I always wanted to do something on my own. Whenever people asked me what I aspired to become when I was young, I always told them that I wanted to become an entrepreneur. Well, the word sounded heavy and something rare. However, as years passed by, I learnt what the word meant and realized it was indeed what I wanted to become. I have always been fairly comfortable writing and without any technical specialization, I decided to become a writer. Now, there was only one problem – I did not want to write a book or work for a magazine or publishing house.

I thought the best approach to this plan would be to get onto the internet and find work that I could do from home. Yes, I know work from home concept is not too appreciated but I wanted to test my writing skills without the pressure of having to appear anywhere. Soon, I started writing blogs and articles. A year later when I understood how the industry works and gained the required experience, I went to see my accountant. Rest is history – today, I run my own content development firm.

Sales are always an important part of any business. Whether you are selling some of the best juicers to buy or definitive research analysis to overseas clients, perseverance and discipline is absolutely important. Today, it feels wonderful to serve people by creating jobs and helping businesses worldwide by delivering world class content. With a line of articles, blogs, e-books, journals and press releases on any subject under the sun, I have indeed taken the step of becoming an entrepreneur. Having said that, I believe I’m still a long way to go where I want to be. It’s wonderful to be employed by yourself!

Ingezonden brief van Juliette (wenst verder anoniem te blijven)

Het bevrijdende gevoel dat hedendaagse technologie ons kan geven

Sinds de komst van innovatieve vernieuwende technologische ontwikkelingen zoals, google, facebook en linkedin wordt het steeds makkelijker om onze oude geliefden, kennissen, vrienden en familie weer terug te vinden. Enkele decennia terug was het heel moeilijk om iemand, zoals een opa die je niet kende terug te vinden of familie van hem/haar. Maar ik heb nu vorige week terwijl ik met mijn Apple iPhone 4 aan het spelen was op Facebook.com en lukraak namen intoetste om te kijken of ik iemand kon vinden en ik heb zelfs oude kameraden van mijn opa via Facebook.com terug gevonden! Dit terwijl hij zelf enkele jaren na zijn pensionering uit het Amerikaanse leger niemand uit zijn oude peleton kon vinden. Het grappige is, zij wonen letterlijk in dezelfde provincie, maar hebben elkaar niet eerder kunnen treffen. Nou, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg en Sergey Brin & Larry Page, dank jullie wel voor jullie uitvindingen die de wereld voorgoed hebben veranderd! Persoonlijk ben ik heel blij met iphone die ik via internet heb gewonnen, omdat ik heb deelgenomen aan een geheel gratis online enquete. Dus als je ook een gratis iphone wil winnen, zal ik je adviseren om gewoon een keertje iphone winnen te zoeken op internet en dan zul je het vermoedelijk wel vinden. Wellicht win je, en misschien ook niet. Dat is kans, en ik ben blij dat ik met kans de oude kameraden van mijn opa heb gevonden. Dit is juist het bevrijdende gevoel dat technologie ons in het leven heeft kunnen geven waar we goed dankbaar voor moeten zijn!

Liefs en kusjes,

Juliette

Ingezonden brief van Mark (wenst verder anoniem te blijven)

Dromen van mijn grootvader

Toen ik jong was en opgroeide had ik van mijn vader verhalen gehoord over mijn grootvader. Opa was een Amerikaanse soldaat die in de Tweede Wereldoorlog in ons mooie Nederland was gestationeerd. Toen kwam opa op een mooie zomermiddag een mooie Nederlandse vrouw tegen met wie hij verliefd werd. Mijn vader zelf is kort voor het einde geboren, en kan zich helaas nog weinig van zijn vader herinneren. Slechts enkel foto’s geven hem een beeld van de man wie hij niet als jongen leerde kennen. Na een lange zoektocht had mijn vader, zijn vader gevonden – en was het gezin weer naar enkele decennia herenigd. Het mooie van mijn opa dagelijks hier in Nederland te kunnen bezoeken is dat ik al zijn mooie verhalen van avontuur heb kunnnen luisteren. Ik heb daarom besloten eerst mijn rijbewijs te halen, daarna een leuke kleine auto met autolening te kopen en vervolgens alle steden in Nederland langs te gaan met mijn vrienden die net als ik ook graag een stukje geschiedenis willen opsnuiven. We trekken dan met de auto van Maastricht, waar ik woon, door langs Breda, Rotterdam en vervolgens Arnhem, Nijmegen, Utrecht en om vervolgens via Amsterdam en de afsluitdijk (ja, ik weet dat die pas later is gebouwd) door naar Leeuwarden en Grongingen. Deze reis gaan we allemaal met de auto afleggen in een paar weken tijd zodat we genoeg van de steden waar mijn opa geweest is met de infanterie, waar hij deel van gemaakt heeft te kunnen bewonderen. Ik hoop dat jullie mijn verhaal kunnen waarderen en moedig iedereen aan om ook zijn/haar gedachten over dromen van onze ‘makers’ te delen.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Mark N.

Recently i have been getting very interested in gardening and growing my own vegetables. Before long it was clear that i did not have the correct tools and have been looking at buying new ones.

There are all sorts of garden tools.  If you are a keen gardener you may need quite a few.  Spades and forks are best for digging the garden,  you will definitely need one of these.  A rake is useful if you are sowing seeds outdoors as the soil will need to be quite fine.  To get rid of weeds while they are still small use a hoe.

A really good place to store these large tools is hung on a wall inside lean to greenhouses.  This will keep them dry and easily accessible.  Hand held tools are also essential equipment such as a trowel and clippers.  Garden gloves will protect the hands against thistles and also keep them clean.  Again these can all be stored in lean to greenhouses.

