Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The ABCs Of A Great Life: J Is For Joviality

Laughter, humor, a lighthearted sense of being - all of these are an important part of a well-balanced breakfast, er, life. Without humor, there is no hope. Without laughter, no love. And with a heavy heart, we live only a life of sadness and despair. Our ability to laugh at our foibles and laugh with our friends is a key indicator for predicting how readily we'll bounce back from difficulties and how well we'll handle the curveballs that life throws our way, and a quick smile is always the best defense in a situation that's hit a sour note.

In addition, medical studies have shown that indeed, laughter is the best medicine. Not only does it flood our brain with "feel good" hormones and exercise our body's core trunk muscles with spontaneous and deep contractions, but it noticeably and effectively raises our immune system's defenses in ways that are only now being fully explored - an effect which lasts considerably longer than the laughter that triggered it. Laughing lowers your blood pressure and exercises the heart. It relieves stress and helps generate an overall stability of well-being.

People with notably jovial attitudes are seen as friendlier and better adjusted, and people are drawn to them like flies to honey. Socialization with peers becomes smoother and more enjoyable, and people can't wait to rejoin and reestablish the acquaintance of those with a good sense of humor.

Of course, this does not include "humor" that hurts - biting sarcasm, "witty" putdowns, jokes made at the expense of others, mockery and other such imposters. It is doubtful that any of these recreate the same effects as true humor and lightheartedness, and I know for a fact that they attract far fewer friends.

Go on, laugh! It's good for you. Learn to bring laughter and joviality into your life and every step of the way will be filled with the warm embrace of good times spent with good friends in good health. Salut!

milan

Thursday, September 25, 2008

How to Earn Cash Working From Home

26-9-2008.


If you are a person who would love to make money working from home you should know that you can make money in any room of your home with ease. Off course it may take some time and effort to develop your own clientele, depending on how competitive your field is.

However if you are persistent and motivated person you will be able to do the job that has to be done to make money from home. Generating income at home can be done in a few simple ways.

1. Earning Cash as a Home Office Worker

If you have some computer skills, you could do the things that you would be normally doing working in an office. For instance as a computer skilled person you could work from home as typist, data entry worker, virtual assistant or you could process orders for the companies. To do this tasks what will be required from you are: high-speed Internet connection, some basic knowledge about the Internet including sending and receiving emails, surfing the Internet for information, submitting online forms etc. Also any formal training on Internet marketing will be welcome. Another kind of job you might have is so called "telecommuting" job. Basically you would work for a company as a contract worker doing the tasks at home that the company gave you or working as a regular employee. Off course everything would depend on requirements and needs of the company.

2. Doing Other Types Of Work-at-Home Professions

Yet another great way to earn money from home is a freelance writer, editor, graphic designer, web designer, or illustrator position. This way you can also make money from home creating projects for the companies you are working for. Also you can come up with your own unique designs andsell them for the companies to use. In this field the plus will be all certificates you have and courses you completed. If you lack of some advanced skills you can always take a quick online course or attend to design classes at reasonable price.

Another way is to make money from home creating tutorials on particular subjects you have thorough knowledge and skills in. For instance if you are good graphic designer you can create some free tutorials presenting step by step simple photo editing tricks. However for more advanced tutorials and techniques you could refer viewers to your paid online training center or paid materials they can download at reasonable price.

You can also make money marketing you own products, by creating their online presence in the form of web site where you could put the links to the products, pictures, prices, descriptions and quick online shopping feature. If you don't have your own product you can still make money as an affiliate marketer, promoting someone else's product and make money from commissions paid to you per sale generated.

Yet another way to earn money working from home is managing social media. Social networking is so popular today because it enable people to create their free online presence and promote themselves and what they're doing. That's why many companies use social media to promote their products and create a buzz. Here you can come up with you design skills and offer creating professional looking online profiles for your customers or installing various services on web sites such us: forum, chat or autoresponder.

So there are plenty of ways to make money from home. You need to define your skills and experience first and the do some research for the right opportunities available for you. This way you will be able to make money from the comfort of your own home.

