Act On Tips

Why Is Spending Time with Your Child So Important?

For children to get any sense that they are loved and wanted, you have to be prepared to spend some time with them. I know you are all thinking, so tell me something I don’t know. My point in all of this is how important this really is. The term “spending time with your child” gets tossed out there fairly casually. We hear it so often that after awhile we may not take it as seriously as we should. I found myself, with all of the time I have to spend with my diabetic daughter and daily diabetes care, considering that as part of my quota of time spent with my child. In a sense it is, but it’s not the kind of time that makes the relationship with your child so special. This is a difficult article for me to write because I can see some areas I need to improve in. I hope this isn’t too difficult to read. There’s no getting away from this simple truth. If you do not give them very much of your time, talking, laughing, playing, and sharing things or just generally being around listening to and enjoying them, how can they possibly get any other message than that they are not worthy of your love, time, and attention? How can they then progress to love themselves if they perceive that you always put yourself and others first, before them, and that they are apparently incidental to your life, even that they are a nuisance? Please note that I said “they perceive”. What a child perceives is not always accurate. But to a child perception is reality. If they think this is how you feel, then to them, this is how you feel. This is why I think the time you spend with your child is so important. I know how much you love your child. You know how much you love you child. What’s so critical is does your child know how much you love your child? Our children need us to be interested in them and to demonstrate our love for them by spending time with them right through adolescence.

How Do We Know that Children Need So Much Time?

- The more you give, the more they want.

- If they don’t get it, they behave badly to try to get it.

Our children will need us, love us and want us more than we can imagine. We give them their sense of belonging, and security. Children can crave this so much that when it’s not given naturally and spontaneously, they will behave in what ever ways they think they have to in order to get it.

Time to Do What?

Talk

Talk about your day, their day, what you are going to do, what you are seeing on the street, what they are watching on television, what they like to do, your childhood, their relatives, their toys.

Play

Sit with them while they play, and talk to them about what they are doing.

Listen

Look at their faces when they are telling you something. If it seems important to them, stop what you are doing and sit down with them to hear it.

Quiet Time

Sit with them while they watch TV (this can be painful but important) or while they are getting ready for bed.

Share

Invite them to do something or go somewhere with you, to show you enjoy their company.

These examples give us a variety of ways to spend time with our children. We can join them in what they are doing, invite them to join in what we are doing, or do something alongside them, in parallel, talking together or just being quiet together.

Special Time for Each One.

Each child in the family needs to have special time with each parent. It doesn’t have to be a vast amount of time, or have to happen every day. But each of our children is different, and will want to have a chance to be alone with each of us. When you get right down to it sibling rivalry is competition for the parents’ attention. Individual “special” time given to each child can lead to a lot less fighting among them.

Quality Time

Quality time is the term that was developed to meet the working parent’s main problem, not being able to spend as much time as you would like at home. The idea of quality time is that it’s not how much time we spend with our children that matters, but what we do with the time we have with our children. Spending quality time means giving them our wholehearted attention, and ensuring it is constructive, productive time spent actively doing things with them. It is an important concept but we need to remember it has some limitations. By considering these limitations we can make better use of quality time. The problem with this is that it doesn’t take into consideration moods and feelings. Instead of doing something active, playing or going somewhere, our child may just feel like being quiet with us, curling up and just being together. This can be just as important to our relationship with our children as active communication. Another problem is that quality time is often scheduled. If we can’t be there at that unpredictable moment when our child decides to tell us about something the schedule falls short. By the time we get home the need may have passed. To show that we understand and to help, especially younger children, remember that there was something they wanted to tell us, we need to have a plan in place for these situations. For older children it may be as easy as a special place for a note. For younger children we can make it into a game. They might have a special stuffed animal that they leave in a certain place to let us know there was something they wanted to share. You can invent your own system. Some quality time could be spent devising the system.

