The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Reliability, hiring and termination costs are persistent problems in the electrical contracting industry. Thorough screening, testing and interviewing techniques can help prevent reliability issues. The question is, do you have time to do all of these things and maintain focus on the job site?

First review a list of functions your company must do to hire, maintain and retain an employee. Place a cost on each item using the time value of the person who must handle each separate item. For example and simplification, your office manager earns $15.00/hour and spends a half-hour a day dealing with employee issues. The time value is $7.50 to perform that function. Do this for each item listed below and come up with a daily total amount. Divide the total by 8 and determine if you are performing the functions cheaper than the staffing company can. Most electrical contractors can not because they are set up operationally, not administratively.

If you need a guideline to compare costs, most staffing companies charge a very small amount on top of each hour billed; use 5-7% as a general rule. Keep in mind this includes all labor burden costs including state/federal payroll taxes, worker’s com, liability insurance, payroll processing, etc (see list for the rest).

Outsourcing your human resources function eliminates the need for:

Placing job ads, handling phone calls from ads, processing job applications,checking references,performing criminal background checks, scheduling and paying for drug testing (if required), scheduling and conducting interviews, controlling Worker’s compensation insurance costs, maintaining liability insurance on employees, paying for office staff human resources training,
employee handbook development, safety program development, administration and injury reporting, payroll administration, mailing checks and setting up direct deposit accounts, payroll tax accounting – weekly payroll and annual mailing of W-2’s,
time tracking of field employees (electricians), offering and administering health and savings plans, worker’s compensation claims processing, processing unemployment claims, handling court ordered garnishments, paying attorney’s fees if a suit is filed against your company, addressing and processing NLRB issues, dealing with and paying for other post-employment obligations (wrongful termination suits, HIPPA notifications, etc)…and all of the other time consuming costs not mentioned above that chew into your bottom line!

What many electrical contractors do not take into consideration is the amount of time away from production and the amount of time their office staff devotes to recruiting, hiring and maintaining each employee on the payroll. This is a variable cost outsourcing labor solves.

Going back to the numbers, variable costs are costs that can be varied flexibly as conditions change; like the number of electricians you need to carry on your payroll at any given time. The point made here is that labor is a much more flexible resource than capital investment. Outsourcing labor provides you and your staff with freedom away from time consuming human resource functions. The time you save is better spent marketing, dealing with customers, suppliers, and focusing on the work at your project site.

Spend time to add up the time and cost of the listed functions involved in hiring and retaining electricians. Ask a staffing company to provide you with a cost breakdown of their hourly charge for each electrician’s skill level. Keep in mind staffing companies cover all the costs you would and charge a nominal account administration fee (the fee is normally much less than what companies spend on the list of HR functions). Compare the costs. Remember to consider the intangible benefits of reduced liability, time savings and increased freedom to focus on your customer.

Most contractors will agree that for any given electrical contracting project, outsourcing is cost effective. One key point that must be emphasized is outsourcing labor is not a “one size fits all” solution to controlling variable costs. Businesses that are comfortable where they are do not make good candidates. On the other hand, a business that wants to grow while maintaining tight control over variable costs makes an excellent fit.

We can never predict when an employee will decide to leave a company but, we can control what it will cost to replace that person using effective outsourcing strategies. Keeping the right mix of permanent and temporary employees is the key to controlling the priciest variable costs in our industry – labor. Outsourcing electricians allows you to control variable costs that are discussed in the next few paragraphs.

As you are aware, variable costs are the costs directly linked to the tempo of operations in electrical contracting. They are called variable because they vary with the size and workload of the business. This means that the more projects bid and won; the more labor, material, etc. costs will rise. The more labor costs rise, the more employee-related administration costs go up.

This, of course, is in contrast with fixed or overhead costs. These costs are those that are incurred regardless of whether or not your company works one or ten projects. These costs do not vary as the pace and size of your operations change unless a dramatic change is made. Variable costs are project specific, whereas, fixed costs are associated with the entire company. Office leases/mortgages have to be paid no matter what is produced or in what numbers. Hence rent or a mortgage is a fixed cost.

