The LuxMob Info Tags

Today, music is one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. This market is hotter for many reasons. First of all, customers’ demands and tastes are higher and more diversified than ever. Second, the number of people and companies working in this field are increasing at such a dizzy speed that it creates a very large pool of tough competition, and of course, to survive, they have to be unique and distinguished.

We can list out herewith some relevant industry jobs such as Recording, Radio, Television and other Media, Working live shows and tours, Music Retailing and Instrument Repairing, Education and Instruction and many more. Among them, the recording industry is one that has been applying high-end technologies for many years.

The recording industry commenced at the start of the 20th century, when publishers of sheet music dominated the music business. With a quick development pace, recording industry gradually dominated and controlled the music industry. This is the kind of mass-production copies’ business that can fix the price in the market.

To be the priority in the effervescent market of recording, what can they do? - Reducing the price? - Noisy brand-name advertising? - Or investing in technological upgrading of products and services? Of course, though technologies change very fast every day, people still make the choice of high-tech applications as the best way to affirm their positions in the music market.

Regarding recording industry, we consider that this is not only a technical but also a creative career. High-end technology is useful for both sides of this job. Recording engineer definitely must be technically skilled with the equipment. They must manipulate skillfully with all the buttons or knobs to get the correct sound that the artist or the producer want to have. A good microphone is necessary in the first step to begin with the recording process. And then, with the instruments, they find out the expected sounds - not music. The recording engineer, finally, will make the adjustments to enhance the music, morph, add effects… Some years ago, in order to do these steps, they had to resort to many equipment. In this case, the results obtained take a lot of the engineers’ time and labor. However, today, thanks to the development of high-end technologies, recording engineer can apply modern equipment to make their work easier and more professional. One simple example, with a PC and some installed music morpher, music editor softwares, they can mix and edit music like a skilled recording engineer.

In the other side of this job, creativity is also very important. Music industry is a very specific one that requires creativity. The recording engineer must have the feeling, the sense of music that can create different and unique sounds that express music in the best way. With the same song recorded by two engineers, we have two ways to express the music which depend on the creativity of the recording workers. The recording engineer can apply some intelligent softwares specialized to perform a good job. Sometimes, just by adding a wave sound, increasing the frequency or reducing the noise of the music, we have colored up the recordings.

More and more recording engineers believe in the important role of high-end technologies for their career. They are willing to spend money on equipment, modern music editor or music morpher softwares to support their work. Some people pay up to thousands of dollars for their recording studios, but some know how to save money. They find out the efficient softwares that can work properly as a mixer, an editor with very competitive price from $30 to $100. They know how to update their “companion” by frequently downloading the latest effects or supporting programs. By this way, high-tech supports for both professional recording studios and some home recording studios.

“A war is happening, not the Iraq war, but the high-tech war”. However, we will not perish in this war if we know how to use and control technologies for our purposes. Holding in hand the weapons of music softwares, we will be the unique winner, the best one in the running of entertainment industry, especially recording industry.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recording_industry
www.recording.org/
http>//www.audio4fun.com

1. IS HAVING A DEMOCRACY MORE EFFECTIVE IN ADDRESSING POLITICAL
CONCERNS?

The answers below, except for item 3, are a composite of what
has come out of 3 Christian web sites in trying to answer the
above question.

1) Winston S. Churchhill used to say “Democracy is the worst
system of government we have, except for all the others.

2) Democracy is more effective, if it upholds the protection and
advancement of individual well-being, through good public
education, civil liberties, and a largely uncorrupt system of
government and justice. If it doesn’t, it’s like a bicycle
without wheels. It’s not going anywhere. But on the other hand,
it oftentimes becomes very unwieldy, because it only seems that
the rich and powerful have an inordinate amount of influence in
determining in what direction the government should take in
solving these political concerns. In theory, all the people in a
democracy should be able to participate equally, but in practice
it only seems that the rich and powerful have an effective
voice. That’s why in many cases the voter turnout in democracies
can be very low in an election. The average person really
doesn’t feel he has any voice in the government.

3) On CNN, one listener suggested that since the U.S. has so
much influence around the world, the world’s population should
have some say in who’s going to be the U.S. President.

2. ONE OBSTACLE IN DEVELOPING A DEMOCRACY IS THE EMOTION OF HATE
THAT ONE FINDS IN ABUNDANCE THROUGHTOUT THE WORLD. HOW DO YOU
DEAL WITH THIS?

The following are comments on the above question that were
recorded on 3 Christian web sites.

