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FIRE RETARDANT FABRIC 1299 - MYSTIQUE SATIN 100% POLYESTER 120 COLORS, 58/60 WIDE, MACHINE WASHABLE WARM, DELICATE, PRICE 25 YARDS $165.00 + S/H $14.00 http:/WWW.RAYMONDSTEXTILES.COM RAYMONDSTEXTILES@MSN.COM - [Read more]

Unless you work in an organization that has Outlook or Lotus Notes or another similar group scheduling tool, you have probably experienced the same thing that I have when trying to coordinate a meeting with a group of busy professionals.... - [Read more]

FanBolt writes: A friend of ANNE HATHAWAYs ex-boyfriend RAFFAELLO FOLLIERI has hit out at claims the actress had any involvement in the Italian businessmans allegedly fraudulent dealings. The Devil Wears Prada star was accused by friends of the Italian businessman last week (begs23Jun08) of turning her former flame in to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The pair split last month (Jun08), shortly before he was arrested on suspicion of fraud.

Read more at Fanbolt.com.

I am starting to notice that ths area is pretty energetic. We see more people on bicycles and walking than we know what to do with. It kind of reminds me of when I lived in Atlanta…people were always out after work doing something. Since I am energetic too, I fit right in. I actually [...]

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Live rock is a wonderful bio-filtration media. The shapes of the individual rocks are attractive and very useful in the construction of an ‘open’ reef structure. (...) - [Read more]

Have you ever thought of starting an adventure travel company but have been hesitant because it didn’t seem like a viable venture? Some of you have and many of you haven’t. So allow me to reframe the question: have you ever thought of starting a business doing what you’re passionate about, and have been [...] - [Read more]

I can tell you from personal experience that blogging while on a short-term missions trip can add a whole new dimension to the trip.

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Well I opened my email today and low and behold there was an email from squidoo. This isn’t unusual. I get emails daily from squidoo, telling me I have comments or someone sending me a message, but this email was special. It was from GiantSquid headquarters! I am one of the new GiantSquids this month. Woo [...] - [Read more]

There are a lot of bloggers who have made their comments “do follow.” Normally, blog comments have the no follow attribute. This means that the link you place with the comment is not really a link. Google doesn’t give the link juice on comment links. But on blogs that changed the attribute to “do follow,” [...] - [Read more]

Gold/Beige 4-door Sedan, 144K miles, AUTO , 3.0L V6, Power Steering,Leather, Power Windows,Power Glass Sunroof, CD Changer, Mostly Highway Miles. 2995 or best offer. (817) 966-0106... - [Read more]

I thought that this is especially apropos for a home renovation blog. According to the Nation Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) each year fires that start in electrical systems or lighting equipment damage more than 24, 000 homes kill 320 people injure 830 more In older buildings and houses electrical wiring that was properly installed according to the art [...] - [Read more]

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Founded by two MMA fighters-in-training, TapouT has grown from a T-shirt brand made in a living room to a $100 million knockout apparel company.

1986 Ski Nautique, excellent condition, low hrs. (484 orig.), 9 inside and out, Bimini top, original Correct Craft trailer, starts and runs great. Must sell Pics available on request. Cell ph. 423-435-1189... - [Read more]

Beijing’s new National Grand Theatre is one of Beijing’s new architectural masterpieces. The controversial building was designed by French architect Paul Andreu.

The exterior is made from titanium and has been described as looking like a UFO. The building has created controversy for not fitting with the style of nearby buildings such as the Great Hall of the People and the Forbidden City. The building is surrounded by a moat of water and the building is entered by going under the water.

Architectural masterpiece or white elephant? What do you think of the new theatre?

On Monday when I wrote that I was going to go after a perfect week of health I had major doubts as to whether it was the right thing to do. One day at a time is surely a better approach, particularly when I have been off the wagon for so long. Yet I felt as though I needed to have a little more structure than just a day. So I picked a week.

Day One went well. Day Two? Well, not perfect but I’m going to take it! For breakfast I had a few left over baby yukon gold potatoes my wife bought at the farmer’s market, the leftover Juicy Lucy patty and a V8. For lunch a small thai curry soup with no noodles, with tofu and chicken. Some almonds for a snack. For dinner we ordered takeout pasta from Pizza Hut and I managed to keep myself to a single portion and just one breadstick. Oh, and a single cinnamon stick. I did have a beer while watching the kids out at the pool.

I did not get the exercise I was hoping for, because I forgot to set my alarm and woke up late. After work I mowed the lawn and then watched the kids for an hour at the pool, so my exercise time was minimized. I did do Day One of my hundred pushups and also did 25 situps.

So really, far from perfect. But so much better than I have been and my head is still in the right spot so that’s good enough for me.

Time to buckle down today.

Check out my new weight loss forums!

Tags: health plan, weight loss, diet, exercise

Our ability to justify our consumption of animals never ceases to amaze me, but I must confess I’m often struck dumb by the claim that by eating animals we’re actually helping them. It’s a popular defense these days, especially since every other attempt to defend this unnecessary, unhealthy, and inhumane habit has failed. It isn’t surprising that in response we would reach for the most improbable and irrational of justifications: “if we stopped eating them, they would all go extinct.”

