A Hazardous Sport. BE PREPARED!

Quality motorcycle gear combines comfort, style, fit,
durability, weather protection, and armor. The bottom line with
equipment is, you WILL eventually fall, and when you do, you
will most likely become very close friends with the pavement. So
you need the “maximum impact and abrasion resistance” as
possible.

Armor is extra padding sewn into the jacket or pants to cushion
likely spots of impact. Road rash is the not so fun part about
riding a motorcycle. It is painful and
bloody, but impacts can cause serious and sometimes fatal
internal damage. So shoulders, elbows, buttocks, and knees are
spots that you want to be well protected, as they are the most
common of impact points. In any serious crash it isn’t hard to
get a bruise on all of these body locations. Other common
regions of impact are the chest, back, and collar bone. So as
you can see armor placement is crucial.

Material used for armor is another major concern. They are
usually composites of plastic and foam. Simple plastic plates
would slash through the material and expose you to injury, so
they put hard plastic plates inside a thick layer of firm foam.
Some garments also have built in spine protectors. If not,
however, and you feel that you are not properly protected,
jacket liners with armor pads are available for purchase, which
are called “body guard jackets”.

For the most part, jackets off the rack consist of small,
medium, large, and extra large. But there is more to a well
fitting jacket than that. Your protection depends on how well
your equipment fits. If you luck out and find a jacket that you
like and fits well off the rack, you’re in business. But if you
don’t you can order custom made leathers. There is 5 companies
worldwide that can do your custom fit; Langlitz, Bates, Z Custom
Leather, Vanson, and Aerostitch. But don’t expect to order up
your jacket and have it in a week. Each company can only produce
about 1600 custom jackets per year, so there is a waiting list
as long as the dictionary. So make sure you place your order
well before you need to ride, or you could be hooped.

Marketing to the Affluent - with Wine

With its association to an affluent, sophisticated lifestyle, wine can make a good accompaniment when marketing to an affluent audience. However, I am not talking here about ordering expensive wine at a client diner. Wine can be used more creatively and productively to connect to this target audience.

For example, wine proved to be a powerful marketing element for a startup magazine targeting an audience that is personally affluent and controls an enormous amount of money.

BuySide magazine is a publication for institutional investors and money managers. When it was first conceived, it had to overcome what seemed to be a big drawback. Its founder, Gordon Holmes, lived in Sonoma, California, and insisted that the magazine be based near his home, far away from both the financial and media centers in New York.

In discussions with Holmes, I discovered that Holmes’ insistence on basing his operations in Sonoma was not just a whim or a wish to have a short commute to work. It turns out that five generations of his family had been involved in California agriculture and he was passionate about California wine and wine-growing.

I made a decision to turn BuySide’s remoteness from financial and media centers of action into a positive. His location in California’s wine country would become part of the magazine’s positioning.

The first step was to create a private label BuySide Wine. In a deal with local wineries, we were able to source a sufficient amount of BuySide Merlot and Chardonnay. A special wine bottle label was designed to reflect the unique story of this boutique wine.

Next, a direct mail campaign was developed using wine as a theme and Buyside wine as a premium. The campaign was aimed at advertisers and companies that wanted to reach the magazine’s audience of institutional investors.

The chief element of the direct mail campaign was a brochure. The reader was immediately confronted with a stark, bold headline on the front of the brochure:

“WHERE DO YOU GO TO TALK TO INVESTORS WITH $TRILLIONS TO INVEST?
When the brochure was opened, the inside headline provided the answer:
“TO THE WINE COUNTRY”

On the left side of the inside page, we developed a fanciful photo that conveyed the message we wanted: In the photo, Holmes was wearing a suit and holding a cellphone, sitting at a desk which had a computer on top of it, in the middle of a winery. Next to the desk was a street sign that said “Wall Street.” The other side of the page told the story of Buyside and how it reached this affluent, influential audience of institutional investors. The copy also directed readers to an offer in the back.

As part of the offer, companies that responded to the mailing would receive a free bottle of BuySide winewhite or red.

The mailing and promotion powered the magazine to success far ahead of schedule. But wine proved to be more than a launching pad in a direct mail campaign. It became part of the magazine’s positioning, separating it from the competition. The wine angle proved powerful for years to come. At money management conferences, where wine was given out at BuySide’s booth, people would come into the conference and ask ‘Where are the wine guys?” Everyone knew what they meant.

