The LuxMob Info Tags

When working at a nursery, you are supposed to be an expert on everything. Well, I work at a nursery and I sure don’t know everything. However, I am considered an expert on certain plants, fertilizers, and habitats.

Things happen fast this time of year and for the next few months. Flowers, trees and shrubs come and go as if there is a revolving door. Here today, gone tomorrow. Blooms fade in a matter of days. Plants get beat up by customers. ID tags are lost. Often I am asked to ID a certain plant and its growth habits. If you don’t trust your local nurseryman or garden center workers, here are a few tips when buying annuals and perennials.

When buying perennials, look for ID tags. What is the name of the plant, what growing conditions are required and what are the plants habits? But it has a pretty flower and I like it!
Will you like the same plant next year when it has invaded your prized lilies? The plant you bought was only 2 feet tall and in bloom, why is it 4 feet tall this year? ID tags will assist you in this. A nurseryman may not always know or be as helpful. You may have thought it was something else. Growers pinch or cut back plants to make them bushier and to produce more blooms. Ask questions and read tags.

Look for plants that are budding, not in bloom. This way you enjoy the flowers longer. Look for multiple stems or stalks. Pull the plant out of the pot and check out the root system. Are the roots white and healthy looking? Is the plant pot bound and showing signs of stress?
Does the potting soil smell earthy or sour? Is it a plug from a 1qt. pot shoved into a 3qt. pot and selling at a premium price. Most nurseryman don’t mind if you put the plant back in the pot.

Annuals grow fast, their sole purpose in life is to reproduce and die. Look for annuals that are full of growth and buds. Is the tray a bit stalky? Look for new growth coming from the bottom of the plant stalk. If there are signs of new growth, then this is a healthy plant. You can cut the top off and the annual with fill out and bloom better then before. Keep deadheading for continual bloom. Continuous blooms will bring butterflies. Blooms also bring insects that bring birds. Zinnias are a prime example. Butterflies love zinnias. Tiny insects congregate in the blooms and you will find hummingbirds hovering over the flowers licking up these tiny bugs.

I dead head perennials that are considered invasive and leave my natives for the birds. Some annuals will go to seed late in the season for my wildlife as well. Plant in groupings for color and to attract wildlife.

Never pay full price for a perennial where there is no ID tag. Plant it in a trial bed to see what you may have for next year. You can always prune back a perennial and pinch back annuals to have bushier more productive plants. Some perennials will give you a second and third bloom if you deadhead while others still will continue to bloom all season if they don’t go to seed. Plant native when possible, they are less reliant on artificial food and water. Plant for nature.

Ron Patterson is a Michigan Certified Nurseryman and Wildlife
Habitat Naturalist. Ron combines his skills and expertise in plants and nature to help others garden for wildlife. Ron is also an avid backyard birder and writes a weekly newsletter “Backyard Birding Tips”
He also speaks at garden clubs and other gatherings on backyard
birding and gardening.
You can sign up for Ron’s FREE NEWSLETTER at: http://www.backyardbirdingtips.com/

Traffic analysis is a key ingredient in online marketing
success. The numbers, charts and graphs provided by your
favorite web statistics software are invaluable.

But it’s not until you begin to interpret those statistics as
part of a larger picture that you’ll receive the full value of
your web analytics software.

A software package can only return so many lines of data. And
most of them do a good job at providing the most important ones.
But your real insights will be found at the intersection of two,
three, or even more of these statistics.

It’s up to you to interpret what you see and turn it into useful
information, rather than staring blankly at the numbers and
recognizing a trend. When you see a trend you like or don’t
like, your natural tendency is to try to emphasize the
conditions that caused the positive trends and eliminate the
conditions that led to negative trends. But how?

By digging. Let’s say your visits are down. Now, you have to ask
yourself why? Perhaps, upon further investigation, you see that
the downturn in traffic is primarily coming from a loss of
repeat visitors. Dig a little further, and you find out that
visitors on dial-up stopped returning a few weeks ago. Now,
think about what could have changed over the past few weeks. Did
you switch servers? Add any large images or problematic remote
javascript code such as Google Analytics?

Now, your digging into the statistics has brought you outside
the numbers and into the reality of your site and the way you
run it. Get into the mind of your typical visitor and see what
they see. Dig around for other statistics that may provide a
clue as to why you’re getting the results that you are. Chances
are, when you stop and think, the answer will come from your own
mind, not one of a hundred pretty charts or bar graphs on your
web analytics software.