Revealing breathtaking arrogance, proponents of this theory refer to our domestication of animals as a “sacred and mutual bond” whereby we protect animals from the “cruelties of nature” and in return they gift us with their bodies. If manipulating, controlling, confining, and eating someone else constitutes a “mutual bond,” I wonder what you have to do to breach it.

People who feign concern about some unlikely future extinction of domesticated animals would be well advised to remember the wild animals, many of whom have gone extinct or are on the brink of extinction, whose habitats are destroyed and whose lives are ended in favor of their non-native domesticated cousins.

Animal Damage Control, which recently changed its name to the more euphemistic-sounding Wildlife Services, kills millions of wild animals every year on behalf of the private livestock industry, using taxpayers’ dollars. In 2006 alone, they killed 1.6 million wild animals, ranging from coyotes, wolves, and prairie dogs to beavers, sparrows, and egrets.

In fact, no wild animal is safe – not even those considered our “national treasures.” Every year, thousands of wild horses and burros are rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management and either kept in pens or sent to slaughter in order to make more room for millions of cattle and sheep grazing on over 215 million acres of public lands.

The bottom line is that we eat meat because it is a habit that we enjoy, and we add insult to injury by couching this habit in “concern for the animals.” If we have to disguise, rationalize, romanticize, and ritualize eating animals to such a degree, then perhaps we’re not comfortable with it at all. - [Read more]

Look out...Theres a new jug in town. Mega-retailers Costco & Wal-Mart have been rolling out a new eco-friendly variation of the gallon milk jug. The new jugs have been redesigned to keep milk fresher, reduce carbon emissions, and lower shipping costs. However, the new eco-jug comes with one problem...they are hard ... - [Read more]

The ocean air, the constant breeze and the sun glowing down on you are some of the reasons why you might take a look at boating as a hobby. A vessel afloat over millions of gallons of water may not f - [Read more]

The question I’m asked frequently - “how can I optimize my flash site for SEO?” now will have a better answer. Generally I advise people on how to optimize flash but I still advise excessive use of flash. It looks like that may not be much of a problem soon.
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Paperless banking, recycling only actions are expected to catch on in mainstream.

Last week, DISH Network’s DTVPal, was made available for purchase. DTVPal is an affordable digital-to-analog converter box required to watch broadcast TV with an analog TV after the Digital Transition on February 17, 2009. For those not familiar with the term, the Digital Transition is when digital TV broadcasts will replace analog TV broadcasts. If you use an antenna to pickup broadcast television, you’ll need a digital-to-analog converter box.

DTVPal has some great features:

The DTVPal was rated “Very good” by CNET. The review’s bottom line said:

Network DTVPal is a great DTV converter box with a best-in-class electronic program guide and should be your top choice, unless you value the simplicity and superior remote of the RCA DTA800.

Read the full CNET review.

Of note, the DTVPal features a fast electronic program guide (EPG), similar to that of a digital cable or TiVo box. It provides several days of data in a grid layout. Other DTVPal features include an event timer, programming search, parental controls, stereo audio output and a setup wizard.

The DTVPal can be purchased online directly through DISH Network.

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My Hoop Dance performance at the Wollomonuppoag Indian Councils 34th Annual Powwow at La Salette Shrine Fairgrounds, Attleboro MA, on June 7, 2008. This was a 97 degree day with zero breeze, so THANK YOU UNDER ARMOUR!!! Special thanks to my friend Monique for shooting this video for me. - [Read more]

Combichrist came down to the Avalon in Hollywood, CA. to play one night to an almost sold out crowd. The show was to promote their new E.P. Frost "Sent To Destroy", soon to be released July 8th. Check out the photos from the show and dont forget to buy the E.P. Read more... (http://iesb.net/audiofrequency/content/view/451/) - [Read more]

There has been so much going on around here, that I have not been able to keep things up to date here. I have been sewing, crafting as well as trying to continue with sorting my craft area. Not always easy when you have a house to clean and hungry mouths that need feeding! So my little blog has been a neglected, but not forgotten. I have been busy also making some RAKs (random acts of kindness) for my CB buddies. I shall be posting them out shortly. Anyhow, onto the topic at hand.... a largish post for you all!

The Newsletter none have disputed… 10700 clicks and 3082 Hits from 127 Traffic Exchanges have been used to bring you this issue of Traffic Exchange Exposed. Since the last issue of this Newsletter I have earned 0.29 hit(s) overall for every Traffic Exchange page I have viewed. How many pageviews have you earned… Todays issue of Traffic [...] - [Read more]

Blogging is hard work, and I’m not just talking about the writing part. Keeping your blog looking good and running smoothly is a real challenge, and I thought I would share some improvements you can make to your blog to make it more effective and easier to read.

1) Make sure to use paragraph headings, and just being bold isn’t enough

Headlines need to be darker and larger to stand out - people jump from section header to section header.

