Tuesday, March 9, 2010

How To Find A Book Using Online Bookstores

Looking for improving your gaming skills by reading some of the best books on professional gaming that are around? That is a good idea, but, and as you may have already noticed, it is easier said than done. Once you go online to one of the many online bookstores such as Amazon and Barnes and Ruble and can type in a phrase you get a long list (if you are lucky) of potential books.

What do you do then? How do you know which book suits you? And if you even could figure that out, how do you know the book is worth anything? Many of the authors are pros, but, then, you can also easily land up on amateur writers who are just trying to make a buck. Exactly for this, we have compiled a list of five practical suggestions to help you.

1) Reviews and Opinions Matter.
One of the most interesting methods of screening authors and books is by reading what other readers have to say about those literary objects. Look up one of the many forums online that focus on books and either ask a direct question or read what others have said. Another option is to look up the book at different online bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon but also others such as The Literary Guild and Pickabook. (Look them at this list compiled by the World Wide Web Virtual Library: http://archive.museophile.org/bookstores) The reasons for doing this is that for every book you can read reviews from different sites. Do this and you are reducing the chances of reading only promotional material. It goes without saying that opt for those books that receive good reviews. Generally, a book will receive some bad reviews, but look at the majority viewpoint. Note that if the book you wish to buy is new, you will not find reviews. In such a case, you will just have to take a risk.

2) Be Specific.
One of the methods of searching for a book that interests you is by narrowing down the search by typing a long search term and not just one name. For instance, type down how to play Texas holdem in an online tournament instead of just Texas holdem. Such a search will result in only a few book options. First, look up reviews and views on it and then look at its size and focus of interest.

3) Check the Experience of the Author.
Buying a book is just like buying a car. Would you be willing to pay more for a Mercedes? Likewise, check the author or editor. If the author is unknown, tread very carefully. The book might be useless. But remember that its not enough that the author is well known or has years of professional expertise, they must be experienced in the exact field of the subject of the book.

4) Check the Printing History of the Author.
After checking the authors personal biography and his scope of knowledge as pertains to the issue in question, you should, then, check his style of writing. You will not want to fall asleep on the second page, do you? If their style of writing pleases you, try reading parts of their work. Read articles or portions of other books they have read. Do this to get an idea of whether they can write and whether they are capable of handling complicated issues and putting them across in easy to understand language.

5) The Price Factor.
When looking at books, the first thing (or the second) we tend to look at is the price. Yes, you should know whether you can afford to buy it or not, but do not make you decision based on whether a book is cheap or expensive. First, check whether the book is what you are looking for. Then, decided whether you can afford it and not vice versa. Likewise, do not just buy a book because its on sale. Remember that if a book is on sale it means that no one is buying it!

How To Find A Good Inexpensive Hotel

When going on vacation somewhere you have never been it can be hard to find a good quality Hotel working on a budget. So here is a guide to help you find a good place cheap, so you don’t have to worry about where you will stay.

In my life I have done a great deal of traveling, and I have many nightmare stories about the things that have happened to me in some of the cheap hotels I have stayed in. I remember once I was ok a ski trip and half the floor in my room actually dropped about 6 inches. I woke up and my head was lower then the rest of me and was confused for several seconds before I managed to come to my senses. Lucky for me the room was on the first floor. On another trip, the police raided the hotel looking for illegal immigrants, and there was noise all night long. It was probably quiet the next night, but I did not stick around to see.

Finding a good inexpensive hotel should not be a gamble. The best way to find a good hotel is to go to a place you have been before, but assuming that is not an option the next best thing is from someone who has been there.

If you know someone who has been to the same vacation spot as you are planning on going, ask them about the place they stayed, the worst that can happen is they tell you they hated it or that it was too expensive.

But what if no one you know has ever been to where you are going to be? Unless you like to gamble, you can't just make reservations anywhere, if you are looking to gamble on something play blackjack or poker in a casino, but don’t roll the dice with the place you are going to use as your home base for your vacation.

Use the internet to look for hotel reviews. There are many websites that have reviews from people who have stayed in the hotel. Now one mans hell may be another mans heaven, but at least this way you can see that 5 people stayed there and said it was fine and two said it was not good maybe these 2 people were the exception.

Or maybe the two that did not like the hotel were in town for business in an area popular with tourists. This can be an annoying situation when everyone around you is partying and you are trying to sleep, this is one of the reason why no business is conducted in Daytona Beech during Spring Break.

Talking with a travel agent is always a great way to assure your happiness with your lodgings, and helps keep the gambling in the casinos and out of your room.

A good thing to do is to make sure to ask lots of question on the phone with any hotels you are considering staying in.

How To Find Paying Telecommuting Writers Jobs Online

As a freelance writer, you probably spend hours scanning free job boards looking for telecommuting writing jobs -- in other words, freelance writing jobs you can do from home. With so many websites listing non-paying gigs amongst their paying job postings, it can take an hour or more each day to wade through the mess. Not to mention, just because a job is listed as a freelance job doesn't necessarily mean you can do the work from home. Many job posters are looking for freelance writers who will come to their place of business and do the writing work on-site. For those of us freelance writers who telecommute, this only complicates our job search.

My daily freelance writing job search on free job boards consists of the following: I pull up Indeed dot com and enter in several groups of search terms, such as "freelance writer" and "writer" "telecommute" -- there are at least a dozen keyword groups I search after these, but you get the idea. Then, I move on to the JournalismJobs dot com, WriteJobsdot com, and even Online-Writing-Jobs dot com. Then comes Craigslist, with its dreaded wade through the pools of non-paying gigs, gigs that pay in ad revenue only, and gigs that list "TBD" in the payment line. After much practice, I've honed my job searching system down to a half-hour process. Of course, this is just search time and doesn't include the time spent responding to ads, attaching resumes/writing samples, etc.

As seems to be the trend in the freelance writing world, most job posters never reply back. The few that do seem interested might ask for follow-up details and then disappear from the face of the earth, frequently because they find my rates not within their $3 per article budget. Let's face it -- the process of searching for telecommuting writing jobs on free job boards can be infuriating.

So, what are the alternatives to searching for telecommuting writing jobs on free job boards? Pay a membership fee to sites like GoFreelance dot comor JustMarkets dot com. Or, go with the job bidding sites like Elance dot com or Writerlance dot com. But, what about people who can't afford the fees? Chances are, if you're just starting out, your budget won't allow you the cost of such luxuries. Although membership sites may be considered legitimate business deductions for tax purposes (depending on where you live), the bottom line is that the money will come out of your pocket initially, even if you do deduct the cost on your taxes later.