Few years ago I have moved from my parent’s house. When I have started to live alone I was enjoying slow and peaceful mornings. As many of you I had my morning rituals.

The smell and taste of morning coffee prepared in traditional Italian way was waking me up. Belgian waffle or French croissant with strawberry jam for breakfast was giving me energy. Every morning I was meditating for half an hour and getting ready for work. Every morning I was listening to music. It could be anything from classic music, jazz, blues, Latino to rock.  I was never waking up before 7.30 am.

This all have changed when my twins were born. Mornings are not the mornings I had 5 years ago but multitasking challenges. Packing, eating, dressing and forgetting are my standard morning activities. I must say that 6 am sounds like very normal time to wake up. Nothing is going to surprise me and I know I have to be ready for anything. I cannot wait when my children will be able to sleep longer and I will be free again. I must say that also my current job is affecting my morning preparations. I have changed my position and I am working in a jewellery salon. I really enjoy the working environment. Because I have to look perfect, it takes at least twice the time that I needed when I had my previous job. I wake up at 6 am to be at work at 9 am. My husband is joking that I sell gold so I have to shine as a diamond but in the morning I look rather like average crystal. I simply just try to put little bit of routine in every day activities so I make sure that I will not end up at 8.45 am in the bathroom washing out jam from my just ironed jacket.

I have now been working away from home for the past three years. There was no work in my area and I had to get on my bike to follow the jobs, and it wasn’t easy I can tell you. I mean I was well used to all of the home comforts and to find that I had to look after my- self was daunting to say the least. I miss my mother’s cooking and I also miss my dad’s shouting at the game on the TV, but life has to move on so I now just have to do my own shouting.
One of the slack days between jobs I had a look at a web page I saw advertised on line it was liberationchildren.org and it was full of my story. I knew that I was not alone in this gypsy lifestyle, but I never really realised just how many like me were out there in the big bad world. I was surprised at just how similar our stories were and when I saw the reported successes that many o them were having I decided to move on and try my luck elsewhere.

It was going to be a tough ride to Chicago at this time of the year and so I would have to make sure that I was properly equipped for the journey by upgrading my riding kit and finding some brand new knee sliders. I already had been there for my new leathers and was happy to go again for my other needs.

So off I went and after a tricky three day journey into the teeth of a freezing wind I made home base in Chicago and set about looking for work. No easy task there either but I found a company that was looking for someone with the skills that I had amassed in IT. I am living there now but still miss home, but thanks to liberationchildren.org I can at least share with others in the same situation.

As a parent, I find it is very important to teach your children about sharing and responsibility.  One of the best ways I have come across doing this with my three children is to have some pets in the family that the kids have to learn to take care of.  Each child has a set task that they are responsible for to do with the pets welfare.  For example, my 17 year old son is now responsible for making sure that our pet dog gets at least one good walk a day.  My husband will often take the dog for a walk first thing in the morning but it is my sons responsibility to make sure he takes the dog out when he gets home from college every night.  If for what ever reason he can’t then he has to make sure that he has organised alternative arrangements (normally with me!).

My two younger girls have a different role because they are too young to take the dog for a walk on their own although we do encourage the three siblings to do it together occasionally.  My youngest daughter, aged 11, is responsible for making sure the dog, cat and budgie are all fed twice a day, once before school and once after we have our dinner.  My middle daughter, aged 13, thinks she has the hardest job (probably true!) and that is cleaning out the budgies cage and the cats hidden litter box.  I tend to agree with her but I have noticed that she always gets her little sister to help quiet a lot so its nice to see them bonding with each other.

Obviously, my husband and I always have the over ridding responsibility of looking after the pets but it is a great way of making the kids feel empowered.  They all take their responsibilities very seriously and even though mishaps do sometimes happen, you can really tell that they are growing and enjoying their roles as time goes on.

Young people, be them entrepreneurs or otherwise, need to be able to effectively budget their personal finances.  Many young people will find the need to take out a loan of some sort.  Student loans, car loans, mortgages and even unsecured loans are some of the most common.  By utilizing an amortization schedule, a young person can easily see where exactly their payments for these loans go and how they get applied to loan principal, interest or other associated fees.  Understanding how recurring loan payments get distributed is a great way to get an overall snapshot of one’s fiscal situation.  Seeing the amortization can often be a wake-up call to younger people to see how much of their recurring payments get eaten up by interest and fees since younger people often have to pay higher interest rates on their loans.

Handing your teenager the keys to your car can be a very scary thought. When it comes time actually do the deed it can be downright terrifying!  Even if you are confident in the child’s ability to drive you can still worry about their judgment or the judgment of the people in the car with them.

I was always worried every time my son got into the car. Not because I knew one day I would be filing  traffic accident claims with our insurance company but because he loved to speed.

My worries were legit. His lead foot got the best of him one or twice. Nothing too big just in too big of a hurry to do the actually speed limit, until one rainy day he hydroplaned right into the neighbors fence.  He was ok, the car was a bit damaged and the fence destroyed. The only really good thing about my fear was that I was prepared for much worse than what actually happen.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to be a successful entrepreneur.  Through college, I studied engineering and tinkered with countless web ideas on the side, but nothing really took off.  After college, I took a job as a business strategy consultant.

Between my failed startup attempts in college and working as a management consultant for several years, I grew to realize that a successful business is all about business strategy.  It has very little to do with the innovative concept on which the company was founded.  This is why many first mover companies fail and are easily overtaken by more polished companies down the road.