Visit Web Analytics
Guide for more valuable insights, articles and FAQ on web
site statistics and analysis.

The only way to keep up with the latest about lean healthy
recipes is to constantly stay on the lookout for new
information. If you read everything you find about lean healthy
recipes, it won’t take long for you to become an influential
authority.

The new food guidelines issued by the United States government
recommend that all Americans eat between five and nine servings
of fruits and vegetables each and every day. When you first hear
that number, it may seem like a lot, but it is actually much
easier than you think to fit that many servings of fruits and
vegetables into your daily diet. For one thing, the shelves of
the grocery stores are fairly bursting with fresh fruits and
vegetables. In addition, vegetables and fruits are some of the
least expensive, most nutrient rich, foods in the supermarket.
With all these fruits and vegetables to choose from, it is very
easy to make these nutritious, delicious foods part of your
daily meals and snacks.

When you take into account how much a serving really is, it is
actually quite easy to get five to nine servings of fruits and
vegetables per day. For instance, the recommended daily amount
actually equates to a quite reasonable two cups of fruit and two
and a half cups of vegetables every day. When you consider how
many fruits and vegetables are available, and how low the prices
usually are, it is easy to see how easy to reach this daily goal
really is.

One great way to get the nutrients you need from fruits and
vegetables every day is to take full advantage of the variety of
these foods available. Eating the same thing every day quickly
becomes boring, so why not pick a variety of fruits and
vegetables, in every color of the rainbow and in every
conceivable shape, size and texture, to give yourself a varied
diet every day.

When shopping for fruits and vegetables, it is important to
choose a variety of different colors. This is for more than
purely artistic reasons. Different color fruits and vegetables
have different types of nutrients, and choosing a variety of
colors will help ensure you get all the vitamins and minerals
you need each and every day.

The more authentic information about lean healthy recipes you
know, the more likely people are to consider you a lean healthy
recipes expert. Read on for even more lean healthy recipes facts
that you can share.

Finding new recipes is another great way to ensure you get those
five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
Everyone likes to try out new recipes, and these new recipes may
just provide the impetus you need to eat all those fruits and
veggies.

New recipes can also provide you the important opportunity to
try out some fruits and vegetables you have never tried before.
For instance, everyone has eaten oranges, but have you tried
kiwi fruit or mangoes? How about spinach or kale? Trying new
things is a great way to find new favorites while getting the
best nutrition available.

Many people mistakenly think that they do not need to eat five
to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day if they just
take a vitamin supplement. Actually, nothing could be further
from the truth. That is because fruits and vegetables contain
far more than the micronutrients identified by science and
synthesized in vitamin pills. While these micronutrients, such
as vitamin C, vitamin A and vitamin E are important to good
health, so too are the hundreds of other elements that are
contained in healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. These
elements are not available in any pill, they must be ingested
through a healthy, balanced diet that contains plenty of fruits
and vegetables.

In addition, fruits and vegetables are much less costly than
vitamin pills. Fruits and vegetables are very inexpensive,
especially when purchased in season and grown locally. In the
long run, getting the nutrition you need from the food you eat
is much less expensive, and much better for you, than popping
those vitamin pills every day.

So don’t forget to get your five to nine servings of fruits and
vegetables every day. It may seem like a lot, but you can meet
this quite reasonable goal simply by including fruits and
vegetables as snacks, as garnishes, as side dishes and as meals.

Is there really any information about lean healthy recipes that
is nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so
something relatively insignificant to one may be crucial to
another.

“So many things I would have done, but clouds got in my way.” from Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

Like the clouds in Joni Mitchell’s song, words get in our way all the time. Have you ever stopped to think about the power of your words? Especially the words you use all the time.

Besides the value of words for sharing ideas and experiences, words can also cause us to limit our understanding of the people and things in our lives. After all, words are only shortcuts we have invented to describe something in our reality. Words are not the objects they describe.

You might think of a word as the surface of a lake. The reality lies under the surface. Most of the time, we don’t dive in to see what’s under the surface. We’re satisfied to skim over the surface.

Think of some of the words you use to describe the people you know. Have you ever called someone stupid or ugly? Once you have labeled them as such, isn’t that the way you tend to view the every time you see them. The words you use have effectively put blinders on you. It becomes almost impossible to see them any other way, doesn’t it?

Or consider the words used to describe people in the news. The media uses carefully chosen words and names to create the images they want you to have in your head. Maybe you read about the debate over what to call the unfortunate people in hurricane Katrina’s path. Are they refugees or what?

