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Small engines are used on many types of outdoor power equipment including lawnmowers, snowblowers, tillers, trimmers, chainsaws and blowers. From time to time these engines require service. When this happens, should you attempt to fix the problem yourself or should you instead take the machine to a local repair shop?

There are some good reasons to consider repairing your own small engine. Most repair shops charge a fee just to look at your machine. At fifty dollars or more per hour of labor plus the cost of parts, your bill can quickly add up. During busy seasons a repair shop may take weeks to repair your machine. Before any of that you must load the heavy equipment into your car or pay expensive pickup/delivery charges. Will they fix it right the first time?

With some basic mechanical ability and a few common tools you can often do the job yourself, saving money and time. Start by reading the machine’s owner’s manual. There you’ll find important safety and warranty information, operating instructions and maintenance procedures. If the solution to your problem isn’t found there then find the machine’s make and model number. Often these numbers are stamped directly into the engine’s cover, or they may be located on a sticker or tag attached to the engine. There may be separate model numbers for the engine and for the chassis or “body” of the machine.

Use your machine’s make and model number to obtain the correct service manual. Many of the same service manuals that professional small engine mechanics use are readily available via the Internet and are quite inexpensive. Some online stores offer a wide selection of service manuals in a number of formats including paper, downloadable electronic PDF, VHS video and CD-ROM. These manuals are quite detailed yet are written at a fairly basic level. They contain important safety information, adjustment procedures, troubleshooting tips and specifications in addition to step-by-step repair instructions. The service manual will easily pay for itself on the first job.

After using the service manual to diagnose your machine’s problem, decide if it is something that you can repair yourself. Some problems require specials tools or are covered under the machine’s warranty and these repairs are best left to a professional. Many common problems however are easy to fix yourself. Replacing a clogged air filter for example is quite simple and takes just minutes. Replacement parts are available online and at local dealers that support your brand of equipment.

So the next time your lawnmower won’t start, don’t run to the local repair shop. If you’re the least bit handy, consider trying to fix it yourself. Not only can you save money and time, but you’ll also get the satisfaction that comes from repairing your own power equipment.

Dan Batrams is a professional mechanic at M&D Mower and Appliance, the Web’s leading retailer of parts and accessories for power equipment. He is certified to perform factory-authorized warranty service for many popular brands of outdoor power equipment and power tools. Visit http://www.M-and-D.com for free technical help and expert customer service.

Advertising Your Blog In Your Email Signature

If you have a blog that you are particularly proud of,and that you want to share with other people, there are a lot of free ways that you can get your blog noticed.

One of those ways is something that you do everyday,and that you may not even consider as a way to share your blog. Put the link to your blog in your email signature.

Chances are that you send out emails more times that you can count during the day, Each time you send out an email, you can advertise your blog by putting the address of your blog in your email’s signature.

It’s always a good idea to write something catchy like, See what I am up to now, or Read my latest chapter of my fanfic here, depending on what type of blog you have.

The thing to remember about putting an adveritsement in your signature for your blog is to make it short, but eye catching.

You want people to be interested enough to want to click on it, but you also don’t want to scare them off.

Just like it is with any adveritsement, you want to give them just enough to be interested and take a closer look at what it is that you are advertising.

Think about what it is that your blog is about. What is really going to interest people about it and want to visit That is what you should include in your signature, and that is what is going to get people to go to your blog.

Blogger Forums – A Great Place To Advertise Your Blog

No matter what type of blog that you have, one of the best places that you can advertise your blog is to join a blogger forum. After all, everyone who posts there has a blog and thats the main subject.

It’s a great place to meet other bloggers and to advertise your blog.

There are quite a few blogger forums that you can signup for on the Internet. One is known as Bloggeries,where you can show off your blog, get your blog reviewed or review other blogs, and find lots of tools that you can use for your own blog.

Another good place to go is to Blog Forum.

Blog Forum, like Bloggeries, has spots for you to market and show off your blog,

Blogger forums are a great place to advertise because everyone in them are of the same mind and want to make certain that their blogs get noticed and read.

If you use your blog to advertise something that you are selling, or you want to get a lot of traffic to your blog in order to make money, you want to go someplace where it can get exposure.

When you advertise on a blog forum, you know that you are placing your advertisement in a place where blogging is something that people enjoy.

Just remember when you are posting to a forum to read the rules and abide by them. That way you’ll get your blog noticed and you will know that you are doing the

Blogging Directories – Great Advertising Venues

If you want to have more people visit your blog, there are plenty of blog directories on the Internet that you can submit your blog to so that people will come and visit it. Most blog directories are listed by the topics that the blogs that are submitted cover.

Blog Catalog is a free blog directory that offers categories such as career and jobs, writing, Iraq, and many others. It has features such as featured blogs and other things to offer those who submit their blogs there.

Another great place to add your blog is blog-drectory.org. Not only do they have an an extensive list of categories with sub categories, you can get your blog reviewed. For the most popular blogs, it shows the amount of hits that blogs have and if they have any reviews. As well as listing by category, the blogs are also listed by location.

There are other blog directories on the Internet -these are only a couple of them. But blog directories are a great place to advertise your blog and to make new friends. You never know what you will find when you browsing through the directory, and you may just find out information that you never knew. Some of the blog directories offer chat features as well, so that you can meet other people easily.

As you can see, blog directories are a great place to get your blog noticed and bring people to read your blog and look at your pictures.

Blogging Traffic – Give And Take

Blogging traffic is a give and take relationship.Sometimes one of the best ways to get traffic to your blog is by visiting someone else ‘s blog.

Go to their blog and read one of their entries, or read a few of them. Chances are that you are going to find something that you have in common.

When you find something that you find truly interesting on a blog, leave a comment so that they know that you were there.

One of the best known blogs available is Live Journal. A great feature of Live Journal is that you can search for interests on their site and it will come up with results of those who have that interest.

Are you interested in horseback riding You can see what other bloggers are interested in horseback riding as well.

When you are commenting on someone’s post, you want to make sure that you don’t leave generic comment. If you like the post, say something about what you read in the post.

After you have commented on the person’s post, then you can say something like, ‘I really like horsebackriding too. I had a similar experience to yours.’ and then use it to link back to your journal.

But be sure that you sound sincere when you are commenting, and don’t make them feel like you’re just fishing for traffic.

If someone thinks that you are using their blog to get more traffic to yours, they won’t visit your site and your efforts will be wasted.

Join A Community To Advertise Your Blog

Something that you will find, especially if you join something like Live Journal or Greatest Journal, is that users just like you have created communities for people with common interests.

There are communities for just about any subject, and if you find that there isn’t a community for the subject you can create one. This is a great place to advertise your blog.

The nice thing about communities is that there isn’t any limit as to how many communities that you can join.

For example, say that you love blogging about books,horseback riding, and skiing in Tahoe. All you have to do is look through the communities for ones that have those interests and join them.

As long as you post something related to the topic to the chosen community, people will see you and perhaps they will check out your personal blog.

Something to remember is that you don’t want to write a post that is one sentence long in order to get people to go to your blog. They will want to know that what you write is interesting and is something worth reading.

Joining communities can be a great way to advertise your blog and drive traffic to it. If you are referring to something that you posted about on your blog, you can use a link back to your entry in your post.

As with posting comments on someone else’s blog, you don’t want people to think that you joined a community simply to get traffic to your blog. Otherwise, people won’t visit your blog and you may get banned from the community as well.

Email Groups – Hidden Treasure Troves For Advertising A Blog

Something that has become increasingly popular since the Internet has grown are the email groups that are available through Yahoo, MSN, and other venues.

They are a great way to meet other people who have a common interest, and are very similar to the communities that are available through blogging sites.

There is plenty of diverse subjects and there are communities for just about any subject.

These groups can be a great place for people who have a blog about the subject and want to share it with other people.

Most of the time when you join a group, you are encouraged to take a moment and to introduce yourself.This is a great opportunity to tell people about your blog, but make certain that you don’t overdo it.

Just like with any of the other places you will advertise your blog, you want to make people want to go to your blog. If you are too overbearing, you will turn people off.

If your blog covers different subjects, you can advertise it on the other groups that cover those subjects as well.

Make certain that your post to the groups is interesting and that you let people know what it is that your blog is about. There’s nothing worse than getting taken to a blog under false pretences.

When people visit your blog, make certain that you thank them for visiting and respond to comments that they leave.

If they know that you appreciate the time that they took, they are more likely to come back again.

The power of being seen is the up most importance and blogging is one the best ways you can make sure others know of you, don’t let it pass you by.

[http://www.theonlinenbiznetwork.com]

Douglas Smith has been involved with selling online since 2001 and creator of numerous websites along with being an ebay powerseller.

Car insurance is required by all licensed drivers but many of them don’t know how to find the best rates available. Being complacent and purchasing car insurance without carefully investigating your options or maintaining the same car insurance for the remainder of your life could mean that you are paying too much for your car insurance. Comparison shopping, ensuring that you are receiving all the discounts you qualify for and maintaining a clean driving record are just a few of the money saving tips that can save you a fortune on car insurance.

Comparison shopping for car insurance, even after you are already insured, cannot be underestimated. It is critical that you investigate all of your options before choosing an insurance provider to ensure that you are getting the best possible rate on your car insurance. There are so many factors considered in car insurance policies such as where you live, your driving record, your age and the type of car you drive just to name a few. With all of these factors to consider, it is very possible that you will find that there is a car insurance provider who will offer you a considerably lower rate than other providers.

Even after you have secured insurance for your car, it is wise to periodically check the rates that other providers will offer you. Car insurance as well as your circumstances are perpetually changing and you may find that the provider who is willing to offer you the best car insurance rate varies periodically. Many car insurance providers offer a host of discounts to their clients who qualify for these discounts. These discounts can relate to your driving record, safety features of your car, your age or other factors.

These discounts can result in a tremendous cost savings on your car insurance policy but while many insurance providers offer these discounts, they don’t always advertise them. This means that you may have to do research to determine what type of discounts you may qualify to receive. Carefully, review your car insurance policy to determine which discounts you are already receiving and then contact your car insurance provider to inquire about other discounts that may be available. For example if your driving record is devoid of accidents or tickets, you may qualify for a good driver discount.

Also, if your car has certain safety features such as daytime running lights, you may also qualify for car insurance discounts. Your age can also qualify you for certain car insurance discounts. Some insurance providers also offer discounts to those who insure their house with the same company as they insure their car. Taking advantage of this type of discount can save you money on both your car and home insurance. Being aware of the discounts that are available and ensuring that you are receiving these discounts, can save you a great deal of money on your car insurance.

Finally, maintaining a clean driving record is very important to receiving the best available car insurance rate. While it is true that each car insurance provider is unique in the factors that contribute to lower rates, the one factor that is consistent among all providers of car insurance is that a clean driving record is critical to your rate. Although accidents are sometimes unavoidable, it is imperative that you adhere to all traffic regulations and that you drive safely at all times. This will reduce the number of traffic violations that you incur as well as the number of accidents that you cause. Following these tips will help you to maintain a clean driving record that will keep the cost of your car insurance low.

Many drivers lament paying their monthly car insurance bill because they feel as though the insurance isn’t necessary. Although car insurance is a financial burden that seems superfluous, it does pay off if you are ever in a serious car accident that has significant financial ramifications. For this reason, you should never consider allowing your car insurance to lapse and it is recommended that you search diligently to find the best available rate on your car insurance.

For Great Money saving Tips visit our website at: Car Insurance [http://www.1-in-insurance.com]

Facts about pets

Australian families who share their homes with pets number among the highest in the world, with 64% of households including pets. In those 7.5 million households, fish top the pet population at over 12 million, followed by birds, at 9 million. At almost 4 million, there are more dogs than either boys or girls under the age of 14 years, and our domestic cat population is approximately two and a half million. If we group horse for pleasure riding, rodents, rabbits, snakes, lizards and others together, we can add another 2 million pets.

Pet Supplies Pet association has been shown to have enormous positive benefits on health and wellbeing of Australians. When you have a pet as a member of your family, you will visit the doctor less frequently and use less medication, have lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure, recover from illness and surgery more rapidly, deal with stress better and be less likely to feel lonely. All in all, it is estimated that pet association saves the Australian health budget almost S4 billion annually.