So, what is exactly is business strategy?  It’s a vague term, I know.  However, in essence, it boils down to sales strategy and marketing strategy.  If you have a crappy product with solid marketing and sales teams behind it, it will still make money.  If you have the opposite situation, a stellar product, but not business team pushing it out, it’s doomed for failure.  The dream of a great product selling itself via word-of-mouth marketing is just that—a dream.  There may be exceptions, but those are very rare.  Most successful viral marketing examples are very carefully architected.  The word-of-mouth illusion is driven by a robust and carefully planned marketing campaign.

The beauty of business strategy is that the basics are easy to learn.  Most of all the relevant analyses are covered in various business frameworks – e.g., Porter’s Five Forces for competitive and industry analysis, Product Life Cycle for product marketing, Blue Ocean Strategy for market opportunity and growth strategy.  A business framework is a methodology for breaking down a common business problem into its rational components for analysis.  For instance, in Porter’s Five Forces (see the diagram above), the framework breaks down industry analysis into the 5 forces (e.g. key drivers) to analyzing the industry’s viability.  Furthermore, a business framework often also proposes specific strategic recommendations based on the results of the analyses.

I remember how frightened and scared my pet was, the first day it was bought to our house. Now, as I am sitting far away from home in my new job as a personal assistant, I can feel a similar scary emotion, that does not go out and restricts me to get adjusted to new lifestyle. I can now understand why my new pet refused to use the brand new automatic litter box, or eat from the new feeding box. This is the fear of being in a new place, with new people and unknown surroundings. I feel detached and don’t want to communicate with others, although they are very affectionate towards me.

This is the feeling experienced by every new job entrant, like when leaving their home and loved ones behind for a new place. After the initial excitement that I am on my own and without support, I am in control of my life and other similar thoughts; it is time to get homesick. This is where one should use diverting strategies and techniques to get a hold of them.

Socializing with the locals is the best way out of depressing thoughts, which might make you want to succumb to, when memories of house and loved ones engulf. In my case, this helped a lot. I started to train myself like it is the time to fly and test the skies, on my own and that, I need not fear or watch out for elders. My life, entirely under my control is what gave me strength, though I am in touch with mom and dad.

Life is what you are. Life is nothing without good health. When you have a weak immune system, it means you are limited in the way your body functions. Life is all about having a lifestyle of your choice and living it to the fullest. This can only be possible when one has a good health. Personal experience when it comes to struggling with a certain disease or body condition might be tough. Many who have witnessed a relative going through the agony might not want to go through the same. It is for this reason that they would rather avoid such a scenario if there is any possibility to avoid a similar eventuality.

The possibility comes in form of Cordyceps. This remedy is meant to change the world of medicine by providing the much-needed medication. This is as far as common life health problems are concerned. There are conditions that are known to be triggered by the way one lives. These are known as lifestyle medical conditions. These are one of the worst medical conditions that normally cause a lot of disruption in one’s form of life. They can be prevented by inclusion of Cordyceps products in the diet. A small dosage of the Cordyceps after every meal might work perfectly for them. This is because the Cordyceps has effects such as reduction of cholesterol in one’s body. A dosage of Cordyceps on a daily basis will also see an efficient circulation in one’s blood. One will also have improved stamina as far as libido is concerned.

This is not only a preventive measure. Cordyceps is also known to have curative effects. They have been successfully been used in treatment of conditions such as high blood pressure, congenital disorders among many more. In life, you don’t have to have experience over agonizing conditions, you simply prevent them. Cordyceps is perfect for this when it comes to issues related to your health.

As the growth of internet technology continues to evolve with such speed, more and more money making opportunities do exist now via online. One example of this opportunity is the internet business known to many as online business. The mastery of online business is highly dependent on the owner’s strong mindset to succeed and face whatever demand this industry will ask for in order to earn more in the end. Although some business owners have apprehension in venturing to this kind of career, how it really works and the skills needed, still many have succumbed to this path and have been truly successful. Anyone who longs for a change of work or profession can dream of entering an internet business like Affiliate Marketing.

To begin with, let me give you a clearer definition of what is Affiliate marketing? For your information, in general it is one example of an online business that may involve digital products like e-books in PDF format that are downloadable via internet. Nowadays, internet has been a major part in our daily lives either as an effective means of finding answers to our queries, a source of learning for additional skills like the Photoshop free download wherein anyone who has a greater passion for creativity and web designing can actually get valuable training skills as well as free online courses that could later on add-on to his/her expertise.

The mastery of Affiliate marketing is easier to learn compared with other internet businesses and it doesn’t require any form of investment in order to become one of them. The first thing you need to do if you are interested is sign-up for registration. Once your application has been approved, then you are now an affiliate marketer to their products and you can now start the online business. To market your products, you can make use of free blog sites like Blogger.com, WordPress.com or hub pages.

The main role of an affiliate marketer is to advertise the products of your company with the target of creating traffic through your site with the use of article writings and ad placement. More traffic means more online visitors who are all potential buyers. This entire process would mean greater possible earnings. True indeed, Affiliate Marketing is a good starting point for a rewarding and successful online career. You can give it a go and see for yourself the awesome benefits.

Lots of people find it tough to move away from home for the first time.  For many it is through University or college, the advantage being you are surrounded by people who are experiencing exactly the same thing.   However for me it was a gap year, spent in a small town in Turkey on the South Western coast.

It was actually quite a scary time for me, I was intending to work for an Travel firm who ran adventure courses like mountain biking, sailing and orienteering plus a load of other things.  It seemed like a great chance to get some practical experience on my CV before starting my Leisure based degree in Nottingham.

It’s not something you can prepare yourself for I guess, but I found it incredibly tough at the beginning.  The people I worked with great, they really looked out for me and I got a gentle introduction into what was my first employment.   I have to say I nearly quit after two weeks though, being incredibly homesick and missing my friends.  But then it changed.