Of course, there are the traditional methods for finding telecommuting writing jobs, like creating a website to advertise your freelance writing services, and visiting job sites that allow you to post your freelance writing resume free. Posting in freelance writing forums and networking with other writers can help you get clients. Starting a blog is another route many freelance writers take to get noticed. Paying for pay-per-click advertisements and even writing articles to submit to free directories can also help. Still, for the bulk of freelance writers, most jobs still come from taking the time to search for telecommuting writing jobs online.

Unfortunately, there is no path to finding telecommuting writing jobs that won't take some time or money. However, by getting into a regular job-search routine and using bookmarks and job feeds to your advantage, you can speed up the process and make things a little less frustrating for yourself.

How To Get Back In Shape

Before starting to work out make sure you get a full physical from your doctor and a letter stating it is ok for you to do physical activity. Many gym and aerobic centers will require this before letting you start.


Depending on how long it has been since you last did regular exercise it is recommended that you start off slow and gradually build up your workout to harder levels.


It is generally recommended to start off at the gym with just the treadmill and the lifecycle for the first week or 2. This is to wake the muscles up and to slowly get you prepared for a harder workout.

You will generally want to find a speed on the treadmill that is a pace you can keep up with little discomfort and do it for 20 minutes. After this take a 5 minute break, stretch a little and have a drink of water, then go back and increase the speed just a bit then do another 20.

Remember that pushing yourself too far is taking a gamble that you may not be able to live with. In a casino you can put everything you have on the roulette table and maybe you win and maybe you lose, but in the gym if you push too hard you can die, so take things slowly.

Many people make the mistake of getting back into an exercise program and going all gung ho an trying to get back in shape in just one hour, well let me tell you this will not work. The only thing this will do is make you very sore the next day and you will not be able to workout that day, and it will make you lose interest fast in the gym. Discomfort in ok pain is not.

Depending on how long it has been since you last worked out, I recommend working out 4 or 5 days a week. This may seem like a lot but if you were trying to win a poker tournament you would go to a casino or an online casino and poker room to practice almost every day right? So you will have to do the same with the gym.

Working out 5 days a week does not necessarily mean you have to go to the gym every day. I recommend the gym 3 times a week and the other day or 2 you can just go for a long fast paced walk around your neighborhood. Try to vary the things you do so that you do not work out the same parts of your body 2 days in a row.

Most professionals will tell you that if you work out your arms and chest on a Monday do not exercise those muscles again for at least 48 hours. This is to give the muscles time to heal and grow. It is this straining and resting of the muscle that makes it grow not just the working it out. If all you did every day was work the same muscle group in a few days the muscle would be more likely to tear in a painful experience and the only thing you will be able to do for several months will be playing in an online casino from your laptop in bed.

How To Get Noticed By Publishers and Editors

To be a successful writer and get noticed, being good often isn’t good enough. You have to shine. You have to have something that puts you above all others. Of course though, nobody is perfect. Everyone has faults and flaws. But everyone has talents and abilities too. What’s your talent?

Find your talent and focus on it. Develop it. Showcase it in your writing so it really shines through. Remember, one thing that stands out is far easier to notice than ten things that are good, but not great. Make sure your best skill stands out.

Stacey’s Story: Start With Something Special

I had my breakthrough while taking a break from writing. I was watching the movie Bring it On and decided to watch the bonus features. One of them was an interview with the director and he talked about how the screenplay got noticed because it opened with the cheer song. That stood out, that got their attention, that made them want to read the rest. I decided to take the same approach. I took chances with the start. I started with a letter, a poem, a snippet from a diary. It must have made the difference because with that one change, a manuscript that had been rejected 14 times got purchased. –Stacey, Novelist

Carmen’s Story: Use Your Strengths

I was told by my teachers and by readers that my dialogue was really strong. So I decided to stop hiding it away and I put it right out front. I made the first chapter of my novel almost all dialogue. It got the attention of an agent, who has since told me that the individuality of the first chapter told him that he had found a new writer with a clear sense of style. He took me on and is now trying to sell that sense of style to publishers. Even better for me, he’s not just trying to sell my first book, he’s trying to sell me as the next new thing, a young writer to look out for! –Carmen, Novelist

Editor Says: “Forget Modesty”

Writing is not a business where you can afford to be modest. You have to get in there and show what you’ve got. Whatever you do better than everyone else, show it off. Build your work around your best skill. Otherwise, you’re going to be lumped in with the rest of the writers that are good, but don’t stand out. –James, Editor

Editor Says: “I’m Looking for One Thing”

Many writers make the mistake of trying to show me everything they do well. Forget it. I’m glancing at hundreds of manuscripts a day. To catch my attention, you have to hit me between the eyes with one strong point that I can’t not notice. There will be time later to show me your other strengths. For the first contact, focus on making one clear point about yourself and make it a good one.
–Darryn, Editor

Susan’s Story: Is it Really a Flaw?

In the early days of Susan’s career, everyone advised her that she relied on dialogue too much. So she cut out the dialogue. She kept writing but found her work lacked energy. Years later, she decided to ignore all the advice. The novel came naturally to her and it was almost all dialogue. The book reviews praised her unique style and voice. Susan learned her lesson—never suppress what comes naturally to you. Remember, what comes naturally to you might be your greatest gift, not your greatest flaw.

Top Six Ways to Find Your Strength

1. Ask other people what stands out about your work.

2. Read some of your best work and make a list of what makes it good.

3. Read through the contents of a book about writing and ask yourself if there is an area you are good at.

4. Think about what other people have said about your work. Are there any comments that keep being repeated?
5. Ask yourself what you care about when you write.

6. What do you like about other people’s work? Often the things you notice in other people’s work are also the things that you are good at.

How To Get Online Gambling Legalized in the United States

For many people the several hors drive to the nearest casino just is not realistic because of their busy lives, in California last week a man was arrested for locking his kids in the car while he went into a casino to gamble, but he would have been able to sit at home and watch his kids if he could have logged into an online casino.

But the law is reversible. Now is the time when politicians who have been eyeing the ultimate seat of power will start declaring their intention on running in the next presidential election.

This is where the American people have the power. Now is the time to start protesting the Unlawful gambling act.

Thru protest at the candidate’s rallies you will tell them this is an issue that is not going away. The issue of online gambling managed to get the American people to put the Democrats into power in congress, and now it can do the same for the highest political office in the United States.