Around 90% of Australian familles with pets, consider those pets as fully integrated family members and the primary caregiver who assumes responsibility for the pet in the majority of situations is female. Not surprisingly, expenditure on pets, pet care and pet products in Australia is placed at more than $4 billion annually and provides employment for more than 40,000 people. Of this expenditure, two thirds (66%) is spent on dogs and one quarter (25%) is spent on cats. Dogs therefore get the greater amount of attention in pet world.

Care and grooming products

Caring for pets requires time and energy on the part of the caregiver. In today’s busy world, time is a commodity in shorter supply than perhaps it once was. There are a lot of products available to help reduce the amount of time needed for pet care. Search Myshopping.com.au for pet care products for your particular animal.

There are automatic feeding and watering products that mean your animal can access food and water when they need it and don’t have to depend on you being there to attend to it. Having water readily available for dogs and cats is important because they dehydrate more quickly than humans. Automated pet feeders not only reduce the chore of being there to provide meals for your pets, but add the convenience of timing food releases for animals that may be subject to particular dietary needs. Using an elevated pet feeder can aid your pet’s digestion because the pet doesn’t have to strain and bend over to access the food. Portable watering and feeding products are useful for those who take their pets with them at work or on the move, and include drinking pouches and feedbags for dogs and cats.

The need to groom your pet depends a lot on your living environment, and whether (or how much) your pet is an indoor or outdoor pet. Grooming could be a daily, weekly or occasionally scheduled activity, and is necessary to keep the animal’s coat healthy and to eradicate fleas and other parasites. It is also important to keep dander in check. Grooming products for pets include products for coat maintenance, nail clipping, dental care, bathing and beauty. There is a huge range of shampoos, face washes, and deodorisers and skin care products as well as styling tools and bows and ribbons for beautification. Grooming tools you may require could include a grooming table, heated blower-dryer, combs, rakes and brushes. As well as nail files and clippers.

Accommodation and transport products

As we cram ourselves into smaller and smaller living spaces, we have a need to accommodate our pets in the most comfortable manner. There is a huge range of bedding, mat and cushion products for dogs and cats, as well as cages and aquariums for birds and fish. (Aquariums are also available for hermit crabs and snails). Small ‘housing’ products such as indoor and outdoor kennels and sleeping tents and bags come in a variety of sizes and styles to suit all kinds of living environments. Rugs and shelters are also important for keeping your pets warm during cold weather, and insulated or shaded shelters are important during warmer weather. Pet that suffer from arthritis can benefit from pet warming pads, while animals that have motor disabilities can benefit from special ramps and steps that aid them in their mobility.

As a large proportion of pet owners like to travel with their pets in cars or on bicycles, there are a large number of travelling options, including specially designed car seats, harness and soft cages. Some car seats double as a travel suitcase to carry your pet’s travel needs or as a bed for a comfortable night’s sleep. For the cyclist, there is a range of pet bicycle baskets available with different safety and security features.

One of the reasons that pets help foster better health is due to the time we spend walking, running or playing with them. Searching Myshopping.com.au for leads and collars will yield a tremendous variety of products. Leads that you can belt around your waist give you ‘hands-free’ control of your dog while you walk or jog freely. Collars not only provide a way to carry your animal’s registration tags, but also provide a unique identity for your pet. If your pet is small or has a disability, you can get a pet stroller or a pocket pouch to walk or carry your pet.

Safe and secure enclosures can keep pets from wandering off, while giving them an outdoor experience. Safety pet fences or cat fences are wire mesh enclosures that can be used in backyards or on balconies to keep you pet safe while giving tem the ability to stretch in the fresh air. Portable soft pens, many of which can be coupled together to enclose a larger area, are ideal for containing a pet indoors or blocking off an entrance.

Safety products and toys

There are occasions when both pets and humans need to be kept safe from each other and from other dangers in the home and neighbourhood. These can include muzzles and safety restraints, as well as steps and life preservers to use in shimming pools and at beaches. The elderly pet may need special pet stairs or slings to help with mobility, or a brace that acts as a support crutch.

There is no shortage of toys for your pet available through Myshopping.com.au and may include scratching posts and tunnels for your cat; Frisbees, balls and bones for your dog, mirrors and balls for your birds, racing tracks for rodents. You can even find the more unusual toys along with training devices; clothing articles and pampering products here on Myshopping.com.au just click and search.

Andrew Gates is a writer for comparison online shopping service MyShopping.com.au. MyShopping.com.au helps you compare pet products and buy online from top-rated online stores. You can also read pet products reviews and specifications.

If you look into a student’s room, you’ll most likely see the walls covered with posters. You probably decorated your dorm room with posters (e.g., classic movie posters, posters of your favorite band or singer, etc.) when you were a college student.

There is a huge market for classic movie posters today. These classic movie posters, sold at DVD and record shops, are mainly used by marketing outfits as marketing tools for promoting movies and persuading the movie going public to go to the theaters and watch. However, classic movie posters also serve as memorabilia for movie lovers. After all, classic movie posters are an artwork in themselves. Many of these classic movie posters are actually considered works of art because their designs become the symbols of the films.

Movie posters can convey plenty of information regarding the cast, director, crew and such, but there are movie posters whose focus is more on conveying a powerful visual image. You will notice that older classic movie posters have more words and tag lines and often feature painted images of the lead actors. Other classic movie posters use still photographs that were taken directly from the film.

Many of the images in the classic movie posters are literal. For instance, Gone With The Wind’s classic movie poster had Vivian Leigh in Clarke Gable’s arms. The King Kong classic movie poster has the heroine being carried by King Kong. The Casablanca classic movie poster has its lead stars, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, looking at us, their cheeks against each other.

The more memorable poster images or photographs eventually become the lead stars’ iconic images, and they stay in the moviegoer’s minds. In fact, these poster images are often what launches actors to stardom. For instance, the image of Audrey Hepburn in the classic movie poster for Breakfast At Tiffany’s is one that has endured through the years. Mention her name and the public thinks of her in an evening gown, adorned with jewels. The classic movie posters for The Great Escape captured Steve McQueen doing different motorbike stunts. And James Dean…perhaps his most memorable image is the one that appeared in the Giant’s classic movie poster: Dean posed crucified with his rifle. And who wouldn’t have seen the famous photo of Marilyn Monroe standing over an air vent, trying to hold her dress down? This image of Monroe was used to promote the Bus Stop film. You can find great information on movies and movie reviews at http://www.magiclanternpr.com

The horror genre has its share of memorable images too. The images in the older classic movie posters in this genre mostly conveyed a subtle, quiet menace. For instance, it would be hard not to feel a chill when looking at Norman Bats’ shadowy house iin the classic movie poster for Psycho. Similarly, Jack Nicholson with his head smashed through the door in the movie poster for The Shining is scary. The classic movie poster for The Candyman has a wasp sitting on the edge of an eye.

The Jaws movie poster is one of the classic movie posters that is most reproduced. This classic movie poster has a simple but very powerful image: a shark’s mouth wide open, directly facing us. Another powerful poster image is that of Taxi Driver’s Robert De Niro with his hand at his temple, pointed like a gun. And when it comes to the romance genre, the Titanic movie poster is a true classic. It captures the image of Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet above the Titanic, two people forever in love.

Article by Dean Forster at http://www.magiclanternpr.com . For more great information on movies and movie reviews visit Family Movie Review

A recent survey indicated that clean Taxi Cabs Fleets have higher tip rates and repeat customers. How do you wash a taxicab? You do them four at a time and you go up and over and up and over when you are drying them. If they have a little taxi cab sign, dry that last. But you do the rest of the car the way you do a regular car. The only difference is you are going to spray three, four, five, sometimes six cars at a time. Then another crewmember is going to follow behind you and do all the windows really well. You do a quick vacuum with a taxicab. Seriously, you do not want to be in that taxicab for more then a minute or a minute and a half. Now most taxicabs are usually scratched and they look like crap. This is something you are going to have to deal with. This is just the way they are going to look which is good for you because they are not expecting a perfect job. They just want them to look clean because they have their logo on them. Taxi companies are very low budget operations and low cost will get you the account. Some taxicabs are owned by independent contractors. You will need to charge more since the volume is not there. Staging areas at big airports are a good place to find lots of taxicabs.

Rent-A-Cars

Rent-a-cars these days are mostly small, tiny cars that get really good gas mileage. They are Toyota Tercels, Ford Contours and Dodge Neons and things like that. You can wash a Dodge Neon in your sleep in about three minutes. Really easy to clean, really, really easy and that is important. You want some accounts that are easy. Three dollars is fair for exteriors, five dollars for in and out is fine. It is important to have efficiency when washing rent-a-cars. No more than two minutes for vacuuming. You only want to clean the windows that are dirty. You do not want to clean all of the windows on a rent-a-car, just where you see fingerprints. You want to wipe off the dash really quick, wipe around the center console and use cleaner on the sticky stuff. Hit the inside windows that are dirty, wash the outside. You want to do them five, six at a time and you want to dry them off real fast, make sure the windows are clean and go to the next car. Rent-a-cars are really good money. You want to charge an extra two dollars for taking out carpet stains. Use some Folex cleaner or advanced carpet stain remover, some kind of a little carpet brush and a towel to wipe up whatever you precipitate at the top of the carpet after you have got it wet. The carpet remover should come off on the towel. There will always be trash in rent-a-cars, a lot of trash. You should have a bucket ready that you just put trash in and move it from car to car. Dump it before you leave. Usually rent-a-cars will have a Dempsey Dumpster around the back where you can dump all of your trash.

Rent-a-car companies are very careful and exacting as to what times of day they want their cars washed. They may have a whole bunch of vehicles in on Monday mornings and want you to do cars on Monday mornings. You are going to have to do the cars at that time. They are probably going to want them done before eight o’clock in the morning. So if you are doing the cars before eight o’clock in the morning and there are twenty or thirty rent-a-cars, it is quite serious that you get them all done in time. The rent-a-car company is paying you so they do not have to drive them to the car wash. It is rather important that you get them done on time. It is really easy to get them all done if you work efficiently. You are doing them six at a time. If you have twenty cars to do, you need to have them done by eight thirty to nine o’clock and you are doing them six at a time, you should have twenty-four cars done in an hour if you are really flying through them and you have the right crew. So pay attention to this. You can afford to do the cars for five dollars each because the job comes out to about one hundred dollars an hour. Think about this for a second. Think about the time and efficiency and how fast can you do them. This attitude is what will help you pick up the rent-a-car company accounts. If you can do them very, very quickly and you can do them not perfectly but good enough to make them happy, there is a lot of money in rent-a-car washing. Our crews in other towns already wash for: Budget, Avis, Dollar, Hertz, Enterprise and generally can afford to wash them and retain a profit at only $5.00 per vehicle.

Police Cars

It is time to talk about police cars. We just saw a police car go the other way with his lights on. In any case, police cars, how do you wash a police car? Well first of all, you wash it like you would wash any normal car but you want to make sure you clean the light bar really well. You do not want to spray water inside the light bar, you will screw up the electronics. You also do not want to, but some of our guys love to do it, spray water inside the PA speaker on the front of the police car that is mounted by the bumper. The reason they like to do that is because it burns them outs and gives them a short. So, you should not do that. Now under the seats of a police car you find all kinds of cool stuff. Best to hand it over to the authorities and not smoke it yourself. You will find crazy stuff under the seats of a police car where you are going to have to clean. Depending on how you feel you can either vacuum the stuff up or put it into a little bag and give it to the watch commander. You need to dust the radios inside of the police car, but you have to be careful not to turn any knobs. There are always bugs on the light bars, but you cannot blast off the bugs as much as you would like to. You really need to soap them off and not blast them off. Sometimes the light bars get real brittle on the older police cars. You can actually blast right through them. I have done it before.

For some reason police like to go 4 X 4′ ing when they are going through center dividers in order to catch a terrible criminal such as a speeder. They will go off road and do whatever; maybe they are just having fun. So you have to make sure that you clean all the mud off the police cars, they are a little bit muddier then most cars. The bottoms of the police cars are always muddy and they are going to need hand soaping. Police cars are often black and white. Usually the white part is where the door is so the policeman knows where to get in. The rest of the car is black. Now the part of the car that is black, remember it is black. If you are doing police cars in the sun and you are trying to do them three at a time, you may have a little problem getting to all of them. Some cities have police cars that are all white cars or all green cars or a mixture and that makes it a little bit easier.