Consider a situation where you determine your electrical contracting service yields a 25% contribution margin. Your figure can then be used to determine whether variable costs for your project(s) can be reduced. You can choose to bump up the price of materials and/or reduce your labor costs.

Material pricing adjustments is the easy part. Labor costs are not. To attract and retain quality electricians, you must pay more than the competition, offer benefits and training.

Remember your bottom line or net profit is determined by how you decide to spend each penny of your contribution margin on fixed costs. We know you can control your fixed costs by deciding on how much to spend on vehicles, equipment, tools, phone service and all the rest of your business needs

But, what is the true cost to attract, hire, manage and retain a qualified electrician for a three month project and what is the cost to hire a permanent/full-time employee? You probably know the answer, the cost is the same. It is the replacement cost of the employee that will eat into your bottom line after you conduct all of your human resource or human capital management functions in-house. And what price do you place on the expenditure to bring someone new into your company? And what does it really cost to replace that person? The answer is simply the cost of time – your time, your staff’s time and all time removed from project related activities.

Learn more about outsourcing electricians at Strategy Construction’s Web Site.

Mike Widner is Director of Strategy Construction Company in Colorado Springs, CO. His background is in manpower management and human resources management in the construction industry. Over eight years, Mike performed several personnel realignment projects for the US Air Force and currently focuses on helping electrical contractors control labor costs using outsourcing techniques.

There is perhaps no more level playing field in business than the Internet. It is this fact that has created millionaires from paupers. The amount of money that can be made depends of course on your industry and your products and/or services but to be sure, if it can be sold at all, it can be sold online.

While there are many methods out there for building a profitable website, from banner ads to email campaigns, by far the most cost effective over time has proven repeatedly to be search engine positioning. That major advantage search engine positioning has over other methods of producing revenue online is that once high rankings are attained and provided that the tactics used were ethical and that continued efforts are made to keep them, they can essentially hold and provide targeted traffic indefinitely. Your site will rise and your site may sometimes fall in the rankings but a solid and complete optimization of your site will insure that through algorithm changes you may fluctuate but you will not disappear.

I have been ranking websites highly on the Internet for quite a few years now and there are some essential rules that, if followed, will insure that over time your website does well and holds solid and profitable positions on the major search engines.

Here are the 10 steps to higher search engine positioning:

Step One - Choosing Keywords

You first must choose your keywords. This is perhaps the most important step of the process as incorrectly targeting phrases can result in traffic that is not interested in your product. There are three tools that I use virtually every day to help pick the most appropriate keywords:

Overture’s Search Term Suggestion Tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)

WordTracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/)

A Brain

The last in the list is the most important. Look through the potential keyword phrases and think, “Who would be searching using that phrase?” If the answer is, “a student looking for information” then chances are it won’t result in a sale. If the answer is “Someone who is looking specifically for a product I offer,” then obviously this is a prime candidate as a targeted keyword phrase.

Step Two - Site Content

Even before I optimize websites I like to get a good deal of new content down in order to insure that I know exactly where I’m going and exactly what I need to do to get there. Creating some of the new content before starting the optimization process can be doubly helpful in that it can reveal potential additions to your website that you may not have considered (a forum or blog for example). If you already have a site, perhaps simply sit on your back deck, sip on a coffee and image what you would do if your whole site was lost and you had to start again (other than launch into a very colorful discussion with your hosting company).

Step Three - Site Structure

A solid site structure is very important. Creating a site that is easily spidered by the search engines yet attractive to visitors can be a daunting and yet entirely rewarding endeavor. To adequately structure your website you must “think like a spider” which is not as difficult as it may sound. A search engine spider reads your web page like you would read a book. It starts at the top left, reads across, and then moves down.

Priority must be given then, to what you place near the top of your page.

Step Four - Optimization

Once you have your keyword targets, your content created and your site structure established you must now move on to the most obvious step, the optimization of your content.

