of people – there’s, unfortunately, still a sense of, “here we go again.” How Maya’s Native American heritage is used, incorporating flashbacks to ancestors, is interesting. (And anytime Graham Greene shows up is a treat.) But the rest still, at least so far, feels like the typical MCU formula … only with some more violence. But over the first three episodes, just not a lot happens outside of a pretty nifty scene that I’d describe as the opposite of a train heist – Maya breaks into a New York City-bound train, not to steal, but to add a little surprise for her friends at Kinpin’s warehouse. But, again, as I write this I’ve only seen three episodes and, as you are reading this sentence, all five episodes are waiting for you on Disney+ and Hulu.

But see, maybe that’s not bad news for you. If you still like the Marvel formula with connections to other movies and series, well, here’s another. If you are truly looking for something that is not related to anything else and is truly its own thing, Echo isn’t quite that. Moon Knight comes much closer to hitting that button and, well, Moon Knight was pretty polarizing. Echo probably won’t be polarizing. Instead, Echo, at least so far, has just too much more of the same.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.