The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Do you love book stores? Those orderly, little universes of paper and gloss and yesterday’s ideas, facts, memories, observations, and feelings into which, from time to time, the flesh-and-blood world enters?

Poet and Oral Historian Ralph Dranow does.

Having lived, worked, and breathed bookstores for over fifteen years, he celebrated them in Sunday Ritual, which nycBigCityLit reviewer Tim Scannel believes are the “best poems about the aura and patrons of the bookstore.”

In his twenty-five poems in Sunday Ritual, Mr. Dranow drew from his fifteen-plus years as a bookstore clerk to narrate stories of the world shuffling in, and occasionally breaking open, outside and inside him. I found the poems by the always lucid Mr Dranow a compelling read. [Sunday Ritual, by Ralph Dranow, First Prize Winner, 2000 Nerve Cowboy Chapbook Contest; Liquid Paper Press, P. O. Box 4973, Austin, Texas 78765; $4]

Out of the bookstore now, developing his oral history practice in Oakland; volunteering at the Faithful Fools in San Francisco, where he has been a witness to the lives of homeless persons on the streets; and reading to residents of Piedmont Gardens Retirement Community; it is clear the physical confines of bookstores haven’t re-formed this lover of bookstores, physically or mentally.

His lanky frame remains unstooped and his hazel eyes examine the world of San Francisco’s old-new, desultory-vibrant, wicked-innocent, gritty Tenderloin with compassion and a twinkle as he embarks on new voyages of discovery that challenge his heart, spirit, and mind.

I enjoyed reading Ralph Dranow’s poems in his book, Tenderloin Voices, which he has dedicated to the people of San Francisco’s Tenderloin and the Faithful Fools, a Tenderloin neighborhood charitable and educational organization created in 1998 “to address the existence of poverty in the midst of material wealth” in this beautiful, famously liberal city-by-the-bay. The Tenderloin—home to Glide, St. Anthony, and St. Boniface churches—has one of the densest concentrations of addiction, homeless, and other social services in the country.

I loved the flow of Mr. Dranow’s poems as they chronicle, brimful with details, the faces, voices, thoughts, feelings, and conditions of San Francisco’s Tenderloin homeless. I admired the listening and observation skills, and the courage, both public and private, that these 21 poems represent. [Tenderloin Voices, by Ralph Dranow; Spruce Street Press, Oakland, CA; price $5; available from The Portable Blessings Ledger, P. O. Box 21622, Piedmont, CA 94620]

Mr. Dranow is also the author of The Woman Who Knocked Out Sugar Ray - short stories; Sure Hands Lifting Me Skyward – poetry; Voyeur of the Heart – poetry; Green Leaves For Hair - a poetry book in collaboration with Therese Baumberger.

Recently, I ventured to ask Mr. Dranow what had contributed to making him who he was.

Mr Dranow explained he had learned from his mistakes. As it so often happens, pain stimulated growth and change. He shifted from writing prose to poetry about sixteen years ago after a divorce made him realize he needed to broaden his life, take more risks, and widen his consciousness. He joined a men’s group, studied tai chi, started meditating, and reading books on Buddhism.

“Writing poetry,” he added, “has been an important way for me to reclaim my essential self, to overcome my sense of separation and instead to feel my connection with all other living beings.

“Also, my second marriage, to Naomi Rose, has been a great opportunity for me to learn and grow, to see where I am off the mark and to work on coming closer, with Naomi’s love, support, and wisdom.

“And my work with the Faithful Fools has been inspiring; to be associated with people with generous hearts and spirits who are committed to creating more community and love in the world has been a great blessing.”

Mr. Dranow’s poems reflect his continuing journey into awareness and reclaiming “his essential self.”