1) “Turn the other cheek” Matt 5:39, “Love your enemy” Matt
5:38, and pray for them too.

2) “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto the Lord
that which is the Lord’s”. Whether we agree with the law or not,
we are commanded to obey the law of the land Romans 13:1, unless
it violates the law of God.

3) HATE is the emotion that dominates those areas in the world
where you find most of the destructive conflicts. LOVE is really
the best antidote for this type of emotion, but how does one
transmit this LOVE? One answer might lie in a program advertised
over Internet (www.seedsofpeace.org) whereby this program
invites teenagers from both sides of a conflict to confront each
other in a peaceful dialogue, so that they can actually express
their own feelings non-violently in a controlled setting. This
hopefully would plant the seeds of peace in the upcoming
generations.

4) Do not be afraid of differences in individuals. Embrace it
and realize that it might be something within ourselves that we
don’t like. Learn to love ourselves completely.

5) Learn to accept what we already have and NOT to embrace the
“not enough” philosophy, because in reality, if you embrace the
“not enough” philosophy, you will never have enough no matter
how much you have.

6) The root cause of hatred could be traced to not enough love.
Heal the individual with the manifest love that Jesus taught,
and the whole will be healed as a matter of course. Love
yourself, expand that love to include those closest to you, and
then to those who mean you harm. Move outward from a solid core
of abundant love within. Let the trickle become a stream, then a
river, and then an ocean.

3. HOW SHOULD ONE FUNCTION IN A DEMOCRACY?

One should always vote when elections occur, and one should
always try to support a candidate who’s running for a particular
office. The problem with just supporting a candidate, however,
is that there are always going to be issues that you will
disagree with your candidate about. To counteract this, and to
be more influential in a functioning democracy, you really
should be more issue oriented. And to do this, one should take
certain action to make sure that what you want to happen on a
particular issue is appropriate. But group action would be more
effective than individual action, although individuals can
engage in lobbying activity as well, if group endeavors are not
available. This action, group or individual, which could be
taken in democracies as well as international organizations,
should be taken up as follows: 1) An intense study of an issue,
2) Then you should decide how you want that issue changed, or if
it should be, 3) If you want it changed, you should then find
out which authorities you should contact to effect such a
change, 4) Then you should contact these authorities, 5) If the
authorities don’t respond to your satisfaction, contact them
again (don’t give up), 6) If the authorities continue to be
unresponsive, contact them again, but with a threat (use your
imagination) that you feel might be injurious to their emotional
well-being. But always with an exit strategy that these
authorities could use, 7) If these authorities still remain
unresponsive, follow through on the threat, and keep in mind
other threats that could also be used against these authorities,
if they’re still unresponsive, and Continiue with steps 6 &
7, if you’re still unsatisfied with the result of your efforts.

4. IF YOU NEED TO DEAL WITH AN ISSUE THOUGH VERBAL DIALOGUE,
THE FOLLOWING IS A PROCEDURE FOR DOING IT.

NEGOTIATING

The Best Approach in Negotiating

1. Participants are problem-solvers, not adversaies nor friends.

2. The goal is a wise outcome reached efficiently and amicably.

3. Separate the people from the problem.

4. Be soft on the people, but hard on the problem.

5. Proceed independent of trust.

6. Focus on Interests, not positions.

7. Explore Interests.

8. Avoid having a bottom line.

9. Invent options for mutual gain.

10. Develop multiple options to choose from; decide later.

11. Insist on objective material.

12. Try to reach a result based on standards independent of will.

13. Reason and be open to reason. Yield to principle, and not to
pressure.

SEPARATE THE PEOPLE FROM THE PROBLEM

The People Problem

1) Perception = Put yourself in their shoes. = Don’t deduce
their intentions from your fears. = Don’t blame them for your
problem. = Discuss each others perception. = Look for
opportunities to act inconsistently with their perceptions. =
Give them a stake in the outcome by involving them in the
process. = Face saving—Make your proposals consistent with
their values.

2) Emotions

= First recognize and undestand emotions, theirs and yours. =
Make emotions explicit and acknowledge them as legitimate. =
Allow the other side to let off steam. = Don’t react to
emotional outbursts. = Use symbolic gestures to defuse the
situation.

3) Communication

= Listen actively and acknowledge what is being said. = Speak to
be understood. = Speak about yourself, not about them. = Speak
for a purpose. = Build a working relationship. = Face the
problem , not the people.