It was a realization I guess that if I gave up,  the next time I tried it would be worse.  The other thing I did was to stop behaving like a tourist and embrace the lifestyle of the locals around me.  I had previously spent the first two weeks sitting in my room, with my laptop signed in to a British VPN in order for me to watch UK TV.  Instead I started mixing with my colleagues and socialising.   I soon made lots more friends and became much more confident.

So perhaps my message is that when it comes for you to move from home, just embrace it.  Meet people, experience your new surroundings and realise it’s a whole new chapter to your life.

I tossed my graduation cap as high as I could.  This is it.  I am ready to take on the world.

Idealistic, driven, and impatient: qualities ascribed to fresh graduates.  I was all that but I have never really felt them peak because I was offered an entry level job by my alma mater.  Go figure; after the contract expired, there were no vacancies for regularization.  With enthusiasm, I set out and joined millions of fresh graduates looking for entry level jobs. This list of what I consider to be my best practices may help you as it did lead me to fill the only vacancy on a position hundreds of others sought for.

Be ready.  Against everyone’s advice, I drafted a detailed resume even if the only highlights were my two-month stint on my first job and my educational accomplishments.  I thought I can never hold something back if it means my employment.  I was never late for an interview, I answered the questions honestly, and I took the battery of tests faithfully.

Be determined and be patient.  I got the second job I want at first try.  I failed my third and moved on.  I knew there were others out there.  I believed that the pitfalls prior are ways to give time for better options.  I was right.

Be humble.  I recognized that I am a starter in the workforce so an entry level job is the right thing to yearn for.  That feeling of being equipped to assume something past an entry level responsibility I dismissed as a product of idealism.

Be resourceful.  Technological advances widened the potential for employment.  I registered to various job sites; I read the classified ads regularly, I sought referrals from friends, and handed out resumes to recruitment centers.  I never stopped until I got my first successful call.

Note to the fresh graduate: the path is wide and steep at the same time.  Be prepared and good luck on your endeavors looking for entry level jobs.

Growing up, I always loved Sunday mornings. Not so much for Sunday school but more because after my parents returned from church, we always had a nice Sunday lunch. Sometimes this was a full on roast with roasted potatoes and vegetables. Other times it was more like an all day breakfast with lots of bacon, eggs, sausages, fried tomatoes, french toast and so on. Either way, my father also made us some freshly squeezed orange juice. More than the food, this is what I loved!

Now that I have liberated myself from my parents, I make myself juice every day. I spent and still do spend time looking through juicer reviews to help me decide which which machine(s) are the best. My own health is something that I’m not prepared to cut corners on. So I see it as an investment, in me, when I spend money on juicing appliances. The thing is, I know I’m going to use them! It would be a waste of money if I just bought them and left them sitting in my kitchen.

One of the things that I love about juicing is that my own son loves it too. More than drinking juices, he loves making them. This sort of education is something I’m more than happy to encourage. Too many children eat absolute rubbish and have no idea where their food comes from. With my son, this is a situation I am trying to avoid. He helps me in the garden and we pick vegetables together. I take him shopping and let him choose the fruit we buy. Then together we juice and blend up our fresh produce to make flavorsome health drinks to enjoy together.

I didn’t know too much about dietary health until later in life. If I can educate my son about healthy foods from a young age, I feel I will have done well as a father. I want him to have every opportunity to enjoy a happy and healthy life.

If you enjoy a sandwich for lunch, or even dinner the choice at Subway is better than ever. and if you can get your hands on Subway coupons the already great prices are even better too. What you might not know though is that Subway serve breakfast now too.

 Subway prides itself on being the “healthier” alternative to fast food burger joints and they carry that theme on in their breakfast menu. And they may just offer the best breakfast deal in your town as their year round $3 breakfast special gets you your choice of several of their different 6” breakfast subs – Egg and Cheese, Bacon, Egg and Cheese or Black Forest Ham, Egg and Cheese – and a 16oz Seattle’s Best coffee or a 20 oz soda. Not a bad way to start the day right, and certainly a really great price to start the day!

One thing that I have struggled with in my life is my body image, despite growing up in a loving family with two doting parents and siblings for whom I’d do anything.  Maybe it was the media, maybe it was my self-impressionable ways, but I have always had a hard time finding value in what I saw in the mirror.

About a year ago, I started working with a body image coach to try to heal my relationship with food, my body, and my spirit.  It has been a fascinating experience working through the thoughts and feelings in my mind and realizing that true joy comes from being aware of and being at peace with your body.  I always felt like I was working against my body and mind, but now I realize the true way to peace is to work with them.

I am at a better place in my life now than ever before.  It’s amazing how changing my mindset has opened up so many new doors in my life.  I am no longer afraid of new experiences and taking risks.  I finally feel at peace.

I was pretty naive and trusting about the mental health system. They are doctors, right? They just want to help, right? I had some bad experiences with some questionable doctors and mixed experiences from my hospitalization in 1999, but I had no idea how bad it could be until my second hospitalization. As bad as I feel my 2003 experience was, I know that there are much worse examples out there. I was lucky in that only sutures were needed. I walked out of the hospital alive and with with my mind and spirit intact.

I found no concise and comprehensive information about rights, complaints, agencies, or procedures. Information I was given was vague and contradictory. I found I had to figure it out by myself and have done a great deal of research in this area. I want to make this information available to others so they don’t have to start from scratch.

Additionally I believe that the system does not adequately protect patients and needs improvement. If a hospital has the legal power to lock someone up against their will for “treatment”, then there should be some effective mechanism to ensure the hospital follows the rules that come with that power. Today this is not the case. Hopefully in the near future it will be.