There are certain additional things you have to watch for when cleaning police cars. Do not have a bunch of stuff out of your truck when you are washing a line of police cars. Someone may run out of the building and want to take their car. If you cannot move the truck in time you will really frustrate that officer. He wants to look official and squeal the tires out of the parking lot so you may as well just let him do whatever he wants to do.

Driving School Cars

Driving school cars are basically just like rent-a-car companies. The only difference is you want to spend a little more time on the dash board and a lot of time on the windows. You probably need to get five or six dollars each. This is giving them a deal because normally you charge ten dollars for in and out.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Every person likes their steak cooked a different way, so throughout this article I will make sure that I cover each possible different way so that you will always get the best result for yourself or whoever you cook for.

There are several different cuts of beef that will make a great steak, and there are also many grades of beef to consider, depending on what the cow was fed on the farm, so your first step is to choose which one you would prefer. The choices include rump, scotch fillet, porterhouse, eye fillet and T-bone as the main premium cuts generally eaten. The beef’s grading will come down largely to marbling and maturity of the meat. There is a debate as to which is better out of grain-fed and grass-fed cattle, and really the answer is grass-fed beef is healthier for you as it is the most natural form of the cattle, while grain-fed beef will have a lot more marbling and flavour, so I will leave that choice up to you which way you want to go. As for maturity, I recommend finding a butcher that will hang your meat for quite a long time in their meat locker before carving it, I have found that 27 days is ideal. This will help tenderize the meat by having it stretched out and relaxing the muscles, to give you the best possible final result.

The rump and porterhouse are firmer cuts, and the rump in particular can be a bit tougher and chewier than the rest, and you will find a strip of fat at the top of each of these steaks, which will help flavour and tenderize the steak during the cooking process. Both these cuts I would recommend eating rare to medium-rare (I will discuss steak doneness a little later).

Meanwhile the scotch fillet will come very nicely marbled with fat throughout, and can usually be distinguished by a C-shaped piece of fat close to one side. Due to the marbling it will be very tender and full of flavour (however if you’re on a diet it may be one to avoid for now), and I recommend eating it medium-rare to medium.

The eye fillet is the most tender cut of beef, and will normally be free of fat, although this also means you may need to do something extra to add some flavour to it, the most popular way being to wrap bacon around it during cooking, so the fatty flavours of the bacon are absorbed by the steak. This is my personal favourite steak, and is best eaten medium-rare to medium.

Lastly we come to the T-bone, which has both the eye fillet and porterhouse on either side of the bone, and will get its flavour from the strip of fat on the outside of the porterhouse. I recommend eating the T-bone rare to medium-rare, though it can be tricky to cook evenly due to the bone in the middle.

Once you’ve decided which cut of steak you will be eating, you need to work out how big a piece of meat you want. A normal-sized steak is generally around 300g for a good-sized meal, however it could range anywhere from 150g up to 1kg and even more! The size of your steak will become important later when you want to cook it to a particular doneness. For example, two different rump steaks could quite easily weigh the same amount, yet be completely different shapes, sometimes they can be wide and flat, and sometimes short and thick, depending on what part of the rump the steak was cut from. Choosing the size of your steak and the shape go hand-in-hand, it’s best to have a thicker steak for a rare or medium-rare steak, and when you want a medium-well or above thinner is better. This is so it doesn’t take a long time for you to cook, and you can still have a juicy steak without burning the outside.

Now let’s just get away from the steak for a minute and think about what you’re actually going to cook it on. Ideally you should have a chargrill, one that sits on an angle, and has enough space underneath the flame to have a tray that you can put a small piece of wood on. What I personally prefer is mesquite wood, which comes from the USA, and the best thing to do is to soak it in water for a couple of hours before cooking. This will help the wood give off its smoky flavour rather than just burn away, and it will also last longer, usually for at least a couple of hours.

I mentioned earlier that if possible your grill should be built on an angle, sloping up towards the back. As you know, heat rises, so naturally you should find the hottest part of your grill at the back, and get slightly cooler closer to the front. Most grills and hotplates in general will have certain “hotspots” that you will need to find for each one to work out the bests places to position your food when cooking. Once you’ve used a particular grill a couple of times you should find it quite easy to figure out your favourite spots to cook on. The combination of knowing where your “hotspots” are and using an angled grill will make it easier to find the best position to cook your steak. If you don’t have a chargrill to use and you have a flatgrill or a hotplate instead, I would recommend not cooking your steak entirely through on the hotplate, particularly for medium or above, seal it on both sides then place your steak on a tray and finish it off in an oven. Otherwise all you will do is burn the outside and lose all the moisture and juiciness from your meat.

The other element to consider is how you would like your steak cooked. In general, a well-done steak should be placed at the back, a medium steak in the middle of the grill, and a rare steak at the front. Obviously, this leaves medium-rare between the front and middle, and the medium-well between the middle and the back. In some situations you will need to adjust this slightly depending on the size and shape of your steak, a big, thick rump may need to be pushed a bit further up the grill to cook properly, while a thin and flat porterhouse might be best kept a little closer to the front to avoid overcooking. Your steak positioning will come down largely to personal preference and a bit of practice and experience with your grill.

Now that you should have worked out where on the grill you will place your steak, you’re almost ready to start cooking! What you need to consider now is how you will season your steak. You may not want any seasoning, that’s fine, go right ahead and start cooking. If you wish to use salt and pepper, I would suggest waiting until one side of your steak has been sealed before sprinkling any on, as salt has the tendency to leech out some of the moisture from your meat. My preferred method of seasoning is to get a really good steak seasoning spice and generously cover both sides before placing your steak on the grill. When you do place your steak on the grill, if you are going to have a rump or a porterhouse, make sure you place the strip of fat at the top, so as it cooks the fat will melt and drip through the steak, adding extra flavour to your meat.

The process of actually cooking your steak is quite simple, but there are a few key things you need to know to get the best result. Firstly, the advantage of using the chargrill means you can have nice cross-markings on your steak when it’s finished, which looks fantastic for presentation. To achieve this, your steak will need to be turned three times, the first time straight over itself, then on the second turn spin it around 90 degrees so the lines from the grill will cross over each other and make little brown squares all over the steak, and then the third and final turn will be straight over itself again. When you’re finished the steak should have cross-markings on both sides, and you can choose whichever side looks best to serve facing up.

What you should find if you have got the grill positioning right for your preferred doneness, 3-4 minutes in between each turn should have your steak turn out just the way you like it! (If you are cooking your steak bleu, you only need to cook it for 3 minutes on each side in total, just enough to seal each side basically).

This is just a guide to work by only, as each grill will produce slightly different results, but definitely the most important stage of cooking your steak is knowing when it is at the exact doneness you would like. This can sometimes be a little tricky, but there are a couple of methods for testing your steak without needing to cut into it. The best method to use when you’re just starting to learn would be what I call the “thumb test”. Hold your left hand out open and relaxed, and press the flesh of your left thumb with your right index finger. It should feel quite soft, and this is how a rare steak should feel when you press it with your finger.

Now lightly touch your left thumb to your left index finger, and press the flesh of your thumb with your right index finger. This is how a medium-rare steak should feel when it’s ready. Next, lightly touch your left thumb to your left middle finger, and pressing the flesh of your left thumb will feel like a medium steak when it’s ready.

Touching your left thumb to your left ring finger will make the flesh of your left thumb feel like a medium-well steak, and touching the left thumb to your left little finger will make the flesh of your thumb feel like a well-done steak. Try this out as a guide to get you started, and as with all things, practice and experience will help you hone your ability and instincts to know just when your steak is cooked to perfection! And just as importantly, make sure you get feedback from every person that you cook a steak for, this will make your progress go much faster. As they say, “feedback is the breakfast of champions!”

Another method to use, which can be a little bit sneaky, is if you can see into the middle of the steak at the edges to see what colour the middle looks like. This works really well for a scotch fillet, as you can gently pull away part of the meat right where the C-shaped piece of fat is without damaging your steak, and see if the inside is red, pink or grey.

Now I will explain to you each doneness, so you can work out how you would like to cook it and so you know what to look for when it is finished.

I will start with bleu, which is basically just sealed, is still very red in the middle, quite mushy to the touch, and will feel a little cool inside, only slightly warmed.

Rare is red in the middle from edge to edge, a little mushy, and will just feel warm inside. Medium-rare is red in the middle and pink at the edges, and will feel warm inside. Medium is pink in the middle from edge to edge, feels tender to the touch, and will be warm to hot inside. Medium-well still has a quarter in the middle that is pink, and will be grey at the edges, feels quite firm and is hot inside. If you plan to cook your steak medium-well or above, I would suggest you could speed up the cooking time by using a steak weight to place on top of your steak. It should be shiny silver and kept clean, and what will happen is the heat coming up from the flames below will be reflected down on to the top of the steak so it cooks on both sides. Make sure if you use a steak weight that you only place it on your steak after sealing one side so there is no chance of cross-contamination.

Well-done steaks are grey throughout, no pink at all, quite firm, although can still be juicy, and is very hot inside. Very well-done steaks are grey throughout with no pink at all, very firm, very hot, and no juices whatsoever. You can also get your steak cooked Pittsburgh, which basically means charring the outside so it is burnt while the inside doesn’t need to be completely cooked. For example, if you want to have your steak Pittsburgh-Rare, you could char the outside, and the inside would be red in the middle from edge to edge. To do this you will need some oil or butter, I personally use lemon butter just for the flavouring, and drizzle some over the steak until it drips onto the flames underneath. Your goal here is to build the flames up so they are licking at the steak and will cook the outside much faster than the inside.

CAUTION! Be very mindful of how much butter you use, make sure you have fire safety equipment, and if necessary that you have adult supervision. Do not do this if you do not feel comfortable working with large flames, it can be very dangerous if something nearby catches fire, so please be very careful if this is how you would like to have your steak cooked.

Everybody has different preferences when it comes to their beef, but I would urge you to try each different way so you can work out for yourself what’s best for you. Many people fear the sight of blood coming out of their steak, if you can work up the courage to try something new for yourself, who know, you might find you really like it! I personally eat my steaks medium-rare, and would like to take this opportunity to mention that once your steak starts getting to medium-well and above, you really lose a lot of the nutritional benefits of eating beef, so I would recommend not cooking your steak any more than medium, but obviously that is a choice that is entirely up to you.

Now all that’s left to do is to serve up your perfectly cooked steak, there are many choices of sides and sauces, far too many to list here. I always love it with a creamy mashed potato and seasonal steamed vegetables, and my favourite sauce is mushroom sauce. If you have the time the best sauce is made using beef bones, cooked off with a little tomato paste, then make a stock by boiling the bones in water with some celery, carrots, onion, leeks, bay leaves and peppercorns. Simmer it for a couple of hours until it reduces about three-quarters, and then remove the bones and vegetables. Add some red wine and port, and reduce it down to about half of where it is now, until it starts to thicken with a nice consistency. From here you can add some sliced mushrooms, or peppercorns if you prefer, and even add a little cream if you like as well. This is very time consuming to make the jus (rich beef gravy), but if you can do it you will find it well worthwhile. One other little tip I have for you is to brush a small amount of lemon butter over your steak before saucing it, this will keep your steak very juicy and tender.

I hope you enjoy cooking and eating many steaks in the future, and make sure you go out and impress your friends with your newfound cooking skills!

Mick Reade is a chef from Australia who has been cooking in commercial kitchens across the country for over 10 years, and has been helping teach others how easy it can be to cook great tasting and healthy meals, for more information please visit http://www.alleasyfoodrecipes.com

Since stations became required to broadcast high-definition TV signals, televisions that can pick up these signals have been in popularity. High definition televisions offer viewers clearer images, better and sharper surround sound technology and most importantly, pictures that have superior resolutions. This article discusses why high definition televisions are the way to go.

Why High Definition Televisions?

1. Superior Picture Resolution

Televisions that are able to pick up and transmit HD signals offer a much higher picture resolution than most of the televisions that use digital technology and not high def. This results in a sharper picture quality if you have a high definition television.