When ever a presidential hopeful is appearing in your area you should hold a rally outside where ever it is the candidate will be appearing. Try to locate the entrance and exit they will use and make sure t have people with signs and chanting slogans.

By making Online Gambling a hot issue the candidate will have to address it. If a candidate can not get votes they will not win so if they think they can win by getting the gambling vote they will take up your cause.

Besides protests, I also recommend

Letter writing campaigns: letter writing campaigns are a great tool it allows you to tell your leaders how you feel and gives them a good sense of how strong the American people feel about the subject.

Petitions: petitions are much the same as letter writing except that instead of thousands of letters the receiver of the petition only gets 1 letter with the names of all the signatures on it.

The internet is a great tool for protesting, it allows you to pass your letter or petition to people not only all over the country but the entire world, and can also help spread useful information about protest marches by being accessible to everyone with an internet connection


There are also several myspace pages dedicated to trying to get the laws changed thru protest. The Angryonlinegambler is one such page. He not only offers an online petition but also a message board for people to leave messages about gatherings, and rants about how the government is making the wrong decisions.

It is also important to highlight the benefits to legalized online gambling

Millions of dollars a year could go to the American Government from taxing American player’s winnings, and if American land based casinos were allowed to get into the action then the government could make hundreds of millions for schools, and to further the war on terrorism.


Legalized Online Gambling in the USA would create hundreds of thousand if not millions of much needed new jobs in the customer service industry in the United States and would there for benefit the government.

How To Get Your Husband To Cancel His Weekly Poker Game

Over the past few years it always bothered me that my husband would go play poker with his friends every Friday night. Whenever I complained that it would be nice to spend time with my husband on Friday, he just complains that this is the only time he gets to be with his friends.

I decided I had to come up with a way to make him choose me over his poker buddies so I tried many different things, at first I tried by asking him to stay home so we could have sex all night. That worked a few times but then he caught on to what I was doing.

I also tried finding different events that he may want to go to like action movies, car shows and other things of that nature but there were not always things to do, so that was another failed attempt.

But after 6 months of trying I had just about given up, finally at my wits end I decided that maybe I could get real good fast I could challenge him to a game and if I won he had to stop going to his game, and if he won I would pay for him to go to Vegas I spent every spare moment I had reading everything I could find online about Texas Holdem. Eventually I decided to go online and practice at some Video Poker.

Eventually I started playing for real cash Online, and once or twice while he was at his game I would drive to one of the local casinos and play for a few hours in their poker rooms.

Finally I felt I was good enough to make the challenge. So one night I told him that I wanted him to stop going to his Friday night games and to stay home with me, as I had expected it started a big argument. I waited until he made his speech about working hard and needing some “guy” time.

So I felt this was my time to strike, I asked him if he would at least allow me to come and watch the game, to which he replied that players only as the rule and that since I did not know how to play I could not go.

So I said if he could do it how hard can it be that really got him going, so he then asked me if I wanted to make the game a little interesting with a little bet. Now I had exactly what I wanted.

I said if he won I would pay for him to go to Las Vegas alone, he did not know I had made some good money playing poker recently, and if I won he would give up his seat in his regular Friday night game.

He looked at me suspiciously at first and I thought he was not going to risk it but he said ok. He ran to the closet and grabbed his chips we each started of with $100 in chips and agreed the first one out is the loser.

Well in the end it was me that lost, but he was so excited at how good I was that he did stop going to his Friday night game, now every Friday night we go and play together at the casino. We have been doing this for 2 years now and our relationship has never been this good.

Sometimes it really is better to try to get interested in his hobby.

How To Have A Great Time Gambling Without Losing Your Money

Gambling in a casino or online casino is supposed to be for fun, but for many people the casino is the place where some machine eats all their money, and they are broke after the first hour and have to go to the ATM to get more money.

If you are not an experienced gambler it may be best to stick to the slot machines, but the fact is that the casinos make most of their money from those one armed bandits.

The easiest game in the casino is Roulette. The object of roulette is to guess what number the little ball will land on, which is not easy but there are other bets to make. In roulette you can bet on the color of the number the ball will land on, and since there are only 2 colors on the board it is a much safer bet. You can also bet on whether the ball will land on an even or odd number.

If you are not an expert gambler and just want to have a good time you can also play keno. Keno is much like the lottery. You have a card marked with numbers 1 to 100, and depending on the amount you want to spend and the game you play determines on how many of the number you get to pick. A computer picks the numbers and if you have at least 5 correct numbers you will win some of your money back.

I would recommend staying away from the poker rooms, but there is one poker game that is mostly newbie friendly, Red Dog Poker. The game is very simple to play. the dealer gives out 2 cards, and the player has to bet if the next card will fall in between the first 2, an example of this is you are dealt a 5 and a queen, so you have to bet on if the next card will be a 6 to a jack, the smaller the distance between the cards the more money you will win if you are right. If your cards are a 5 and a 9 and you win you will win less then if your cards were a 5 and a 7 and the next card is a 6. You may never become a millionaire from playing Red Dog Poker, but it is lots of fun and you can sit at the table for hours without spending much money, and it can be lots of fun.

One of my favorite things to do in the casinos or online sportsbooks is to play the horses. You do not need to be a genius or have been going to the track for years to pick a winner, all the information on the horse and jockey is displayed in an easy to understand way so you can have all the information you need to pick a winner, and for a few 2 dollar bets you can spend an entire evening in a casino or sportsbook for less then 50 dollars.

How To House A Successful Online Business

It is worth taking the time to make your site more search engine friendly, because it will bring you profit and appropriate exposure. Here are some simple advices on building successful web site for your online business.

How to build search engine friendly website? You can find plenty material when browsing the Internet, but a good foundation cannot sabotage your online initiative. A search engine friendly site is not just beneficial for top ranking in the search engines, but also helps to attract customers, thus getting business for you.

Before designing a site, make sure you have got a good domain name. The Domain name is your URL or Universal Resource Locator as in what a person types into the search engine bar like yoursite.com and others. Hypothetically, if your business is related to something like ruleta then it is good to have the word "ruleta" included into the domain name separated by dashes from other words or numbers. Generic domain names may help in search engine listing. It will be easier to find the sequence of words within a domain name directly related to the main idea of your business.

Make your site content based with at least two hundred words holding clear information of your products, services and business. This will help your potential customer to know about you and get some information on products they require. Apart from verbal description, you might use web design attributes to underline your point. Please do not startle the visitor of your web site with blinking texts, shocking colors and confusing animations on the web pages. The website must have a clean look so that the web visitor will feel relaxed to get all relevant information about your services, otherwise, he will shut it down within a minutes.