“Being there” or spending time with our children doesn’t mean twenty-four-hour availability. It just means offering them some flexibility on access to meet special circumstances and listening to them when they ask for it. The results of time spent with our children is the special love and happiness in the relationship we dreamed about before we ever had them. Our children are precious. The amount of time that they are children is short. If we make good use of this short time we have, we do our jobs as parents to raise happy healthy kids.

Russell Turner is the father of a 10 year old Type 1 Juvenile Diabetic daughter. When she was first diagnosed he quickly found there was all kinds of information on the internet about the medical aspects of this disease. What he couldn’t find was information about how to prepare his family to live with this disease. He started a website http://www.mychildhasdiabetes.com and designed it so parents of newly diagnosed children would have a one-stop resource to learn to prepare for life with diabetes.

Comments Off

With the change in fashion also means the change in what fashion stores such as Matches offer. They have become fashion experts at keeping up with the most recent clothing trends in style and having a hefty range of latest jackets from clothing designers such as Cool Change, Notify and Marc Jacobs. Check out this seasons Alexander McQueen fashions at Matches Fashion.

Although the designer store is only small, in the seventeen years the high fashion company have been open their gorgeous clients have seen them inflate from a small tiny boutique to a collection of 3 larger boutiques located in prime and popular areas such as Notting Hill, Richmond and Wimbledon and another seven smaller clothing shops situated across other parts of London.

The fashion store have been doing fantastic since the launch of their gorgeous website, the reaction from customers has been super. The unbelievable choice of all the finest designer tops have made the company one of the very best companies in the UK to visit for the latest fashion. The beautiful website itself is constructed to look like a fashion magazine, and because of this the website easily attracts gorgeous customers who want to shop. Also the fashion store have introduced their fortnightly newsletter which folk might well sign up to online and it should be posted or emailed to you. The newsletter will inform you of any new jackets from Just Another Rich Kid that will be arriving in the designer fashion boutique along with any discounts or special offers, sales etc that should be happening in the future. With this newsletter you could feel like a VIP as you will always be the 1st to know about any special advanced stock views or special evenings that the company may be holding.

Every season the clothing experts from the designer store focus on editing the international collections right down to the most sought after shirts. The designer clothing store also constantly seek out emerging designers to bring people the leading in cutting edge mini skirts and accessories.

Comments Off

If you sweat excessively, you have got many treatment options. They include use of antiperspirants, Iontophoresis, Botox injections, surgery and other medications. Out of these antiperspirants are the first lines of treatment because they are noninvasive. Let us learn more about how to use antiperspirants to get good results.

Antiperspirants being applied on the surface of the skin block the sweat glands and don’t allow sweat to come on the surface of the skin. Aluminum salts are the most common ingredients of antiperspirants. For different locations, your doctor may recommend different concentrations of antiperspirants. For example for hands or for feet, you may be advised to use an antiperspirant of 30% concentration of Aluminum chloride hexadhydrate while for your underarms, the strength recommended may be half of that. If you have sensitive skin, you should talk to your doctor about the choice of antiperspirants. Currently Aluminum Zirconium Tetrachlorohydrex Glycine is the ingredient that is most commonly used, as it is less irritating to the skin.

Time of application of antiperspirants is important to get the best results. it is said that if you apply antiperspirants, it is better to use them at night rather than in the morning. If you apply them at both the times, that is better. But out of morning and evening, you should choose evening.

Ideally the antiperspirant should remain on the surface of the skin for up to eight hours. The skin should be dry before you apply. For those of you who use some method to remove underarm hair such as shaving, depilatory creams, etc. you should talk to your doctor about how much time interval is ideal before antiperspirant is applied after hair removal.

Antiperspirants may have to be used everyday for sometime. Once you find that perspiration is reduced, you can consult your doctor and increase the time interval between each application. If you get irritation with your antiperspirant, please consult your doctor.

This article is only for informative purposes. This article is not intended to be a medical advise and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your doctor for your medical concerns. Please follow any tip given in this article only after consulting your doctor. The author is not liable for any outcome or damage resulting from information obtained from this article.