2. Increased Aspect Ratio

Digital televisions currently available feature an aspect ratio of 4:3, whereas the aspect ratio for high definition televisions is much higher at about 16:9. An aspect ratio is the height and width of the screen.

This means that a 4:3 ratio features a screen that is four feet in width and 3 feet in height and the same for an aspect ratio of 16:9 found on high def television. This higher aspect ration on high def televisions mean that these TVs have a much crisper and clearer image quality than digital televisions.

3. Surround Sound – Dolby A3 Digital

The Dolby A3 digital surround sound is featured on these televisions and is the standard on most high definition televisions. This means that high def televisions offer independent channels (5.1) of stereo surround sound that is of a compact disc quality which is frequently referred to as AC-3.

4. Decrease in the Motion Artifacts

Motion artifacts, a few of which are dot crawls and ghosting present on less technologically advanced televisions are reduced on HD televisions which makes high def televisions a viewing pleasure for most if not all of those with these televisions.

Additional Considerations High Definition Television Purchase

1. Input and output jacks on high def televisions should be paid attention to by potential buyers which must be compatible with other equipment to be attached to the television such as DVD players, consoles for video games, cables connections, etc.

2. High def tuner compatibility to the high HD television is crucial. Check the compatibility to the satellite or cable service used before purchase.

3. Will the buyer need an external antenna for any off air broadcasting. First check to ensure that the HD television can receive off air broadcasts. If the HD television cannot easily receive these broadcasts that are off air, the buyer may need to use his/her own antenna that is external.

HD televisions are the way to go and you should be able to find one that meets your desires and your budget easily. High definitions televisions [http://th103pf10uk.info/] means that you will have superior viewing capacity. Visit my website for discussion of some of the best HD televisions for every budget. Visit [http://th103pf10uk.info/] for more information.

How to buy online pet supplies, saving money and same time getting good quality? Instead of going to pet shop in your neighborhood you can find quality and cost saving products by shopping online. You can buy higher quality and still lower priced products from online pet supplies stores. Normal stores have to spend money to their storefront buildings and employees which forces them to keep prices high. Online stores does not have those expenses and that shows in lower prices for pet supplies.

Most of us are considering our pets as part of our family, and wants to buy pet supplies that help our best friends be healthy and happy. Expert recommendations on those sites are free and you should take advantage of them. People who really cares about pets are keeping those sites up just to give people professional pet care advice.

People like you are writing reviews on products. It has become popular feature on pet supply sites. People who loves their pets wants to give their opinion about products to the other pet owners. Reviews might tell what collar/toy/or other item worked well for their dog and why it was a good choice just for their dog. This is very useful if you you have similar dog of your own.

You can shop whenever you want. Traditional stores can not be open 24/7. Also most famous online pet supplies sites has 24/7 customer support. Online pet supply websites wants your pet (and you) to be happy with your purchases.

The prices of pet supplies can be easily compared online. Just type product name in your favorite search engine and you get many different prices for that product. Check out the shipping + other extra prices too. If some online pet supplier offers much cheaper products and free shipping, they could have lower quality products which could harm your pet.

You can also have your pet food delivered to your home. Many better online pet supplies shops are offering delivery programs. You can have discount prices if you sign up to their shipping service where you can schedule food delivery and quantity. You can choose from many online pet supply websites/stores. Find the one that suits for your purposes. Shopping online is fun and easy way for shopping and you can do it from your home!

Jukka runs Pet Supply Blog and has had pets all his life.

Scriptures say that the body is the mirror of the soul. Body and Soul represent the same reality. The physical body represents this reality in the material world while the soul represents this reality in the spiritual world. They are the two sides of the same coin.

Scientists also say that matter and energy are different manifestation of the same reality. They say that the mass of a matter is nothing but the energy trapped in the time and space and energy is nothing but the mass that is liberated beyond the time and space.

When a child is born, he has the pure soul and the naked body. However, as he grows, he is forced to wear cloths on his body to cover part of the body. In the same way the soul of the person also gets covered by the reason and beliefs of the society which gradually fills his mind. In the civilized world, it is as difficult to see the bodies without cloths in public places as it is to find a soul without reason and belief. A person would be called insane, if he fails to bear the appropriate cloths for the occasion. Every civilized person knows very well how he must be dressed in private and in public and every civilized person knows what to reveal to the public.

The cloths are, therefore, closely related to the mind of the man. We can know the mind of the person from the cloths as cloths covers the body in the same way as the mind covers the soul.

Uniforms for Uniformity

Most people in a civilized society wear uniforms at some stage of their lives. Most of us have attended our schools in uniforms. The practice of asking the young people to wear uniform is due to the desire of the society to inculcate uniform values and develop uniform thoughts in the mind in all children. Most children in school have, therefore, quite similar thoughts.

In colleges, the uniform is discarded in favor of the fashionable cloths as the society wants the grown-up people to fill their mind with diverse thoughts. Thus most people develop their independent thoughts and personalities only after entering their colleges where they get freedom to wear cloths.

Most jobs do not require any uniform as the jobs need people to think independently and not uniformly. It is based on the belief that “if two people think identically, then one of them is redundant”. No company would like to pay for a redundant employee. Yet some jobs like army and police needs uniform as they require just obeying the orders and no independent application of mind. Yet these uniformed people wear the dresses of their choices at their home where each person has separate thoughts while dealing with their family.

Some societies prescribe a uniform cloth for the men and women. For example, all Muslim women are required to wear black in public veil covering their full body. The result is that such women fail to develop independent thoughts. The males are also often forced to grow beard or wear headgear and a uniform dress in some religion which automatically curb their independent thinking.

The people wearing traditional cloth of their society have traditional thoughts while te people wearing western cloths have western thoughts. There are certain dresses like pant, shirt, ties etc for men that are almost common all over the world. All such people who wear common cloths also share common thoughts and views.

To Cover or To Expose

There are innumerable verities in cloths today. Yet every society seems to approve only particular types of cloths for its people. The cloths are designed in a way to cover part of the human body. These cloths tell a lot about the mind of the person based on what is covered.

If one coves very little of his body, his or her intention is to cover very little of the mind. For example as the spouses do not cover their body before each other in private, they also share their deepest thoughts in private. People wears most comfortable cloths in the house which reveals more body than that in public as people are more openly express their mind more freely before their family members than to the common public.

People cover most part of their body when they go to office or place of work as in the office they are expected to cover their thoughts and reveal only little to their colleagues and clients on need to know basis.

It requires considerable courage to reveal one’s mind in public as it requires courage to reveal one’s body in public.

The Colour of Cloths

The colour and design of cloths are extremely important to understand the mind of the person. A spiritual person is least concerned about his cloths. He never identifies himself with the cloth as his focus is soul of the person which can never be concealed in the clothing. The real spiritual people, therefore, wears no cloth in the tradition of religions like Jainism. Many Hindu Sadhus (Saints) do not wear cloths even in public as it can be seen during the festival of “Kumbh Mela” in India when hordes of Nude Saints take bath in the Holy Rivers.

However, all worldly people pay tremendous importance to their cloths as they mind is lot to conceal. Yet people with a calm mind would prefer the cloths that have sober colors while the person with restless mind would prefer bright colored cloths.

The dark colors signify the quest of wisdom as a dark color absorbs most of the light and reflects only little. A wise man also absorbs the wisdom that is revealed through the experiences of the life of self and others.

The light colours often reflect the people whose mind does not care for most of the things that happens in the world. They reflect everything thrown on them like a mirror..

The mindset of people who prefers some particular colors are as following.

Red: The red colour symbolizes happiness and joy. It is difficult to wear red colour when your mood is down. The mind of the person wearing colour red is filled with joy.

Blue: The colour of blue signifies the sky and ocean which is infinite and eternal. So the people who love blue colors have deep convictions and beliefs. Their mind remains in peace like sky.

Black: Black is the colour of wisdom as black colour absorbs all colours. Yet such wise people are often termed as Evil as nothing is prohibited for them. While the world treats half the things as good and remaining half as evil, the person with black colour consider every one as equal. Such a person is often considered as evil or rebel by society as he breaks the taboo of the society.

Green: Green is the colour of the nature which through its green colored plants and trees mysteriously and silently converts the harmful carbon-dioxide to oxygen. Thus green is the colour of mystery and secrets. The mind of the people wearing green cloths is quite difficult to know due to their mysterious way of thinking.

Yellow: Yellow is the colour of sun and energy. Yellow is also the colour of the fruits when they ripen and become ready to eat. Yellow is thus the colour of energy, love and maturity. The mind of such a the person is ripe and matured. His love is as unconditional as sun who only gives without expecting anything in return.

White: The white color is the most acceptable color for all occasion. It is rarely out of place. The person preferring white cloths have the mind that is acceptable to all. He believes in unanimity and acceptance. White colour thus signifies spirituality and God.

Know the Mind by Cloths

While man does his best to conceal his mind, he still reveal lot of his mind by the cloths he wears. It is by paying close attention to the cloths that a man can learn the secrets of the mind of not only the individuals but also the collective mind of the society. Therefore, pay attention to the cloths of the people who matters to you as they reveal a secret that can change your life.

A Brief Profile of Dr Awdhesh K Singh

I am an Engineer by education , a public officer by profession and a spiritual person by intuition.

I hold my PhD degree in the field of E-Governance.

I am a founding member of The Aatmic Science Foundation (The Science of Soul Foundation) that is working for the synthesis between all religions, spirituality and sciences.

The website of the foundation is http://www.scienceofsoul.com

My main area of study and research is to use religions, spirituality and scientific methods of investigations to understand and solve the real life problems of human beings.

I have published hundreds of articles and research papers on this topic on various websites and journals.

Please contact me on my email aksinghirs [a] yahoo.com for any help, suggestions or feedback.

There are two questions my students and clients ask all the time. One is ‘How do I choose a good bowl” and the other is ‘How do I know which bowl is good for a specific chakra’. People also call to obtain a bowl with a certain musical note. My answers to these questions are founded in the Eastern philosophy rather than from a Western mindset, because this better reflects the nature of the instruments as they were intended:

Choosing a good bowl requires a few things.

Quality: Either an eye and an ear for excellent quality- or knowing and trusting someone who knows the bowls and can help you. Many people sell bowls and most are new and machine made to look old. There are several signs of age in a bowl including the shape, the markings inside and out, the thickness of the metal especially on the bottom (thinner is usually older), and the tone. Most lay people will not be able to tell the difference between an antique and a good reproduction. It takes a trained eye. But you should be able to hear the difference. Often even the people who sell bowls in shops and on the internet are not very knowledgeable, so ask a lot of questions. When someone says a bowl is old in this country old can mean 50 years. That is new by my standards. A real old bowl it will be at least 100 years old and more often hundreds of years old. If the vendor doesn’t know the region the bowls were made in, and how the markings help distinguish the type of bowl, they probably don’t know much. Bowls were made in a variety of regions of Tibet and their shape and markings are telling. Some of the bowls have consciousness transformation as their primary intention, and some have physical healing. This can be determined by their shape. There is more about this and photos in my home study course available on my website. A high quality, ancient bowl is an investment. If it is inexpensive and old, then it was probably obtained in a less than honorable manner…A good bowl is an investment and the price can range from $110 for a very small bowl to thousands of $$ for a huge bowl.

On the other side of the coin is the seller who hikes up the price claiming that a bowl is from the 16th or 17th century. If you really want to determine the exact age of a bowl, you have to melt it down- thereby destroying it. Ask where and who authenticates the bowls and how the age was determined and tune into your intuition about the story you are being told.

In Asia, the only way to establish a good and trustworthy relationship with a supplier is over a number of years, and eyeball to eyeball. So the few people who go over themselves to select instruments over a period of years will get the best bowls. If your bowls come from a wholesaler somewhere, w ho purchases large quantities of things you can be sure they are if inferior quality because they probably did not hand select them or have a long term relationship with the supplier. These things DO make a big difference.

Usage: It is useful to determine what you will use the bowl for: ie meditation, grounding, physical healing? Do you want to integrate a few bowls into an existent modality or use them with other instruments in a musical vain, or become a sound healer? The answers to these questions will also impact on your choices.