I feel that the public and many patients are not aware of how frequently patients are mistreated. The system is designed to “ensure public confidence” by sweeping such information under the rug. Most medical disciplinary information is kept confidential by law. Wouldn’t do to learn too much about your doctor. Better to keep you in the dark so that you don’t worry about it. When I went in for neurosurgery, I knew more about my automobile mechanic and garage than I did about my surgeon and the hospital. When I went in for borderline personality disorder test, I knew more about my home wiring than where this test could end me up. This did not help my confidence.

In addition to the protections afforded by law, many hospital staff adhere to the unwritten and rarely acknowledged “white wall of silence”. This is where the staff cover for each other to ensure their jobs remain safe. This is done at the expense of the patients.

It may require significant public outcry to change the system and make it more responsive to ensuring patient safety. If you are reading this, do your best in participate in communities to help the cause & if you are about to be a mental health patient, do your research well.

The internet has really come a long way. As a blogger, I can say that such is a tried-and-tested fact. Through time, I have seen it prove itself to be a valuable tool in man’s life in so many aspects—may it be in the field of communication, entertainment, information and even commerce.

Say for instance in business and commerce. I know for a fact that the competition among various businesses in different fields are really getting more intense and cut throat. Everyone can sense that. That is basically why it is very important for a business executive to find an edge over the competitors.

Assuming that you are a business executive (since you are reading this blog entry), let me give you my two cents’ worth.

One such way that will work for you is internet marketing. As a matter of fact, more and more internet marketing companies are getting into business nowadays. Actually, an seo agency has a lot of tools that will help establish and maintain a strong online presence for your business. One such tool is social media marketing.

As its name suggests, social media marketing works in such a way that your business will be marketed through the use of social media. Your business will be linked to social media networking sites. As you may know, more and more people are already getting into the social media networking sites like Twitter and Facebook among others. Thus, that is a wide pool of potential customers that you can tap to boost your sales.

Essentially, these internet marketing companies will determine the best social media networking sites for your business and establish your presence there.

When was the last time you went on a real adventure (urban downtown bars do not count.) With that in mind why not consider going camping one weekend instead of hitting the club?

By camping I mean real camping, not the kind where you go to a camp site that offers bathrooms and restaurants and a drive in movie theater. Real camping means going out into the woods some place. Pitching a real tent in a real open space. Cooking your food over a fire pit dug into the ground. Actually having to rough it a bit and make your own brewed over the fire pit coffee in the morning rather than going to get one from a vending machine.

Real camping does not have to mean you go through hell though. There is a more “civilized” way to enjoy a real camping holiday. Go into any camping equipment store and you will find tents (at fairly reasonable prices) that are more like little houses and sleeping bags that are more comfortable and cozy than any comforter. You can buy a camping toilet, and even a disposable camping shower to make hygiene easier. And yes, you can even buy solar chargers that will help ensure that your smart phone stays juiced up so that you do not lose contact with the “outside world” altogether (or miss out on your daily dose of Angry Birds or some other such diversion after lights out!)

Camp cookery can be a great experience as well. If you shop a little before you go you will find that you can buy specialist cooking woods that come in lightweight chips that you can use to whip up a great fire pit dinner without having to spend hours searching for miles for enough dry (and pest free) wood to get a half decent camp fire going.

I wasn’t even born when my dad and my uncle had the crazy idea to start a wine of the month club business.  For some reason the two of them actually made it and have been making plans, as they tell me repeatedly, for one of my cousins and I to take over one day.

The thing they seem to be forgetting is the simple fact, that I might not want anything to do with it.  Why do they think they get to decide not only what I do for a living, but where I am going to live and everything else with my life? They got to make their own decisions, yet they think I should just take over their business and what, live next door?

Growing up I was always interested in fashion and like most girls in particular designer shoes. The only problem was that I could only look at them in magazines and watch on TV as celebrities walked the red carpet. They always looked so stunning and in a way I suppose I wanted to be just like them.

The older I got though the more I grew into myself and became very much my own person, wanting to look like the celebrities was no longer something I aspired to, this didn’t stop my love of fashion though. The first job I worked I used my first paycheck to buy a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. Its hard to explain the feeling owning a pair of these iconic shoes. Wearing them gave me a feeling of confidence and achievement, the days of cutting pictures out of magazines seem a long way off. The memories were great but finding my independence cannot be bettered.

Finally I’ve got my own place!  After years of first living under my parents’ roof, and then sharing a room with a spoilt brat in college, I have a place I can call my own.  Better yet, I finally get to decorate it the way I want – liberated at last!

I am lucky enough to be able to afford to rent a home and not just an apartment.  This is a great luxury I know for a recent college grad, but I am thrilled about it.  Unfortunately, there is one downside I have to deal with – it comes with a lot less kit than the average apartment.

I actually have to buy my own refrigeration.  It goes without saying that I have no clue how to go about doing this.  Usually when I buy something I just login to Amazon and see what looks good.  But for this purchase I’m looking at spending a thousand bucks, that is some serious money for me.

I’ve starting poking about various websites that have refrigerator reviews.  There is certainly no shortage of them out there.  It’s tricky to know what to make of them all however, as a lot of them are targeted at housewives shopping for a family and kids and such.

I just want a reasonably priced refrigerator that will store enough stuff for myself and my future girlfriend(s) – plus of course plenty of cold beer for when my buddies drop by!  It should look somewhat classy, as I don’t want to scare off the ladies with an ugly piece of junk in the center of my kitchen.  I may not be sophisticated, but maybe I can fool themJ

My folks have had a couple of Frigidaire refrigerators over the years; I don’t really ever remember them breaking down or anything.  To me that is a good sign!  I think I will probably just end up finding a Frigidaire unit that has good refrigerator reviews and ordering that one.