FOCUS ON INTERESTS, NOT POSITIONS

1) Interests define the problem. 2) Behind opposed positions lie
shared and compatible interests, as well as conflicting ones.

How do you identify interests

1) Ask “why?” Try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
2) Think about their thinking. 3) There probably are multiple
interests involved. 4) The most powerful interests are basic
human needs.

Security, Economic well-being, A sense of belonging,
Recognition, or Control over ones life.

Make a list of these interests, yours and theirs

Talking about interests

1) Make your interests come alive and be specific. 2)
Acknowledge their interests as important too. 3) Put the problem
before the answer. 4) Look forward, not back. 5) Be concrete,
but flexible - Have a number of options. 6) Be hard on the
problem, but soft on the people.

INVENT OPTIONS FOR MUTUAL GAIN

1) Invent, don’t decide upon, new ideas - brainstorming. a) Then
develop the better options. b) Look through the eyes of
different experts. c) Interests could be different. d) Give
several optional preferences. e) Look for shared interest and
differing interests to dovetail. f) Seek to make decisions easy
- Low cost to you and high gain for them.

INSIST ON OBJECTIVE CRITERIA OR EQUAL TREATMENT

What if the other side is more powerful - Develop your own BATNA
( Better Alternationm To Negotiated Agreement ) and discover
theirs.

What if they won’t play? Use your own principled negotiator or
mediator.

What if they don’t play fair? Keep principled negotiation always
in mind.

Use eBay picture service or host your own photos?

If you use the eBay picture service, your first photo is free. But each additional picture will cost you $0.15 and the supersize picture will be another $0.75.

This can cut into your auction profits if you need, let’s say, 3 or 4 pictures showing different angles, and one supersize picture for the “WOW” effect!

So I found a way to have as many pictures I want in my listings without having to pay all these fees to eBay: I do my own image hosting!

They are a lot of image hosting services to choose from online. Some are free, and others charge a small monthly or yearly fee.

Currently I use Photobucket image hosting. They have a free starter package (which gives you 25 MB of disc space) or a premium package (unlimited disc space) to store your pictures. You can subscribe to the premium package for 3 months ($9.00) or one year ($25.00).

Now, how to load your pictures on your photo-hosting service?

First, you have to resize your images. One reason for resizing your photos is that Photobucket limits the size of the pictures you can load - 250 KB for the free package and 1 MB for the premium package.

The second reason is that you don’t want to slow down your eBay listings with huge images! Big pictures take forever to load, and potential customers will hit the back button instead of waiting.

So I recommend limiting each picture to a size of 500 pixels maximum. I use the free Irfanview image optimizer to resize my pictures.

Once your photos are resized, you can upload them to your image hosting service, which is very simple.

For Photobucket, you have to log in into your account. Once you are in, there is a white window on top of the page marked “picture”, with a “browse” button on the right. Click on “browse”, and a new “choose file” window will appear. That window shows the files in your computer. From that window, select the file containing the picture you want to upload to the Internet.

Once you have found the right picture, highlight it with your mouse and then in the “choose file window”, click the “open” button. The name and location of your picture will then appear on the Photobucket screen.

Now click the “submit” button, and voila! Your selected picture is on Photobucket. You can even load several pictures at the same time by using the “submit multiple pictures” feature.

All right, your picture is now on Photobucket. But how do you insert that picture in your eBay listing?

Once your image is hosted on Photobucket, you will have to copy the URL of that photo (which is directly under it) and paste it into your eBay listing. Use the following html code to display the picture correctly in your listing (don’t forget to inverse the quotation marks at the beginning and at the end of this code!); paste your Photobucket image URL where it says “the URL of your picture”:

>img src=”the URL of your picture”<

You can even add a border around your picture, by adding a border code to the above, making it:

>img src=”the URL of your picture” border=8<

By changing the number of your border, you can make it larger or thinner.

Another great advantage of choosing online image hosting is that the quality of your pictures in your auction listings will be much better than with eBay picture services!

So you can have as many auction pictures as you need, with higher image definition, for less money. You can’t beat that.

Good luck!

Author Sophie Van Tiggelen of Bagatelle Jewelry (http://www.bagatelle-jewelry.com) creates original handmade beaded jewelry in lampwork glass, freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals, semi-precious gemstones and sterling silver. Sophie’s designs are natural, beautiful and sophisticated, and she specializes in turquoise, coral and chalcedony.

Warning! This article contains graphic descriptions. The readers may experience anxiety, confusion, or a burning desire to “start working immediately”. Professional guidance it is strongly advised!