Copyright 2005 Michael Chacko Daniels. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTOR: Don’t you love people’s stories, their challenges and struggles to overcome them, their successes, and what strengths and skills they used to succeed? San Franciscan Michael Chacko Daniels, who grew up in Bombay, does. He believes each person’s story can be inspiring to all of us. Books: Writers Workshop, Kolkata: Split in Two (1971, 2004), Anything Out of Place Is Dirt (1971, 2004), and That Damn Romantic Fool (1972, 2005). Since 2005, he has been re-working the three novels, written over the last three decades, which had gathered dust in his closet while he devoted himself to providing services in Berkeley and Oakland at the Center for Independent Living and, later, to running the Jobs for Homeless Consortium through 2004. A flash fiction piece of his, Sing an Indian Name, was published on Denver Syntax free online magazine http://www.denversyntax.com/issue5/fiction/daniels/indian.html. Read all about his Indian and American journey on his website, US-India Writing Station, at: http://IndiaWritingStation.squarespace.com/

Chalking is a quick, inexpensive way to add creativity, color, and character to your scrapbooking layouts and other papercrafts.

With a simple set of chalks, you can add highlights and shading to your paper piecings,
diecuts, punch art, stamping, lettering, cardstock, patterned papers, and vellum.

Chalks create professional, custom looks with surprising ease.
Here’s what you need to know:

What kind of chalk should I use?
It’s best to stick to chalks that were designed for use in scrapbooking. You won’t want to use
artists’ pastels unless they are specifically labeled acid-free.

What tools will I need?
A variety of tools create a variety of effects. Use cotton balls for all-over soft color,
Q-tips and/or specially designed foam applicators (which look like eye makeup applicators
but which you’ll find in craft stores) when you want deeper color.

When using Q-tips, make sure to roll the swab around in your fingers to tighten the cotton
so you don’t get wisps, which can take the color where you don’t want it.

One favorite chalk application tool - believe it or not - is a tampon. I got this idea from
Creating Keepsakes, and decided to try it. A tampon provides a wonderful firmness and width
for all-over color. And when it’s time to change colors, you can just clip off the used
portion and start again.

How is the chalk applied?

Experiment on a piece of scrap paper and see what kind of effects you can achieve with these
simple tools and a palette of chalks.

Start with a light touch and add more color as you wish. Also, start with the lightest
color and layer your darker colors on top, where appropriate for shading.

If you are going to be chalking a diecut or other embellishment, make sure you use extra
caution when you are gluing because the chalk will stick to the glue. If you get a little
wild with your glue, use your Un-du before you use your chalk.

Here are a few ideas to trigger your own creative imagination:

* Fill in - or simply outline - a stenciling template with chalk.

* Use chalks to create just the right color on photo mats or other embellishments.
Chalk will even tint ribbons and fibers for a perfect color match.

* Create a rubbing of an embossed diecut by applying the chalk directly to paper
that is placed over the diecut.

* Apply chalk to the torn edge of cardstock paper, vellum, or diecuts for a shabby chic look.

* Apply chalk to crumpled paper. The chalk will be most prominent along the ridges.

Can I fix mistakes?

It’s surprisingly easy to fix chalking goofs, but you will need a chalk eraser (available
at craft stores.) You can always add chalk over a spot that you’ve erased, but fix
mistakes quickly: Chalks become permanent more quickly than you might think.

Do I need to “set” the chalk?

The pigments in scrapbooking chalks become permanently set in the paper several hours
after application, so a permanent fixative generally isn’t necessary if the layout is
going to be in a page protector.

If you apply your chalks with a light hand, they shouldn’t migrate, and you can lightly
swipe away any loose chalk with a clean cotton ball, or remove extra chalk by placing your
page face down and rubbing gently.

You can also use an acid-free spray fixative - available in craft stores - to help ensure
the chalk doesn’t smear or migrate, but be careful not to spray the photos.

That’s it! Have fun, and don’t be afraid to experiment. This is where the artist in you
is allowed to come out and play!

Susie Cortright is the founder of http://www.momscape.com - an online magazine devoted to helping parents celebrate life with children. She is also the creator of Momscape’s Scrapbooking Playground: http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking Visit her sites today to subscribe to Susie’s free weekly newsletters and to learn more about her scrapbook club and her work-at-home scrapbook business.

