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JANUARY 2024 THE
COMMUNITY CONSCIENCE New Year, New You THE REALISTIC APPROACH TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT
• Sleep quality
• Physical health
New Year’s resolutions have become synonymous with short-lived success, leading to burnout or even just full-blown failure a week or two into January. I know full well how bad this can make anyone feel! But it makes sense why most of us don’t succeed at our lofty New Year’s resolutions; we think we can go from complete indulgence and inactivity during the holidays to uber-healthy, meditative gym-goers overnight. It’s impossible! That’s why I decided to try a new approach. Instead of forcing myself to adhere to one strict goal for an entire 365 days, I decided to commit to micro-resolutions. These are 12 mini goals I can work toward, one per month of the year. Not only is it much more sustainable, but you can also enrich your life with even more transformations. A 30-day period is short enough to reach a single goal realistically but also long enough to build a new healthy habit. This means I have to create 12 different goals or resolutions, one for each month. For example, January can be entirely focused on becoming m`ore active. Whether it’s going to the gym or getting my steps in, I want to incorporate fitness into my daily routine. February can be focused entirely on improving my home, not through renovations or buying a new home, but through smaller steps like decluttering one room at a time. If you’re not sure you can come up with 12 different resolutions, I’ve got you covered. Here are a few examples you can use as inspiration when creating your micro-resolution plan:
• Active listening
• Mental health
• Gratitude
• Career advancement
• Nutrition/healthy eating
• Meditation
• Reading
• Creativity
• Finances
Another idea is to reduce or completely stop the consumption of something every month of the year. For example, vastly limit or avoid having sugar for one month, then remove alcohol for another. Other things you can refrain from include caffeine, social media, TV, negative self-talk, and more. Even if you limit something one month, you can abstain from it entirely the next month! Change is never easy, especially if you’re set in your ways. Trying to change your habits and entire lifestyle overnight is an impossible feat, and any goals you make to reach those adjustments are unrealistic. This new form of New Year’s resolutions can be a more manageable way to realistically improve ourselves without stressing out over completing them during the year.
Are you ready for micro-resolutions this year? We’ll take it one month at a time! I hope you can thrive in 2024, whether you end up sticking to every single New Year’s resolution or not. Happy New Year, and good luck!
REFER A FRIEND A referral is the greatest compliment you could ever give us. If you know someone in need of our services, we welcome the opportunity to help.
– Lucas Foust
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In today’s world of video games and streaming for entertainment, one of the most powerful — and rewarding — steps you can take is engaging your child’s imagination without electronic devices. A Make-Believe Store One great way to do that is by putting your child in charge of a make-believe ice cream store. It’s easy and only takes a few common household items, starting with a few bowls. First, squirt a generous helping of shaving cream into each bowl, then add different colors of food coloring to each. After stirring with a spoon, your child will suddenly have a variety of make- believe “flavors” to offer to their customer — you. They’ll have fun scooping up the flavors you want from each bowl into a plastic cup. You can even have other small household items in other bowls (such as buttons and small craft items) that can serve as the ice cream “toppings.” Balloon Sports You can also engage your child’s hand-eye coordination skills with a fun game of balloon tennis or volleyball. UNPLUGGED FUN Ignite Your Child’s Imagination Beyond Screens
To start, simply blow up a few balloons of different sizes. Then find a chair or other items around your house that can double as a “net” between you and your child. The fun comes in batting the “ball” (a balloon) back and forth across the net. When your child bats the balloon to your side and you hit it back without it passing back over the net, the point goes to your child, just like in real tennis or volleyball. You can keep score if you’d like. You can also make up your own rules, like players can hit the balloon two times before returning it to the player on the other side of the net. Or, if you want to really challenge your hand-eye coordination, you can use two balloons and try to keep both in play at the same time. At the end of the day, with fun activities like these, you can engage your child’s imagination with a true brand of homemade fun!
Bumbling Burglars Prove Crime Doesn’t Pay
he found something else instead. A tip jar containing over $200 caught his eye, so after filling out the application, Mark left. A few hours later, he returned, snatched the tip jar, and ran out of the restaurant. However, his getaway was short-lived, as his completed application had provided his real name and address. Plus, he left behind a backpack that verified his identity, so he was eventually caught by police. Finally, Alberto Saavedra Lopez demonstrated why you can’t go back home to the scene of your crime. While living in Cottonwood, Arizona, he stole $5,000 from the bank where he worked. For two years, he got away with it by moving to Phoenix. In time, however, he moved back to Cottonwood and applied for a new job — at the local police station. But, as he applied to become a dispatcher, officials did a background check, discovering he was an at-large suspect in the theft. So, when he showed up for his job interview, they greeted him with handcuffs.