Unfortunately, it is sufficient to see the name of the beast, dsPIC30F4011, and many readers are going to shy away, or even burst into tears. No, dear friends, there is nothing to fear, and I intend to present how you could easily tame this terrifying dsPIC30F40111 monster and put it to work for you, into many beneficial applications.

Now, the first thing you need to do is to capture the beast. For this, you have to take the jungle path–also known as the “Internet”. Walk up to the monsters’ lair, Microchip®, and there you could capture, or purchase one dsPIC30F4011 animal for about 12 pieces of silver.

Once you bring your wild creature home, analyze its shape and, mostly, its behavior. You will see the beast looks like any ordinary monster IC of the DIP40 type, and this is good news, because it is best to use through-hole IC type of beasts, during hardware/firmware development work–some of them could pass away while experimenting, so… You think, probably, the 40 legs the monster has are not sufficient for your particular tasks. Do not worry about this, because you are going to discover means to multiply monster’s legs to hundreds of them, just like the truly ferocious monsters! Well, this is all about the shape of the beast, and you can see there is nothing impressive about it. However, you also need to study monster’s behavior; this time a bit more careful.

Please be aware there are thorough treaties–also known as “Data Sheets”–where the dsPIC30F4011 behavior it is described in details, and I will only point out few of the most terrifying features. First, our monster has Flash memory, about 48 Kbytes, and this is very good, because we can erase sucker’s memory whenever it goes nuts, or when we want to teach it new tricks. Next, our monster has 1 Kbytes permanent memory of type EEPROM, and this allows us to store there various configuration data, or to work with adaptive-learning firmware routines. The presence of this EEPROM memory tells us, in fact, our monster is of good quality!

Now, the most terrifying aspect is, our monster belongs to the 16 bits family, but my advice is to ignore this. Handling 8, 16, or 32 bits monsters it is all the same; the only significant difference is in the tools we use to tame the beast. Another shocking feature you are going to discover sooner or later is, our monster belongs to the ferocious dsPIC® family, hence it is capable of DSP (Digital Signal Processing–please read my articles about this) and of very fast mathematical calculations. This is, again, very good news, because we need both fast and very intelligent microcontroller-creatures. Regarding its reflexes, our monster works at either 20 or 30 MIPS (Mega Instructions per Second), which should be fair enough for most demanding applications. In order to feed it properly, you should know this animal likes only regulated DC voltage of 2.5 V up to 5 V.

Our 40-legs creature is capable of UART, SPI, CAN, and I2C communications. In addition, it has 6 PWM channels, because it appears it has been specifically bred for motor control applications–ugh, scary! The beauty is, it also has ICSP (In Circuit Serial Programming), and this allows us to do many annoying and nasty things to it. Ha, ha!

What else… Ah! Nine of those ugly crooked legs are capable of 10 bits Analog-to-Digital conversion at maximum 0.5 Msps (Mega samples per second); then, about 30 legs are capable of general I/O, and 3 of them are also external interrupts. Wow, the Interrupts! Here is where the power of the monster actually lies! The dsPIC30F4011 beast has no more and no less than 30 interrupt sources, with 8 selectable priority levels.

Fact is, we could go on and on, but it is better to keep it short; besides, I would like you to discover few interesting things for yourself. Now, it seems our monster promises a lot, but the problem is: “How do we tame it?” Unfortunately, we cannot use the good, long-time tested methods of fire, hunger, and chains. What we need are MPLAB® ICD2 Debugger/Programmer and C30® ANSI C compiler. I know, they are both new tools, but they will do the job–trust me with this one. Please be aware you can download for free C30 compiler, fully functional for 60 days, from Microchip.

Now we have everything we need to start the infernal process of taming the beast, and I am certain you think this is a long and very difficult burden. Well, it is not. What you need is a good incantation, like the multitasking one described in… No, I will not make it that easy, but I will give you a hint: you will discover the book with the ritual I am talking about at Corollary Theorems–my home site. You will also discover a good cage there to contain the monster, securely: its name is HCK (Hardware Companion Kit) V2.2.

This is all! It should take you a couple of months to break the dsPIC20F4011 monster down. Then, you will have a yoke-beast ready to perform everything you need: all your tasks and all applications! I am certain your little monster is going to repay you back nicely, for all your efforts. In time, you two are going to become good friends, and you will come to love and respect your little dsPIC30F4011.