Spread The Word

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Safe and Healthy Work Place

wednesday,24-9-2008

Do you feel that your employer is ensuring that you are working in a healthy and safe environment? It may surprise you to know that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are busier than ever cracking down on unsafe work practices even in 21st century Britain. The dark satanic mills of the 19th century may be long gone but dubious and unsafe work practices continue all around the country from shops and offices to factories and industrial units. These are accidents waiting to happen where employees are being put at risk or forced to work in a less than healthy environment.
Sometimes it is a simple issue such as storing heavy or dangerous materials at a height or that workers are at risk as they endeavour to retrieve goods from hard to reach areas or from damaged shelving. It could be inadequate training such as knowing how to use a fork life truck correctly or using the wrong equipment for a job. It could be poor lighting or ventilation or even inadequate breaks causing workers to become tired and careless. All these can contribute to accidents and injuries in the workplace.
The HSE mission is "To protect people's health and safety by ensuring risks in the changing work place are properly controlled." However it is important to understand that health and safety at work is a two-way street requiring employer and employee to co-operate and work together to ensure a safe work place. The primary responsibility of your employer is to ensure that risks to the health and safety of its employees are properly controlled. To this end all work activities are covered by health and safety laws that employers must adhere to whether they run an oilrig or a bakery. Most of these issues are covered by the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.
Equally you as the employee have a responsibility to look after your own well being and that of your colleagues. So for example your employer is required by law to ensure you have any appropriate safety or protective clothing your job may require. If you then choose not to wear that protective clothing and you injure yourself or others as a direct result you could be in some pretty deep water, especially if you have been repeatedly told to wear the appropriate safety gear. If on the other hand your employer has not supplied the required safety gear, whether or not you asked for it, and you or others are injured as a direct result your employer will be in serious trouble.
If you feel that there are reasonable health and safety concerns in your workplace you should raise them with your employer without fear of being dismissed. Equally if you feel you are being asked to use equipment that you have not had the appropriate training for or are being asked to take unnecessary risks that could endanger you or your colleagues you have the right to say no without being disciplined or losing your job. If your health and safety concerns are not being addressed despite numerous requests then you can contact the HSE confidentially and they will investigate.
In the unfortunate event that you may be injured at work due to negligence on the part of your employer a personal injury lawyer will be able to take up a claim on your behalf. Make sure they are aware of all the facts surrounding the incident including any issues that you may have raised with your employer about health and safety aspects to do with your workplace that may have caused the incident in the first place. This also applies to issues such as industrial related asthma where inappropriate ventilation or lack of protective clothing may well have made the symptoms worse.

milan

Monday, September 22, 2008

Five Important Questions to Ask Florists


Sending flowers as a gift or along with best wishes you loved ones is a very popular trend all over the world. To make it a pleasant experience for both the sender as well as recipient, it is very important to verify a few things. Therefore, whenever you plan to send flowers to your loved ones living in distant part of world, confirm the answers of following questions from your florist:

Can you advise me on which flowers would be best for sending on particular occasions?

This is very important to know the suggestions of florist. They are having long-term experience of flowers delivery, and they are well versed with the knowledge about the perfect flowers to send on a particular occasion. They also suggest which flower arrangement will be the best choice.

When the flowers will be delivered, how will they be transported, and how will they be packaged when they arrive?

Flowers should be delivered at the last possible moment, because the timing is very important. You are sending them on a particular occasion and if there is any delay, then no benefit of sending them. Therefore, you need to ensure timely delivery of flowers and other floral arrangements. The packaging of flowers and their arrangements should be according to the type of flowers, climate, and surrounding environment, as it is very important to ensure the freshness of flowers.

Will you charge any extra amount as taxes, overtime charges, gratuities, or fees that are not described?

Usually all the charges given on a florist's website includes all the taxes and other charges. Even, its better to ask whether they charge anything extra apart from the said amount.

Do you have any special offers on Valentine's Day, Christmas, or New Year?

Valentine's Day, Christmas and New Year are the occasions when the volume of orders is maximum for all florists. They provide various kinds of offers like some rebate on delivery charges to a specific area, or discounts on customized flowers arrangements until a defined time (generally on advance booking of orders). Do not forget to check out for such offers.

What are the rules and regulations regarding cancellation/refund?

In some cases, like late delivery of services and any defaults in timely delivery like damaged flowers arrangements, and bouquets, florists provide order cancellation facilities. Confirm any such services being provided by florists.

Having answers of these questions may help you in making decisions.


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mmk99: Learn Digital Photography .. Tune in to Your Photos on TV

mmk99: Learn Digital Photography .. Tune in to Your Photos on TV

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Learn Digital Photography .. Tune in to Your Photos on TV

22-9-2008

Have you ever wanted to display your treasured digital photo collection in the liveroom TV instead of your computer?