2) Show your best posts

Most bloggers show their best posts (if at all) on the sidebar navigation or on top. this is the wrong place, it should be at the bottom of your posts. Reason: whatever brought the visitor to your page in the first place, is why he is there. He first wants to deal with that, then he can turn attention to other things (but he doesn’t want to have to remember that you had some good posts up top and therefore scroll back up. Your best posts have proven to overall get you the best engagement with visitors, so you should always bet on them (would you bet on the horse that never ran a race yet you like? Or, on the horse that ran 50 races and won 35 of them?)

3) Timely relevance is key

Group similar posts for various occasions (e.x. - holidays, winter, breast cancer awareness day), put them in a table with an outline, add an image which delivers immediate understanding, and urge visitors to prepare themselves for the occasion by reading some of those posts.

4) Call to action

When you link to other posts within your post, try to use action words (such as “learn about blogging”) instead of just plain nouns. You’ll get a higher click-through rate, since the reader knows what to expect to receive from clicking the link.

5) Get a custom wordpress theme

Let’s face it - Ferraris are memorable because they are rare. In my testing, the default theme had an 80% bounce rate, while my custom theme instantly lowered my bounce rate to 50%, gave me 15% higher pageviews per visitor, and increased the amount of time spent on the blog by a whopping 98%.

6) Show them your good side

Add a photo of yourself on the main page or the about us page. People are reading your blog. People like looking at people a lot more than at text. Make people happy. It lets them attach a face to the name and the writing, and they will remember you better.

Please feel free to add additional tips in the comments below.

The term ‘landing page’ is a common phrase among online marketing gurus, but what does it mean and how does one create an effective landing page? What is a Landing Page? Basically, a landing page is a specialized marketing page aimed at directing a user to perform a certain task. These pages are typically highly focused on [...] - [Read more]

The Olympic Torch Relay finally arrived in Nanjing after the 3 days delay for mourning of the Si Chuan earthquake victims. The streets were packed with a river of red flags and “I heart China” t-shirt. I, of course, join in the fun. Why would anyone want to miss out on such an experience? Enjoy the photos, my favorite one is the one with a guy wearing a “I heart Tibet” t-shirt. Who ever said there is no freedom of speech in China needs to take a second look.

The museum of Fine Arts (Belles Artes) is reflected in the surface of the building where this street vendor cleverly displays the plastic acrobats he is selling.



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Ill try and keep this short and to the point. All my life Ive wanted to travel the world to see just whats out there and its high time I get off my procrastinating ass and do something about it. Ive eyeballed atlas and ogled globes, but I believe culture, like food, is best experienced first hand rather than observed.

My plan in a nutshell? Sell everything I own, say goodbye to my friends, family and pretty much everyone Ive ever known, give a final kiss to my lovely lady, and travel by cargo ship across the Pacific. Who knows what will happen once Im there. Im of the opinion that traveling is best done with an open schedule. Sure, there are a ton of places in the world I aim to visit, and I plan on visiting them all, but Im gonna keep my route as loose as possible. You never know what opportunities for adventure may present themselves at any given moment. I will say this though, Im researching both New Zealand and China as possible points of entry into the East.

Traveling can be expensive, but no more expensive than living in Los Angeles when done correctly. My goal would be to work while I travel, paying my way as I go. I have two skills that I can sell, and neither one needs to be centralized to a single location. The first is as a graphic designer (print media), the other is as a musician. I will apply both if I have to in order to keep myself dry and moving. Look, I already know the music thing isnt gonna pay for squat, but often venue owners are happy to exchange a meal and a couch to crash on for a show. Im anticipating making most of my money the same way I do now, by design gigs. Only now I will be working exclusively from a laptop and on the other side of the world.

Meanwhile, Ill be immersing myself deeply as possible into whatever culture Im visiting. This includes eating like a local, living like a local, and speaking like a local to the best of my ability. If that means eating crickets and sleeping on a cot, Im fine with that. If it means staying for a few months in one city simply to pick up a few extra phrases in Mandarin, well, thats fine too. Its impossible to see a whole city, let alone a country, in a week anyway... unless that country is Monaco maybe (a whopping 0.7 square miles, half of which is a casino).

This website is going to be pulling triple duty as the launching pad for my exodus from Los Angeles , my travel journal, and as a means to stay in touch with friends and family (both old and new) around the world. My estimated departure date is sometime near mid-Summer 2008. I have no return date, it could be anywhere from two months to never, hopefully somewhere in the middle.

Well thats pretty much it. Impossible? Well, I say, "Bah," to the nay-sayers. Im gonna make it happen, and if it doesnt work out, well, at least Ill know I tried my best to follow what has pretty much been a lifelong dream. At the very least it will be educational. More than anything, I just want to see if it can be done. I know its not going to be easy, but it will be rewarding whether everything goes as planned or not. In fact, Im anticipating it wont go as planned, but thats why its an adventure and not a vacation.

Ill keep you all posted as things progress. Subscribe to the feed or bookmark this page and check back from time to time if you want to keep updated. - [Read more]

There are a lot of good videos on Youtube that you just can’t buy anywhere. If you are looking for a way to play those videos via your XBOX 360 console or on your Zune, I have some suggestions and information that might help. - [Read more]