O G POPA is Professional Engineer in BC, Canada. His home site is Corollary Theorems at http://www.corollarytheorems.com

Criminal Justice is a broad field that is concerned with the detection, apprehension, prosecution, adjudication, release, detention, correctional supervision or rehabilitation of persons accused or convicted of a crime. There are many certificate and degree programs to consider when preparing for a career in Criminal Justice, from Associate to Bachelor, and even Doctorate degrees.

Students of Criminal Justice may focus on a myriad of specialties, including law enforcement, forensic psychology, crime scene investigation, prosecution, incarceration, private security, and others. In addition, there is a great need for Criminal Justice administrators to help identify criminals, and to collect, maintain, store and disseminate criminal histories.

Criminal Justice careers can cover just about any activity associated with reducing and detecting crime. Some jobs in Criminal Justice include police investigator, prosecutor, defender, judge, prison guard, administrator, security guard, and probation officer, to name a few. Employers will favor those with a background in criminology, sociology, psychology, social work, political science, or law.

Find schools offering criminal justice courses by searching the many options found at www.schoolsgalore.com.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com

Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved
Michael Bustamante, in association with Media Positive Communications, Inc. for SchoolsGalore.com

M. Bustamante is a staff writer for Media Positive Communications, Inc. in association with SchoolsGalore.com. Find Criminal Justice Schools at SchoolsGalore.com; meeting your needs as your educational resource to locate schools.

Our feelings and attitudes have a huge impact on our ability to achieve ‘happily ever after.’ Are feelings and attitudes the same thing or different? Does one cause the other to happen? Which one has more power over how we respond? Does the person experiencing them have any choice in the matter? What if they are in conflict?

Feelings are what they are. We can’t force them. You fall madly head over heels in love with someone or you don’t. ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink’ comes to mind as I try to explain feelings. There is no magical way to change how we feel. Our feelings aren’t right or wrong, they just exist. Feelings are very powerful and definitely have a control over how we make choices and how we move through life. Think about the money, time, and focus we put into trying to feel good and avoiding feeling bad. It goes against human nature to want to feel bad.

Feelings are based in emotions. Emotions come from the heart. Therefore, I don’t think we can change them from within our logical minds. If your girlfriend leaves you, then you feel hurt. You cannot be expected to simply stop feeling hurt. You will feel some level of sadness until you have finished feeling sad. It is possible to distract yourself for awhile, but the feelings will just lay dormant until you allow them time to fully run their course. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to distract yourself from the bad feelings of missing your girlfriend, but it will slow down the process. There are constructive things you can do to aid the processing of your feelings. Regardless of how you handle your feelings, you’re going to feel what you feel until it works it’s way through your heart. You might always miss her and feel a slight tug at your heart when you think back, but the overwhelming sadness will eventually pass. It always does. That’s why they say ‘time heals all wounds.’ You can’t maintain any one feeling indefinitely. Emotions by nature are shifting and uncontrollable. They simply are what they are.

What about our attitudes? An entire multi-million dollar industry has been built around the power of a positive attitude. The industry wouldn’t have survived and thrived as it has if it wasn’t a valid and real concept. Our attitudes are rooted in our belief systems. Our belief systems are chosen by our logical minds. Therefore, it is possible to make a conscious decision to change it. Our minds have complete and total control over what we believe. I don’t think I need to bore you with another longwinded speech about the powers of a positive attitude. If you’ve ever tried it, then you have proven for yourself that it is possible to make an internal adjustment regarding your attitude.

So, which is stronger? Which has more influence over our choices and behaviors? Does one overpower the other? Let’s say that you find yourself falling madly head over heals in love with someone. That’s a feeling, an emotion. It comes from your heart. However, at the same time, you are entertaining a very pessimistic attitude towards love and relationships in general. The attitude comes from your mind. Which will win out, the feelings of falling in love or the dark attitude? It’s hard to say. If you change your attitude, then the feelings of being in love can grow and perhaps become a wonderful source of joy for you. If you hold on tightly to your attitude, then eventually it will wear on the loving feelings and you will eventually stop loving that other person. What if the feelings of love were so amazingly powerful, that they caused the attitude to change and your core belief system about love and relationships changed too? Your feelings can definitely have an effect on your attitude, but more often than not, your attitude wins.