Keep the site simple and easy to navigate. Complicated navigation will confuse the visitors. The navigation must be user-friendly and easily understood by the visitors. If you search through search engine results, you will find all the top ranking websites are optimized properly. These optimized websites make their presence felt in the search engines by making their site user friendly with good navigation, content texts, and Meta tags relevant to their websites, and having proper placed images. Why shouldn't you use such simple tool like navigation at your favorite?

News relevant to your site is also a great way to bring in traffic. Many people nowadays get their news online and not just world news. Maybe someone wants to read about the gambling bill that was passed in congress recently to ban money transfers to and from online casinos, a great advantage to having news on your page is that if it is well written piece of writing, other news sources like Yahoo and Google may take your masterpiece and put a link to it from their site. This would give you thousands of hits, and that is the goal.

While designing your website, the most important thing to remember your website is not to trick search engines by adding hidden texts or hidden links, irrelevant keywords or text, or very small text which is hardly visible for human eyes. Google usually punishes these websites by giving them low rank or sometimes removing them forever.

If you incorporate all these tips when building your website I can guarantee it will make your job much easier, no one wants to build a site and then find out they need to star over from scratch, because every day offline is potential money lost.

Use the above suggestions and utilize them into your company website in order to guarantee you stop losing money that you could be making.

How To Improve Your Lousy Writing Skills In The Workplace

If there’s one important reason why you need to write effectively in the workplace, it is this: the quality of your writing imprints a lasting impression on the reader. This reader may be your boss, a client, or a person who is ready to make a billion dollar business deal with you.

Have you ever read a poorly-written document that made you lose interest right away? It was so poorly-written that you lost trust in the author and asked yourself why the author was wasting your time? How about those junk e-mails that sneak into your junk box like annoying cockroaches? You know the ones I’m referring to: the ones pitching vitamins, software, and sex aids. These e-mails are the biggest showcase of writing blunders, stricken to death with grammar mistakes, misspellings, and sloppy sentences. I doubt these e-mails pull a sale because their poor writing style immediately alienates the reader.

What impression does your writing leave on your boss, clients, or co-workers? Does your writing alienate readers, cause you to lose sales or clients, or cost you job promotions? Or does your writing build streams of loyal readers, increase sales for the company, and help you earn six figures a year at your job?

Whatever type of writing you do in the workplace, always know this reality: readers believe the quality of your writing reflects your skills, work ethics, and integrity as a person. If you write eloquently, clearly, and lively, the reader trusts you and you are able to build rapport quickly. If your writing is sloppy, disorganized, and riddled with errors, the reader assumes the rest of your work is flawed, your work ethics are flawed, and perhaps as a person you are flawed. Why should this reader waste his time reading the rest of your junk or even do business with you?

This article provides fail-safe strategies to help refine your writing and help you to communicate with clarity, simplicity, and impact so you will never write junk again. You will learn five masterful steps to guide you in planning, writing, and refining an article; and you will learn how to avoid common writing mistakes.

AIM! FIRE! FIRE!

To become a superb writer, your first task is to establish your aim.

Yiddish novelist, dramatist and essayist, Sholem Asch, once said, “Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.”

What message do you want to convey with your writing?

To establish your aim, ask yourself:

1) “Why am I writing this document?”
2) “What do I want to communicate?”
3) “Do I want to inform, educate, report, persuade, challenge, or entertain?”

Developing your aim will help you to adopt the best writing style for your reader. For example, an educational document will likely be more formal than one written for entertaining.

CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS

To write effectively, you need to connect strongly with your readers. Ask yourself:

1) “For whom am I writing this? Will I be writing for colleagues, my supervisor, my team of employees, or our clients?”

2) “How much information do my readers need?”

3) “How familiar are my readers with the topic?”

4) “How much time do my readers have? Would my readers prefer a short, succinct presentation of facts and statistics, or more narration and exposition?”

Knowing your audience will allow you to write content in a way that appeals to your readers.

SHAPE YOUR DOCUMENT

You know your aim. You know the people who will likely read your document. Now plan your document. What information will it contain? What information will most likely grab the reader and hold their interests? What points do you need to get across? Start with a rough outline of ideas. Then go through the outline and add more information and more detail. An outline will create the structure for your document. Soon enough your writing will come more easily, quickly, and with greater clarity.

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW BEST

At this stage, read over your outline and write the first draft. Establish the main idea of the document and support your argument throughout. If a blank white page glares back at you like headlights, just start writing on whatever topic you know best. According to American novelist Jack London, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Don’t worry about the sequence if the ideas come to you out of order. You can cut and paste later.

WORDY WEIGHT LOSS

If you have time, step away from the document. Come back to it later with a fresh mind. Now add material where needed. Trim away unnecessary sections. Refine the text to communicate what you want to say. Remember: less is more. Try not to repeat ideas. Repetition, unless necessary, is tiresome for the reader. Keep the piece moving along. Use a lively pace. Progress through your points efficiently.

The following sections address some of the most common writing problems. Use these tips to write more clearly, effectively, and lively.

I.) PUNCTUATION

a) Apostrophes

Do not use an apostrophe in the possessive form of “it.”

Incorrect: Our department submitted it’s reports for 2005 last week.
Correct: Our department submitted its reports for 2005 last week.

Do not use apostrophes in the possessive forms “his,” “hers,” and “ours.”

Incorrect: The window office is her’s.
Correct: The window office is hers.

Do not use apostrophes in plural nouns.

Incorrect: How many new computer’s are we getting?
Correct: How many new computers are we getting?

b) Commas

Do not connect two complete sentences with a comma.

Incorrect: The meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early.
Correct: The meeting was cancelled, so I finished my work early.
Correct: Since the meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early.

II.) MECHANICS

a) Split Infinitives

Do not insert words between “to” and the infinitive form of a verb.

Incorrect: I was told we needed to slightly tighten the deadline.

Correct: I was told we needed to tighten the deadline slightly.

III.) SPELLING

a) “A lot” is always two words.

Incorrect: I have alot of work to do.
Correct: I have a lot of work to do.

b) “To” is a function word often used before the infinitive form of a verb (to go).

c) “Too” is an adverb that means “excessively” (too difficult).

d) “Two” denotes the number 2.

Incorrect: This file cabinet is to heavy for me to move.
Correct: This file cabinet is too heavy for me to move.

e) “There” is an adverb indicating a place (over there).

f) “Their” is a possessive word that shows ownership (their computers).

g) “They’re” is the contraction form of “they are.”