Comments Off

Albeit the Property Index must be rated a young establishment, they were set up only in March 2007, they were very quick to achieve expert status. De facto, they are a pretty unpretentious establishment focusing entirely on advising any person looking to sell, buy etc. property across the world. Their promise: to lend you a hand to spot bang-on what’s desired very quickly and, to boot, easily.

Real estate can be located in the most popular regions of the world at present, probably the high-class area being property available for sale in Italy. It should really be quite easy to list some of the good properties for sale in Italy, one reason for selecting property here being the houses and apartments available and the mega cool opportunity to live right amid such a vibrant and lively people.

This is one of the truly fashionable countries at present, and in view of the scenic beauty and the agreeable climate surrounding you round the clock, how could you be wrong! Real estate in Italy is steeped in history, this part of the world has long been home to more than a few sophisticated civilizations.

Only thirty years back you would find just a small number of British people who are looking for properties in Italy. Ask any one single person who has chosen to move to Italy and they will tell you the same thing. Most people would descry it as a trend and others descry it as a more or less an infatuation… People willing to repair over here may extend from yuppies looking for an exciting new challenge to the elderly who intend to relax and enjoy themselves.

Do bear in mind, though, that there may well be issues when attempting to buy properties abroad; there’s 100s of actions to bear in mind be it when organising, touring or buying. If you miss out on a single minute step this can easily kick up great issues not to forget, more important, financial damage.

As you may have counted on with this fashionable place, properties might well be dear in this location which is unquestionably on account of the top demand. In spite of this the patron actually is pretty much spoiled in a destination boasting such a splendid panorama. Patently it’s got almost everything any of us could covet, and then some.

Property Index sell a range of villas and apartments, take a look at their site if you are looking for overseas property investment, click here to view the properties.

Comments Off

Recent study reveals that trendy nighties are positively the number one objects of desire assured to lead women to feel desirable. As the undisputed number one of the deluxe nightwear market place, Myla is a London, Great Britain based prominent British corporation focusing on trimming women to feel stunning and self-confident in trendy ladies’ undergarments. Myla’s palette of products spans inveigling garter belts, brassires plus, obviously, fishnets, winsome sleeping outfits including, beyond, great sensual sleeping room precious metal vibrators.

Totally subscribing to the absolute in sensual cheer Myla offers its customers delicate nighties constituted of sumptuous fabrics which extends to high gloss satin, silk chiffon, lace including, beyond, soft sheer mesh. Focused on coquettish modern ladies there’s open bras added to french knickers, triangle bras added to harmonizing silk thongs and skinny suspenders or, more often than not, winsome impish nightgowns constituted of silk chiffon and lace. This dramatic range of articles offers its customers structured mesh basques, silk and lace open knickers, sheer long chemises including, beyond, long satin silk halterneck pj’s. If you are aspiring to undiluted inveigling appeal, lingerie devotees will opt for a risqué cup triangle bra or padded plunge bra corresponded by silk and lace open knickers and a suspender completed with fishnets. As a great suggestion for the sleeping chamber, you’ll get high gloss structured silk and tulle stays, french knickers, hot pants, feather detail g-strings and silk and lace strops.

As concerns great sensual sleeping room stimulation toys lingerie devotees will opt for silk satin bow tassels, frilled high heels, fishnets, skinny suspenders and seductive fragrant vanilla flirt candles. Captivate with wooden handle mini turkey, Guinea fowl and marabou feather ticklers, satin tie ups, silk blindfolds, special fragrant massage oil, savory body paint made from chocolate sauce or a impish paddle. Totally subscribing to the absolute great sensual precious metal vibrators, Myla offers its customers a wide selection of intimate enhancement toys specially crafted by a flock of stylish artists and designers. Aficionados may choose from a sweeping palette which extends to the sleek look vibrator by Tom Dixon, the exclusive engraved platinum vibrator by Jimmyjane or the utterly sensual massage pebble by Mar-Ruth Oda.