Tone: The tone of the bowls should linger for quite some time when struck producing several layers of tones you can hear that in turn create overlaying harmonics and overtones. When you sing a bowl (rub the rim with the wooden or leather part of a stick) there are several things to consider. How ‘awake’ the bowl is: some bowls sing right away, and some need to be played for a while and ‘broken back in’. This is neither good or bad but it is important to know so you don’t dismiss a potentially great instrument just because it doesn’t sing right away. When you hear a bowl, listen to your body. If it opens your heart, or moves you deeply in some manner; if you feel tingling all over, or the tone directly impacts one area of your body or grounds you- these are all good signs. Bowls were created for consciousness transformation and healing. You should feel their effect on you.

If you have more than one bowl then it is good to play them together so that their tones harmonize. Eventually, they will anyway, because that is their nature and magic, but why not help the process by starting with bowls that sound great together right away? Note that with several bowls, playing them in one pattern may sound very good and another pattern may not!

Bowls and Chakras. In the west we work with seven chakras. The Tibetans work with five regions of the body. The bowls were created to bring us back to our experience of the interrelationship of all things; thus they are not calibrated to work on any one chakra to the exclusion of the rest. Their very nature encompasses our wholeness. In this way they are very different instruments then the western counterparts- tuning forks and crystal bowls. However there are some bowls whose tone and size lend themselves more naturally to certain areas of the body. Lower tones for grounding, largest bowls by the feet, soothing mid tones around the head, and higher tones over the 3rd eye, etc. There are too many variables to discuss here but you can get some basic principals in my home study course. Having several bowls is wonderful but understand that even if you have only ONE bowl, it will impact all of you, and not just one chakra.

Diáne Mandle is an author, teacher, healer and recording artist based in Southern California. She is Certified in Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing and Polarity therapy. Diane maintains a private practice offering an integrated system for healing which includes Sound and Polarity Therapy, Toning and Visualization. Diane conducts educational programs, keynotes and Harmonic Sound Healing concerts nationally and presents frequently at the Deepak Chopra Center. She has produced the first comprehensive multimedia home study course in Sound Healing using Himalayan instruments (Tibetan, Nepalese and Bhutanese bowls, tingshas, gantas and dorjes) ‘Ancient Sounds for a New Age’, an E-Book/DVD/ CD set available on her website http://www.soundenergyhealing.com

Feel free to contact me to hear some great instruments, and obtain my home study course ‘Ancient Sounds for a New Age’ at http://www.soundenergyhealing.com

PHP is a general purpose scripting language that is well suited for server-side web development. It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 and has been developing ever since. PHP originally stood for “Personal Home Page”. He used the sets of Perl scripts he called PHP to maintain his resume and keep track of how much traffic his page was getting. He wrote these as “C programming language common Gateway Interface” which allowed the ability to work with web forms and databases. It also enabled users to start developing dynamic web application. He revealed and released PHP/FI or “Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter Version 1.0″ in June 8th 1995 to locate bugs and code improvement faster. This release had the functionality that PHP has today. The syntax was similar to Perl but more limiting and simpler.

PHP 2.0

A development team began to form. They spent months working and beta testing and released PHP/FI 2 in November 1997. Short after, the alphas of PHP 3 were released.

PHP 3.0

PHP 3.0 syntax to closely resemble of today’s PHP, created by Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski in 1997. After finding out that PHP 2.0 was way underpowered for eCommerce application. Andi, Rasmus and Zeev decided to work together and announced PHP 3 as the successor of PHP/FI 2.0 and development of it was stopped soon after. The strength of PHP 3 was strong extensibility features. It also provided end users a solid infrastructure for lots of different databases, protocols and API. Another feature was the introduction of object-oriented syntax support. Approximately 10% of web servers on the internet had PHP 3 installed by the end of 1998. PHP 3 was released in June of 1998.

PHP 4.0

By winter of 1998, Andi and Zeev started working on rewriting the PHP’s core. They goals were to improve the performance of complex application and modularity of PHP’s code base. This new engine called “Zend Engine”, met those goals and was announced in middle of 1999. PHP 4 was based on this engine. Additional features were added and were officially released in May 2000. PHP 4.0 included features such as support for many more Web servers, HTTP sessions, output buffering, more secure ways of handling user input and several new language constructs.

PHP 5.0

Today, PHP is being used by developers all over the world and installed on 20% of domains on the internet. The latest release PHP 5 was released in July 2004 and is driven by the Zend Engine 2.0 with new object model and tons of new features.

If your wanting to start learning PHP programming, come check us out at www.phpprogrammingforbeginners.com [http://www.phpprogrammingforbeginners.com].

Montana is home to some of the best trout fly fishing in the United States. People come from all over the world to fish its legendary waters. Some fly fishermen seek the expertise of a Montana trout fly fishing guide while others are determined to go at it alone. Regardless of how you do it there are certain things that you must be prepared for. This is a quick guide to Montana trout fly fishing that is aimed at helping ensure a successful trip to one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Even if a person was to fly fish Montana for a year and never catch a fish, the trip would still be a success. You cannot believe the sheer beauty of this place until you have been there. The wildlife alone is enough to get people coming back for more; throw a few 20 inch trout into the mix and you are in for one of the best trips of your life. To make this trip as successful as possible, there are items that you will not want to leave behind and situations that you will want to be ready for. Read on to get a general idea of what you need to be ready for, the essential items that you need to bring, and ideas on how to make this a great trip, and hopefully a successful one at that.

Where to Fly Fish in Montana

Montana is one of the biggest states in the U.S. and is home to the Rocky Mountains and other massive mountain ranges that feed thousands of rivers, streams and lakes. With all of this water, it can be a daunting task to pick a particular body of water to fish. I have had to decide where to fish on several occasions, and I’ll tell you, it is not easy. For the most part, all you have to do is find some cold clear water and you can bet there are trout in it, probably big trout. From the northwest to the southeast corners, and everywhere in between, fly fishing for trout can be good. A good portion of the Montana is not so mountainous and more so desert, but even in this 2/3 of the state, an experienced fly fisherman can find big trout if he or she knows where to look. This is an area where a Montana trout fly fishing guide can come in handy.

Southwest Montana is by far the most popular part of the state for fly fishing. It is home to some incredible rivers that are fed from the numerous mountain ranges that can be seen in all directions. This area is unique in that a person can fish many different bodies of water in a short trip. From one blue ribbon trout river you can drive over a mountain pass and be fishing in another blue ribbon river in an hour or two. Here is a quick list of the rivers that you have to choose from in SW Montana:

1. Madison
2. Big Hole
3. Bitterroot
4. Ruby
5. Rock Creek
6. Beaverhead
7. Jefferson
8. Yellowstone
9. Gallatin
10. Missouri

All of these rivers hold a large number of big trout, but are just a few of the bigger named rivers that Montana has to offer. It takes many trips to Montana to really determine a favorite river. A person could fish Montana for a lifetime and still have new rivers to fish.

When to Fly Fish Montana

I have been to Montana and experienced both great and not so great fly fishing. Whenever the conditions are right though, the fishing has consistently been on the great side. A good way to better your chances of experiencing good fishing is to time your vacation around both weather and insect hatches. Most of the hatches are dependent on weather though, so if you come during the time of year that weather is most predicable (summer), your chances of having a successful trip will increase.

Here is a quick break down on each season and what can be expected.

• Winter: Cold! This is the time of year to book a trip to do some tropical fishing. Many of the rivers in Montana freeze all the way across or are made up of big dangerous ice shelves. There is some fishing in some tail waters near the dams, but unless you are a local, the fishing is not worth going out of you war to be freezing. If you do come this time of year, bring your skis, the skiing is better than the fishing.
• Spring: The fish this time of year are less fearful than they get once they have had a few hooks in their mouth a little later in the year, so great fishing can happen. The problem becomes the water flow and clarity. There is usually a small time frame when the snow and ice clear in the valleys, but remains in the mountains, making for clear water. This is a good time to fish but the window of opportunity is very small. If you can get away with short notice, as soon as you here the fishing is good, you’d better get on it because as soon as the snow starts melting and the spring rains start coming down, the rivers will rise and clarity will drop.
• Summer: This is the most popular time to be fly fishing Montana’s trout rivers. The temperatures are comfortable and the river levels drop and become clear. The Salmon Fly hatch is the first hatch to really start off the season. It happens usually after June 10^th. This is a busy time of year for a Montana trout fly fishing guide, but the trout love to eat these significantly sized insects. From the middle of June and throughout the rest of the summer, there will be hatches of either caddis, mayflies, hoppers and many more.
• Fall: After the summer crowds leave, the fall gives way to cooler temperatures and less crowded rivers. This is a favorite time of year for many hardcore fly fishermen. The fish are ready to fatten up for the winter and some big insects begin hatching. The main attraction this time of year is the Fall Caddis hatch. These supersized caddis are a trout’s main entree and can be taken with ease off the top with large floating flies such as stimulators and caddis in size 6 – 10.

Being Your Own Montana Trout Fly Fishing Guide

For an experienced fly fisherman, Montana can be effectively fished without the help of a guide. This will certainly cut down on the budget, but is only advised for those that are proficient at casting and working flies. There is a huge learning curve in fly fishing and if you are not over that curve, then it will be beneficial to have someone to help you out, either a friend or a guide. Before you go, you will want to know what you will need as for as gear and fly patterns. At the link at the end of this article there is an insect hatch chart for Montana that can help you decide what flies to take. Another good way is to stop at a fly shop on the river you will be fishing and ask. Most of these people spend a lot of time on the river and will be able to steer you in the right direction. You may also want to ask them if they have any guides available as sometimes you can book a trip last minute for a discounted price if the guide has nothing else to do. If you are going to fly fish Montana on your own, then make sure you read the gear guide below to make sure you have all you will need.

Hiring a Montana Trout Fly Fishing Guide

One of the best ways to ensure a successful fly fishing trip to Montana is to hire a Montana Trout Fly Fishing Guide. It is amazing how much knowledge most of these guys have after putting fly fisherman on trout every day.

Here is a list of the benefits that a fly fishing guide can offer:

• Knowing the insect hatches: Yes, Montana is full of big trout, but the way these trout get so big is because they are smart. They know which insects are hatching, the color and size they are, and how they float in or on the water. Knowing these key features is exactly what a guide is paid to do, so he or she had better be good at it or they will not make it in this business. When fishing these smart trout, you need to have everything perfect; a guide can definitely help to make this happen.
• Where to Fish: Trout have certain conditions that they prefer. Fishing in the right spot is a crucial factor to success on any trout water. Insects and other organisms that trout feed on collect in certain areas and this is where you will find big trout. A good Montana trout fly fishing guide will be able to put you in the right place at the right time
• Access: Getting to the trout waters is sometimes half the battle. Much of Montana’s trout fishing is best accessed by a boat or by walking through private property. Not everybody has a boat and even if you do, it may not be feasible or possible to bring it. A guide will get you where you need to be one way or another.
• Equipment: Most guides will have a high quality fly fishing rod, reel and line set up for you to use that is designed to cast the flies you will be using and fight the fish you will be fishing for. It is very important that you use the right equipment as this will greatly improve you fly fishing efficiency.
• Knowledge: A Montana trout fly fishing guide will be able to offer clients so much more than just fishing advice. A good guide also knows the history, geology, anthropology, and stories that make this part of the world so interesting and beautiful.

Gear to Bring:

Montana is a demanding place, both in fly fishing gear and clothing alike. To make this the best trip possible it is advised that you come prepared for anything that Montana can throw at you. I have seen it snow in July, and I’ve lost several fish due to size that I was not expecting. Let’s go over some items that you should not come to Montana without.