Incorrect: There results for this quarter were excellent.
Correct: Their results for this quarter were excellent.

Incorrect: Their working very hard today.
Correct: They’re working very hard today.

IV.) STYLE

a) Sentence Variety

To write more lively, vary sentence structure. Use alternate ways of beginning, and combine short sentences to create different sentence lengths.

Before:

I organized the files for all the new accounts this week. Then I created a more efficient labeling system. I color-coded everything. I made sure all paper files had been documented electronically. I put these files in the empty file cabinet.

After:

This week I organized the files for the new accounts and created a more efficient color-coded labeling system. After I documented all paper files electronically, I put these files in the empty file cabinet.

V.) ACTIVE VOICE vs. PASSIVE VOICE

The English language has two "voices": active voice (the subject performs an action); and passive voice (the subject is acted upon). In business communication, all good writers write in active voice. Lazy writers write in passive voice. Writing in active voice shortens your sentences and makes your writing sound more direct and formal.

Examples:

PASSIVE: The recipe book is read by her.
ACTIVE: She reads the recipe book.

PASSIVE: The radio announcement should be listened to by everyone.
ACTIVE: Everyone should listen to the radio announcement.

PASSIVE: The photo is being taken by the photographer.
ACTIVE: The photographer is taking the photo.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

To learn more about fixing common writing mistakes, check out The Electronic Writing Course ( http://www.ElectronicWritingCourse.com ). It’s a program that teaches the basics of good writing and editing. If you want to check your document against 36,000 style and usage mistakes, check out StyleWriter ( http://www.StyleWriter-USA.com ). It’s a style and usage Plain English checker. If you want to write more lively and creatively, check out WhiteSmoke Software ( http://www.WhiteSmokeSoftware.com ). It’s a program that fixes and enriches your text.

If you follow these guidelines, you’ll stop yourself from writing lousy in the workplace. Your writing will be lively, clear, and concise, and you will build rapport with readers. Perhaps it’s now time to e-mail your boss a perfectly-written e-mail requesting a salary raise?

How To Improve Your Odds In The Casinos

One of the most important things to remember when playing in a land based casino is that the layout of the casino is designed to pull you into the games with the worst player odds. To help pull you further into the casino the casinos will usually use the bells and whistles of slot machines, and video poker games.

This may make you think that the slot machines on the way to the blackjack, poker, roulette and craps tables are the ones to play, but this is usually not the case.

The casinos will place some loose machines in the area leading to these games so that you will hear the bells ad look up and see the flashing light from the winning machines, and when you look you will see the table gamming areas of the casino.

This method puts the thought of wining and table games into your mind together making you think you can win at the table games. The truth is that your chances of going home from the casinos a millionaire is only likely if you walked into the casino as a millionaire.

This does not mean you can not go home with more money in your pockets then when you entered the casino or online casino. It only means that you need to be smarter and not fall for the casinos tricks.

Most people come to casinos knowing just the basics to the most popular casino games played today. Everyone knows how to play Blackjack, but there is more to the game then just trying to get your cards close to 21 without going over.

So by studying one game and spending all your time on that game you will be increasing your skills at the game and you will soon see that the basics are not enough when you are playing for money, especially if you want to win.

Pick a casino game that you enjoy because this is going to be your game, and you are going to spend a lot of time practicing and learning about the game. Then spend as much of your free time as you can, playing the game.

There are many online casinos and web sites that offer you the option of playing poker, or blackjack for free and also offer different variations of the game. This will allow you to get plenty or practice against a computer and other people before risking your money in a casino.

Try to pick a table with other knowledgeable players. Playing a game like poker or blackjack at a table full of amateurs will put you at a disadvantage, but at the same time you do not want to pick a table where you are the worst player no matter how good you are.

It is recommended that before sitting at any card game in a casino or an online casino that you watch a few hands to help judge the skills of the other players.

The longer you play and the more your skill increases you will be amazed at how much more money you are leaving the casinos with.

How To Improve Your Poker Skills

If you were trying to become a professional baseball player, you would probably spend much of your time working out at the gym, at batting practice and at your position as much as you could, well gambling requires the same dedication and practice if you want to be the best.

The first thing you must do to improve your poker skills is to play as many hands of poker a day as you can. This means instead of watching television, or hanging out with friends you should be in an online poker room or online casino playing poker.

Using the internet you can find many online poker rooms that will allow you to play poker online against live opponents. Playing live players instead of the computer is always better, because when you play against the computer it will always respond the same in any given situation. The computer just goes thru an algorithm which tells it what to do, but a person has to make a decision and given the same situation two hands in a row there is no telling what a person is going to do.

Besides playing poker as much as you can, it is also important to watch the game as well. I would recommend watching poker on TV, going to the casino and just watching and many online casinos will give you the option of watching a game. This will give you the chance to practice your skills of reading people. The more you watch the better you will become at noticing those small involuntary things we all do that tell others what we are thinking. An example of this is taught to the police when they are in basic training. When trying to come up with a lie most people will unconsciously look up and to the left. This means if you ask your child if they did their homework and they look up and too the left before telling you they had no homework there is a good chance they are not telling the truth.

When you can not play poker against live players or spend time watching it you should read about it. Reading about poker will not give you the experience that you need but there are many useful things you can get from reading. One of them would be the odds of any 1 card being dealt to you. Knowing the odds against you making the hand you are going for may influence your decision and save you a lot of money in the long run. There are many books written on the subject of poker and any book store will carry a good selection of them. I recommend only reading books from mathematicians and those who have made a name for themselves playing poker professionally.

Study psychology. You may not believe his but learning psychology will give you an advantage over the other players, you can learn how to overcome involuntary reactions to good news and bad news, making it harder for your opponents to read you and figure out what cards are in your hand. it will also teach you to mislead others into thinking whatever you want them to think. This skill can be extremely helpful in helping you win games and increase your wealth.

How To Keep Food Fresh Naturally

How many times have we brought food and then forgotten about it only to remember it because it begins to stink? Against this, you cannot do anything, but you can ensure that your food lasts longer and keeps fresh.

How?
There are many things you can do, such as regularly clean your refrigerator and regularly check the food in there and also that you keep in the cupboards or anywhere else. But its not just about checking them. This cannot prevent anything. All you will be doing is throwing away food items before they stink up the entire kitchen. So, what can you do to keep the food fresh?