Your attitude is not more powerful because it’s more important than your feelings. It’s more powerful because it’s more stubborn than your feelings. Let’s look again at our example where the feelings are positive and the attitude is negative. We’ve seen people fall madly in love with someone who loved them in return. These same people had bad attitudes about love and relationships in general. Their feelings were not able to overpower their attitude. They believe ‘it’s never going to work out anyway’ and create a self-fulfilling prophecy. By not believing in love, they destroy their good relationship and then feel hurt by the failed relationship. Their minds take that as evidence to further continue with the negative attitude regarding love. The reason the attitude wins the battle more often then our feelings is because feelings are ever-changing and flexible while attitudes are often locked into place and become an unmovable force.

What if the feelings were bad and the attitude was good? If you felt afraid that you might be rejected by the opposite sex, but you had a positive attitude towards love in general because you’d had ‘happily ever after’ role modeled to you as a child, then you could choose to keep moving forward despite your feelings of fear. Your attitude would win out over your feelings once again.

If your feelings and attitudes match, then you have an inner balance and harmony within yourself. Isn’t this the age-old battle between heart and head? Attitude comes from your head and feelings come from your heart. When the two agree you are able to focus and move forward with confidence. When the two are at war you have to decide which is right… the heart’s feelings or the head’s attitude? Perhaps in sitting quietly and looking inward at our feelings and attitudes from a detached perspective, we can evaluate and chose for ourselves on a case-by-case basis which one should lead us.

Copyright 2004, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow’s Edge

Skye Thomas began writing books and articles with an everyday practical approach to life in 1999 after twenty years of studying spirituality, metaphysics, astrology, personal growth, motivation, and parenting. After years of high heels and business clothes, she is currently enjoying working from home in her pajamas. Go to www.TomorrowsEdge.net to read more of her articles and to get a free preview of one of her books.

Our feelings and attitudes have a huge impact on our ability to achieve ‘happily ever after.’ Are feelings and attitudes the same thing or different? Does one cause the other to happen? Which one has more power over how we respond? Does the person experiencing them have any choice in the matter? What if they are in conflict?

Feelings are what they are. We can’t force them. You fall madly head over heels in love with someone or you don’t. ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink’ comes to mind as I try to explain feelings. There is no magical way to change how we feel. Our feelings aren’t right or wrong, they just exist. Feelings are very powerful and definitely have a control over how we make choices and how we move through life. Think about the money, time, and focus we put into trying to feel good and avoiding feeling bad. It goes against human nature to want to feel bad.

Feelings are based in emotions. Emotions come from the heart. Therefore, I don’t think we can change them from within our logical minds. If your girlfriend leaves you, then you feel hurt. You cannot be expected to simply stop feeling hurt. You will feel some level of sadness until you have finished feeling sad. It is possible to distract yourself for awhile, but the feelings will just lay dormant until you allow them time to fully run their course. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to distract yourself from the bad feelings of missing your girlfriend, but it will slow down the process. There are constructive things you can do to aid the processing of your feelings. Regardless of how you handle your feelings, you’re going to feel what you feel until it works it’s way through your heart. You might always miss her and feel a slight tug at your heart when you think back, but the overwhelming sadness will eventually pass. It always does. That’s why they say ‘time heals all wounds.’ You can’t maintain any one feeling indefinitely. Emotions by nature are shifting and uncontrollable. They simply are what they are.

What about our attitudes? An entire multi-million dollar industry has been built around the power of a positive attitude. The industry wouldn’t have survived and thrived as it has if it wasn’t a valid and real concept. Our attitudes are rooted in our belief systems. Our belief systems are chosen by our logical minds. Therefore, it is possible to make a conscious decision to change it. Our minds have complete and total control over what we believe. I don’t think I need to bore you with another longwinded speech about the powers of a positive attitude. If you’ve ever tried it, then you have proven for yourself that it is possible to make an internal adjustment regarding your attitude.

So, which is stronger? Which has more influence over our choices and behaviors? Does one overpower the other? Let’s say that you find yourself falling madly head over heals in love with someone. That’s a feeling, an emotion. It comes from your heart. However, at the same time, you are entertaining a very pessimistic attitude towards love and relationships in general. The attitude comes from your mind. Which will win out, the feelings of falling in love or the dark attitude? It’s hard to say. If you change your attitude, then the feelings of being in love can grow and perhaps become a wonderful source of joy for you. If you hold on tightly to your attitude, then eventually it will wear on the loving feelings and you will eventually stop loving that other person. What if the feelings of love were so amazingly powerful, that they caused the attitude to change and your core belief system about love and relationships changed too? Your feelings can definitely have an effect on your attitude, but more often than not, your attitude wins.