Here’s a list of seven words. Take a minute to think about what each word on the list means to you. Your meanings will be personal and unique. You may be surprised at what you discover.

Success
Happy
Love
Money
God
Work
Friend

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you think about each word.

Is my definition of the word accurate? Where did my meaning come from? Does my meaning lead me to greater understanding or does it stop me from seeing a bigger picture?

As you do this little exercise in self awareness, you will begin to see how the words you use everyday have the power to control and limit your life. Awareness is the way out of this trap.

Ask someone to define the words from this list. How close is their meaning to yours? Listen and compare. Are you beginning to see how easy it is for misunderstandings to happen?

Now here’s one more question you can ask yourself any time you find yourself shortcutting with a convenient label.

What else is there about this person, this place, or this thing, that I’m missing?

About the Author

If you enjoyed this article, you can read more of Tom Donaldson on his BLOG, PhreMind Freenotes Life at http://PhreMind.blogspot.com

What is a Call Option (Definition)?

A call option is a contract that gives the holder the right to buy the underlying stock at a specific price. If a person is bullish on the stock (expects the stock to rise) in the near term, that person could buy a call option.

Call option contracts have risk to the buyer or holder. If the option is not profitable, the investor could lose all of the money that was paid for the contract. The money is spent is the premium. The premium is the market price for the option, which will change with the market of the underlying stock. If the market rises after a call option is purchased, the premium will rise and the investor will be profitable. The customer could either trade the option back to the market for a profit or they can exercise the option (purchase the stock at the price on the option and then sell it at some point at the going market price).

Trading Call Options

Most option investors trade them for premium gain or loss vs. exercising the options. If an option is bought for $300 and the market on the stock rises, the investor could sell the call option back to the market for a profit at the increased premium.

Risk

Options carry a unique risk. Unlike owning stock, options expire after a certain period. Standardized options have monthly expirations with a maximum duration of 9 months. A person owning a call option that has an expiration 2 months from purchase month, only has that amount of time to close the position - hopefully at a profit. If the position is left open until the expiration date, the call option will expire worthless. The maximum loss for an owner of a call option is the premium paid.

Profit Potential

Since the profit on a call option is based on the increase of the underlying stock, the profit potential is unlimited. The holder has the right to buy the stock at a set price (strike price), so if the market on the stock is 10 points higher than your strike price when you exercise the contract, you can make that 10 points - minus your premium paid. If the market is 30 points higher, you can make 30 points, less you strike price and so on. There is no ceiling to profit.

Hedging and Protection

Call options can be used as protection for existing positions. If you have sold a stock short, a long call option can be used to protect this position. The short sale must be covered, hopefully at a lower price than the short sale itself - that is how you make money on short sales. The loss potential when you sell stock short is unlimited (if the position is not protected). The stock could rise to an unlimited amount, and you may be forced to buy back the stock at an inflated price, thus resulting in a loss. A call option allows the investor to buy back the stock at a fixed strike price. Having a call option against your short protects you. The negative aspect to this is that the premium paid for the option will hurt your overall profit on the short sale.

Short Call Options

Some investors “Sell Calls” or “Short Calls”. The purpose is here is for the option itself to expire. People who short call options collect the premium (vs. the buyers who pay the premium), so if the option expires - the seller will gain that money. The risk with these are enormous, if the option is not covered (you own the underlying stock). If the option is left uncovered or “naked”, the seller can sustain and unlimited loss. The seller or “writer” of call options is obligated to deliver the stock to the call holder at the strike price, if the option is exercised. If the write does not own the stock to perform this obligation, he must go and get it at the market. If the market is significantly higher than the strike price, he can lose that difference.

Covered Calls

The more conservative way to engage in call shorting, is to do them with existing
long stock positions. If a person owns shares at a price, he or she can short a call option the same stock. Doing this allows the person to make the premium, thus lowering his cost. It also covers the option itself, so if the option is exercised - the investor can deliver his own stock and not have to buy a new 100 shares from the market.

Only seasoned investors should engage in options trading. Talk to your broker or advisor to see if they are right for you. “Baby Steps” are the key in the beginning, but once you know your way around, you can put yourself in very profitable situations.

Learn more at www.brokerjobs.com/calloption.htm

Good Luck!

Nick Hunter is the President of American Investment Training (AIT) http://www.aitraining.com - AIT offers securities training and licensing to the brokerage industry.