1. Fly Fishing Gear: Things you will need if not hiring a Montana Trout Fly Fishing Guide

• Fly Fishing Rod: It is very important that you bring a fly rod that is of high quality. The Wal-Mart combo set is not recommended and will lead to headaches and a far less successful trip. A well made fly rod is much easier to cast, more accurate, and stronger leaving you much less likely to break it. Two rules of thumb are: 1. Buy the best rod you can afford. 2. Only consider rods that offer a lifetime warranty. For more information on buying a fly rod and all other fly fishing gear mentioned here, click the link at the end of this article.
• Fly Fishing Line: Fly lines are a close second to the importance of a fly fishing set up right behind a quality fly rod. With fly fishing, you are casting the line which delivers the fly to where you want it. This means the line has to work with the rod. This is why it is advised to use a high quality line in addition to a nice rod. Also, you will want to be able to fish many different situations as the fish are not always willing to take an insect on the top. You may need to use a sink tip to get bait fish imitations to the fish so it is also wise to go with a line that has interchangeable tips of different sink rates from floating to fast sink.
• Fly Fishing Reel: a fly reel is less important and receives far less use than the line and rod, but a smooth drag system is very helpful if you hook into any trout 16 inches or more. It is not a good experience to lose a fish of a lifetime over a cheap piece of equipment. Again, it is suggested to buy the best reel you can afford, but if you must skimp on either a rod, reel, or line, this is the place to do it.
• Waders and Boots: These are an essential. Most Montana fly fishing is done at elevations well over 6000 feet making for cool mornings and cold water even in August. Having owned a couple pairs of cheap waders in my early fly fishing days, I can tell you how important a quality pair can be. Although they may cost twice as much, a quality pair can last 3 times as long before they start leaking in the seams and cutting in to your fun. Also, a good pair of wading boots is a must on the slippery rocks of almost all Montana Rivers. Good support and traction are what you should be after. There are many types of soles to choose from. A big push in Montana is rubber soles as opposed to felt in an effort cut down on transporting invasive aquatic organisms that can live in a felt sole that does not have time to dry out before using them in a second river system. Nearly all quality wading boot manufactures have come out with rubber soles designed to grip slippery rocks and many have removable cleats that can add a lot of stick to your traction. Check out the gear guide link at the end of this article to help you decide on all equipment you will need.
• Flies, leaders, tippets, floatant, and line cutters: These are all necessary if you are going to be your own Montana trout fly fishing guide. It is important to know how to tie all this together and what types of flies are effective during the time of your adventure. One would think a trout would take any fly that it sees, but even the small fish are smart and will mostly only take flies that match the insects that are hatching at the time.

2. Things to bring guide or not:

Hiring a Montana trout fly fishing guide will definitely cut down on the amount of gear you will need to pack as far as fly fishing equipment. Still there are several items that you will not want to leave home without that your guide will not provide, especially if you are not hiring one. Here is a quick list of items that should not be left home.

• Rain proof coat: have it ready too. The weather in these mountains can change in an instant from sunny and warm to cloudy, rainy, and sometimes even snow.
• Binoculars: the areas are home to some incredible wildlife and you never know what you are going to see. Deer, elk, big horn sheep, moose, wolf, coyote, bear, and many more species are all possible.
• Camera: Make sure you have one handy when you real in that fish of a life time. The surroundings are picture perfect as well.
• Sun Screen: The sun is intense at these altitudes and the rays will reflect off the water.
• Sun Glasses: Sunglasses are very helpful when spending all day on the river. Polarized sun glasses are recommended as they cut down on the glare coming off the water and enable a person to see through the water much better than with just regular sun glasses.

Handling of Montana Trout

All trout are very delicate. It is best not to touch them at all, but if you do need to take a picture, wet your hands before touching, take a quick photo, and get it back in the water. It is best to let it swim away as soon as it has the power to do so. Please do not caress it and rub its belly like you see them do on fishing shows. Get the trout out of your hand as soon as possible. Most of Montana requires Barbless hooks, but do it because it is the right thing to do as it is so much easier to remove the hook this way. Barbless hooks get a bad rap for losing fish. I think it is more of an excuse. Many times that hook is going to come out barb or not, the key is to keeping the line tight. Many experienced fly fishermen including many Montana Trout fly fishing guides will agree that the barb actually makes it harder to get a good hook set on a fish because it has a wider shank to seat it firmly in the mouth tissue. The final argument against barbed hooks is the fact that it is not smart to have a barbed hook flying around your head, or any part of your body for that matter. A barbed hook in your eye is not a pretty sight. Just hope there is still have sight from that eye when you get back from the hospital.

Conclusion

No matter how many big Montana Trout you do or don’t catch, you are sure to have a good time. Like I said before, the scenery alone is worth making a trip here. Typically my drive home to Idaho is spent planning out the next trip to Montana. Every time I make the trek to these legendary waters I am faced with not having enough time to fish all the water I would like to. That is because a lifetime is not enough time to fish all of this state. On the drive to Montana it always seems like I have more than enough time to be fishing, but before I know it, it is time to pack up and head for home. I guess time flies when you are having fun, luckily there are many more trips to come if I have things my way. I hope to see you all there, and please be respectful of the fish so we all can enjoy fly fishing Montana together for years to come.

To make sure you are properly equipped with the right gear for fly fishing Montana, go to this gear guide where you will find advice on fly rods, lines, reels, waders, and all necessary gear related to fly fishing: http://onlineflyfishingguide.com/onlineflyfishinggearguide.html and click on the gear guide. For more information on hatches, river flows, and other important articles about fly fishing, click on this link: Montana Trout Fly Fishing Guide.

What has your lifetime obsession always been? What’s your passion? Would it happen to involve working with cars or constantly placing yourself around the roar and rumble of automobiles? If so, why not look into the promising prospect of partaking in the ever-expanding world of automotive franchises? Especially if you’re a business savvy or entrepreneur-driven individual who’s main interest lies in automobiles themselves, the opportunity of getting in gear with an automotive franchise might just be the catalyst you’ve been seeking to spur your own self-enterprise pursuits.

Engine-Roaring Basics On Automotive Franchises

With a considerably slim start up investment and a plethora of rewarding benefits, what better time could it possibly be to put the pedal to the metal and start cruising your way down the triple-crown highway with an automotive franchise kicking back in the passenger seat next to you? What are you waiting for? As it stands, franchises in general are spreading like wild fire and consumers are taking notice toward the opportunity, substantial earning potential and overall appeal of becoming a business owner.

And depending on where your automotive interests lie, the possibilities in different automotive franchise ventures can vary greatly. Say you’re more inclined toward car maintenance, or car repair, or automotive parts or automotive insurance; any and all of the aforementioned can lead you to selecting a specific and quite successful automotive franchise.

Considering Options and Finding Your Automotive Franchising Niche

When deciding on which automotive franchise would be best for you, there are many factors you should take to mind. Clearly, you should have interest in cars and the automotive industry. If you don’t then why would you consider running a business in which you have no prior experience or any knowledge in whatsoever? That said, and assuming you are indeed interested in automotive topics, then what should be considered next are overall start up costs. Typically, start up costs for an automotive based franchise can range anywhere from $10,000-$20,000 dollars, which is, looking from a long-term business perspective, a tiny investment for future and monumental gains and growth potentials.

And of course different automotive franchise types -that is, what services and/or products each offer- can vary greatly in terms of investment costs. So, it’s important to conduct some research and shop around for your best option.

Working With Brand Names or Not? It’s Suggested You Do

Thinking from the perspective of a consumerist mindset, opting to pick an automotive franchise backing a specific brand name might be a great business move. Now, of course, the initial investment costs would be a bit heftier than a standard, lesser-known franchise, but in the long run, brand names are reliable and workable, ten-fold. Customers will flock to franchises with names they’re familiar with or have heard good things about; take this to heart as it will assuredly make your automotive franchise venture a huge success.

It simply boils down to one thing, assurance. And consumers seek this at all costs. A solid, preexisting reputation through your selected automotive franchise brand will almost immediately provide you with a consistent and frequent client base.

It seems the golden opportunities automotive franchises have to offer are in quite in an abundance and just waiting for you to hop into the driver’s seat. So, take the wheel and drive your business opportunities to new distances.

Now that my daughter is no longer a baby, I recently started packing up her baby things to donate or throw away. This is a tough task for moms as we tend to grow attached to our children’s baby things, envisioning memories inside stuffed bears and hearing the whisper of bedtime songs in their nursery bedding. After hours of sorting, packing and remembering, I sat down at my daughter’s toddler desk. This was an item that would never be given or thrown away. This was my old desk that my own mother lovingly stored and saved until I had a daughter of my own.

When my mother brought it to us, dusty from being kept in storage for many years, I recall she had said the strangest thing, “The best gifts keeping giving…long after the thank you is said.” It was a curious thing to say and she uttered the words with a little half smile that seemed almost cryptic. I don’t think I had ever seen my mother with quite that expression before. I didn’t understand her curious words or her smile at the time. With my own daughter calling for my attention, already banging the desk drawers opened and closed and the new baby screaming for a bottle, I certainly didn’t have time to contemplate the meaning of anything.

Now, feeling slightly lightheaded with emotion, I sat down at my daughter’s desk. It had seemed gargantuan for her when it first entered her room and now it could barely hold her. I felt the sturdy, solid construction as I perched on the tiny white chair. I ran my fingertips over the top of the desk, still smooth despite hours and years of story writing, coloring and painting. As my fingers moved over the surface I remembered the nights I would kneel beside Emma, helping her form her letters. Memories of hand-crafted birthday cards jumped into my head, giant “I love you, Mommy!” words written by her little hand. Suddenly, I couldn’t bear that my little girl was too big for this desk. Where had the years gone? I couldn’t imagine not peeking into her room and seeing her perched at this desk, head bent and brow furled in concentration, curls bouncing, her smile glowing.

I don’t know how it happened, but tears were suddenly pooling out of my eyes.

This is silly, get yourself together, I told myself. But, I wouldn’t listen to my own reasoning.

That’s how my own mother found me – a grown woman sitting at a toddler desk crying for no reason at all except that her little girl was all-too-soon a big girl.

“What are you doing?” my mother asked me.

“Nothing, just…thinking.”

My mother said nothing, somehow always knowing when no words were needed.

“Remember when Emma made Granddad that card when he was in the hospital?”

My mother entered the room and placed a gently hand on my shoulder, “Sure, she wrote ‘Get better soon, mom won’t give me any candy.”

My mother’s voice was low and soft, soothing, “Many good memories here at this desk. I remember watching you learn your alphabet. How your eyes would light up when you would spell a word right for the first time!”

My mother brushed her fingers across the smooth wood where I had just touched moments before, “I remember picking out this desk for you. It was more than we could afford, but I just knew it was perfect for you.”

There was a heavy silence in the room, both my mother and I contemplating our own memories,

“The best gifts are those that keep on giving…long after the thank you is said,” my mother said.

And suddenly, like a thunderbolt to my brain, I understood. After all those years, I finally got it. This desk, this simple piece of furniture housed more than just pens and markers and crayons. It contained my thoughts and dreams and secrets from when I was a little girl. They were all there, engrained in the wood forever, now enjoined with the hopes and loves of my own little girl. The best gifts do keep on giving, year after year, generation after generation. Quality, meaningful gifts like this little girl’s desk that my own mother selected lovingly for me so many years ago.

The best gifts keep on giving…long after the thank you is said.

“Thank you, Mom. For everything.”

She issued me another cryptic smile. Just then Emma stormed into the room, finding all her baby toys boxed up.

“What are you going to do with my old desk, Mom?” she asked me, her blue eyes full of the dreams that she had already dreamed and someday would live.

“Keep it, of course.”

“What for?” she asked.

“For somebody very special. The best gifts keep on giving.”

http://www.RosenberryRooms.com is the leading online shop for childrens’ furniture, kids art and bedroom décor, offering the largest selection of high-quality childrens’ bedroom products. Find all the best quality bedroom furniture and everything you need to create a beautiful bedroom for your child at http://www.RosenberryRooms.com

Specialty auto repair refers to the repair and servicing of specialty autos and specific auto parts. Specialty auto repair centers take special care to provide you with genuine factory parts. Specialty auto repair technicians are highly skilled and experienced and they can pin point the problem of the automobile. Whatever model of luxury car or foreign car you are driving, there are repair centers specializing in those very models.

Specialty auto repair centers offer special dealer alternative maintenance and service packages. Some of them give extended warranties services for their clients. They even undertake heavy engine and transmission repair and replacement if needed. Some of these dealers have their own websites from which you can download special auto repair discount coupons.

There are specialty auto repair centers that repair and service specific auto parts such as the brakes, engines, air conditioning, mufflers, and radiators. They also take care of wheel alignments, transmissions and paintless dent repair. Replacement of windshield or window is also included in specialty repair.