In today’s age, building computers on yourself is often chosen as the safest and choicest option by a sizeable part of the market for computers. There are various advantages and disadvantages for doing so.

When personal computers first entered the mass market, building a computer was an arduous and risky task. Getting the right computer parts was also difficult and without a guarantee. Putting the whole thing together was a risk because of the newness of the product as well as the absence of expert knowledge. But over the years, the market has understood the process of computer assembly and the heavy savings involved in making your own computer (you basically save on the branded company’s professional service charge for putting the computer together for you).

Customers are able to find everything needed to build a computer on the Internet. If you want to assemble the whole system at one go, you can get a barebone computer system and keep adding on later. Using quality but cheap computer parts is the key trick behind assembling computers.

There are thousands of cheap computer parts on the web today. A quick check list of the main components you need to build your computer is –

• CPUs (Processors)
• Hard Drives
• Graphics Card
• Monitors
• CD / CD-RW / DVD ROMs
• Mouse and Keyboards (other Input Devices)
• Batteries
• Cables & Adapters
• Communications and Connectivity tools
• Cooling Products
• Computer Bags & Cases
• Firewire Products

Accessories
o Digital Cameras
o Flash Memory
o Gaming Hardware
o Ink & Toner
o Cellular Accessories
o Cleaning Kits & Supplies
o Notebook Accessories
o Headsets
o Media Storage

You can find any of almost all of these computer parts in Internet individually. Cheap computer parts are easy to find and pay for securely over Internet. There are also many sites and services that help you build these types of computers on a professional basis and get you started. These sites help you step-by-step through the process of building a good quality computer using cheap and high quality computer parts – often with illustrated instruction guides to show you how to put your new computer together.

Building your own high-quality but cheap computer with computer parts that are genuine and cheap are often considered a safe bet.

Adrian Griffiths - Computer Hardware UK, Cheap Computer Parts

What? Make a mistake entering data? Who me? NO WAY! Right…

Every form of data input by a user should be validated in some
form or fashion. If you get

clean data in, you won’t get garbage out. This tutorial is going
to explain how to validate

numerical data entered into a form using JavaScript.

First, let us begin with the code to insert the JavaScript into
your HTML document.

Place these lines between the and tags.

This line tells the web browser to expect some JavaScript code
and signal the beginning of

the script:

So now the format should look something like this:

Now on to validating the numerical input.

First we will create a function with one arument:

function validate(mydata){

These lines will test for a blank enty then prompt the user for
input:

if (mydata == “”){ alert(”Please enter a number.”) }

Next we will create a for loop which will look at each character
in the data until it

reaches the end:

for(var i=0;i < mydata.length;i++){

Now create a variable and assign the counter variable value to
it:

var mydigit = mydata.charAt(i)

To screen out symbols, punctuation, and letters, place an if
statement in the loop:

if(mydigit < "0" || mydigit > “9″){

The || in the if statement scans for both conditions.

The next line will alert the user to any mistakes he/she has
made:

alert(mydigit + ” is not a number.”)

Here is the complete code including HTML:
=============================================
LANGUAGE="JavaScript">

We at talkdigit make an all out effort to improve your
lifestyle and make your life easier on a low cost. There are
enormous utilities associated with talkdigits VoIP Phone
Service. People from different walks of life are using it for
their benefits to protect their privacy and make their life
easier. The best part of talkdigit is that it has useful
features for everyone. Everyone from a college going student to
a housewife to a businessman can enjoy the benifits of
talkdigits.

Lets have a look how all manner of people use it for their
benifits.

Being the nation’s hearthrob, at times it is very difficult for
you to protect your protect your personal number as fans often
ask your phone number. At times, you have no choice but to give
them your number, though only for the sake of courtesy. This has
lead you to trouble in many situations with fans going crazy all
over. What if your fans start misusing the number and turns out
to be difficult for you. You cannot always change your phone
numbers, because your personal number is with your loved ones
too. Changing numbers and dealing with difficult fans will waste
your precious time as well. So why not eliminate this phone
number problem forever. Have a free of cost talkdigit number and
give them to all and sundry and protect your privacy. If, even
you do not attend calls on this number, the messages from your
fans will be transferred to you as voice attachments and there
is no need to change your phone number too.