As noted above, a spider places importance on what it reads highest on the page and so beginning with a sentence that includes your targeted phrase only makes sense. That said, stuffing in keywords in hopes that it will add weight to your page generally doesn’t work. The term “keyword density” refers to the percentage of your content that is made up of your targeted keywords. There are optimum densities according to many reputable SEO’s though exactly what they are is debata ble. Estimates seem to range anywhere from 4 or 5% to 10 to 12% (quite a gap isn’t it).

Personally, when it comes to keyword density I prescribe to one rule: put your keywords in the content as much as you can while keeping it comfortably readable to a human visitor.

Some do it first, I do it last, regardless of when you do it you must choose your heading. At the beginning of your content you have the opportunity to use the tag to specify the heading of your content. This tag is given extra weight and is also an indicator to the search engine of where your actual content starts. Make sure to use your keywords in the heading but don’t shy away from also adding additional words (though not too many).

Step Five - Internal Linking

To insure that your website gets fully indexed you have to make sure that the spiders have an easy path through your website. Text links make the best choice as the anchor text (the actual words used to link to a specific page) add relevancy to that page for the words used to link to it. For example, if I ran a website on acne and had a treatments page I could link to it with an image, with text reading “Click for more information on how to treat this skin condition” or simply “Acne Treatments”. When a search engine spider hits an image it has no idea what the image is and, while it will follow the link, it will not give any weight to the page it hits. If you use text that does not contain the keywords you are targeting you are essentially supplying the engine with the same lack of relevancy as with an image, but if you use the phrase “Acne Treatments” to link to your acne treatments page you are attaching relevancy to that page for those keywords.

There are two main ways to insure that your site gets well spidered AND that the relevancy is added. The first is to place text links on the bottom of your homepage to your main internal pages (not EVERY page, that just looks odd). The second is to create a sitemap to all your internal pages and link to it from your homepage. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages but that’s a whole article unto itself.

Step Six - Human Testing

So now you have your site, it’s optimized and you have your navigation in place. The next step is to put it past someone who has never seen your site (and preferably who won’t know how much work you’ve put in and tell you it’s great even if it’s not).

Ask them to find specific information and see how long it takes. Ask someone else to just surf your site and watch which links they click and ask them why they chose those ones.

Most importantly, find out how the content reads to them. You’ve spent hours working through the content at this point and are probably not the least biased on its readers. Find out how it reads to someone who has no invested interest in the site and correct any issues they may bring up.

Step Seven - Submissions

I take a different philosophy than most when it cones to search engine submissions. I submit to directories (both general and topic-specific) and to a few topical search engines but for the most part I’ve found submitting to Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other major engines has proven to be a bit of a waste of time. The major search engines are spidering search engines which means they will follow links to wherever they go. Simply having sites that are spidered by the major search engines linking to you will get your site found.

When I have spent time submitting my sites I have found they get picked up in about a week. When I have simply skipped this step and sought out reputable directories and other sites to get links from I have found that at least the homepage of the site gets indexed in as little as two days.

Neither will hurt your rankings but simply to make the best use of your time, seek our directories and other websites to get links from and leave the spiders to find you on their own.

Step Eight - Link Building

All of the major search engines give credit to sites that have quality links pointing to them. How many is enough depends on your industry and targeted phrases. Running a search on Google the reads “link:www.yourcompetition.com” will reveal approximately how many links a competitor has.

The first place to seek links is with general and topic-specific directories. After that you may want to move into reciprocal link building. Reciprocal link building is the exchange of links between two websites. Some webmasters will simply link to any website that links back to them. I highly recommend being more particular than that.

Find websites that you believe your site visitors would genuinely be interested in and you’ve probably found a good link partner. You want to find links from sites that are related to yours.

There are obviously many more methods to building links than directories and reciprocal link building. Again though, this is a whole article (or more) in itself.

Step Nine - Monitoring

Whether you use WebPosition Gold (http://www.webposition.com/) or just run searches manually by hand you will have to monitor the major search engines for your targeted phrases. Also, you will need to review your stats to see where your traffic is coming from and what search terms are being used to find you.