It certainly makes sense to do this if you're showing off your pictures to many friends or family members. You wouldn't want your guests to crowd around that crummy computer screen would you?

Well, there are many ways to display photos on TV. Let's step through the various options in this article.

The most basic way to display digital photos on TV is through your digital camera. Most models, if not all come equipped with a video-out cable. All you do is connect one end of the cable to the video-out plug of the camera and the other end into the video-in plug of the TV. That's all there is to it. Now just playback the pictures on the camera and they will display on the TV.

The shortcoming with this method is that you can only show the photos on the memory card within the camera. If you only have a 32MB memory card, then you will have a limited number of photos.

Another means is to use a photo viewing device. The SanDisk Digital Photo Viewer is a reliable device. This neat little gadget sits on top of your TV set and it accepts popular memory cards like CompactFlash, MultiMedia, Secure Digital, SmartMedia and MemoryStick as input. There is a video-out port to connect the device to the TV. Think of it almost like a digital version of a 35mm slide projector.

I've also noticed some DVD players coming out in the market which accept memory cards as input. One of these is the Sampo DVE-631CF. It's a reasonably priced DVD player which also allows you to play back MP3s and JPEGs from both CD-R/RW and CompactFlash Type I cards.

However, whichever of the above options you choose, you're still limited by the amount of memory available on your memory card. Hence, if you have a small capacity memory card, you probably can't show to many pictures at one go.

Perhaps the best solution of all, is to convert your digital photos to DVD format. The DVD you generate can then be played back in any DVD player to display all your pictures as a slideshow. The primary advantage of this method over the others is that you can store many, many photos on a 4GB DVD-R. It's also pretty convenient to send a DVD of pictures (instead of a memory card) to your friends or family members.

All you need is a DVD burner and some special software. The best software I've found for doing this is Ulead CD and DVD PictureShow.

With its easy-to-use tutorials, this software allows you to convert all your digital photos to DVD in a few easy steps. What's more, you can add special effects to your photo slideshow, including transitions, music and DVD menus. There's a full set of tutorials at the Ulead website to guide you.

Once you've converted them to DVD format, the software burns them into a DVD-R for you. Now just insert the DVD into the DVD player and your picture slideshow is ready to go.

We have gone over three options for displaying photos on your TV set. Photos on TV makes much more sense when you have a large group wanting to see your photos. The method you choose is up to you, but keep in mind that the DVD format will let you show off more of your photos. Have fun and enjoy!


milan

Feed Your Spirit


21-9-2008

If you knew something could give you an extra advantage in your spiritual growth, would you use it?
Of course you would!
Well, I’m going to introduce an ancient secret that masters used for centuries to boost their inner development. But, let me preface this by saying, “nothing is more important than your meditative practice regarding spiritual growth!” Ancient masters of the Far East knew this absolutely – their meditative practice was called Inner Alchemy.

Webster’s Dictionary defines alchemy as, “turning something common into something special,” or “to change from one form to another” (typically into something better than its original form). Many historians think the Ancient Alchemists researched transforming lead to gold. It’s true, many did. However, true alchemists, spiritual alchemists, sought something far more valuable than gold, in fact, something priceless—Spirit. Rather than melting and combining metals into a special mixture in the hopes of making gold, they turned their attention inward, hoping to transform their ordinary selves into something extraordinary—hence, Inner Alchemy.

Though Inner Alchemy was the core of their spiritual practice, they also discovered ways to expedite their growth. These practices were called Outer Alchemy, and involved living a natural lifestyle by incorporating such things as mindful movement, breathing exercises, proper nutrition, acupuncture, massage, and herbology. Of those external practices, herbs provided the greatest advantage. Not just any herbs, though, rather specific botanicals with super boosting properties, referred to as tonic herbs.


[Webster’s Dictionary defines a tonic as: something that lifts the spirits or makes somebody feel better generally; a medicine that purports to make patients feel stronger, more energetic, and generally healthier.]


Out of the hundreds of herbs available, but a few are truly considered tonic herbs! Of these, a handful have the properties that enhance one’s spiritual growth, thus considered a spiritual tonic or a substance that helps to turn something common into something special.


After centuries of research, ancient physicians discovered the secrets of these herbs. And, modern science is beginning to uncover the same secrets of these potent tonic herbs named adaptogens.

