Photo: Thinkstock

There are some animals with soulful eyes you can get lost in, family dogs that seem to exude zen wisdom. Not so my own scrappy mutt, who has two moods—hysterical and asleep. Still, she seems, like most family dogs, content and angst-free (unless a small person is tugging her ears), and I think I have learned some valuable lessons from her. For example: If you stare at someone long enough, they will eventually move over and give you the warm spot on the couch. And: should you find yourself disappointed in the level of attention a visitor grants you, leap higher.

Those clever people at the Huffington Post have discovered 15 other life lessons you can learn from your dog. There is some really good advice tucked in here. Napping, which dogs so excel at, is good for everyone. Gathering information about a new colleague before beginning a relationship is also a good idea, provided you eschew the canine behind-sniffing aspect. Find something you love and do it as much as possible. Even if that something is playing Frisbee, or watching squirrels out the window. Hey, dogs don't judge, and neither do we.

Check out the slide show for more good advice and, perhaps more importantly, pictures of the cutest dogs in the world.

Read More:
How Dogs Became Man's Best Friend
Fight Stress With Puppies

Photos: Courtesy of Kiss and Sula

With 2012 on the horizon, we found two new nail ideas to freshen up your fingertips in the new year:

Gaga-ify Your Nails: The fifth floor of Barneys department store in New York City has recently been transformed into Lady Gaga's Workshop—where you'll find everything from magnetic paper dolls of the lady herself to claw-shaped stockings fit for little monsters. Our favorite beauty find are these Kiss press-on nails—like the chain and studded set at left—designed by Gaga's personal nail artist, Naomi Yasuda. If you're daring enough to wear these press-ons for longer than a night, swap the sticker-style tabs for nail glue (included in the kit) and keep them on for up to a week. Plus, 25 percent of sales from all items in Gaga's Workshop will be donated to the Born This Way Foundation founded by Lady Gaga and her mother.

Paint and Peel Polish: Want to change your polish as often as you change your clothes? Try Sula's polish duos that peel off without breaking out the remover. Two coats of color has a shrink-wrap effect on nails and the clear top coat leaves an extra-shiny finish. Throw one of these pens in your purse or keep it in your top drawer to easily touch-up chips.

Would you try these? Have any new beauty finds you love?

Keep Reading
Paint each nail a different color (and still look like an adult)
Lady Gaga's ferocious fashion

Instant smiles: the funniest viral video of the holiday season. Guaranteed.

It's not all slush, shoveling, and wrestling kids into coats: A beautiful description of a winter morning.

Reimagine that trip home for the holidays: How a hometown visit can inspire unexpected discoveries.

"Always write with intent / each word precious / like Benjamins that you spend...” A grammar refresher, in rap form. Word.

Gold pennies and toffee apples—The must-have holiday presents of 100 years ago, according to this extremely charming letter for Santa.

The Life-Lifter: Born premature after her mother contracted listeria, a tiny survivor comes home just in time for Christmas. Let's say it together: Awww!

Photo: Taigan.com

The weekend is within reach...let these little splurges make getting there more fun.

Retro Handset, $49. Plug this vintage-style receiver into your mobile phone and chat old-school style.

DIY Cocktail Kit, $28. Make your guests feel extra special at your New Year's party (and ensure they don't leave a ring on your wooden coffee table) by customizing coasters and cocktail napkins with their initials using rubber stamps.

Angry Birds Cat Toy, $3. Your cat will be just as addicted to Angry Birds as you are with these plush toys filled with catnip.

Friends of the World Menorah, $40. This is like the United Nations of menorahs—light the Chanukah candles starting in the USA and work your way through Morocco, Russia, Ethiopia, Japan, England, Mexico and finally to Israel on the eighth night.