While developing a private label wine may not be for everyone, there are other ways to use wine creatively in affluent marketing. Wine tastings, and food and wine get-togethers have been used successfully by professionals seeking to market their services to an affluent audience. But like wine itself, it takes taste and sophistication to make it work.

Leon Altman is the founder of InvestingIN.com (http://www.InvestingIN.com), a website that provides articles and newsletters about opportunities in different areas. To sign up for any of its free newsletters, go to http://www.investingin.com/freenewsletters.htm.

Confidence : The Forgotten Parenting Skill

Let’s be honest, none of us was prepared for parenthood. Parenting is by far the most complex and demanding job you’ll ever take on, without advanced qualifications. So it’s not surprising that so many of us feel under-confident in the role.

When I first became a father, a friend once asked me what I most wanted for my new baby. Without thinking, I blurted out “confidence”. It surprised me that this was the first gift I thought of, but now I’m not at all surprised. Because with confidence, not only is so much possible, but we have the capacity to enjoy life.

What I really want for my children is happiness. Confidence is merely a means to an end. I also want them to live good lives, in the sense of developing integrity, honour, a sense of justice.

The first few months of parenthood were a trial. I don’t think anything prepares us for the lack of sleep, the sheer energy required to keep up with the demands of this helpless little creature. I have three children now, all different personalities, and one of the changes I observed was that we became much more relaxed with babies two and three. We knew what we were doing, we could anticipate the next steps, we just weren’t as flummoxed as we had been with baby number one. And you know what? This was good for our children.

It’s also something I see in my hypnotherapy clients. If you’ve ever visited a therapist you may have been surprised to be asked about your siblings, and your ‘birth order’ - where you fit in the sequence of children. This is because group dynamics affect us all, and the dynamics of the family leave a lasting impression - an imprint, if we can call it that. A child’s birth order really does have an impact on how they will develop, and perhaps the nervousness we feel with baby number one is part of this overall picture. Exposing family dynamics is often a helpful part of the process of helping people to understand just where some of their anxieties originated, and how irrelevant they are today.

So how do we develop confidence in children? The key is to provide opportunities for children to safely achieve. There is a debate rumbling under the surface of Western society regarding the teaching of competitive sports. Some commentators feel that it is essential to prepare children for a competitive life, whilst others take a more nurturing view, arguing that we should give all children the opportunity to become successful in something. Like many debates, this one is rarely exposed to public attention but continues by innuendo and half-truths, so that it becomes a battle between two competing clans rather than a shared venture to discover some useful truths.

All children can achieve. I have run projects with children as young as 7 years who proved themselves capable of mastering the most sophisticated professional audio recording equipment. I have worked with young teenagers who have not only composed and recorded professional-sounding songs, but also developed business plans which would shame many a professional in the field. Children are not limited by their age - if anything, it is adults who become limited by the changes induced by time. Of course children don’t have the same depth of knowledge and experience that we possess, but this is a blessing as well as a disadvantage.

So have the courage to let go a little, and sufficient confidence in yourself not to hold your kids back. Confident parents bring up confident children, and that is a gift to the whole family.

Jim Sullivan is a confidence coach.

http://confidence-self-esteem.com

50 Cent Biography

You know 50 Cent by his music but in this 50 Cent biography you will get to know more about the man and where he came from. With so many obstacles in his way, this individual was determined to make it big. Now, 50 Cent is the largest figure in the hip hop world, dominating rap for the last two years. So, we can’t get everything into this 50 Cent biography that we would like to, but getting to know where this man came from will give you an idea of what makes him so very real to so many.

Many rap stars out there have no idea what it is like to experience the difficulty of living life on the streets. Sure, they write songs but they don’t necessarily experience what they are writing about. But, 50 Cent has. He grew up in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Queens. He saw crime happening around him everywhere from drugs to stabbings and even fatal shootings. Living in this area and seeing what he saw, he was able to portray a very clear picture of the hardest cities in the United States from a first hand point of view, something that his fellow rappers simply could not. And, he got a name for himself by telling it.

In this 50 Cent biography, we still want to talk about all that this man has accomplished. Anyone in circumstances like this has to be nothing short of extraordinary to pull through and end up on top as he has done. His grandmother raised him because his mother had died when he was only eight and his father had left. He turned to a life of hustling where he ended up in prison. Then, came his break. Deciding to turn his life around, 50 Cent took the higher road that led to a rap career. Working with Run DMC and Jam Master Jay he developed his skills.