Click here for Myla’s sheer lingerie!

Comments Off

There isn’t a steadfast rule in determining a proper Management to Staff ratio. However, there are some guidelines that can assist in establishing a ratio that allows Upper Management to efficiently assess and evaluate a department, department managers to efficiently assess and evaluate employees. And a company to create benchmarks to gauge and define a model ratio that works best with their business model.

First you should define the roles and responsibilities of Management, Supervisors and non-supervisory employees. Here are some suggestions:

Define a Manager:

A Manager has the responsibility for strategic operations, planning and formulates company policy or directs the work of a department. Exercises supervisory authority that is not merely routine or clerical in nature and requires the consistent use of independent judgment.

Additional Related-Duties may include:

Administers one or more policies or programs of a company,
Manages, administers, and controls a local branch office of a company,
Has substantial responsibility in human resources management, company-to-public or company-to-employee relations, public information, or the preparation and administration of budgets.

Examples of working titles that are often managerial include: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, Division Director (of a major function, i.e., Information Systems and/or PBX).

Define a Supervisor:

A Supervisor is an employee who has responsibility for daily operations and the authority to do, or effectively recommend, most of the following actions:

Hire,

Discipline (demote, suspend, terminate),

Reward (grant merit increases, promotions, bonuses),

Assign/reassign duties,

Approve leave requests,

Resolve/settle employee relations’ problems,

Formally evaluate employee performance.

Examples of working titles that are often supervisory include: Crew Leader, Department Supervisor, Operations Supervisor, Shift Manager, and Clerical Pool Supervisor

Define a Non-Supervisor employee:

A Non-Supervisor employee has the responsibility of performing daily activities as directed by Management and/or a Supervisor.

From time to time, traditional supervisory duties will relegated to employees. Here are some qualifiers that should assist in determining if a non-supervisory employee should be considered a supervisory employee.

Supervisory Qualifiers:

Is the employee making disciplinary or reward decisions? If yes, then the employee is acting in a supervisory role.

Is the employee the source person for difficult questions and problems from less experienced coworkers? If yes, then the employee is acting in a supervisory role.

Is the employee coordinating the team’s leave schedule or work schedule? If yes, then the employee is acting in a supervisory role.

Is the employee presenting project updates to the manager? If yes, then the employee is acting in a supervisory role.

Is the employee responsible only for providing performance data toward the evaluation of team members? If yes, then the employee is acting in a non-supervisory role.

Is the employee responsible for formally evaluating staff assigned to a project but does not grant leave requests, make hiring or general staffing decisions, or discipline or reward employees? If yes, then the employee is acting in a non-supervisory role.

Determining Management to Employee Ratio:

Obviously having too many Managers as compared to employees can bog down the departments’ policy process, create confusion in the chain of command, diminish a manager’s related duties and can lead to the dreaded micro-managed environment.

Having too few Managers as compared to employees can result in duties being prioritized, not in order of importance, but in order to fulfill extended commitments. This action results in projects being placed on the back burner; delegation of traditional manager duties to less qualified subordinates and skewed performance reports.

Thus, it’s important to establish a Management-to-staff ratio that strives to create a balanced and healthy work environment for Managers, Supervisors and Employees.

This is a suggested formula to determine management-to-staff ratios. This formula may need to be tweaked depending on your specific department expectations.

Management-to-staff Ratio = [N+(S-1)]/S

where:

N=Number of non-supervisory employees

S=Combined number of supervisors and managers

“S minus 1″ excludes the top company executive from being considered a supervised employee. Therefore, for those companies that are directed by more than one top executive, the “S minus 1″ should be replaced with “S minus the number of top executives.” For example, if your company does not have an executive director, but is directed by three full-time, salaried commissioners, the formula “[N+(S-3)]/S” will be used.

As an example, lets assume that a business has one (1) CEO, four (4) managers of four different departments and employees 25 non-supervisory employees.