Practical List of Tips for Ensuring Food is Cleaner and Fresher:
1) Spread some cloves on and around the marble surface of your kitchen, and also spread some cloves under the sink.
Why?
The Cloves keeps ants away.

2) Place some bay leaves inside your bags of dough, rice and the rest of the packs that insects prefer.
Why?
Bay leaves keep insects and other such lice away from food products. By placing bay leaves inside the packets, we ensure that insects do not reside there. But please remember to change the bay leaves once every three months.

3) Place half a potato in the refrigerator.
Why?
If there is any kind of bad smell from food or cooked items, the half potato will absorb it. To make sure that this works, remember to exchange the potato every three days.

4) Store eggs with the pointed side down.
Why?
Storing eggs with the pointed side down keeps them fresh for a longer period.

5) Place a few cubes of sugar in the jar where you store American cheese.
Why?
When you place two or three cubes of sugar with the American cheese in an air tight jar, the sugar absorbs the moisture and prevents the cheese from getting bad.

6) Do not store tomatoes and cucumbers in the same draw.
Why?
Tomatoes give out gases that cause cucumbers to rot faster so make sure that you keep these two apart.

7) Do not store apples along with the rest of the fruits and vegetables.
Why?
Apples give out certain gases that cause fruits and vegetables to rot.

8) Place slices of apples or raw potatoes in the bread compartment or jar.
Why?
By adding a few slices of raw potatoes or apples with the bread, you ensure that the bread remains fresh for longer than usual.

9) Store radish in a vessel along with some water.
Why?
You should store radish in a vessel along with water because water will keep the radish fresh and crisp for a long time. For the same reason, if the radishes have shriveled, place them in a jar of cold water. Water will restore the radish to its previous splendor.

Conclusion:
Here, I have presented only a few of the more practical actions you should follow to ensure that the food you and your family consume remains fresh and tasty.

How To Keep Predator Fish

Many people like to have fish for pets because they are low maintenance, and can be very relaxing to watch them swim. Most first time fish enthusiast like to keep cold water fish, because they are cheap and most of the different types of these fish will get along together. These fish have some bright colors and have some very fancy fins, but they are mostly large goldfish, and eventually switch to tropical fish to get a larger selection of fish. But keeping tropical fish can be a bit of a gamble, the fish cost more and some of them are very aggressive and will eat your other fish.

There are more different types of tropical fish for you to choose from, and they have a larger variety of colors then cold water fish and keeping them in an aquarium together with other tropical fish does not have to be a gamble, it is not like a trip to the casino to play blackjack, if you do things right there is no gambling involved at all.

The first thing you need to do is some reading before purchasing any fish for your tank. Reading about fish will give you an idea of what species of fish eat other fish, and which ones do not. It will also let you know which meat eating fish will live with what other fish, and make it less of a gamble that you are just buying one fish an expensive meal.

Cichlids are a type of fish that eat other fish but they are a school fish and prefer to be in a tank with other Cichlids, but you want all the other Cichlids to be about the same size, or one day you will come home from a day of playing the most Popular Casino Games in the casino to find several fish missing and one fat fish swimming around slowly.

Cichlids are a surface to medium depth fish. This means they will swim on the top and middle of the tank and will generally not go to the bottom of the tank for very long.

So many people with Cichlids will get a bottom swimmer to fill the tank out. A very popular type of bottom swimmers is catfish. There are many different fish in the species of catfish. Some of these fish are non aggressive and do not get very big, but a fish like this may not be aggressive enough to be in a tank of Cichlids.

You may want to get a more aggressive type of catfish, but if you get a large one it will surely eat the Cichlids, but if it too small you are gambling that the Cichlids will not pick its eyes out.

Just remember that no matter how much you read each fish does have a personality of their own and no matter how much you read that one fish will be friendly with another it putting them in an Aquarium together is gambling.

There is always the possibility that some of your fish will get eaten, but the only way to make keeping fish not a gamble is to keep each fish in their own separate fish tank in the hope that this will keep them all safe, but this will not make for happy fish. With trial and error you will learn what can live with what types of fish and save the gambling for Las Vegas casinos.

How To Learn How To Gamble

Many people use casino gambling as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. It is very common for males to go to the casinos on their 18th birthday for some fun, and usually they come back with no money left in the bank.

But it does not matter why you decide to gamble if you are going to do risk your hard earned cash you should at least be ready for what is going to happen in the casinos.

Everyone knows how to play the most Popular Casino Games like; Roulette and Blackjack, but they do not know anything more then the basics. By learning the game more in depth you will not only increase the chances for you to take home some of the casinos money, but you will have more fun while playing the games.

There is not much to learn about playing the slot machines. The only thing to learn about them is that the longer you stay on one machine the more your odds of winning increase. The best thing to do with the slots is try to find a slot machine that someone has been playing for a while without winning and then when they leave you get that machine. Most people will play 10 or 20 dollars in a machine then leave if it does not pay off, this is a big mistake.

Games like Craps, Blackjack, Poker and Roulette have many different variables to them, making it important to educate yourself about a casino game before playing it for high stakes.

One way to learn is to spend time in the casinos playing the game and building experience. In my opinion this is the best way to learn. You are literally paying your dues for your education.

If you can not afford to spend your money in the casino or if you are not old enough to enter a casino and you want to know how to learn to gamble you can go online and many sites offer casino games that can be played against a computer or against other players just for fun. These fun games are not played for money so there is no minimum age to play these casino games.

Another way you can learn to gamble is to go to a school that teaches you to deal some of the most Popular Casino Games played today. These casino dealer schools can be found all over the country and especially near Atlantic City and Las Vegas. You will not only get to learn to play but you will learn the secrets of the dealers. This can give you a very nice advantage in the casino. It may seem like an expensive way to learn to gamble, but in the end you will probably spend less on the school then what you would lose if you just learned at the table in a casino or an online casino.

The lest recommendation I have is to go out and get a book or two on the casino game you are interested in learning about and reading about it. The books will offer advanced strategies and help you memorize the odds of each bet in each situation so you know which bet is the best and when to make it. This does not mean you will win every hand, but it increases your chance of winning some of the casinos money.

By reading this article and taking the advice you will win more money and enjoy your time in the casinos more.

Friday, March 5, 2010

How To Learn To Gamble In An Online Casino

Gambling in an online casino can require more and better skills then when you are playing in a land based casino. This is why it is very important to pick the online casinos that are best for you. Here I have written some helpful ideas on how to find the online casino that is right for you.