If a month passes and you don’t see any changes then more work needs to be done. I’m certainly not stating that you should take a month off, a solid search engine positioning strategy involves constantly adding content, building links, and insuring that your visitors are getting the information they want to have and finding it as easily as possible.

Step Ten - Reward Yourself

So you’ve done it. It’s taken many many hours of work but you’re rankings are doing well. What you’ve created is a solid position that will stand the tests of time provided that you continually revisit the above noted steps and insure that your website is always one step ahead of your competition (who have noticed you climbing and succeeding as you would notice others climbing up around your ranking).

Now it’s time to turn off your computer, take your partner out (you haven’t had much time for them lately) and have a great week(end). You’ve got a lot of work to do to maintain and build on these rankings but the hardest part is over. Congratulations!

Dave Davies is the owner of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/). He has been optimizing and ranking websites for over three years and has a solid history of success. Dave is available to answer any questions that you may have about your website and how to get it into the top positions on the major search engines.

info@beanstalk-inc.com

For six years, my Samsung PC 13.8 inch SyncMaster conventional
monitor has served me well.Since the appearance of the flat screen LCD monitor, it has become obsolete. Perhaps, the flat
screen’s image of flat and thin is more pleasing than large and
bulky. Because impulse buying controls the marketplace, for me it’s a matter of a want verses a need. As an average consumer,
I want the best value for my money as well as a comparable price
within my budget.

For viewing purposes, my purchase of a seventeen-inch size LCD flat screen monitor is wise because the larger screen makes it easier to read the printed text and it cuts down on eyestrain. After carefully reading some product reviews on www.consumersdigest.com, it was easier to select
a brand name and the brand type. Plus while there, I
was also able to learn some technical information about it.
Then, the decision had to be made whether to order the flat screen panel online plus pay the high shipping cost, or to visit a major electronics outlet,where a qualified salesman would advise me on what upgrades need to be made to my existing hardware.

For that reason, I choose the latter. Recent product studies have shown that the LCD flat panel is more energy efficient, emits less radation, takes up less space and survives a floor crash without fatally injuring someone who is standing nearby. However, if the LCD’s screen is punctured. The repair bill will cost almost as much as the purchase price. The LCD’s screen has less of a flicker. However without a video card, a game’s graphics appear ugly and chunky.Other studies have suggested that the flat screen panel will eventually replace the existing conventional monitors. Hopefully by then, the price of it will become more affordable.

I am sure that when my new flat screen LCD monitor settles in and it gives me as much joy as my outdated one. Technology will once again rear its head and introduce a newer and a sleeker model into the marketplace.Then, the buying cycle will start all over again in the never-ending world of technological advances.

Employed in the energy industry,the author is constantly updating
her personal PC while keeping abreast of the latest market trends.

The noted social scientist said that the world has become a global village. Nothing illustrates this better than the emergence of the mobile phone. A century ago, the wireless radio, the telephone and the cable made possible the act of communication, by sending and receiving of messages. Today a SMS message takes am couple of seconds to reach a mobile phone, anywhere in the world through the magic of undersea cables, satellite transmission and local cell towers. This is a vast improvement from the traditional methods of messenger, pigeon post, sea mail, and the ubiquitous postman.

It is a vastly different world where your trusty mobile phone becomes your best communication medium in times of festivities, family occasions like birthdays, wedding days, anniversaries and emergencies. It takes a few seconds to write and a second to send it. Lovers, young and old, find it useful because the messages remain private and ‘for your eyes only’ with none being aware about it. It seems perfect that the I Love You message you send reaches the intended destination straight and true like an arrow. Of course, if the recipient’s phone number is a wrong number, you have had it.

SMS messages can be short and sweet, or as long as you like, the only limitation being that they do not exceed 150 characters. When this happens, the message is split up and sent as separate messages of 150 characters each. Book publishers have appreciated this and are sending best sellers via SMS to interested book lovers. Some SMS messages can bring the senders lots of prizes through contests, sweepstakes and lucky predictions.

SMS messages are cheap because mobile phone providers offer the facility either for free or at a low price. Associations, professional organizations, social welfare societies like the Lions and Rotary Clubs, welcome the facility of sending SMS messages announcing upcoming meetings, membership arrears payment dates, payment due alerts and acknowledgements of fee and subscription payments received.