The formula would equate to [25 + 5 -1]/ 5 or a management to employee ratio of 1 manager for 5.8 employees.

Why is the ratio important?

This is just a guideline to establish a model. The ultimate goal of this model is to maximize efficiency in employee supervision while allowing managers/supervisors to effectively manage. It should be expanded to allow CEO’s to collect and interpret related collected metrics about the health of his/her company.

Obviously if you have too few managers/supervisors in the chain of command, then those managers/supervisors will not be able to efficiently and effectively manage the employees or keep pace with written evaluations, schedules and other employee related programs. On the other hand, employees may carry too much responsibility and control too much of the department. These are measurable ‘health’ factors of your organization.

A wise person once stated “to know where you are, you need to know where you’ve been.” Creating a model and varying it to reach the most efficient and effective management-to-staff ratio for your organization will provide you with valuable metrics and a framework needed to reach that goal. It also allows upper management to judge how new programs effect the health of the company.

In addition to the suggested model, you should track other measurable items and combine them with this general model to create an overview of the health of your organization.

In this scenario a company has defined a starting management-to-staff ratio of 1 to 5.8. By using the 1 to 5.8 ratio as a benchmark, the company collects additional information about its management staff and its non-supervisory employees.

The company assigns a percentage value to managerial written evaluations that are properly submitted and completed on time.

The company assesses the management to employee relationships. It assigns values to the Managers perceived health in his/her department and the employees perceived health in the same department.

The company collects information on management and employee over-turn and assigns a value to the causes given for the exit of its employees.

The company assigns value to employee reward programs. Is the employee just an over-achiever, a great team member or does management empower them?

The company tracks the implementation of new programs and the program’s effect on health of the organization.

Using the collected metrics and values the company will start with an initial evaluation of its health and be able to tackle the most problematic areas, then those less problematic areas. The company can then use the historical and current measurements to move toward a goal of efficient and effective management.

This is a short article on the power of models and how they can assist a company in self-assessment and evaluation. There are a number of books and specialist in this area.

* - The formula, [N+(S-1)]/S, is mentioned on several US Government sites as the accepted formula for determining the Management to employee ratio.

* - Portions of this article are from government sites related to employee management.

Article by Charles Carter
www.cs2communications.com

Charles Carter is an administrator for the Nortel Portal and Vice President of http://www.pbxinfo.com. He has 20 years experience in the telecommunications field, is a software owner/programmer, author of the fictional book “Chaos Theorem” and is currently the President of CS2Communications (http://www.cs2communications.com) - A Southern Mississippi Telecommunications LLC specializing in Nortel Meridian Programming, Nortel BCM Programming, Structured Cable Plant Installations and Nortel Symposium Programming, Smart eM Technology.

Comments Off

Albeit the Property Index is actually a fairly young bureau, (they were founded only in March 2007), they have established their expertise very quickly. In point of fact a fairly incomplex bureau specializing in looking after and guiding every client intending to let, sell, rent, etc. real estate assets across the globe. What they promise is to help you out discover dead-on what’s needed very quickly and, furthermore, without hassle.

Real estate can easily be purchased in most areas of the world now, one of the most exclusive areas being land for sale in France. It’s no effort to tick off the marvelous land for sale in France, the explanation for hunting for property here is a combination of the houses and apartments available for sale and the tremendous option of spending your life amid such a optimistic and pulsating populace.

It’s one of the truly well-liked countries now, and with the overall attractiveness and great weather that surrounds you all day long, how could you ever be wrong… Real estate in France is very rich in history, culture and art, this area of the world has long been home to a fair number of sophisticated cultures.

About 20 years ago there was just a trickle of English people in search of land in France. Ask just about anyone who has removed to France and they will tell you the same thing. Well, some would are tagging it a short-lived fashion and others are tagging it a that’s more or less a compulsion! People that are intent on moving here may extend from newly weds in search of a new life perspective to retirees meaning to put their feet up and enjoy themselves.