This 50 Cent biography only touches on the life that this remarkable man has led. And, it hasn’t stopped yet. Working with Eminem as well as a number of other hip hop artists of high stature, his career continues to climb. You can count on seeing 50 for years to come.

Hip Hop Capital is the home of online hip hop jewelry. The place where you can find TONS of 50 Cent bling. Hip Hop Capital has been a force online for years and only continues to grow. Go to http://hiphopcapital.com/catalog/50-cent-jewelry.htm and see for yourself why thousands choose Hip Hop Capital.

Peanut Chicken

1 cup of Natural Peanut Butter* 1 medium sized onions (diced)
1-2 jalipino peppers (diced) 8 chicken thighs ** 32 oz of
Chicken broth Salt and Pepper 1/4 cup Peanuts (chopped) A
handful of cilantro (chopped)

Place chicken pieces into a pan. Don’t over crowd the pieces so
make sure you have a big enough pan to accommodate them. Cover
the chicken with the stock and bring to a boil. As soon as it
reaches a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for
about 15 minutes. The time may vary depending on the size of the
thighs.

When the chicken is finished, remove the pieces and set aside.
Save the liquid too, you’ll need it in just a little bit.

In a pan, add your onion and peppers, season with a bit of salt
and pepper. Add a little bit of oil and on low heat cook them
until the onion turns translucent.

Add your chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer
and add your peanut butter. Mix it in well with a spoon or
whisk. It will thicken so keep careful watch over it. If you
need to, add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water to loosen it up. When
the sauce begins to bubble, add your chicken and let it simmer
for a few minutes on very low heat.

Garnish with the chopped peanuts and cilantro. This dish goes
well with a long grain rice.

*Brand name peanut butters have a tendancy to break at higher
temperatures.

**Amount depends on how big they are, you may want to reduce the
number of thighs

Putting romance back into your marriage

Let me start by saying I am not a psycholigist or therapist, I
am just a guy, who was married for 16 years, until that ended
about a year and a half ago. I am now in a new and exciting
relationship, which I believe will work out great. I am forty
years old and just speaking from experience. Hopefully these
tips I give you will spice up your love life again.

Often times in a marriage or long-term relationship, couples
tend to fall into a routine. What maybe started out as a very
romantic relationship, begins to slow down as bills, children,
work and all the pressures of life conspire to give us stress
and lead us away from what is really important.

I would venture to guess that most divorces stem from this
problem. You see each other As a business partner, parenting
partner, chore partner. But not so much as a lover. You have to
drive the kids here and there, while your partner is getting the
groceries. There is always something to do,and it usually does
not include being alone with your partner.

Every once in a while you remember what it was like in the
beginning, and think why can’t it be like that again. By the
way, both sexes think this, the problem is they only think it,
and usually don’t talk about it.

When the kids are small, I know it isn’t as easy to make time
for each other, but the most important thing you can do for your
marriage is to MAKE time. If that means getting grandma and
grandpa to watch the kids overnight, or splurging on a
babysitter once a week, it would be the best investment you
could make in your marriage.

If you could get away with your partner for a date night once a
week, you won’t regret it. Whether going out for dinner, or a
movie, or a long walk together, it will bring the two of you
closer together. Plus, getting away from the kids is a great
stress reliever.

Then when you get back home, still with no kids around, a great
way to spice things up in the bedroom, is with lingerie. It may
sound cliché, but it really works. Think about it ladies, your
partner sees you all week as a mom, housekeeper, breadwinner.
The last thing he is thinking of you as, is a bedroom goddess.
Believe me, if you come home after a nice night out, and you go
upstairs and put on a beautiful piece of lingerie, a nice teddy,
or corset, body stocking, or bustier, you’re partner will
definitely be put into the mood.

It will make him see you as he used to see you. More than a
mom, etc. After all, isn’t that what you want?

But, don’t stop there. A great way to spice things up is to try
things you never tried before. That could be something as simple
as bringing some food into the mix, you know strawberries, whip
cream, things like that. Then, there is always the massage,
everybody loves a massage with warm oil. Just the fact you are
doing things differently will really help spice things up. We
all know that we fall into a routine in the bedroom after a
while. The only cure for that is to change things around.

So, hopefully this will help you to get back on the right
track. Good luck. Visit my website at:
http://www.purplemoose.us/lingerie.html

Cell Phone Do’s and Don’t’s For Teens!