Do you have a very hectic work schedule and your personal cell
number and office phone is always busy. Sometimes it may happen
that your loved ones want to get connected to you instantly at
the time of emergency. talkdigit number will prove to be the
best for you. You can give this number to your family and they
can call you any time in case of emergency. As you know that a
call on this number is from your loved ones, you can immediately
attend the call. Your love ones can also leave their messages on
voice that will be hence transferred to your E-mail account as
Mp3 attachments. As this service is a never busy servise, your
loved ones will never find any problem to get connected and
impart your immediate attention.

You are a serial blog writer and often on tour. Sometimes it may
happen that while tarvelling, some idea or the concept of a good
article strikes you instantly or you want to utilize your
travelling time to record your blogs and publish them. talkdigit
is your remedy again. By downloading the free software on your
laptop, you can carry talkdigit wherever you want. Whenever you
want to publish your instant thoughts and ideas, you can call
free digit and speak your mind. Your thoughts are saved and you
can use the code provided by free digits to publish them on your
web site.

If you are a detective, then phone is your lifeline and
communication your lifeblood. You always need to make calls at
different places and to different people. Record of incoming
calls, identity of the callers, and your privacy is very vital
in your profession. So having a number that mantains your
privacy and is completely relaible and secure at the same time
is your prime concern. Then Free digits is the best option for
you.

talkdigit service being Internet-enabled, reliability and
security comes in handy in this service. The free digit number,
which you are alloted is an unlisted US number so it is your
very own private number and another person cannot trace that
number. Apart form this you can utilize the other benificial
features of this service and make your professional life more
successful.

The maximum number of your relatives reside in United States.
You are often out of the country on business tours. To stay
connected with your friends and family turns out to be very
costly. Why not opt out for talkdigits. You can give your family
your unlisted US phone number and they can stay in touch with
you on the cost of US phone tariffs, no matter in whichever part
of the world you are. Above all, the free messaging service,
reliability, security, and the lighting speed service make the
talkdigit service stand apart among all the other service
providers.

Free digit service will serve to be extremely benificial for
your office as it offers services such as conferencing, faxing,
party line, caller Id, in network calling, speed dialing,
voicemail to email, and personalized greeting altogether free of
cost. Not only this, talkdigits is turning out to be an apple of
eye for everyone because of the reliable, secure, and the low
cost service they provide.

You do most of your shopping online and is often asked to fill
in your phone number. You do not want to reveal your personal
number everywhere. In such condition you can always give your
talkdigit number and protect your identity.

Free digits service is Internet-enabled and gives you a complete
dedicated phone connection. You get your very own private phone
number and you can use this number to make call in any part of
the world from anywhere on local US tariffs. As this is
Internet-enabled it is very fast, reliable, secure, and fits in
everybody’s pocket.

As a Freelance writer, you are often required to talk to
different clients and give your phone number. Giving your
personal number out everytime to every client is not good and
secure as they keep on disturbing you day and night for every
minute details of their work. What if one of your client turns
out to be irrelevant. Changing your phone number every time is
also not possible. So why not give your talkdigit number,
instead. eliminate the fear of changing your number or revealing
your personal phone number to everyone.

While placing advertisements or on auction sites, if you do not
want to give your personal number, you can always give your
talkdigit number and protect your privacy.

You are an Asian businessman and have lots of clients in US. You
can have a talkdigit service, using which your customers can
contact you at very optimal charges. The free conferencing and
free tax service will be a boon for you.

Following a busy lifestyle, people opt for services that are
fast and relaible. Ebaying is one such field of service, with
more and more customers coming to shop online. With maximum
number of apparals being sold online. But often customers
online, who first want to interact with the service provider to
gain clarity ragarding the features of a particular product or
service. A talkdigit service will be very good for and your
customers as well. They can call you from any part of the world
on local US tariffs and this service with its different
extraordinary free features will be very good for you as well as
your business. You will be no longer to require to give your
personal phone number to any customer and save you from
irrelevant clients.