Specialty auto repair is regarded as a business with reputation and significant advertising budgets. For specialty auto repair, technicians need a trade certificate, which could be as automotive service, auto body, heavy equipment or recreation service technician.

Specialty auto repair has several benefits. Standard jobs such as lubrication, oil filter, and oil change charges are less compared to general repair. These types of services have retail outlets and the service hours ideally match the timings of customers. Specific fluids, light bulbs and other critical parts are readily available in such shops. Specialty repair shops make use of computers to maintain complete and detailed information.

The disadvantage of going to a specialty auto repair shop is that they have a high sales pitch, they might urge you to do more and more work.

Auto Repair provides detailed information on Auto Repair, Auto Glass Repair, Online Auto Repair, Auto Body Repair and more. Auto Repair is affiliated with Discount Auto Parts.

Are you movie crazy? No, I don’t mean crazy for Harold Lloyd’s comedy Movie Crazy from 1932 about a young man with little or no acting ability, desperately trying to be in the movies. I mean, are you crazy for movies period? I must admit I’m a cracker for movies. So, all those who consider themselves movie crazy raise your hands. Yup, that’s almost everybody. Why are we movie crazy? Why do we live in a movie crazed society? Hey, what are movies anyway?

Movies are ideas and/or stories brought to an audience through emotion by sound and a sequence of seamless images. Thanks to Google Search.

How popular are movies? Well, the keyword “movies” boasts a mind boggling 1.1 billion and growing number of searches on Google’s search engine alone. And the keyword “movie trailers” has collected a whopping 127 million plus searches. Watching movie trailers on the internet has become a popular past time for many. I know my husband’s one of them. He loves to watch his movie trailers.

This past year alone has brought in an astonishing box office revenue of 29.2 billion dollars worldwide just for 2009. Movies are watched and made worldwide. The language gap has been dissolved due to the addition of subtitles. Now we can all share in the universal movie experience. As well as being universal, movies are made for everyone young and old. Why you can even see generations at most Disney or kid movie showings. There is something out there for everyone no matter what your age.

We celebrate movies and we celebrate the stars in our movies. We bring them into our homes by way of TV shows dedicated to stars like ET, ET Canada, Access Hollywood and TMZ to name a few. We grab supermarket tabloids like The National Enquirer and Star scanning the latest celebrity gossip and stuff them into our shopping carts when no one is looking.

We have Oscar parties like we do Superbowl parties and even bet or at least announce our opinions on who the winners of the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, MTV Awards, etc. will be. Then there’s the classic TV shows like ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ that we turned on faithfully oohing and aahing over the content like it was fine wine. The show ran for over 10 years (March 1984 – September 1995). What a run! What a concept! We actually got to tag along and drool over the extravagant homes, lifestyles and dream vacations spots of the stars. Today, you can watch similar shows like MTV’s ‘Cribs’ and VH1′s ‘The Fabulous Life of….’

If you’re more of a home body you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home to see a movie. You can literally channel movies through your TV’s regular cable or on specialty movie channels like Thrill, The Movie Network, HBO, Movie Central, Showtime, Turner Classic Movies, etc. And that’s after you’ve clicked through the TV movies of the week, recorded movies on your PVR or sent your kids to the video store to rent one of this week’s new releases. Oh, and not to mention you can buy movies from your brick and mortar video store down the street or even online on eBay or Amazon.

How do we get our golden tickets to these grand palaces? We buy cereal boxes and cut out cardboard vouchers, we use our air miles points or exchange reward points to turn cash into movie tickets. We fill out contest forms in hopes to be chosen as the lucky few to attend pre-screenings to our favourite movies before they even hit theatres. We also line red carpets around the world and tune into celebrity interviews on our favourite daytime and night-time shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman, Oprah and Regis & Kelly.

What beats the movie experience? Nothing. We cue up for our tickets, purchase our favourite goodies, grab the latest Famous or Tribute magazine for casual light reading before our movie (while devouring our real buttered popcorn or bag of liquorice). The lights go dim, the screen widens and the picture and sound arrive simultaneously. We anticipate the movie previews while watching the nuisance commercials and then there they are. Those big beautiful coming attractions in all their glory. We whisper yeas or nays or give a thumbs up to our pals seated beside us for the next movie adventure we’ll be planning. Then if we’re lucky, that is, the guys will get to hear the bellow of the THX sound effect that roars around the theatre. (Hey, guys you can hear it on youtube or download it as a free mp3 or ring tone). Then the wait is over. Whoopee! And the adventure begins…

Again, why are we movie crazy? Could it be because movies are inexpensive; a cheap date; or an economical family outing. Is it that the encounter can be even more enhanced through the Imax or 3-D experience. Or does it go deeper. A chance to escape the real world if only for a few hours. Movies evoke emotion whether it’s excitement, laughter, terror, sadness, inspiration, faith, love, etc. Maybe you’re on an unpredictable adventure, figuring out a mystery or watching a family deal with loss. Movie’s take us away; anywhere we want to go. Even the theatre itself is an experience as we’ve discovered. The lights, sound, feel, big screen, comfy oversized fabric chairs, convenient cup holders, popcorn and munchies from the snack stand, etc. The movie experience really touches on all our senses. What movies have stirred you emotionally lately?

The movies are one place where you can choose what you want to see and feel. If I want to be happy I’ll go see a light hearted comedy. If I want to be thrilled I’ll go see a thriller or horror. And if I want to entertain my little niece and nephew I’ll go see the latest animated movie, etc. Then there’s the rest of the genres that fill out the movie experience: action and adventure, crime and gangster, drama, epics/historical, musicals/dance, science-fiction, war, documentary, westerns, biopics, chick-flicks, detective and mystery, disaster, fantasy, film noir, guy films, melodramas/weepers, road films, romance, sports, supernatural, etc.

Movies bring people together. They are something to talk about at the watering hole at your 9 to 5 job, chat amongst your facebook friends or discuss in forums. We can talk about the worst movies we’ve seen or our all time favourites. We can quiz each other on movie trivia, quotes and songs. We can read or write reviews on movies, look up movie ratings and purchase books on movies. We can even get the latest Hollywood gossip sent to our email boxes or go online to peruse blogs such as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Crazy blog.

Is there any other advantage from movies other than the whole entertainment experience? Actually, there is. Many professional therapists are using movies to help people in crisis. There is a therapeutic movement using—you guessed it—movies. It’s called Cinema Therapy. Cinema therapy is used because it’s readily available (there’s a movie theatre in every city pretty much) and the subject matter of most films are familiar to everyone. It also enhances the rapport between both the client and the therapist. Who doesn’t want to talk movies.

Other benefits include the release of emotions such as when we laugh during a comedy our laughter releases stress, tension and/or pain. A tear jerker that makes us cry releases built-up/blocked emotions. How about movies that touch on relationships or parenting. These observations and/or lessons can bring us closer together with people, make us analyze our current situations/relationships or make us realize we’ve got work to do.

And if there’s one last thing that solidifies our movie crazy mentality it’s our want or longing to actually be in a movie and/or meet a movie star. Well, this just in—you can do both. Have you heard the term TV or movie extra? If you want a better than bird’s eye view of making of a movie and to encounter a movie star or two sign-up to be an extra. You’ll get paid, fed, be on set and maybe bump elbows with your favourite movie star.

JC Wiebe is an author, blogger and manager of her son, actor Cainan Wiebe (The Sandlot 3, 16 Wishes and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse). For more information and step by step guides for child extras and actors get JC Wiebe’s ebooks: Extras! Stars, Sets & Soda Pop: The Child Actor Series and/or Get Started as a Child Actor: The Child Actor Series. Ms Wiebe’s acting blog can be found at http://www.KidsInMovies.com where she shares her on set experience, knowledge and advice with parents who want to get their kids into acting.

Cat Declawing

What is the use of cat declawing?

The main reason people decide to declaw their cat is to protect their furniture. An untrained cat’s claws can be very destructive in a home, damaging furniture, curtains and carpets. Cats like (and need) to scratch and claw at wood and rough surfaces, and if they are not properly trained, your furniture will look very inviting to them. Another reason people give for declawing their cat is to prevent the cat from injuring them. Cats use their claws and teeth to defend themselves and to fight. Small children may mishandle a cat and provoke it in scratching them. Some cats also have a more aggressive or nervous nature and will scratch people when they feel threatened.

Toxoplasmosis and Bartonellosis are two diseases that can be transmitted from cats. It is important to note though, that those diseases are most likely to be contracted from a litter box, or even from biting – but it is highly unlikely that it will be contracted from cat scratches.

Declawing a cat is a selfish and very drastic solution for problems that could be solved in many other ways and may bring forth much more serious problems. Owners that decide to declaw their cat do this solely for their own comfort and do not take in account the problems that may sprout from doing this.

What does the declawing process involve?

Cat declawing is also known as onychectomy and is a much more complex operation than simply removing your cat’s nails or claws. The declawing operation is in fact the amputation of each of the cat’s toes at the first joint. It involves cutting of the front part of a cat’s toes and means cutting through nerves and muscles and removing bone. This operation is extremely painful (it has been proven to be much more painful than sterilizing or spaying your cat) and it will take a long time to heal. Even after the wounds have healed, the cat may suffer from a series of after-effects.

Are there any disadvantages to declawing your cat?

Yes! There are numerous disadvantages, not only to your cat but to you as cat owner as well. Cat declawing is illegal in many countries around the world and considered as inhumane and as a form of animal abuse and mutilation.

Many people don’t realize just how painful a declawing operation can be. Scientists have proven cat declawing to be extremely painful and even test new painkiller drugs on cats that are being declawed. Although the cat may not show signs of pain outwardly and seem to be content, it will definitely be in a lot of pain after the operation. Big operations or rather amputations like declawing can hold many of the usual dangers related to surgical complications. A lot of vets also only use the minimum amount of painkillers and anesthetics during the operation, and prescribe no painkillers for the recovery process at home. The wounds take several weeks to heal, and the pain may continue months after the operation.

Complications after a declawing operation are also very common. The wounds may become infected or some of the amputated toes can begin to grow back. Some cats may experience lameness and even be crippled. You may notice a declawed cat trying to scratch at surfaces. They reason for this is because it is common for the tendons of the severed joints to detract and cause a constant feeling of stiffness in their paws.

Cats need their claws for balance and also use it to hook their paws on surfaces and stretch themselves. This stretching forms a very important part of the cat’s exercise and muscle toning. A declawed cat will need to learn to walk differently (because it doesn’t have any front joints) and its body weight will rest on their feet which can even cause arthritis.

It is very common for declawed cats to develop behavioral problems. It may develop a fear for its sandbox, because scratching in the sand may be painful. So, instead of having a cat that damages your furniture, you will have a cat that refuses to use its litter box. Also, because it has been deprived of its best means of defense, its claws, it may now revert to using its teeth to protect itself and can start to bite people when feeling threatened.

Declawed cats will also not be able to defend themselves effectively against other cats or dogs and can even die in fights.

Because of these behavioral problems developed after declawing, many cat owners become detached from their cats and may even want to get rid of them.

Professional cat declawing

If you do decide to declaw your cat after all, at least make sure that it is done professionally and with as little discomfort to your cat as possible.

The most developed method of declawing to date is laser declawing. Laser declawing is less painful, because bleeding and swelling is reduced.

Always ensure that your cat or kitten is older than 4 months before declawing. It is also not advisable to declaw cats that are old and not so active anymore, because they will take a longer time to recover.

After the operation, your cat may be kept in the hospital for the night, or a longer period of time depending on the cat. When taking your cat home, try to keep it from getting overexcited and prevent it from jumping or putting heavy strain on its paws. It is common for the paws to start bleeding every now and again, but ask your vet’s advice if the bleeding alarms you.

To minimize the pain your cat can experience when using its sandbox, put newspaper strips in the sandbox. Sand or clay can infect the wounds on the paws or cause pain when “scratching” in the box. After your cat is fully recovered you can replace the sand again. Your cat may not like the newspapers and this can become a messy affair.

Always look out for the following warning signs, and notify your vet if any occur: Swollen paws and frequent bleeding. If your cat display extreme difficulty in standing up or walking after one day.