Photo: Thinkstock

In a void, we’re all the good ones. I remember, very vividly, reading The Diary of Anne Frank as an impressionable, sheltered young girl -- the worst trauma in my life so far had been Jason Reichart unzipping my dress while we were waiting in line for school pictures -- and making an impassioned vow that if I had been alive during World War II I would have been brave, I would have been fearless, I would have saved everyone! The next day in school there was Jason Reichart teasing my neighbor and, naturally, being actually a shy and retiring creature, I just watched, my cheeks flushing, fuming quietly. After all, it’s easiest to be the brave one when not actually called upon to be brave.

Writer Anthony McGowan discusses this phenomenon for the  BBC News, saying, “There is, of course, an almost irresistible human impulse to look on ourselves as the goodies or - with a little more grandiosity - as the heroes of our own narratives, whether we're fighting over the height of our neighbour's leylandii hedge or authorising air strikes on crumbling dictatorships.”  But, he urges us to wonder, are we really the goodies or, possibly, the baddies?

What follows is a thoughtfully rendered tale remembered from Anthony McGowan’s childhood, an event that revealed to him that, though he saw himself as one of the good guys, he was in reality no better than the bullies he dreaded, and capable of much meanness himself. After all, he points out, throughout history many notorious “baddies” have seen themselves as crusading for the powers of good. Could we be, in the narratives of our own lives, just as deluded?

Ways To Be a “Goodie”:
24 Acts of Kindness
Being Courageous

Photo: Courtesy of Sephora

When the season of giving rolls around I always feel like the runner that missed the gun at the beginning of the shopping marathon. In other words, I'm still standing empty handed at the starting line while everyone else took off sometime around Thanksgiving. In an effort to catch up, I came across these three festive and affordable beauty gifts that are guaranteed to put a smile on any woman's face (and save you from looking like a slacker).

Mini Shopping Bag Makeup Palette: No time to wrap? Hang this tote-shaped compact (at left) filled with nine eyeshadows, four lip glosses and a flattering shade of pinky-peach blush on any makeup junkie's Christmas tree. $15, Sephora.com

Nutcracker Soaps: Skip the fruitcake and bring this boxed set of five soaps to your holiday hostess.They may look like toys, but the sophisticated burnt orange, clove, and balsam fir scent is all grown up. $22, GiannaRose.com

Birchbox Subscription: Instead of a generic gift card, give the beauty lover in your life something original (and a whole lot more glamorous). Each month your mom/aunt/niece will receive a box brimming with high-end tools, makeup, hair, and skincare samples. She'll find her new beauty favorites without splurging on the full-sized product and cluttering up her cabinets with jars of half-used wrinkle cream. $30 for 3 months, Birchbox.com

Have any other last-minute gift ideas?

Keep Reading
18 gifts to get at the drugstore
9 beauty stocking stuffers under a buck

Zach Anner, a winner of the Your OWN Show competition, is not your average travel show host: due to his cerebral palsy, he's confined to a wheelchair. But he has zero interest in letting that get in his way. Instead, he cruises around the country, water skiing for the first time and creating custom milkshakes and naming them after himself (Zach Anner's Handi-Cappucino, in case you were curious). He's certainly endeared himself to viewers: The New York Times calls him "witty and charming and mildly zany."

But don't just take the Gray Lady's word for it: Two full episodes of his show are now up on the web:

To see more of Zach’s adventures, tune in to Rollin’ With Zach, Mondays 8/7c.

Santa's calling. Tell him what to say.

Your daily dose of escapism: Travel through the wardrobe with the Pevenseys, with this free audio download of the complete Chronicles of Narnia.

At last, a Christmas tree with a mission. Behold the wish-filled World Tree of Hope.

Darth Vader in Paris, and other fascinating photographs.

From tired-out eyes to skin resembling Rudolph's nose: If you can't avoid holiday stress, at least you can hide the signs.

The Life-Lifter: Cut from his mother's womb and kidnapped, this young man survives (and thrives) despite his brutal beginnings is "a promise fulfilled." Warning: you're going to need a hanky.