Your attitude is not more powerful because it’s more important than your feelings. It’s more powerful because it’s more stubborn than your feelings. Let’s look again at our example where the feelings are positive and the attitude is negative. We’ve seen people fall madly in love with someone who loved them in return. These same people had bad attitudes about love and relationships in general. Their feelings were not able to overpower their attitude. They believe ‘it’s never going to work out anyway’ and create a self-fulfilling prophecy. By not believing in love, they destroy their good relationship and then feel hurt by the failed relationship. Their minds take that as evidence to further continue with the negative attitude regarding love. The reason the attitude wins the battle more often then our feelings is because feelings are ever-changing and flexible while attitudes are often locked into place and become an unmovable force.

What if the feelings were bad and the attitude was good? If you felt afraid that you might be rejected by the opposite sex, but you had a positive attitude towards love in general because you’d had ‘happily ever after’ role modeled to you as a child, then you could choose to keep moving forward despite your feelings of fear. Your attitude would win out over your feelings once again.

If your feelings and attitudes match, then you have an inner balance and harmony within yourself. Isn’t this the age-old battle between heart and head? Attitude comes from your head and feelings come from your heart. When the two agree you are able to focus and move forward with confidence. When the two are at war you have to decide which is right… the heart’s feelings or the head’s attitude? Perhaps in sitting quietly and looking inward at our feelings and attitudes from a detached perspective, we can evaluate and chose for ourselves on a case-by-case basis which one should lead us.

Copyright 2004, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow’s Edge

About The Author

Skye Thomas began writing books and articles with an everyday practical approach to life in 1999 after twenty years of studying spirituality, metaphysics, astrology, personal growth, motivation, and parenting. After years of high heels and business clothes, she is currently enjoying working from home in her pajamas. Go to www.TomorrowsEdge.net to read more of her articles and to get a free preview of one of her books.

Believe it or not, there are still a few people out there
who just don’t get it when it comes to VoIP. With services
like Skype, or Google Talk, it is easy to confuse what a
true VoIP plan really is.

Skype, Google Talk, and the like would be more accurately
described as PC to phone or click to call VoIP services. A
true VoIP service uses an adaptor, enabling you to make and
receive calls with your home telephone.

I think it is important people know the difference between
click to call and true VoIP when deciding on a VoIP plan.
For all intents and purposes we will be discussing five good
reasons to buy a true VoIP plan.

The biggest reason to buy a VoIP plan is also the most
obvious. VoIP is tremendously cheaper on both local and long
distance telephone service, plus available calling features.

Number two on our list would be the dynamic features of VoIP
phone service. VoIP enables you to have a phone number
outside your own area code. You can take your adaptor with
you when you travel too.

Number three is the cost effective ability to add on to
existing service. Lets say you want a second phone line.
With VoIP there is no need to install new equipment, and in
most cases this will only cost around five dollars.

Number four is what I like to call the big trade off. By
switching from dial up Internet to broadband, and switching
to VoIP for phone service, you are acctually getting better
service for less money.

Last but certainly not least, VoIP providers do not charge
hidden fee’s. Hidden fee’s can make up to 20% of your total
monthly phone bill. The only extra fee with VoIP is a 3%
federal excise tax based on usage.

In closing, when looking for a VoIP service, make sure it is
true VoIP. You only need a cable broadband or DSL
connection, plus an adaptor to get started. Look for a VoIP
company with a money back guarantee.

Daymon Hoag is the Editor for Cheapest Service and provisioner of Cheapest-Service.com VoIP Broadband Phone

1. Credit card companies can change almost all of the terms of the credit card by giving just 15 days notice.

We get used to credit card companies adjusting their lending rate by 1/4% as interest rates fluctuate but did you know they can alter any of the terms for any reason. For example they can increase the late payment fee and they can increase the interest rate without the need to justify it. If you are late or miss just one payment the low rate you are currently being charged can double or even treble almost overnight.

2. Credit card companies can increase the cost of a purchase months after you bought it.

If you purchased a widescreen plasma TV 3 months ago, using a card which at the time was costing 9.9% apr, and you are late with just one payment, the credit card company can charge you a late payment fee, say $40, and increase the interest rate to 29.9% apr, or even more, and there is nothing you can do about it.

They can, in effect, increase the cost of your TV months, or possibly even years after you purchased it. The TV retailer wouldn’t be allowed to do this but your credit card company can.

3. Discount offers are only good if you keep up all your payments.

Interest free balance transfers and initial periods can dissapear for any minor omission. Failure to keep to all the terms of a card will result in special terms being withdrawn and possible penalty interest being applied. If you have interest free purchases and balance transfers make sure you keep up the payments.