Bear in mind, however, that you may well encounter a few problems when buying land abroad; you can find there are dozens of procedures to bear in mind whether strategizing, touring or signing the documents. Even if one single minor step is missed this may easily kick up comprehensive problems as well as, critically, monetary loss.

Obviously and expectably with this favored area, land might well be extraordinarily expensive in this destination which is, of course, solely caused by the high demand. However, the homebuyer certainly is spoiled in a place full of great terrain. It doubtlessly has all, stock and barrel, customers might really hanker after and then some.

The Property Index site has a vast range of property for sale in France, view the range online.

Comments Off

You have heard it time and again. Lottery Winners lose it all and trust fund babies waste their parent’s hard earned cash. In fact, up to 80% of the lottery winners in this country file bankruptcy within five years. Most of us say,” That would never happen to me. You would have to be really dumb to lose all that money.” Yet the very reason that these individuals let their money run through their fingers is the very reason that most of us are still working pay check to paycheck.

It is a lacking mindset that is responsible for our financial difficulties. They believe: 1) I don’t deserve this 2) I feel guilty because it happened to me and not ___________ 3) This can’t be real 4) etc…

Those with money that work their way up from the bottom or build the wealth they have easily, have the one thing that most of us lack - a million dollar mind set. All wealth begins with it and all wealth is maintained by cultivating this feeling of prosperity.

Their beliefs are: 1) I am wealthy. 2) If I lost it all tommorow, I could make it back easily. 3) I deserve to be wealthy

I would bet that most of us could compile a list of hundreds of things that we “want.” That sense of wanting means that we feel that we do not have these things. When we replace this wanting feeling with the sense of already having wealth, amazing things start to occur within our brains. We begin to come up with ways of having wealth instead of merely wishing and wanting it.

How do we create this million dollar mindset?

1) Think about being wealthy and write down any thoughts that come up.

Write down the objections that already play in your mind. Write down the excuses like” It takes money to make money.” And write down all the things that you wish you could have if only…

2) Release on those thoughts. Let them go and keep letting them go until the negative emotions go away with them.

3) Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

4) Fill your mind with the images of what you want and picture yourself already having them.

5) See yourself as you will be. Feel what you will feel. Add audio and even the things that you will smell when you reach that state. ex. the type of perfume you might wear, the sound of bankers begging to give you loans, the feel of silk upon your skin, etc…

6) Keep releasing your negative emotions and thoughts until you have what you have been wanting all these years.

7) Act upon the incredible ideas that your subconscious shares with you fearlessly.

About the Author

Caterina Christakos is an internationally recognized writer and public speaker. For more information on the release technique that helped make her a success go to: http://www.lasvegashotelandcasinoreview.com/bin/ap.pl?Prosperity
CChrist896@aol.com

Comments Off

You’ve heard the popular advice on weight loss diets. Cut the fat! Cut the carbs! Cut the calories! Eat a balanced diet! Yes it’s true.

But it’s confusing. So many people fail because of “information overload”.

How can you eat a diet that’s balanced and healthy in order to cut fats, carbs and calories?

Here’s the advice from nutritional science:

Cut the JUNK fats: Most people do not need an ultra low fat diet. But most of us could improve our diet by cutting out the junk fats. Basically, these are the processed fats: hydrogenated fats, polyunsaturated oils that have been heated, and fats that are combined with junk carbs. Processed fats are the fats most likely to put on flab and clog your arteries.

Cut the JUNK carbs. Most people do not need an ultra low carb diet. But unfortunately, so many people who go on a low fat diet continue to eat highly processed foods - they switch from processed high-fat to processed low-fat. And when food manufacturers create low fat foods, they tend to replace the fat with junk carbs, which tend to pile on the pounds. Basically, junk carbs are low-fiber carbs, like sugar, fructose (and all the other *oses), flour, cornstarch, fruit juice. Yes, fruit juice is a junk carb too! - After all, how much fiber is there in fruit juice? - Virtually none - it’s yet another junk carb. You should eat the whole fruit instead, with its fiber intact.