There are certain things people just shouldn’t do with cell phones! Like talking in the grocery store line while trying to pay for your groceries, talking in church (like nobody will notice!), talking while driving and eating and talking to the people in the car or talking in the middle of class!

Hey - I love my cell phone as much as anybody else, but people are starting to go overboard! You can’t have a conversation with a person before their cell phone rings and then they get text messages and then they have to surf the web and then their voice mail goes off because the phone was too busy to receive any actual calls. Come on! Enough is enough.

And, in that spirit, following is an official lists of Cell Phone Do’s and Don’t’s (please don’t take this list personally - but if you do, then you know that problem applies to you!):

Don’t:

1. Talk on your cell phone at church

2. Talk on your cell phone in class (you’re disturbing us, too!)

3. Talk about your mother when there are mothers around you.

4. Talk about your kids when there are kids around you.

5. Talk and eat.

6. Talk when there is a home phone less than 1 foot away from you.

7. Talk on the bus at the top of your lungs (we all have to ride with you at least a few more stops - have pity on us!)

8. Talk to your old boyfriend when your new boyfriend is around.

9. Talk to your old girlfriend when your new girlfriend is around.

10. Talk to your parents and then pretend to lose the connection so you don’t have to talk to them anymore!

Do:

1. Text message whenever possible.

2. Learn how to text message with normal capitalization - not ALL CAPS.

3. Surf the web on your own time - not in the middle of a conversation.

4. Turn your cell phone to silent/vibrate when you are in church.

5. Turn your cell phone off when you are at the movies (or at least don’t check the messages - we can all see that screen light up!).

6. Figure out how to turn your cell phone to silent/vibrate (nobody wants to hear ‘My Boo’ or ‘Drop it Like It’s Hot’ because you can’t operate your phone).

7. Ask people if they want their picture taken.

8. Show people the pictures you took - don’t post them as your wallpaper because they look so ‘crazy’.

9. Offer your cell phone to people who are lost, whose car is broken down or who need you to call their cell phone so they can locate.

10. Transfer your phone book to your new phone - stop calling everybody every time you get a new phone because their phone number is in the ‘old’ phone.

Help your teenager practice good cell phone etiquette today and make the world a better place!

Sonya C. Triggs is a contributing author to Urban Christianz Ministries. Visit this website to get more great articles and advice for Christian teens!

What is HDTV?

What is HDTV?

Probably the invention of the Television was one of the most influential events in the history of mankind. With the invention of television, the society could share their views easily with broadcast shows. Thus it is no wonder that watching TV has become a fad all over the world and there are houses in the world that doesn’t have a refrigerator but has a TV set. However with the invention of HDTV (High Definition TV), the broadcast technology has become more advanced.

HDTV is a new broadcast technology that allows twice as much visual information to be transmitted and viewed in a broadcasted TV signal. Both horizontally and vertically the signal quality is sharper, the resolution is higher and the pixels which are the building blocks of video pictures are also more numerous in High Definition TV. In fact in some HDTV signals, you may have over 1920 pixels per row in your TV viewing. Of course, besides the video signal, the audio is also very clear as it is transmitted digitally and without any distortion.

Now viewing a broadcast in HDTV quality involves having a HDTV Broadcast signal (air, cable or satellite), HDTV Receiver (either a box on top of your TV set or a HDTV ready tuner in your TV set) and a TV set that is capable of showing high resolution broadcast in 16:9 format.

How Much Should You Offer When Buying a Property

Once you’ve found a house you like and have the financial resources to buy it, you must decide how much to offer. In putting together your actual offer, consider the following factors:
A) The advertised price of the house. Treat this as only a rough estimate of what the seller would like to receive. Some sellers deliberately overprice, others ask for pretty close to what they hope to get and a few under price their houses in the hope that potential buyers will compete and eventually overbid.

B) What you can afford. When figuring this out, be sure to factor in your share of the closing costs, which will be about 2%-5% of the total purchase price of the property.

C) Prices for comparable houses. Before you make an offer to purchase a property, you should know the selling prices of nearby properties similar to the one you’re interested in buying. For reliable comparable prices (called “comps”), keep the following in mind. A “comp” should have occurred within 6 months (the more recent, however, the better). In a market where prices fluctuate a lot, “comps” should be on sale within the last 30-45 days. A “comp” should be for a property quite similar to the one you’re interested in, in terms of age, size, type and number of rooms. A “comp” should be within 6 to 10 blocks of the property you want to buy.