Schools, colleges and other educational institutions find it useful to send short communications of impending semester dates, examinations and results as well as fee payment due alerts to students and their parents. The students and parents appreciate the relevant information in the messages.

Credit card companies, banks and financial institutions and marketing companies are able to generate new business from existing consumer database by using this medium to remind customers of payment or renewal dates, new offers available, or as a means of addressing customer complaints.

And laughing all the way to the bank are the mobile service providers, who earn a windfall amount in additional revenue by splitting the premium SMS message call charges with the companies

SMS country Offers web based SMS service in India and around the world. Visit author’s website at SMS.

Barely a day goes by that I do not encounter someone on the Internet passionately proclaiming that the world is held captive by a conspiracy of evil and that the helpless, hapless human inhabitants of the planet have been enslaved by a small dynasty of calculating, nefarious men (or aliens) and their wicked organizations. What could be more classically duality-matrix themed than that?

However well-meaning those that espouse this are, and however true these notions may possibly be in one view of reality, it is not a view of reality you want to focus on if creating a world of harmony and joy is your desire! Investing any passion in the duality matrix by being outraged about “evil” does exactly the thing that keeps you—and the rest of humanity—at lower frequency: increasing the power of entities in reverse polarity by feeding them with energy. Whenever you focus on or push against something, you empower it. The key is rising above it.

Have you noticed how much fear you tap into when you read, hear, or think about these ideas of being controlled and manipulated? Have you sensed the drop in your frequency and the diminution of joy that is triggered when you immerse yourself in these conspiracy discussions? What does this tell you? If you’re alert to it, you’ll know that you’ve moved into the territory of the part of you that thrives on fear.

What aspect of you is it that gets excited from and feeds off fear? It’s your reptilian brain. While the reptilian brain does handle some important jobs within you, like controlling your autonomic nervous system and making sure you don’t get run over by a bus, it is not the aspect of you that will lead you to freedom and happiness! Heeding the call of the reptilian brain leads you down in frequency and farther from the Paradise reality of ease and joy.

So, why would you lower your frequency by drinking in—and passing on to others—fearful stuff? In addition to the calling of your reptilian brain for more scary input, your reptilian brain is also about status—the smarter you appear, the higher your status. (In the reptilian brain’s world, status is a key to survival.) Your ego, which is the psychological overlay for your reptilian brain, finds gratification in demonstrating that you are one of the few that have waked up and caught on to the machinations of the evil-doers.

The irony is, however, that the more people with which you share the information, and consequently, the fear, the lower the vibrational frequency and corresponding consciousness level of the whole of humanity. And the more determined people become to overcome the evil by pushing against it, the more it is strengthened. So the more energy given to the theoretical conspiracies, the more the conspiracies—or the fear they generate—are empowered, and the further disempowered humanity is!

The lower your frequency/consciousness, the less you can perceive, and the more easily you are manipulated. So if you are worried about human enslavement (or whatever the conspiracy theory du jour is), the least helpful thing you can do is dwell on it and share the fearful stuff with everyone!

The sadly humorous thing about conspiracy theories is they thrive off fear, and knowing about them does not create some sort of important awareness that leads to moral victory and a triumph of “good” over “evil.” You can’t ”overcome evil” by railing against it or even focusing on it. In order to escape the clutches of evil, you have to opt out of the reality where there is such a thing as “good” and “evil.” And the way you do that is by rising in frequency above the duality matrix through choosing joy and unconditional radiance—the way of the spiritual master. This comes as a disappointment to the reptilian-brain-driven ego, that thrives off the notion that fighting is the way to solve problems!

The most powerful thing you can do with your awareness is to choose to focus on and dwell in joy, and to radiate Love instead of fear, thus bringing the whole of humanity up in frequency. That is what will actually set humanity free. True freedom from the tyranny of fear is found simply by raising your frequency out of fear and into joy by choosing to shift your focus from what you don’t want to what you do want.