power. He miraculously managed to survive, though with severe burns and a damaged skull, and was given 12 months of community service. Another man, Nicholas Mark, entered a Pennsylvania pizzeria looking for work, but
Committing a crime will never be a get- rich-quick scheme or a successful career path, but we’ve had plenty of would-be criminals who had to learn that lesson the hard way! One example is James Sorby, a Scottish man who decided he wanted to cash in on the rising price of copper. As he thought about how to get his hands on the metal prized for its ability to conduct electricity, he decided it would be a good idea to go right to the source, so he targeted a local power plant in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. As he started to carry out his mission, he forgot he was in a truly electric environment. He ignored the signs warning of the dangerous high-voltage lines in the plant. But as he collected coils of copper and prepared to make off with them, he was instantly jolted with an estimated 22,000 volts of electricity, and around 400 homes were left without
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TAKE A BREAK
The Gruesome History of Surgery Without Anesthesia
The introduction of anesthesia in the mid-19th century revolutionized the field of surgery, allowing for more complex and precise procedures to be performed while minimizing the agony patients had to endure. However, the era of surgery before anesthesia meant patients had to suffer unimaginable pain. They had to endure procedures that would be considered inhumane today, and the mortality rate for surgeries was alarmingly high. Here are some of the challenges doctors and patients had to face. Speed In the absence of anesthesia, surgeons had to prioritize speed above all else. One of the most harrowing experiences was amputation. During wars and battles, soldiers often had limbs amputated without anesthesia. Surgeons had to operate swiftly, with little regard for the patient’s pain. Many soldiers died from the shock and pain of the sudden amputation rather than any other wound they received. Alcohol and Opiates to Dull Pain While these substances provided some relief, they also carried their own risks, including addiction and overdosing. Patients would often have to be restrained during the procedure due to their erratic behavior under the influence of these substances. Unclean Tools Surgical procedures in the pre-anesthesia era were fraught with the risk of infection. Without modern sterile techniques, post- operative infections were common, and many patients did not survive surgery due to complications. In fact, before Louis Pasteur developed modern germ theory in the 1860s, doctors did not wash their hands before operating, unintentionally causing the deaths of many patients post-surgery due to secondary infections. Surgeons Characterized as Dispassionate and Cruel No doubt, performing an agonizing surgical procedure on a suffering patient was difficult for any doctor to endure. So, they had to detach themselves emotionally to get through it quickly and as safely as possible — sometimes in front of many onlookers in an operating theatre. Unfortunately, because of this, surgeons were thought of as coolly dispassionate or even brusque. Because of modern anesthesia and other developments, doctors today are able to show compassion toward their patients, and it allows for a more careful and safe procedure for all involved.
Baked Salmon With Garlic and Lemon Prepare to tantalize your taste buds with a zesty dish that combines salmon with the vibrant flavors of garlic and lemon!
Ingredients
• 1 tsp dried oregano • 1 tsp dried thyme • Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 lbs salmon fillets • 4 cloves garlic, minced • Juice of 2 lemons • 2 tbsp olive oil
Directions 1. Preheat oven to 375 F. 2. Line a baking dish with parchment paper. Place the salmon fillets on the baking dish. 3. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. Pour the mixture over the salmon. 4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the salmon is cooked through. Serve and enjoy!
406-587-3720 • 3
Foust Law Office
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
www.lucasfoustlaw.com 406-587-3720 Fax: 406-879-4400
3390 South 30th Avenue Bozeman, MT 59718
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
How Micro-Resolutions Can Transform Your Life
1
Engage Kids in Creative Play Without Electronics
2
3 Not-So-Bright Burglars
Baked Salmon With Garlic and Lemon
3
Evolution of Anesthesia in Surgery
4
From Tragedy to Outrage: Ethan Couch’s Sentencing and ‘Affluenza’
WHEN PRIVILEGE KILLS
A Look Back at the Case of ‘Affluenza’ Teen Ethan Couch
parents who never set limits for him, so he didn’t fully understand what it meant to have consequences for his actions. Prosecutors had sought 20 years in prison, but Couch received no prison time. Judge Jean Hudson Boyd gave Couch 10 years of probation, along with an order to undergo long-term therapy. The decision by the juvenile court judge outraged the victims’ families, drunk driving activists, and most of the country. Over the past decade, Couch has cycled through bouts of disappearing and continuing alcohol abuse. In 2016, he fled with his mother to Mexico to avoid being arrested for a parole violation but was arrested soon after. The judge in that case sentenced Couch to two years in prison. After his release in 2018, he was again arrested in 2020 for allegedly violating his parole, but the charges were later dismissed. His probation is due to end in 2024.
careening down the road at 70 mph in a 40-mph zone, he barreled into the town of Burleson, Texas. Speeding along the rural two-lane street, Couch plowed through an SUV that had stopped with car trouble on the side of the road, then slammed into another car that was stopped near the SUV. In the process, he killed four people and seriously injured two others. Upon his arrest shortly after the terrible crash, Couch’s blood alcohol level was reported as 0.24 — three times the legal limit for drunk driving in Texas. Two years later, Couch stood trial for the devastation he had caused. He pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter, but his attorneys put forth what came to be known as the “affluenza” defense. A psychologist testified for the defense that Couch was a product of wealthy, privileged
It was a case that enraged the nation: A teenager named Ethan Couch combined alcohol, arrogance, reckless behavior, and manslaughter in what became known as the “affluenza” case. On June 15, 2013, the 16-year-old and a group of friends stole beer from a store and had a party at his parents’ house before going for a drive. As Couch was
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