Gambling in an online casino is not exactly the same as playing in a regular casino. Yes the rules are the same but the way you play may be slightly different.

One of the major differences between gambling in an online casino and a regular land based casino is the fact that you can't look into the eyes of another player. Let's say you are playing poker and you suspect the other player may be bluffing you can look at them to try to get a read on them to see if they have a tell, but in an online casino you have to be sharper then that.

In an online casino or online poker room you need to be good enough to know from the way the other players at the table are playing if they are bluffing or not, as opposed to at a regular casino or poker room where you can look into their eyes and try to get a read on them.

Other then poker most of the games are almost exactly the same as in a land based casino. If you are new to gambling online you may want to check out some online casino review sites. These sites not only offer reviews from independent reviewers, but you can also find reviews from regular everyday players like yourself and read about their experience both good and bad and make up your own mind.

To do this I recommend going to yahoo.com and typing In casinos into the search engine, and if you check out the top 5 or 6 sites I guarantee you will find all the information on what sites are reliable and which ones are a rip off. Some of the sites even offer their readers weekly gambling Horoscopes, and recipes for foods perfect for the next time you invite the guys over for poker night.


Before spending any money in any of the online casinos, open a free account and try the games out for free, see if you enjoy the software and the different options. Make a list of things you liked and things you did not like and find the site that offers you more of what you want and less of what you do not want.


Make sure to read all of the rules for each online casino. They will tempt you by offering you bonuses just for signing up, but make sure you read and understand the rules for accepting the money before you accept it or spend any of the allegedly "free" money.

Many of the online casinos will offer you a tutorial explaining how to use the features and to play each game and I highly recommend that you use it, because if you make a mistake the online casinos will not give you a refund.

Other then this the only advice I can give is that the more you play the better you will get, and will therefore be able to win more money.

How To Maintain Your Mental Health

In recent years people have realized the importance of proper diet and exercise, and recent surveys show that over the last 20 years people are eating better and working out more often, resulting in people living longer, but people are still lacking in their understanding that their mental well being is just as important as their physical health.

Today most people get on average 4 to 6 hours of exercise every day, and make sure that everything they put in their mouths is not filled with sugars or preservatives, but they pay no attention to their mental health, no vacations, not even the occasional long weekend, 60 hour weeks, taking work home with them and even working weekends. All of this for hopes of one day getting that big promotion. What good will it do you when your brain overloads and you have a breakdown in the office.

In the end your physical health will suffer no matter how well you eat and how often you exercise. You will wind up with high blood pressure, stress and tension all of which raises the chances of you having a stroke or heart attack.

In hopes of helping you avoid this I am providing you with the things I do to keep my mental health in tip top condition.

My absolute favorite thing to do to refocus myself is to go for a long ride on my Harley. Nothing brings the world back into focus like riding free like the wind, there is no better forms of therapy as far as I am concerned.

Another great way to relieve the stresses in your life and help put a sparkle in your mental health is a trip to the casinos. Most people go to the casinos and expect to go home a winner, I do not. I go to have a good time.

I enjoy the skill required in
blackjack or poker, or just like pressing my luck on the roulette wheel or slot machine. I also make sure not to take my credit cards with me to the casinos. Every week I put a few bucks on the side and when I have enough to go to the casino I go, and have a real good time. This way I can blow every penny I bring with me and know I am not hurting my self financially.

Sometime I just like to sit at a poker table, blackjack table or roulette table and just make small bets. This may not be as exciting as risking large sums of money, but in the end I play longer, and I probably win more often. The best part is because I do not expect to win I am not disappointed when I don’t win, and on those occasions that I do win beside going home with more money I have a supper big smile on my face because the night was all that much better.

Another reason why I love the casinos is how far they are from where I live so I can take my bike out in the morning have a good 3 hour drive to Atlantic City then at the end of the day I get to enjoy another 3 hours on my Harley, and if the weather is really bad I can either take my truck or just stay home and log on to one of the many online casinos available to choose from.

I also enjoy watching an hour or 2 of television every night, some light sitcoms are a great way to lighten your minds load, and laughing out loud for 30 seconds every day is a great way to release stress.

Video games are also great for stress release, if you are mad at your boss what better way to get it out of you then boxing, just imagine you are pounding on your boss and hope you don’t lose.

I hope you try some of these methods or think of some of your own to help keep the stress down in your life and keep your mental health in as good of condition as the rest of you.

How To Make Millions Playing Video Poker

Most people will tell you that the only way to walk out of a casino a Millionaire is to walk in a Billionaire, but the fact is this is not the truth. It is only the easiest way to do it.

If you are the type of person who is not afraid to risk it all for the big payoff then this may be for you.

Video poker machines can be found in every casino both land based and online casinos. These machines have the best chances of making you a millionaire in any casino.

All you need is a credit card with at least $20,000 and the nerve to risk it, in what can be less then 20 minutes. I recommend saving up $20,000 dollars before trying this and not just running up your credit card, but when I first tried it I did just run up my card.

The game you pick is very important. There are many different types of poker games offered in video form, in some of them you play a computer player and the player with the best hand wins, in the second there is no other player, the better the hand you make the more the machine pays out. A pair pays 1:1; two pairs pay 2:1 and so on. The 2nd type of Video Poker machine is the one you want.

Please keep in mind that this is not a guaranteed way to win money, and if you do not win money you can wind up twenty thousand dollars in debt, but it has made me a lot of cash, over the past 2 years I have paid all my expenses playing poker in this manner.

I usually start with at least 20,000 dollars, and making $1,000 dollar bets before the $20,000 is gone I have had at least 1 good hand where I have at least made back my money and can now start going for the big money.

Do not increase your bets to more then $1,000 until you have made at least $100,000.

I first discovered this method almost 2 years ago; I was spending my weekends down in Atlantic City playing poker, blackjack and roulette, and not winning any money, but during the week I would play a free video poker game from home, and I was winning millions of dollars every week.

So one day I decided to give it a try and instead of spending my money at the table games I went right to the video poker game, and by the end of the weekend I was up almost $60,000.

Now every few months I go down to either Atlantic City or Las Vegas, I have a bank roll of $20,000 and I make a few hundred thousand to get me till the next time.


Remember there are no guarantees that this will work for you. There have been times where I went over my $20,000 bank roll before I got my first really good hand, but I also remember one time I got a full house which paid off $25,000 on my first hand.

How To Meet That Special Someone

Chances are unless you are very lucky you will go thru many different relationships before you find your special someone. Finding your sole mate is like gambling. In poker and blackjack you may have to play dozens of hands until you get a winning hand, and it is the same with relationships.