Human beings only comprehend their true power when they are at a high enough level of consciousness to do so. So if what you want is to empower humanity, focusing on joy, and raising your own vibrational frequency to the level where joy is your experience, raises the consciousness of humanity and offers your fellow human beings the opportunity to comprehend their power. When you know your own power, it is no longer possible to be a powerless victim. So do yourself, and all humanity, the service of keeping your focus aligned with Love and joy.

©2006 Julia Rogers Hamrick

Julia Rogers Hamrick has been a spiritual-growth facilitator for over two decades, and is the author of Recreating Eden: The Exquisitely Simple, Divinely Ordained Plan for Transforming Your Life and Your Planet. Julia writes about and leads seminars on proactive joy, and the relationship between frequency and experience. For more information on Julia and recreating Eden, and to get on her list to be eligible for her f’ree monthly teleseminars, visit http://www.recreating-eden.com

Due to the many recent disasters we have experienced, people
want to store emergency food to be prepared.

One of the most popular is MRE
(meals ready to eat). These are military style rations.
Commercial MRE is also now available.

I have done some research on MRE and freeze dried food to weigh the
pros and cons of these two alternatives to see which is best
suited to preparing for a disaster.

The main reason MRE’s are so popular is that the do not require
water to re-hydrate and are ready instantly. MRE paks also can
be heated with special heater pads so you can have a nice hot
meal. Don’t heat them with an open flame, the plastic in the
pouch will melt and ruin the food.

MREs have a nice variety of food but the MRE main course and
side dish foods taste like most food out of a can.

Freeze Dried Food on the other hand requires water to
re-hydrate. For most of the United States access to water even
in an disaster is something that you can also prepare for (more
later) so this inconvenience can be easily overcome.

The good news is freeze dried food can be “gourmet” quality to
the level of some high quality great tasting frozen dinners now
available.

The most important area to consider however when comparing MRE
packs to freeze dried food is shelf life.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense if stored in a cool
(below 70 degrees F) dry place MRE’s will last up to 5 years.
However at 90 degrees they will last less than 3 years and at
120 degrees only 1 month!

Freeze dried food on the other hand can last up to 30 years.
(Mountain House #10 cans).

So you need to ask yourself what you think is the chance of
having a disaster in the next 5 years versus the next 30?

If you buy MRE’s and forget about them they could be inedible
come the time you and your family really need them.

If you want to store an emergency food supply for your family
that will last 4 months does it make sense to invest so much in
something you hopefully will have to through out in just 5 years?

The best answer to your emergency meal ration needs is freeze
dried food. With shelf life of up to 30 years you can stock up
and be sure you will have quality food available years down the
road. Freeze dried food means you will not need to throw out
inferior food supplies every year that go bad.

You can purchase a wide variety of food reserve paks that can
feed a family of 4 from 3 days to 3 months. The FDA recommended
daily calorie intake is 2500-3000 for adult males and 2200
calories per day for adult females. Some cheap discounts offer
far less calories and are not really deals at all so you need to
be careful and know exactly what you are getting when you buy
freeze dried meals.

Kevin Taylor is a freelance writer and webmaster based in
Toronto, Canada. Web: Order
MRE

There is no such thing as a coincidence. Albert Einstein reasoned that, “God simply does not play dice.” While we may not fully understand the reasons behind certain events, there are laws and order in the universe specifically designed to facilitate harmony and prosperity for all living things. Yet, as humans, we violate not only man’s laws, but also the laws of the universe. It’s as if an “insanity” bug has plagued the world community, which has now reached epidemic proportions. Perhaps that’s because knowingly, or unknowingly, we choose not to live in harmony with the laws of the universe and as a result of our actions we experience failure, powerlessness and discord. Take for example one law – the law of cause and effect.

Chaos seems to be the norm these days rather than the exception, but that is not the cause for our collective pain and misery. That’s only the effect resulting from an underlying cause that has to do with our own failure to observe and cooperate with the laws of the universe characterized by honoring all living things. Since personal accountability is demanded of us in our daily lives, why should we expect things to be any different on a grander scale – such as in the universe?