4. It’s not just your card payments you have to keep up.

If you miss a payment on your mortgage, or your car or any other financial payment, your credit card companies can re-assess your credit score and increase your interest rate accordingly.

If you therefore miss a loan payment on your boat or car, but still pay the payments due on your cards, you can find that your credit card interest charges jump to 2 or 3 times the original rate.

5. Credit card companies are today making record profits from you.

If you don’t pay your cards in full each month credit card companies make the majority of their profits from you and a substantial portion of that is in the additional charges they levy.

It makes little or no sense to keep money in the bank earning 5% maximum and pay 29.9% or 19.9% or even 9.9% on your cards. Pay off the card and use the card for emergencies rather than the savings. Without the card payments you will be able to rapidly replace the savings.

Without your knowing credit card companies can hold you hostage at the very time you may really need financial assistance. Don’t allow credit card companies the continuing opportunity to make record profits at your expense, and at the same time the opportunity to benefit from any misfortune.

If you can pay the balance off withing 3 to 6 months do so otherwise consider some form of consolidation loan to remove the noose credit card companies have around your neck.

John Edmond worked for many years in insurance and finance and now writes on debt management for a number of websites where you can get advice to Eliminate Credit Card Debt and Debt Management

Hip hop means many different things. It was first used to refer
to the culture and way of life of urban city New York City. But,
since then, the term has taken on a life of its own. The most
popular meaning of hip hop is now music. Hip hop or rap as it is
also called has several origins. In fact, there is no one origin
that can be called the only one. There are several histories
about how hip hop got started.

First of all, the influences that helped to inspire hip hop are
thought to be traced back to African culture, but it isn’t until
the multicultural mix of New York City that the music began to
flow. But, even if we do not have a clear picture as to when hip
hop was started, we do know that there are some major players in
its history.

For example, one type of hip hop called dub is traditionally
Jamaican style. Other forms such as Reggae are evident from the
1960’s. Through development with artists such as U-Roy, Dr.
Alimontado and Dillinger that most began to change to
incorporate a more obvious baseline and percussion element.
Blues music also came to light inspiring another turn in the
culture.

When we talk about the term of hip hop, we are often brought
back to Kool Herc, a DJ when he began working with Afrika
Bambaataa. There are many more people that fold into the story
of how hop hip hop got started. If you want to take it back to
decades ago with the combination of African music, reggae and
blues you will find a line of wonderful artists. Or, with the
urban culture of inner city New York, there is another line of
artists that have made their mark. One thing is clear, though;
hip hop continues to make history for years to come.

To find more information about how hip hop got started, you can
find a wide range of information available to you right on the
web. And, with so many people needing this information and
wanting to know the roots of this music genre, it is safe to say
that what you need to know is available to you here, on the web.

Fixed Rate Mortgages: These loans have a fixed rate of interest over the entire term for which the loan has been disbursed. The term for these mortgages is typically between 10 to 30 years. The monthly interest payment on these loans is fixed and hence there exists a certainty about the repayment of the debt over the entire term of the debt. Another advantage of fixed rate mortgages is that the initial down payment required is very low, generally around 5% of the loan amount to be disbursed.

The disadvantage of this type of loan is that the rate of interest may be higher than that of a variable rate mortgage. If predictability of the interest payments is important, then it is advisable to consider securing a fixed rate mortgage.

Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM): As the name indicates, the interest rate on this type of mortgage fluctuates throughout the term of the loan depending on the interest rate scenario in the economy. The rate for an ARM is usually adjusted annually.

An ARM usually has caps, which restrict the rise in the rate to a certain level, both on an annual basis as well as over the entire term of the loan. For example, an ARM may have a cap of 1% every year and 5% over the term of the loan. This type of loan is best if the term of the loan is short, as the longer the term, the more the exposure to fluctuations in the interest rate. The index to which the variable rate is pegged should also be carefully considered.

Thus a variable rate mortgage can work out to be a cheaper option than a fixed rate mortgage, provided the borrower has given due attention to the risks involved.

Jumbo Loans: If the equity loan to be raised exceeds the federal guidelines set by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, then the loan is referred to as a jumbo loan. The limit set by the guidelines is different from state to state. The rates for jumbo loans are typically higher than those for other types of mortgages, as the lender has a higher risk due to the larger amount of the loan. The borrower should try not to exceed the guidelines, as this could mean a considerable savings in terms of interest outflows.

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