If you are a gay or lesbian and your parents do not accept your
love realtionship with your partner and you are not allowed to
make or attend your personal calls from your home phone. Taking
an alternative connection to be in touch with your partner can
prove to be very costly. Instead, you can go for a Free digits
number. Free digit will give you relief from all your tensions.
You can have your own private number with complete relaibility
and security.

Dear Mr. D,

I have noticed several websites that have a sale’s message that
scrolls across their title bar. Another site I visited had a
sale’s message scrolling across the status bar.

These messages really caught my eye. I figure if they are eye
catching then they must be great sales tools.

I want to install something like that on my site, but I can’t
find out how to do it. I have several books on HTML, but none of
them cover anything that that.

Do you know how it’s done. Please keep it simple. I don’t have
much experience in web design.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Signed,

Sandra

____________________

Dear Sandra,

The scrolling marquee type messages are are produced by
JavaScript codes. That’s why you couldn’t find them in any of
your HTML books.

JavaScript codes can produce some great effects on your site.
The great part is you don’t have to learn to write these codes,
you can just go to any of several free JavaScript sites and find
a great array of scripts. These scripts are free for you to use
and they come with simple installation instructions.

My favorite free Javascript site is at:
http://javascript.internet.com - but if you don’t find what you
want there, just go to any of the major search engines and
conduct a search. You will find several excellent free sites.

I hope this answered your question, if not - just email me.

What is a Firewall?

The term “firewall” illustrates a system that protects a network and the machines on them from various types of attack. Firewalls are geared towards keeping the server up all the time and protecting the entire network.

The primary goal of a firewall is to implement a desired security policy; controlling access in both directions through the firewall, and to protect the firewall itself from compromise. It wards off intrusion attempts, Trojans and other malicious attacks.

Personal Firewalls:

They are meant for the home user in a networked environment. They aim to block simple attacks, unlike the enterprise level firewalls that the corporate world uses at the server or router end. There are many ways to implement a firewall, each with specific advantages and disadvantages.

Are they really needed?

Nowadays organizations and professionals use Internet technology to establish their online presence and showcase their products and services globally. Their endeavor is to leverage digital technology to make their business work for them.

All the organizations and professionals are shifting from Dialup to broadband and getting a fixed IP. It has led to an increase in security attacks, bugs in everyday working. This does not mean that Dialup being anonymous dynamic link or the firewall of the ISP network make you pretty safe.

Now if your machine was under attack, you must have wondered what went wrong making your system crash suddenly. So I would rather like to say, it’s not necessary for anyone to actually know about you or your IP address to gain access to your system.

If you system is infected or prone to intrusions, then beyond the anonymity of your Dialup connection or a dynamic IP, your system can be hacked.

Types of Attacks

Intrusion:

There are many ways to gain unauthorized access to a system. Operating system vulnerabilities, cracked or guessed passwords are some of the more common. Once access is attained, the intruder can send email, tamper with data, or use the system privileges to attack another system.

Information Theft and Tampering:

Data theft and tampering do not always require that the system be compromised. There have been many bugs with FTP servers that allow attackers to download password files or upload Trojan horses.

Service Attacks:

Any attack that keeps the intended user from being able to use the services provided by their servers is considered a denial of service attack. There are many types of denial of service attacks, and unfortunately are very difficult to defend against. “Mail bombs” are one example in which an attacker repeatedly sends large mail files in the attempt at filling the server’s disk filesystem thus preventing legitimate mail from being received.

Types of Attackers

Joyrider:

Not all attacks on computer systems are malicious. Joyriders are just looking for fun. Your system may be broken into just because it was easy, or to use the machine as a platform to attack others. It may be difficult to detect intrusion on a system that is used for this purpose. If the log files are modified, and if everything appears to be working, you may never know.