The term adaptogen was first popularized by Russian doctors and scientists when they discovered the amazing healing effects these herbs had on their Olympic athletes. The recovery time from their intense athletic training significantly reduced! To summarize it, scientists discovered these specific herbs help the body to better adapt to all forms of stress, be it mental, emotional, physical or environmental.


How does this relate to your spiritual development?


In spiritual thought, we originate from Spirit, Source, Consciousness, or Shen. When Shen takes the earthly form of our bodies, it does so into what Taoism calls, the Triplex Unity (paralleled in the Christian idea of the Holy Trinity). The Triplex Unity, the body, can further be classifies as the Three Treasures—awareness, energy, and essence. Awareness is the subtlest, most refined level of the Three Treasures; it governs the life of the body. Energy is the bio-energetic force that animates the body, similar to the way electricity powers a home, but it’s less subtle than awareness—without it, the body is lifeless. Essence, the densest of the three, comprises the material aspects of the body: the blood and bodily fluids, tissues and organs, and especially the hormones, neurochemicals, and enzymes. It is the substantial form of the body. When awareness, life force, and essence are fully integrated and unobstructed, we remain in a perpetual state of optimal health and wellbeing. If any of them is out of balance, all suffer greatly.


These Three Treasures give rise to our sense of being, will to live and ability to express ourselves. These precious substances are referred to as treasures, because without them, we could not survive. To the extent we learn to protect, cultivate, and conserve them determines the length and quality of our lives. Most importantly, the Three Treasures allow us to return to source—Shen.


In meditation, the Alchemy process is activated; attention turns inward toward the body and away from its usual anxious, forward-driven inclinations. The body acts as a cauldron where the Three Treasures accumulate. Once restored sufficiently, they ignite an internal purification process. This portion of Inner Alchemy is similar to that of building a campfire; first we gather wood, and then light a spark to ignite the fire. The inner alchemical fire burns away physical toxins, repressed emotions, unwanted belief patterns, and expands awareness, ultimately leading us back to Shen.


In East Indian spiritual thought this transformation is referred to as awakening the Kundalini Serpent. When a seeker has sufficiently turned their gaze inward long enough, and allowed their essence to build, life force will ascend upward along the spine until it reaches the head. At this point, a reciprocating descending force meets it at the crown, and thus stimulates a myriad of brain chemicals that alleviate disease, reduce aging, expand consciousness (awareness), and a host of other spiritual phenomena. Look at it this way:


“Essence is likened to the wick in a candle, energy is likened to the flame, and awareness of Shen is the resulting light. When the wick burns out, the flame goes out, and with it so does the light.''


Essence can be further classified into two categories, acquired and congenital. Acquired essence is derived from food, air, and water, whereas congenital essence is inherited from our parents. Though essence includes the entire body, the adrenals house the most potent of all essences—congenital essence. The adrenals also store many of our sex hormones that keep us vital and youthful. In the Inner Alchemy process, they have a much more important role; these sex hormones or congenital essence are the underlying biological fuel for our spiritual fires!


The biggest reason why most seekers struggle maintaining a deepened spiritual awareness is that somewhere in their lives they are depleting and exhausting their Three Treasures—namely essence.


How?


Well, stress exhausts the adrenal glands, which depletes congenital essence. More specifically, the way we metabolize the effects of stress causes essence depletion, and translates into the number one cause for all health imbalances.


No matter how much we meditate, if the fuel in our adrenals is exhausted, we won’t get very far. That is exactly why tonic or adaptogenic herbs are incredibly helpful! The core benefit of adaptogens is their ability to help the body cope with stress and help heal the systemic damage caused by stress. Adaptogens recharge the adrenal glands, the body’s primary mechanism for responding to stress and emotional change!


To sum it up, stress exhausts the adrenals, which is problematic since the most potent of essences resides there. However, adaptogens restore the adrenals. Therefore, adaptogens restore essence and help build our biological connection to Spirit!


Today many supplements use adaptogens in their formulas—randomly. Some such herbs are: Licorice Root, Eluethero Root, American Ginseng, Atractolydes, Astragulas, Matiake, Schisandra, and Lychii Fruit. Most formulations target general health and wellbeing. I suggest using formulas specifically for recharging the adrenals and essence. More powerful formulas are ones that combine several adaptogens coupled with a food delivery system for optimum assimilatio.