No need to over complicate matters, right?

We all thought life was so plush and nice when we were little kids, not knowing just how difficult life will really be in the real world once we are adults and out on our own.  My whole life I always heard my parent talking about paying bills and staying afloat.  Not until I got older was I able to appreciate it.  I always head about getting benefit for medical and dental, and now that I got stuck with large bills for my sleep apnea problem I can finally see what my parents were always talking about.  I do find that through experience though we all grow for the better.

My parents were very hard working people and instilled good moral fiber in my being while I was growing up.  But one thing I lacked was a decent background into the world of finance.  They had no real idea themselves how to run their finances properly and passed this bad trait down to me.  My lack of knowledge landed me deep in credit card debt, to the point where I needed some debt relief or I was going to drown in bills.  I hope that I can learn from both my mistakes and theirs and ensure my son fully understand the dangerous financial world out there and learns how to take advantage of it, not get taken advantage of like me.

I’m in my early 20′s and I have to tell you, I’m not happy at all. People my age have been in school for 12 years plus 4 years for college and we get out to find unemployment near an all time high. We worked hard in college, racking up debt, only to find that possibly all our efforts have been wasted. I would have been better off if I had skipped college and gotten a burger flipping job out of high school! At least that way I wouldn’t be in debt like I am.

A lot of people my age are participating in the Occupy Wall Street protests and I can see why. I haven’t been there myself but I am tempted to go. There are a lot of crazy people there but a lot of sensible ones too and I would probably fit in somewhere. The longer this bad economy goes on, the more likely I will be to join at some point. Watching our politicians at work is really a joke and someone needs to speak up.

What is so worrisome now is that even if I did find a job it wouldn’t be very secure. I have several friend who are afraid they are going to have to file for unemployment because their jobs are on the chopping block. This makes it very hard to optimistically look for work knowing that even if I am lucky, any job I find might be short lived. Everywhere I go and everyone I talk to has stories about how hard a time they are having right now. It’s really sad and I feel unlucky that all this is happening at a time in my life when I should be venturing out into the workplace, getting my feet wet, and figuring just what it is I want to do with my life. As it is, I am just struggling to survive.

The last decade or so has seen a move away from conformity, a desire to be different. This has become particularly apparent to me because of the trend for parents to give their new babies names that are somehow different, as if by doing so the children are somehow special.

My business is the manufacture of personalised christening gifts which, by definition, include the name of the baby being christened. The popularity of ‘traditional’ names has been in decline, being replaced by ‘made-up’ names, or by traditional names that are spelt in a different way. Just how some of the children given odd names will react when they grow up is not yet known, but various experts are expecting an adverse effect. Looking ahead, some even predict that today’s ‘liberated’ children will swing back to the other extreme and will name their own children using more traditional names.

There are several human traits that suggest that neither children nor adults wish to be ‘liberated’. Instead most like to conform and to belong: for example football supporters like to wear their team’s shirt, a sort of clan uniform that tells the onlooker that that person is a member of a group.

Liberation, or being different, may be attractive for a while, but most are happy to conform.

Door de crisis vraag ik mezelf vaak af of door de crisis mijn kleinzoon nog kan gaan studeren of dit gewoon niet meer betaalbaar blijft. In Groot Brittannie zijn de studiekosten flink omhoog gegaan en de vraag blijft of dit ook zo het geval wordt in Nederland. Moeten mijn kleinkinderen later allemaal lenen als zij bijvoorbeeld door willen gaan studeren als zij bijv erachter komen de verkeerde studie te hebben gekozen en hiermee geen goed geld meer kunnen verdienen? Dit is een lastige vraag over geld die ik vroeger toen ik opgroeide ook kende en wij helaas gedurende crisis ook weer leren kennen. Er is wel een goede website waar ik veel goede informatie kon vinden over hoe mijn kleinzoon kan lenen als een student: http://www.soortenleningen.be/2011/06/juiste-lening-voor-studenten-zoeken/

Toen ik jong was kende ik nog niet allerlei hedendaagse apparaten zoals de Apple iPhone of mobieltjes die tegenwoordig allemaal heel normaal zijn. Vrijwel elk kind heeft zo’n apparaat waarmee je kunt communiceren via telefoon, sms en ook zelfs via internet met whatsapp of skype. Voordat ik zo’n elektronische gevaarte had, was het leven nog simpel want we kenden nog geen RSI of een muisarm of tegenwoordig ‘blackberry duimen’. Vroeger was het leven simpeler en ook veel actiever. Vroeger ging je met je vrienden voetballen om met ze te spelen waar je nu Facebook, whatsapp of skype gebruikt. Waar vroeger het ging of je genoeg eten op tafel zou hebben gaat het tegenwoordig om of je GSM batterij genoeg energie heeft en of je hem ergens kan opladen. Zelf zie ik alleen een ding wat mijn leven heeft verrijkt: de mogelijkheid om online geld te lenen. Een minilening in Belgie is zo’n handige manier van snel, makkelijk en gemakkelijk krediet. Je kunt zo vaak lenen als je wilt, mits natuurlijk je op tijd kan terug betalen. Je kunt een kleine korte termijn geld lening afsluiten om bijvoorbeeld voor je kleinzoon een leuke telefoon te kopen of voor je kleindochter een nieuwe Barbie kopen. De beste lening aanbieders voor minilening in Belgie zijn over het algemeen bekende grote financiele instellingen die lagere rentes hebben dan dure banken.

I used to love going on holiday with my parents when I was a child. Firstly, it meant no school and secondly it meant lots of new stimulus. As I got older I felt it was restrictive going on holiday with mom and dad. Caravans in Wales, stony beaches in England and villas in France just didn’t seem exotic enough for me. And besides I was limited in my chances to meet girls, get drunk and do all the other things that pubsecent teenagers are keen to try.