Cut the JUNK calories. Most people do not need an ultra low calorie diet. But just think what your diet would be like if you dropped the processed fats and the low-fiber carbs. You’d be eating mainly natural proteins, with lots of vegetables plus whole fruits - and the odds are that you would be eating far fewer calories as well. That’s the kind of calorie cutting most of us should be doing.

Eat a balanced NATURAL-FOODS diet. By natural foods, we mean the foods that would have been eaten by your hunter-gatherer ancestors: - lots of whole vegetable foods for vitamins and fiber; moderate to small portions of meats, fish, seafood, and other animal and protein foods, grilled, stewed or baked; and small portions of fresh whole fruit in season. This is the diet on which the human race evolved, and the diet which, for the vast majority of people, makes for optimum health

So the next time you’re about to order a meal with fries and sugary soda, think about how it could be improved. Replace the fries with a salad, and the soda with mineral water, and you’ve already made significant progress towards a healthier, balanced meal.

And at home, look for recipes that use whole, fresh foods, with a minimum of processing. Make sure your meals include natural unprocessed foods, with lots of healthy vegetables, both cooked, and raw in salads. Avoid processed fats and processed low-fiber foods.

A sample menu:
- grilled fish with steamed green beans, and peppers
- mixed salad, dressed with small amounts of olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice
- fresh fruit platter
- Sushi : fish and seafood (low-fat and well balanced in terms of nutrition)
- Tofu (bean curd): low-fat, quality protein food. Highly recommended

I personally recommend Sushi for your healthy weight-loss. Cheap junk food is OK(I actually like junk food too). But don’t eat junk food too much for health!

Would you like to try sushi? Sushi is very healthy.

With the rise in popularity of sushi in western countries you may be invited by friends to join them at the local sushi bar. Many of Hollywood celebrities love to eat Sushi in fact. While you may be anxious about the prospect of eating anything raw, don’t worry, all you need is a little bit of information to take the anxiety away from the experience and enjoy this wonderful delicacy.

Sushi is a very simple dish, although the making of it is considered an art form. The Itamae (sushi chef) traditionally needs to train for 10 years before being hired to prepare sushi. However, the popularity of sushi has forced the hiring of chefs with only a few years experience.

There are four main types of sushi you can order:

Nigiri sushi: nigiri means “grab”. These are hand pressed balls of rice with raw fish on top and bit of wasabi between the fish and rice.

Sashimi: sliced raw fish (technically not sushi since the term sushi refers to the rice and sashimi is not prepared with any rice).

Maki sushi: maki means “roll”. The maki sushi is rolled with bamboo mats. Traditionally the seaweed is on the outside; rice on the outside is called ‘inside-out’ (ie: California roll).
Temaki is a hand rolled version of Maki. It is cone shaped like an ice cream cone.

Sushi comes in an amazing variety of combinations, however you’ll find these common ingredients or garnishes with nearly every version:

The word sushi actually refers to The rice, also called ’sticky rice’. Sushi rice is short grained and cooked with a 1:1 ratio of water. Sushi vinegar and sugar is added which makes the rice both sweet and tart.

Wasabi: Japanese horseradish. Often served as a green paste alongside your sushi as an additional condiment; a word of caution - wasabi is VERY hot, so use it sparingly while developing a taste for it.

Gari: Thinly sliced, pickled ginger is also served with sushi. Some use it as a garnish although it is technically to refresh your palette between bites.

Nori: The seaweed sheets used to roll rice for sushi.

Soya Sauce (Shoyu): used as a dipping sauce. The wasabi can also be mixed with the soya sauce for those who enjoy the intense flavor.

Sushi can be made with a single ingredient or several. Single ingredients include avocado, cucumber (kappa), tuna (tekka or maguro) or salmon (sake ? but not the rice wine). There are also many modernized combinations designed to please American palettes. These include the California roll made with avocado, crab, and cucumber and the Philadelphia roll made with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber.