When greed, lack of awareness (the ability to see the unity in all living things) and the erosion of solid moral values, so inherent in a society driven by a materialist values system, cloud our thinking and numb our hearts to the point where we can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, we invariably experience failure and lack - lack of prosperity and security to lack of real joy, real love and a sense of meaning and purpose. Perhaps we need law and order to save us from ourselves. Law and order are there for a reason. In order to illustrate the value of having law and order on a grander and spiritual scale, imagine for a moment if there were no traffic lights – there would be nothing but chaos and every one would stand to lose. Law and order are necessary “tools,” not so much to restrict us but rather to enhance the quality of our lives by preventing us from “bumping” into each other, causing accidental mayhem and bringing destruction and chaos upon ourselves by default.

But of course, rather than taking a good look at ourselves in the mirror, it’s always much easier to point the finger at someone or something else, like God. After all, no one can really prove it or disprove it either. Remember the classic story of the kid who failed to bring his homework to school and blamed it on the “monster” who ate it? Perhaps it’s time to make peace with the fact that there are laws and order in the universe that are actually good for us all. So, if you don’t like the effect (the current climate of world insanity that erodes any sense of security and joy), why not remove the root cause first.

It’s easier than you think. Just by living in harmony with the laws of the universe, we can all achieve security, prosperity and freedom. And if it’s peace and cultural harmony you wish to experience, perhaps the words of Jimi Hendrix that “only when the power of love replaces the love of power, can there be peace on earth,” will resonate with you too and inspire you to be the change you wish to see in the world.

Who knows maybe we can even all use the name of God without embarrassment either.

About The Author

Copyright © 2004, Geela

Author of “The American Dream”: http://www.Geela.com

Geela is an award winning singer/songwriter/composer, columnist, and author of the best-selling book “THE AMERICAN DREAM,” her true- life story of how she came to America as a young immigrant with nothing and overcame incredible obstacles to achieve mega-success. She founded ONE SPIRIT, ONE WORLD to help children and promote a culture of peace and harmony. Get a free sample of her music and her book at http://www.Geela.com.

Can you imagine what we will be downloading in another twenty years? I mean who would have ever thought that you could record sound with digital quality fifty years ago? Now we routinely download whole albums worth of music in a couple of minutes to ipods that hold thousands of songs in the space the size of a zippo lighter!

What I wonder is what will we download in the future? We can get degrees on line now, which means that we are actually downloading our future doesn’t it. Sounds kind of funny, but true to say that in the future we will be downloading our future. Will we download our jobs? I mean more and more people are working at home aren’t they? I could see the next wave of employment being over the internet where you never actually see your boss or maybe you will see him in downloaded form. That would be kind of weird wouldn’t it? It would be cool in the sense that you could be dressed however you want and you could be making funny faces at the boss and you wouldn’t even have to be behind his back… …that is unless you were being downloaded by your boss simultaneously. Weird!

Seriously though we download our airline tickets and our boarding passes. Will we be able to download our passports in the future too? That would be pretty convenient wouldn’t it? Or would it? Would it open up all sorts of doors to identity theft that are currently closed in the non-digital system. We are all starting to learn about how dangerous it is to talk with people that we don’t see. For instance all of the men who stalk young children on the internet, that would never have a chance if the children could see them. Makes a case for the utility of judging by the outward appearance doesn’t it? I mean we all do it every day with each encounter that we have. We are simply playing the numbers really because we have to. Sure there are exceptions, but a terrorist is more likely to look Arab than another ethnicity isn’t he (oops, it would have been more correct to say he or she wouldn’t it?).

Probably the coolest thing that I have heard about recently that you can download is your TV. No more need for TIVOS right? Well sort of. If you download the program you are forced to watch the commercials, albeit less of them and from only one company per show. Do the benefits outweigh the costs? I sure think they do in this case but as we have seen, not always – do they?

To download is to be as far as Boyd Troublerr is concerned. The less time he has to spend shopping the more time he can be out on the ocean sailing which is his first love. If you too desire faster downloads go to www.buydownload.info for help.