Vandals:

A vandal is malicious. They break in to delete files or crash computer systems either because they don’t like you, or because they enjoy destroying things. If a vandal breaks into your computer, you will know about it right away. Vandals may also steal secrets and target your privacy.

“In an incident a Trojan was being used to operate the web cam. All the activities being done in the house were being telecasted on the websites.”

Spies:

Spies are out to get secret information. It may be difficult to detect break-ins by spies since they will probably leave no trace if they get what they are looking for.

A personal firewall, therefore, is one of the methods you can use to deny such intrusions.

How Firewalls work?

Firewalls basically work as a filter between your application and network connection. They act as gatekeepers and as per your settings, show a port as open or closed for communication. You can grant rights for different applications to gain access to the internet and also in a reverse manner by blocking outside applications trying to use ports and protocols and preventing attacks. Hence you can block ports that you don’t use or even block common ports used by Trojans.

Using Firewalls you can also block protocols, so restricting access to NetBIOS will prevent computers on the network from accessing your data. Firewalls often use a combination of ports, protocols, and application level security to give you the desired security.

Firewalls are configured to discard packets with particular attributes such as:

• Specific source or destination IP addresses.

• Specific protocol types

• TCP flags set/clear in the packet header.

Choosing a firewall:

Choose the firewalls which have the ability to ward of all intrusion attempts, control applications that can access the internet, preventing the malicious scripts or controls from stealing information or uploading files and prevent Trojans and other backdoor agents from running as servers.

The purpose of having a firewall cannot be diminished in order to gain speed. However, secure, high-performance firewalls are required to remove the bottleneck when using high speed Internet connections. The World-Wide-Web makes possible the generation of enormous amounts of traffic at the click of a mouse.

Some of the good firewall performers available in the market are below:

• BlackICE Defender

• eSafe Desktop

• McAfee Personal Firewall

• Neowatch

• Norton Personal Firewall

• PGP Desktop Security

• Sygate Personal Firewalls

• Tiny Personal Firewall

• Zone Alarm

• Zone Alarm Pro

Most of these firewalls are free for personal use or offer a free trial period. All the personal firewalls available can’t ensure 100% security for your machine. Regular maintenance of the machine is needed for ensuring safety.

Some of the tasks advised for maintaining system not prone to intrusions:

• Disable file and print sharing if you are not going to be on network.

• Update your antivirus signature files regularly.

• Use a specialized Trojan cleaner.

• Regular apply security patches to your software and operating system.

• Don’t open email attachments if you have don’t know the contents it may contain.

• Don’t allow unknown applications to access to the internet or to your system.

• Regularly check log files of your personal firewall and antivirus software.

• Disable ActiveX and java and uninstall windows scripting host if not required.

• Turn off Macros in Applications like Microsoft Office and turn macro protection on.

• Check the open ports of your system and see them against the common list of Trojans ports to see if they are being used by some Trojan.

• Log Off from your internet connection if not required. Being online on the internet for long duration gives any intruder more and sufficient time to breach system security.

• Unplug peripherals like web cam, microphone if they are not being used.

About The Author

Pawan Bangar,
Technical Director,
Birbals,India
ebirbals@gmail.com

For stronger signal strengths, lesser static interruptions, and better GPS reception and accuracy, use an external antenna. PocketPC gadgets from HP iPAQ, Dell, and Palm, especially those with cellular phone and GPS capabilities, can work better with various signal enhancers.

An external antenna is one of the numerous PDA handheld accessories along with PDA cases, screen protectors, styluses, car mounts, cables, and others that ensure total Pocket PC protection and improved functions.

External Antennas For PocketPCs - Promoting Seamless Connectivity

For PDAs with cellular phone and GPS (global position system), an external antenna can work wonders. An external antenna can be attached to the Pocket PC device and can be conveniently placed on the roof of your car, at the top of your desk, etc. An external antenna for your Pocket PC can utilize more signals making communication faster and more convenient.

Even though some Pocket PC units, PDA phones, and cellular phones have their built-in antenna, an external one is still useful.