Whether the local real estate market is “hot” (prices rising) or cold (prices dropping). In competitive areas, homes sell quickly — often for 10%, 20% or more above the asking price — as bidding wars erupt among buyers. In a cold market, you’ll have more room to negotiate with the seller and may get a bargain.

D) The seller’s needs. Remember that seller does not only consider price as a main factor in their decision to sell. Your ability to close the deal quickly for example, by getting loan approval or lining up inspections in advance of presenting your offer is important. Finally, your flexibility and sensitivity to the seller’s needs — whether it’s extending the closing date for a seller who can’t move for a few months or paying for repairs may determine the outcome of your offer.

E) How much you’re willing to pay. While there are numerous considerations on why you should purchase a property - the current market, the seller’s needs, etc… nothing should overweigh your own honest assessment of how much you are willing to pay for a property.

http://www.EzRealtyConnect.com allows real estate buyers and sellers to connect with professional realty agents in their local area more efficiently. Determine the price of a property in any city using our free home valuation service.

My Karma Just Ran Over Your Dogma: An Inside Look At the Concept of Karmic Justice

Most forms of Hinduism and many forms of Buddhism center on a concept known popularly as “karma.” The concept of karmic justice suggests that the way you live your life will affect your welfare both later on in this life, and in your many lives to come. Thus, this notion usually comes as a package deal with the ideas of reincarnation (you get a new body or form) and what students of religions call the “transmigration of the soul.”

Together these teachings mean that karma will punish or reward us based on our words and deeds. Thus, if you behave badly toward others, you may die only to be reborn in your next life as a lower life form, say maybe, a dragonfly or cockroach. Now, hundreds of millions of people believe this stuff, so don’t laugh — at least not yet. Let us move on instead to ask a few pointed questions about this worldview, assessing each of these teachings with a critical eye. Let us first list them singly to see how well they fit each other. Here are the propositions.

1. Karma will judge you.
2. Karma will meet out punishments and rewards.
3. Bad behavior will bring you an undesirable “next life.”
4. Karma may cause lower forms of life to advance, or vice-versa.

First, we want to know how “karma” — which is allegedly a natural process (like “melting” ice or “raining” water) and not a person — “judges” people. This seems nonsensical. How does an impersonal process make moral judgments? Sometimes ice melts, and melting is a process. What sense would it make for me to say that “melting” will judge you? Everything about our experience tells us only persons judge. The Christian response to this, of course, is that God is personal. He is a judge. But that option to resolve them problem does not avail itself to Hindus. Bit if a Hindu will concede that it is God who judges, then what need do we have of “karma”??

But even if we grant this very odd view — that a process could judge people — we should still want to know what standard of ethics this process uses to make such judgments. If there is no law code, there can be no violations (crimes). What is the law code? For justice requires that a person know what the rules are before a judge can punish sentence upon him for breaking them.

Since “karma” has not published the rules it expects us to follow in a book, or written them in the sky, it would seem that karma represents a law of INjustice, not of justice.

Next, you will notice that karma supposedly punishes and rewards people. This would require karma to have an intimate knowledge of each individual. The “new form” in your nest life — with which karma punishes or rewards you — will only be a reward if you personally like it, and a punishment if you find it sour. For instance, is it better to be born a poor wise man or a rich fool? Different people will answer this question variously, and even many who give the same answer will do so for different reasons.

How does ‘karma” — a process — know everyone so intimately as to know what they like and dislike?? Again, karma seems inadequate to the task assigned to it. Of course, these problems do not plague the Christian outlook at all, since God knows all things, and created both man and woman after his own image.

Karma would, of course, face the same problem with reincarnating you as a monkey or other animal, since this would require a process to decide just which animal form was “higher” or better than another. Are giraffes more advanced than elephants? What standard to use here? What kind of taxonomy does “karma” use? What does it even mean for a dragonfly to “behave itself” so it can become a monkey? And can Karma prove that monkies are better (or more “advanced”) than dragonflies? Okay, NOW you can laugh.

The bottom line here is this: you have no need to fear “bad karma.” This is just a man-made superstition. Jesus said, “I will tell you whom you shall fear. Do not fear men, who, after killing the body can do nothing more. But fear Him who, after killing the body, can cast both body and soul into hell…”

And again, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).

Carson Day has written some 1.3 gazillion articles and essays with the goal of glorifying God and helping others live wisely and well. You can visit his websites at http://ophirgold.blogspot.com (The Omniblog) or http://extremeprofit.blogspot.com (Carson’s Day Trading Outpost).