Basic Camera Mobile Etiquettes You Must Know

The demand for mobile phones is increasing day by day, the demand for camera mobiles also have no exception. The introduction of camera mobiles has caused rapid increase in sales of these phones all over the world. Along with the widely accepted demand for the camera phones it also created some controversy because of the improper use of the camera mobile. There is no problem in having fun with your camera mobile, but you have to make sure that you are not exceeding the limits.

The following article throws light on some of the etiquettes that every one has to follow while using camera mobiles.

Respect others privacy

This is the basic thing that has to be kept in mind by a person using camera mobile. It is not advisable to snap pictures of others without their consent. This will be considered as a serious offense. So it’s better to avoid trouble by respecting others privacy.

Never use camera mobiles in banned places

The use of camera Phones is banned in some places. The use of such phones should be avoided in those banned areas. In the same way the use of camera mobile is restricted in certain areas, in such areas its better to ask the authorities regarding the extent of restriction.

Keep away from mass mailing

In the resent past the habit of circulating pictures of other people without their permission has increased at an alarming rate. Taking pictures, morphing them on your PC and circulating is also highly unadvisable. This will be treated as a serious criminal offense and will result in severe punishment in many countries.

Shut the camera lens when not in use

Always try to shut the lens of your camera mobile when not in use. This helps a lot in avoiding problems. This has to be followed properly because there are people who might get offended even if a camera is pointed at them.

Just use your common sense

Always use your brain to realize that not every one will like to receive MMS messages, just for the simple reason that most of the networks will charge the recipient for downloading the MMS messages.

Turn off camera’s flash wherever applicable

Its better to turn off your camera’s flash wherever applicable. For example if you are snapping pictures in a zoo the flash light can be distractive.

By following the simple steps mentioned above it’s possible for every one to keep out of the basic mistakes that may occur while using camera mobile. So have fun with your camera mobile, but within limits. And you can get more camera phone reviews from http://www.icameraphones.com

Author Descrpition
http://www.icameraphones.com is a site that is designed for camera mobile phones. The site provides extensive information on camera phone reviews, buying guides, imaging tips etc.

To get maximum pleasure from your cigar the lighting procedure must be carried out conscientiously.

First of all the cigar tip must be cut. This is best done with a tool well adapted to the task as a pair of cigar scissors or a guillotine cutter. Do not cut to much but not little either. About 1/6” would be just about right to get the right draft.

Before cutting it make sure that the cigar is moist enough. Ideally you would have taken the cigar from you humidor where the conditions are perfect for keeping cigars.

If you have not got your humidor in place yet, you should put the cigar in your mouth and moist it gently with your saliva. This is to prevent the cigar from crackling.

When lighting the cigar use a gas lighter or – even better – a wooden stick. Ideally a stick of cedar wood. Make sure you do not use a gasoline lighter or matches that are treated in any way. This could severely affect the taste of your cigar.

Hold your cigar in an angle pointing downwards to the flame keeping it just above the burning flame. Keep it there and rotate the cigar gently until the cover leave starts glowing in all around the perimeter of the cigar. There is no need to puff the cigar while lighting it.

Now your cigar is lit and all that remains is exquisite pleasure.

You do not need to inhale the cigar to your lungs. Just take a slow drag and let the smoke stay in your mouth for a while before exhaling. Allow the cigar to rest 15-20 sec. before taking the next puff. You should avoid getting the cigar to hot. The cooler the smoke the better.

Make a point of keeping the ash on the tip of your cigar as long as possible. This will tell you a bit about the quality of your cigar. The finer quality the longer the ash will stay. When finally getting rid of the ash pillar roll the tip gently against the ashtray.

When about one third of the cigar is done then your cigar is at its peak, the so called “Golden Third”. Enjoy!

When shall I quit my cigar? The simple answer is to stub it out when it does not taste good any longer. You can also take a break from the cigar by simple leaving it in the ashtray until it goes out. When resuming simple follow the lighting tips above.

Have a cigar!

Håkan Lothigius is a writer and passionate cigar aficionado. Please visit El Cigar Humidor for more information on cigars.