A built-in antenna has certain limitations in sending and receiving signals because of its restricted size so the user has to find the right place to conduct his call or use the GPS of his Pocket PC. An external antenna can easily get better signals because it can place itself in a better radio frequency (RF) environment.

Various points should also be taken care of before connecting an antenna to your Pocket PC. Other PDA accessories, like cables or connectors, are needed to connect the antenna to your Pocket PC.

Longer handheld cables lessen the signals, so shorter cables should be chosen where possible. The location of the external antenna should also be considered. For example, when you’re on the road, the perfect spot to put the Pocket PC antenna is on the roof of the vehicle to widen handheld signal coverage.

Jon Butt is the publisher of http://www.the-PDA-guide.com One of the web’s leading sources of information on how to choose your perfect PDA or PocketPC or Handheld, where to get the biggest discounts online, which software downloads will enhance your life and what accessories will enhance your little PDA friend.

"When you truly look for me,
You will find me."
Kabir

We all want love. Then, when we get it, we become afraid and start to run in the opposite direction. On the one hand we are searching for love, searching for some lasting relationship. On the other hand, we are relieved when the person goes away.

It always “seems” as if relationships are difficult. They seem difficult to find, to keep and to enjoy.Yet, the fundamental truth is: there is no inherent problem with relationships. There is never a scarcity of relationships. There is never a scarcity of love. Love is our natural condition, why aren’t we

The most common answer to this question is that we must find the perfect person. There is always something wrong with the people we meet. We have not yet found the “right” person, who can make us really happy. Or, if we have found him/her, that person has now left us and nobody will ever take their place again.

At this point we still believe that another person can make us happy. But, all right, let us look for a moment at what we’re dreaming of. Take a moment to see clearly who this perfect person is to you. Sit down and write a description of how you would imagine your perfect partner to be. Let yourself daydream. Write down all the qualities such
a person would have.

Now, write a paragraph describing how you would have to be in order to have such a partner. (Daydreams have power). Just doing this exercise you may begin to laugh. There may be wild discrepancies between how you see yourself now and how you feel your wouldhave to be to hold such a perfect partner.

What else might you discover? You might also discover that you do not really like this perfect person after all. He/she may only be some kind of ego-ideal. (Someone to build up your own self-image).

An attitude like this is based upon non-acceptance of who and what we really are.When we use another person to build up our own self-image, this kind of relationship is grounded in fear.

Love can never be built upon a foundation that is not real. If we do not feel good within ourselves, is it really so surprising we may not really be so eager, after all, for this perfect

There are many ways people keep love away. Some constantly fall into relationships only with difficult people. In this manner they insure that they will either be rejected, or have to reject the other. Rejection can feel more comfortable and familiar than the experience of love. Take a long, hard, good look at this. Look at what it is in you that feels it must keep love away. We cannot be open to love and relationship until we are able to release our fear of and desire for rejection. Once this pattern is dealt with, all of life opens its many doors.

As this happens it is inevitable to realize that love is free, it flows everywhere. It flows to everyone regardless of their qualities. Love has nothing to do with any images or fantasies of how somebody else “should be”, or how we “should be” either.

Each person is the perfect person just as they are. When you begin finding the beauty in everyone, then the right one for you just walks through the door. .

Start today. Look around for a moment. See who is really in your life. Look at this person. Are you willing to love them? Really? What will happen if they start to love you too? Anything we can’t love or accept in another, is a mirror of something we can’t love or accept in our ourselves. All it takes is one moment to decide to turn that around. Try for a moment. See how wonderful it feels.

Here is a lovely exercise. Close your eyes, look at yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you. Open your eyes a moment. Close them again, and look at yourself now through your own eyes. Open your eyes. Can you choose to look at yourself and others, through the eyes of someone who loves them? If you can, you will be amazed at all the love that starts flowing to you.