Alternatives to cat declawing

Before deciding on such a drastic measure or “solution” as declawing your cat, first consider some of the (often more effective) alternatives. The main reason for declawing a cat is to prevent it from damaging your furniture. Scratching is a necessary instinctive habit for removing the dead cells around its claws, practicing balance and stretching and toning muscles.

Cats are highly trainable animals and can be taught to use only a scratching post for these purposes. There are numerous scratching posts or “cat furniture” to choose from, whether your cat likes scratching vertical or horizontal surfaces. You can even buy “cat trees” with attractive objects hanging from the tree to catch your cat’s attention or build your own (just make sure they are stable and won’t fall over on your cat).

To train a cat to use scratching posts, and to discourage it from scratching your furniture, you can place netting or foil over your furniture. When you see your cat trying to scratch your furniture, pick it up and put it down in front of its scratching post.

Nail caps can be applied to a cat’s claws, this need to be applied every 3 to 6 months depending on the cat. Nail caps will prevent damage to your furniture and to yourself while causing almost no inconvenience to your cat (compared to the serious discomfort caused by declawing). You can also trim your cat’s nails frequently to keep it blunt.

For more information about taking care of cats see cat-urine.net

Claudine du Plessis is a cat lover and webmaster of http://www.cat-urine.net.

Childcare resources can be hard to find. As a parent, the health and well-being of your children is always your top priority. However, with an ongoing and often prohibitive expense like childcare, money is also an issue in almost all instances. There may be dozens of childcare services that are being promoted within your immediate area, but that doesn’t mean that any specific one is right for you. In order to determine what will best meet the needs of you and your children, you will need to further explore the various options, finding the best fit for your schedule and lifestyle. There are several possibilities.

Childcare Center

A childcare center is the most readily available option in most areas. Daycare centers are also often more affordable. You can expect to see a higher ratio of children to adults, though all the legal mandates of your state will need to be maintained. Before you explore childcare resources, know what those laws are. If you visit a daycare center that does not comply with these regulations, walk away. The safety of your children is not worth the risk. In addition, keep in mind that being exposed to more children can increase the potential for the spread of infectious diseases.

The best daycare centers are very aware and keep hygiene concerns at the top of their minds.

Licensed In-home Care

This option is a middle ground between the institutionalized daycare center and private care. In-home daycare providers are usually required to carry a license from the state in which they operate. Again, getting familiar with these guidelines will be a large part of gathering your childcare resources. Home daycare workers must maintain a smaller ratio of children to adult care providers. These are usually run out of a private home, so the atmosphere is more relaxed and less like an institution. Take the time to carefully interview the provider.

Many in-home daycare caregivers truly love children and desire to offer nurturing and love. However, there are some that are mainly in the work for the money. Obviously, you will probably favor someone with a warm demeanor, who is at ease with your children.

Private Daycare Provider

There is more variation in this category than in any other. Childcare services can be provided by anybody, in any setting. Many parents, for example, find a grandparent or aunt that is available to provide care to their children. Others may find a referral through a mutual friend or via church. Keep in mind that caution should be maintained when using a private care provider.

There is not licensing or training requirements that are necessary for most of these arrangements. Don’t be afraid to extensively interview and ask for references. If you are working with family for your childcare resources, it can save both parties a lot of trouble to have a written payment agreement in place. The fastest way to alienate a family member from caring for your children is to neglect to pay as agreed upon. Luckily, most private providers charge extremely reasonable rates.Depending on where you live and what your local community has to offer, there may be other options. However, these are the three most common types of childcare resources that most parents will be choosing from. Each has their pros and cons and vary in price. Getting familiar with these options will help you select the best childcare services.

To learn more about child care and to get more Childcare Resources and tips visit my blog

Cats are the most popular pets in the United States. According to the latest version of the U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook (2002 Edition) there were almost 70 Million pet cats in the United States. Why are cats so popular? There are as many answers to this question as there are cat owners, but the low health risks cats pose to their owners is certainly near the top of this list. Even though the potential health risks cats pose to people are small, it is important that cat owners are aware of these risks and understand how to reduce them.

The majority of all risks stemming from cat ownership are associated with the cat litter box and/or cat feces. There are two categories of risks. The first category contains health risks posed by bacteria and parasites to both cat owners and their cats. The second category contains injuries resulting from an automatic litter box or self cleaning litter box.

Primarily the health problems experienced by cat owners or their cats come from the first category and the most significant of these risks is called Toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by a tiny parasite called Toxoplasma gondii which can be found in raw or undercooked meat, unwashed fruits and vegetables, dirty cat litter boxes and outdoor soil where cat feces can be found. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than 60 million people in the United States may be infected with the Toxoplasma parasite(1). Fortunately, very few people ever experience any symptoms because a healthy person’s immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness. However, pregnant women and individuals who have compromised immune systems, such as individuals infected with the HIV virus, are at risk and should take precautions to avoid being infected by the parasite. For people in this group a Toxoplasma infection could cause serious health problems to the individual or to a pregnant woman’s unborn child.

Again, most of the 60 million plus American’s infected with Toxoplasmosis parasite will never experience any symptoms. Most of those who do experience symptoms will simply think they have the Flu as the most common symptoms include swollen glands, fever, headache, muscle pain, or a stiff neck. For those in the high risk group, Toxoplasmosis can cause damage to the brain, eyes and internal organs. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, children born with Toxoplasma gondii can suffer from hearing loss, mental retardation, and blindness with some children developing brain or eye problems years after birth(2). The CDC estimates that 400-4000 fetuses are infected with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite each year and as many as 80 infants die from Toxoplasmosis annually(2).

So how does an individual contract Toxoplasmosis? A Toxoplasmosis infection is caused by ingesting the Toxoplasma gondi parasite. Most cat owners are infected with the parasite by accidentally ingesting infected cat feces. This happens when a person touches their mouth after handling a cat litter box, working in a garden or sand box or touching anything that has come in contact with cat feces(3).

People in the high risk group may wonder whether or not they should give up their cat to avoid infection. According to the CDC, it is not necessary for cat lovers to give up their cats, but it is important for them to protect themselves from infections. The USFDA makes the following recommendations for avoiding infections(2):

1) If possible, have someone else change the litter box. If you have to clean it, wear disposable gloves and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water afterwards.

2) Change the litter box daily. The parasite doesn’t become infectious until one to five days after the feces are deposited in the litter box.

3) Wear gloves when gardening in a garden or handling sand from a sandbox because cats may have excreted feces in them. Be sure to wash your hands with soap and warm water afterwards.

4) Cover outdoor sandboxes to prevent cats from using them as litter boxes.

5) Feed your cat commercial dry or canned food. Never feed your cat raw meat because it can be a source of the Toxoplasmosis gondii parasite.

6) Keep indoor cats indoors. Be especially cautious if you bring outdoor cats indoors.

7) Avoid stray cats, especially kittens.

Don’t get a new cat while you’re pregnant.

Safer Child, Inc. makes the following additional recommendations(4):

1) Have your veterinarian test your cat for the Toxoplasmosis parasite. If you cat is infected, you may want to consider having someone else keep your cat during your pregnancy.

2) Keep sandboxes covered to prevent cats from using the sandbox as a litter box.

3) Be aware of neighborhood sandboxes as the parasite can be brought home on shoes, clothing and toys.

Similar to Toxoplasmosis, Escherichia coli (commonly called E. coli) can infect humans thru contact with feline fecal material, although the primary means of infection is thru ingestion or raw or undercooked meats. E. Coli is a bacterium commonly found in the intestinal tract of humans and animals. Almost all strains of the bacteria are harmless. However a few strains can produce powerful toxins and cause severe illness, especially in children under 5 years of age(5). Symptoms usually include diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In children under 5, 2%-7% of E. coli cases can cause kidney failure. Fortunately, E. coli is easy to prevent. Using the preventative measures, outlined above for Toxoplasmosis will greatly reduce the risks of you or your children contracting an E. coli infection.

In addition to these human risks, there are a few health risks cat litter boxes actually pose to cats that cat owners should be aware of. Just as a dirty litter box poses health risks to humans, cats are equally at risk if forced to use a dirty litter box. Since cats stay clean by licking themselves, allowing a cat’s litter box to get too dirty can cause infections when a cat cleans it’s paws after using the dirty litter box. The most common infection is a urinary tract infection, and although this type of infection is rarely fatal it can be very uncomfortable for your cat and will most likely require treatment by your veterinarian.

Finally, a lesser-known health risk to cats is actually caused by cat litter itself. What many cat owners do not realize is that some types of cat litter can be harmful or even fatal to their cat. Both clumping and non-clumping litters pose health problems to cats. Clumping cat litters are probably the most popular type of cat litter because of their convenience, hygienic qualities and the fact that clumping litters are required for use in self-cleaning litter boxes. Unfortunately, some clumping litters can be harmful to cats. Clay based clumping litters can contain the mineral sodium bentonite, which can be harmful or fatal to your cat. It is best to avoid using clay based cat litters, especially with kittens. Wheat or corn based clumping litters such as Swheat Scoop, World’s Best Cat Litter and Littermaid cat litter work very well and are non-toxic(6).

By their very nature, non-clumping litters do not absorb and isolate a cat’s urine or feces like clumping litters do. As a result, it is much harder to keep your cat’s litter box clean when using non-clumping litter. When using non-clumping litter it is important to frequently clean and disinfect the litter box itself to reduce the chance of bacterial buildups that can cause urinary or other infections in your cat.

The second category of health risks covers injuries caused by an automatic litter box or self cleaning litter box. Occurrences of this type of injury are rare, but they can happen. An automatic or self cleaning litter box does just what it’s name implies. Usually between 10-15 minutes after a cat uses the litter box, the litter box automatically cleans itself by “sweeping” or “raking” the cat waste into a sealed compartment or bag. For cat owners, injuries can occur if a small child or toddler plays with the automatic litter box during the cleaning cycle. All major brands of automatic litter boxes contain sensors to prevent the cleaning mechanism from activating when a cat or other foreign object is inside the box. However, children can still be injured if they put their hand inside the cleaning mechanism in such a manner as to avoid the sensors.

Although these types of injuries are very rare it is best to take precautions. Placing the litter box in a location where your cat can get to it but small children can’t is an easy method. This is good advice for any litter box as this is the best way to keep children from contracting one of the illnesses described earlier in this article. If you can’t keep the automatic litter box out of a child’s reach then it is best to put the litter box inside a litter box cover. There are many types of covers and all of them will help prevent a child from reaching the litter box and the cleaning mechanism. A final option is to unplug the litter box or put it into a “manual operation” mode. Both of these options will require the cat owner to start the cleaning cycle whenever necessary. Although this reduces some of the convenience of an automatic litter box it certainly removes the danger to children.

Automatic or self cleaning litter boxes are completely safe for almost all cats. However, most manufacturers recommend that the litter box be used in “manual operation” mode for cats under 5 lbs. Cats under 5 lbs many not be large enough to activate the sensors and the cleaning mechanism could cause injury. Since most adult cats weigh over 5 lbs, it is only necessary to use the “manual operation” mode until kittens grow to 5 lbs.

This article is not intended to dissuade anyone from owning a cat. 70 Million cat owners can’t be wrong; cats make great pets! So, if you already own a cat or are thinking of becoming a cat owner it simply makes good sense to be aware of the health risks associated with cat ownership. Understanding the risks can definately increase the enjoyment of cat ownership.

(1)Toxoplasmosis Fact Sheet; http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/toxoplasmosis/factsht_toxoplasmosis.htm

(2) While You’re Pregnant – USFDA

[http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~pregnant/whiltoxo.html]

(3) Toxoplasmosis – An important Message for Cat Owners; [http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/toxoplasmosis/toxoplasmosis_brochure_8.2004.pdf]

(4) Safer Child, Inc.;

http://www.saferchild.org/pets&.htm

(5) Escherichia coli O157:H7 Fact Sheet;

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/escherichiacoli_g.htm

(6) Stanford Cat Network’s – Guide to Caring for Your Adopted Cat or Kitten;

http://www.stanford.edu/group/CATNET/articles/careguide.html#litter

The author is a long time cat lover who currently owns and operates LitterBoxesandMore.com; a business specializing in high quality automatic litter box. Litterboxesandmore.com also offers other specialty cat products such as pet strollers and indoor cat fences. Come visit us at http://www.litterboxesandmore.com