I got my fill of freedom when I went to university. As with many people in the UK, it was my chance to stand on my own two feet and enjoy myself away from the watchful eyes of my parents. I successfully managed to juggle my studies with having a good time. By the end of it I wanted to travel to developing countries and really see the world – that is the world as most of the world experiences it, namely in penury.

I went to India, Nepal, Eastern Europe. I got a job teaching in China. I spent a year doing nothing on Bangsak Beach in Thailand. I hitch-hiked around Africa, and I eventually settled in Japan teaching English. By that point I was in my 30s. My need to rebel had become less, and I found myself getting married.

It’s strange: I vowed I would never become like my parents. And indeed I haven’t, but I have managed to gain the trappings of respectability that I never sought before. Namely, a job, a stable home and most recently a child. I now don’t mind going on holiday with my parents. I sometimes take them to my old hunting grounds in South East Asia, or we go to a beach in Italy.

Now I wonder how it is going to work with my daughter. Is she going to feel the need to rebel against my ideas, to head out on her own? In many ways I hope the answer is yes.

It’s been a long time since I left home. I left after school. I got a job straight after school because I wasn’t interested in going to university. A part of me regrets that decision, but another part of me realizes that actually delaying my further education was a good thing.

I was put off by the university fees. Also I wasn’t that bright at school. I hardly shone academically, and I secretly resented those who did. I thought it somehow unmanly to want to study. Real men became car mechanics, worked down a coal mine or joined the army. How wrong I was. I realized this not long after getting my first factory job. It was in a place that coated radiators. It was backbreaking work and there was a vat of bubbling chemicals in the middle of the factory floor. Nobody wore masks in those days. Sometimes I would get a bad headache from lowering radiators into the vat for hours at a time.

I eventually got out of that job and found a job in a carbon graphite factory. They make parts for EDM or electrical discharge machining. They also have a workshop for cutting metals using wire erosion. It is a complicated set of equipment they use. Since I had no education at school they put me on the simplest jobs. The pay was better and the health conditions considerably better. For the first time in my life I became interested in the academic side of how EDM worked.

After working 5 years for the graphite supplier in the UK I saved up enough money to go to university. The company I worked for said that there is a good job waiting for me when I complete my studies. Now I am a really motivated student and I somewhat pity my student colleagues that get drunk all the time, in debt and are on the verge of failing their degree. Maybe sometimes it is right to wait.

I bought a couple of wine gift baskets from an interesting guy.  I had my 1 year old son with me and he asked me when I was planning on allowing him to have something to drink.  I told him, that he could drink as much as he wanted….once he turned 21.

His response, I thought was interesting.  He said something along the lines of….good for you, but did you realize that most current research shows that as long as your son doesn’t drink regularly until he reaches at least 16, but that he drinks a bit, that he is much less likely to become an alcoholic.

As an adult, I hope he can find people like this more interesting than annoying.

Ah the good old days! Remember when we could just go into the pantry and it would have several different bags of potato chips that mom had bought for us to snack on when we were hungry?  Times were great back then, that is for sure.

Unfortunately, part of what we have to deal with once we move out on our own is the cost of food.  While we may be able to afford some bread and milk, and perhaps some cheap fruit like bananas relatively easily, expensive treats like potato chips are simply out of our financial reach.

Thankfully, if we are willing to put a little effort in, it is possible to use a potato chips recipe to prepare our own salty treats.  The good thing about making them yourself is they are very cheap.  They are also likelier to be much more healthy than store bought versions, which tend to be full of fat and oil and other undesirables substances.

Since I started making my own recipes for potato chips I have noticed one absolutely wonderful side effect.  I have lost some weight!  You see, when you have to actually make them yourself you find yourself having them less often – as cooking is quiet a hassle.  Plus, the serving sizes tend to be more reasonable; now I eat a frypans worth of chips, instead of a huge bag of ruffles.

It almost makes one wonder if our mothers were really doing us any favors by having a large stock of potato chips in the home to begin with!

My wife is a wonderful woman. I love her with all my heart and there is not a malicious bone in her body. Nor do I wish to show or infer in any way that I have any feelings for her but love. But, She eats too much candy. Not to say she can’t have sweets, the problem is my wife eats candy in a childish way. My wife eats anywhere between two and six different kinds of sweets per night. Not including the gigantic bowl of frosted flakes I make for her every morning. I’m pretty sure my wife lives off candy. She has reprehensible teeth. And does not always remember to brush, so I can only assume they will get worse.She lives in a state of perpetual agony due to inflamed gums, and infected root canals. It’s terrible because to solve the problem involves going to the dentist, something my wife detests with all her being. She dislikes the nervous feeling she gets in the waiting room, and the magazines about houses to rent we could never afford. All the pain does not override my wife’s feeling of dental hatred.

I’m trying to look out for her best interests but I don’t think she sees it that way. I think she sees me as someone pretending to be a parent telling her she can’t do that. She says to me now things like “isn’t it great to be an adult” as she has a scoop of ice cream for breakfast. grabbing a skim chai is the most grown up thing she gets up to. all she want to do is watch TV and eat candy. I do agree that some of the rules children are forced to live under are bizarre and unnecessary. The feelings I have about my wife’s candy habits though, are still valid. I don’t want my wife to have denture breath at 40.

To make a website, one must understand a good deal regarding internet site design and coding, along with making use of different application and packages which help produce the idea. Of course, few are expert in this, consequently you should look at the website templates you can use to your internet site. Internet site templates may either be free or even compensated: this will depend on where you get them. A number of hosts offer free of charge templates that you can use. Some expert web developers in addition produce templates that you could buy and carry out in your web site for fee.