As you can see, despite the unusual presentation you can easily find identifiable and delicious combinations you are sure to enjoy. Despite what you may think, the nori (seaweed) has very little flavor and is nearly undetectable when combined with the flavors of the sushi and the addition of soya sauce or wasabi. In fact, like many other converts, you may just have found yourself a new addiction!

Yes - A healthy, balanced diet can be that simple!

To Your Healthy Weight-Loss
Kaz Omino
Global Article Directory.com

Kazuyuki Omino created his Japanese celebrity info site and health related site after 6 years of staying in the US. Those became pretty popular. So he appeared on the radio show and many magazines in Japan.

Comments Off

What is it?

Most people are familiar w/ NetMeeting and other software that let you talk to others over the internet. VOIP is similar. However, it also uses your phone - the interface we’re all familiar with.

Instead of connecting your phone to the wall, you connect it to a box either the VOIP company provides or you buy on your own. This is the modem. You need highspeed/broadband internet for this. Your modem plugs into your cable/dsl modem and now it can ‘talk’ btwn your phone and the internet.

Your phone lines already do pretty much what VOIP does, just w/ different/older technology (well, some of it’s new w/ optics and such, but…).

How hard is it to setup?

It’s actually very easy. Assuming you have the company send you a modem or you buy a kit at the store, you simply plug the modem btwn your current cable/dsl modem and your computer (e.g., the out from your cable modem now goes to the new box and the out from that to your computer). It also has a phone jack for your regular phone.

Once it is on, it will boot up and configure itself.

What are the benefits?

There are many benefits depending on the company you go w/, but here are a few I have (all of these are free w/ the monthly fee- $14.99 for my setup):

1. Features like caller id, call waiting, call waiting caller id, call forwarding, etc.

2. Voicemail

3. Email alerts for new voicemail.

4. Web access to voicemail - you can play your messages on your computer.

5. Auto-forward - if the phone is ever down or isn’t answered, it’s auto-routed to another number

6. Online management of all features, settings, account, etc.

7. Computer dialing - highlight any number on your computer, hit F6 and it sets up the call from your phone to theirs - very convinient!

8. Keep your regular phone (you don’t need a voip phone)

There are some other cool features available for extra $ like the softphone which lets you use your computer as a phone w/o the modem - this means you can take your laptop w/ you wherever and you have your phone w/ the same phone number everywhere too (you can do this w/o the softphone, but you have to take your VOIP modem around w/ you - not bad if you’re going somewhere for a longer trip).

Another really cool thing is the virtual phone numbers. You can get extra numbers that ring the same phone, but they are local numbers to any area code you want. So if I live in Dallas and have family in New York, I can get a local phone number here and there. That way my family in New York can call a local number (free) and talk to me! Vonage charges $4.99/month for that. I’m not sure about the others.

And the biggest benefit - IT’S CHEAP! I pay $14.99 plus some tax and such, but not the ump-teen taxes, charges, fees, etc. like the phone company charges.

Also, if you do a little research/reading, you can set it up to where every phone jack in your house is wired for VOIP. It’s little more than plugging the output of your VOIP modem into the wall jack you already have. Very little more.

Bottom Line

You get lots of good, free features and options for doing/managing a lot more including a lot over the web and it’s SO much cheaper (at least it is for me!). Being the ‘average guy’ I am, I don’t really use all the features. Fortunately, it’s pretty much a ’set it up and forget about it’ type thing except that I save $40+/month w/ it!

I use Vonage b/c that’s what I was told about first and it was one of the first. There are others and I’m sure they have their strengths, but Vonage has the cheapest base option at the time I did my research.

Bear Cahill is a software engineer in the Dallas, TX area and runs a few websites: The Armchair Geek (thearmchairgeek.com), Webpage Hosting Info (webpagehostinginfo.com), Go To College Online (gotocollegeonline.com) and The Video Exchange Community (videoexchange.org)

Publish freely if this resource box is included and links maintained as links.

Comments Off