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Brenda Shoshanna, Ph.D., psychologist, speaker and author is a long term Zen practitioner whose work integrates Zen and everyday life. The relationship expert on i.village.com, she is the author of many books. The most recent is Living By Zen (Timeless Truths For Everyday Life), http://www.livingbyzen.com. She is also the author of Zen And The Art of Falling In Love, (Simon and Schuster), Zen Miracles, (Finding Peace In An Insane World) and many other books. She can be reached at topspeaker@yahoo.com Her personal website is http://www.brendashoshanna.com
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Surging business

Virtually unheard 10 years ago, the term “outsourcing” has emerged as a phenomenon in the business of the present day world. It has become the backbone of Indian service sectors. In the last fiscal India earned $6.7 billion by providing services in software, technology and manufacturing outsourcing.

Now the BPO companies have turned their eyes on legal outsourcing. According to a study by the US-based Forester Research, the current annual value of legal outsourcing which is worth $80 million can rise up to $4 billion and can produce 79,000 jobs in India by 2015. National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) also projected that Legal Processing Outsourcing providers (LPOs) in India will soon rise up to $3-4 billion. This heralds the opening of new vistas for law professionals whose number is increasing incessantly.

According to Forrester Research report, “The benefit of the outsourcing companies in the US would translate into a cost saving of about 10-12 per cent. The potential of the Indian resources to absorb the increasing demand in legal outsourcing is because India enjoys the economic advantages of the wage difference and less perks and overheads.”

Nature of work

In the beginning the works which are being outsourced to India are “of secretarial nature and includes patent drafting, legal research, contract review and monitoring,” says Mr. Ravi Shankar S. of 21 st Century Law Firm. But it is set to expand with the enlarging knowledge of Indians regarding the foreign laws. Experts are hoping to receive high-end sophisticated contracts, which require a strong legal base of international standards.

Challenge ahead

The most important challenge to the newly-born sector is the need for Indian lawyers to pass US Bar exams, conflict of interest rules and data security. According to Mr. Ravi Shankar, “As far as qualifications of Indian lawyers regarding handling of foreign legal jobs are concerned, it should be pointed out that the nature of jobs at the lower level is almost the same. So no special qualification is needed to handle them.”

But notwithstanding the optimism prevalent in the legal business, there are a plenty of hurdles which can hamper the growth of this sector. For example the Indian Advocates Act, which deals with the professional conduct of lawyers, does not support work for other countries. Even, in specific laws governing companies and trade in securities, which hugely differ from one country to another, may constrain LPOs to paralegal and secretarial work.

But on the bright side, certain branches of law, which are of a global nature, like Intellectual Property laws (patents and trademarks) can give Legal Process Outsourcing Providers (LPOs) a fillip in their endeavour.

An Indian lawyer can be as good as his American counterpart in US Federal laws if properly trained in US law. What is required of an attorney, either Indian or American, is not that he should be aware of all laws and regulations but that he should be ready to acquire that knowledge.

Rush to grab the opportunity

It is the effect of this optimism that not only established BPO companies but also several legal firms have thrown themselves open to this lucrative opportunity. In fact, American conglomerate, General Electric, was one of the first to set up its captive BPO Gecis in India, which included LPO. Other technology companies, too, farmed out work to their Indian captive units.

Khaitan & Co, a leading law firm from Kolkata has already started an LPO by floating a new company ‘Neoworth’ and engaged 10 US-enrolled lawyers.

There is a strong political opposition in the US against outsourcing as it may affect the livelihood of US attorneys and may also serve as a roadblock. Despite of that feeling, legal firms are more than willing to outsource their jobs to India. That’s because like other BPO activities, Indian lawyers come cheap. An associate lawyer in the US comes with a $225 per hour tag in the first year. By the eighth year, it goes up to $450 an hour. In India, the rates are barely 10 per cent to 15 per cent of that. Moreover, with the time lag between India and the US and the UK, the turnaround time is 24 hours.

Himanshu Singh

Author is an expert journalist having wide scale experience in business and educational reporting. He has witten several articles on myriad of topics and has taken interviews of several well known personalities from industry and academia.

Contact the author

email - hksingh@amity.edu
Website - http://www.amityedumedia.com