By incorporating some tricks, you can use them and structure these on what you need to do on your website. Many older people is convenient in using different kinds of technologies, and so capable of navigating through attractive web sites easily, children and the elderly have got enormously different  desires in terms of web design. When designing for children, some other group of diverse design rules should be considered, when creating web design templates toward an older viewers a better amount of simplicity should be utilized.

Developing a web design template with regard to children, including an academic site for advertising and marketing childrens toys and games, consists of several web design ideas, to produce an internet site that is certainly participating for any youthful mind. Standard web design template recommends minimal use of coloring but when creating a website by the children, it is very important to utilize brilliant colors to aesthetically stimulate the chid’s brain. In the same manner, designing web  page with regard to children must include a three dimensional structure, computer animated forms along with figures that can cause depth and interest for the page. This permits the younger market to interact more deeply using the website design template as they are able to place themselves in these innovative  world.

Travelling was something I always wanted to do from my early teens, this was mainly due to my father and a talk he had with me about doing things he never got the chance to do. The funny thing was that at the time I didn’t really take what he was saying in, after all I was young and had loads of time to do the traveling thing! How wrong I was, at 17 I started a part time job to earn a bit of extra cash and before I knew it I was 26 still doing the same thing. It took me another couple of years but I finally broke away from the daily slog and monotony to do what I always wanted to do, travel. The planning stage was exiting and I did a lot of research into where to go and what to take, for smokers out there I can highly recommend an electronic cigarette. I used an E-Lites discount code to get my first kit and it allowed me to get my nicotine hit pretty much wherever I wanted. The other thing I would advise is just booking a one way flight and working out the rest as you go along, I am still doing that now after 2 years. One thing is certain though, if you want to travel make plans today, don’t put it off for the next year.

People like to have access to a popular beach when they go on holiday to such tropical countries as Thailand. However, these people often want to get away from the crowds and the noise of the beach. The noise from bars at night can ruin a holiday. Also having a bungalow squeezed into a small space surrounded by hundreds of other holiday makers can take the edge off the notion of an exclusive holiday. Even in expensive accommodation people are often forced into high density areas where they can hear their neighbors snore at night.

This is certainly the case on the up-coming beach of Thong Nai Pan Noi on the Thai island in Koh Phangan. For the last few years the beach has graced several lists of Top Ten beach destinations in the world. This has lead to a spate of new construction by the three major resorts on the beach – Panviman, Rasananda and Santhiya. They seek to maximize their profit per square meter of land owned. The rooms may offer air-con, iPod docking centers, folded towels, LCD televisions etc. but actually the luxury of space is being sacrificed.

People are also being put off going to Thong Nai Pan Noi by the high prices for rooms. $100 a night doesn’t secure anything great, but $1,000 does. This prices many potential visitors out of the market.

The solution is private villa rental in Thong Nai Pan Noi. There are now a few private villas for rent in the area that offer great value for money. The best of them is Sunrise Villa. It is 800 meters from the beach at the top of a hill. It commands magnificent sea views both from the second floor master bedroom as well as from the wide balcony.

The villa is set in over 1,000 sq meters of garden. It is a haven of tranquility where the beauty of nature can be observed rather than the wet swimming costumes of neighbors.

Sunrise Villa has 3 double bedrooms with air-con. Each room is en-suite. There is lounge, dining area as well as fully equipped kitchen. For just 5,000 ($166) Thai Baht a night it represents excellent value for money and offers the luxury of space that the other resorts don’t provide.

Marc Bolan claimed you ‘can’t fool the children of the revolution’. That was the 1970s when the notion of liberation was still very much connected to the idea of social revolution. Young people partied as a way of rebelling, and of protesting. The great example of this is the Woodstock festival in America that was 3 days of peace and music.

The notion of turn on, tune in, drop out as formulated by the Timothy Leary made the connection between taking drugs, opening your mind and rejecting the status quo. In the 1960s and 1970s young people went wild but they felt they did so for a purpose. They wanted to show the older generations that the new generations were different: they could live without war, they didn’t fear communism, that materialism was not everything, that music, art and love were more important. Whereas, the older generation drank the new one smoked marijuana and dropped acid. They wanted to open their minds to forms of consciousness.

Nowadays, young people have the same predilection to taking drugs. Even more so – there is now ecstasy and other designer drugs to choose from. What young people who attend full moon parties in Thailand do not have is an agenda, or a social point of view. They are not getting drunk and high to challenge the old order of things, to protest the Vietnam War or patriarchal society. No. Their indulgence signifies nothing beyond the desire to get wasted and maybe sate their lust.

Some might view this approach as at  least more honest, less hypocritical. Others bemoan the lack of a political consciousness in the young of today. After all trance and house music has no esoteric political message. It’s just beats.

If you’re anything like me, you hope to see Lupe Fiasco go back to some of his older style from his first two albums. But it is not because of my aversion to anything remotely sounding like R&B or electronica music. It is because it sounds like he has gotten a little lost in the crazy whiplash scene of music.

Of course I want him to experiment. It would be a pain to not listen to a band or artist evolve. And I don’t expect to love everything a particular artist does. Bob Dylan infamously went through a similar phase when he went electric in 1965. But I think in a time like now, label pressure should be nearly non-existent. Hopefully he does not given in to what he considers label pressure for the next album, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album.

While Lasers has moved him forward in the mainstream scene, the album was all over the place, at its worst being politically-charged lyrics with mismatched club beats. Hopefully a closer return to his early form will be able to bridge the gap between the electronic sounds he’s going towards and the socially-conscious rap sound he once put forth.