During your life you will probably meet some people who seem like they may be the one, or that they are close, but still have the feeling that something else is missing. My advice is that if you are not happy, because something seems like it is missing, then it usually is not right.

Before I found my special someone, I was in a relationship for over 10 years, and I thought everything was great, until I started to seriously consider getting married. Then I noticed that we had so little in common and in reality wanted so many different things out of life and one day we both realized there was much about each of us that we both wanted from someone, but it was not us that we wanted.

Then one day I decided I had enough of trying to go to clubs and bars to meet people. I was sick and tired of trying to find someone in the time it takes to finish a drink. It always seemed the ladies I would meet were all wrong for me, or they seemed great after talking to them for 5 minutes but they seemed to have no interest in me.

Then one day I had an idea, it was not an original idea but I decided to use the internet to try to find the right person for me. So I proceeded to make a myspace profile. On this page I tried to put the real me and not the funny guy trying to be charming that was looking for love at the bar.

And as I would at the poker rooms I went all in, I poured my heart and sole into this. I wrote what I wanted and wrote down who I truly think I am and not who I want to be, and I was rewarded by 1 email responding to my site.

It was amazing; the response I got was like a dream. Imagine you are sitting in a Las Vegas casino playing poker. You are down to your last few dollars, you go all in and you wind up being dealt a Royal Flush, and suddenly the sky is bluer, the grass is greener, and all your worries seem to just fade away.

At first things were a little awkward for the both of us. We decided to hold of on actually meeting until we got to know each other first. We spent a month just talking everyday on the internet. You can really open up to someone and show them the real you and not have to worry about rejection on the internet, after all you are just a faceless ghost, and if things don’t work out you could be sitting next to her on the bus one day without ever knowing it.

The key to finding happiness is realizing you are going to bust more then you are going to get blackjack, but you must keep trying, trying to remember you only need to find the real thing once.

How To Plan A Great Vacation

Making sure your vacation goes according to plan is not difficult to do, but it does need to be planed carefully.

First you need to decide where to go, this year I have decided to go to Holland for my vacation. Once you have decided where you want to go on vacation you can start to plan the things you want to see and do. In Holland I am interested in the Van Gogh museum, the Rembrandt museum and the Casino.

I have always enjoyed casinos, so this is going to be my first chance to go to a casino in Europe, so how can I pass up the chance to play some European Roulette, and I have been practicing at an online casino, ok I have to admit I have also been "practicing" poker and blackjack, please don’t tell my wife.

After you have figure out where you want to go and what you want to do when you are there you can get a feel for where you want your hotel to be.

There are many different websites that offer the best prices on hotels, so make sure to check several of them before making a final decision. Most of these sites will offer pictures of the hotel facilities and the different rooms.

After looking at the hotels pick the top 3 and do a search on the internet for them. Try to find reviews from people that have stayed there before. The hotels site is always going to tell you how great the hotel is, but if someone were annoyed enough to trash a place or tell you how great it was, then you can be pretty sure they are telling you the truth.

The first hotel I was looking at for my Amsterdam trip said it was close to the center of the city, in a nice area, but reading reviews from former patrons told me the area was filled with drug addicts and homeless, and this is not really what I want to see on my vacation, so I found a much nicer location. It is a little farther from the city center but it is near the museums we want to go to, so by being closer to them we can get up early walk to the museums and spend the rest of the time walking around looking at the shops and attractions inside the city's center.

Now all that is left is packing the right clothes. Unless you are going to someplace where the weather is always a constant, make sure to pack clothes for both good and bad weather. My trip is in a week and the weather is expected to me mostly sunny and in the 50's but there is a chance of rain so I will be packing a coat for the rain, ad extra socks just in case.

If you are gong to be in Europe and plan to visit a casino you should know that in Europe casinos are more upscale then in the USA. They will not let you in wearing your shorts a T shirt and sandals, most casinos require men to wear a tie and jacket or a turtleneck.

It is also always helpful to buy a travel guide for where ever you are going. Besides having helpful recommendations for things to see and places to eat, many of them offer discounts for attractions.

Well the only thing left is to go and have a good time, I know I will.

Planning The Perfect Spring Break Family Vacation

From time to time everyone needs some time away from their life. It does not matter if you are 10 years old and in 5th grade or 35 years old and working a full time job, to maintain good mental health you have to take the occasional vacation.

Some time around the beginning of April most public and private schools have Spring Break from School which is a great time to plan a vacation.

Most vacations when you have children become about them, and you wind up at places like Disney land or some other child orientated vacation spot, but what about you?

Las Vegas used to be known as an adult getaway where what happens there stays there. This is no longer the case. Over the past 15 years, Las Vegas realized that more money can be made from a family orientated city rater then just from gambling.

Many casinos started adding attractions for children like go carts and other amusements, and many other activities aimed at giving a child a good time, but the casinos also opened up day care centers, so parents can get some time to enjoy themselves as well.

I know when I would go to Disney World with my kids after the 2nd or 3rd day I was looking forward to getting back to work.

For the last several years we have been going to Las Vegas for our family Vacations over spring break and the kids enjoy it. They get to go on roller coasters, swim, play video games, watch movie the list really goes on and on for all the things they can do, and I get to spend a few hours ever day with my wife in the spa getting a message, eating in nice restaurants and playing some Blackjack in the casinos.

Since we started doing this I have seen my family grow closer. My wife noticed that I am in a better mood for the rest of the year after we get back from vacation. I am enjoying my job more and all in all life is just better.

Putting together a Los Vegas vacation is very simple to do. You can go to a travel agent, or do it yourself online. I have always preferred to go to a travel agent and just let them do it, but if you are trying to save money you can get some good deals online that a travel agent can't or won't offer you.

If you choose to do it yourself, it is easy to do. You can go to your computer and do a search for Las Vegas. You will see every casinos and hotel listed and you can go thru them one at a time and see what they offer for you and your family to do.

You will also see everything the city and surrounding areas have to offer, and there really are tons of fun things for everyone in Las Vegas.

I hope to see you and your family there.

How To Play Animals

While sitting around with friends this weekend I discovered the greatest card game ever. The name of the game is Animals, and the game is very easy to learn, easy to play and a great source of entertainment.

The game is not a gambling game but gambling can be done easily enough, but I would not expect to see this game in your local casino anytime soon.

I suspect the game started out as a memory game for children, then was taken you young adults and turned into a drinking game, but it does not matter if you are gambling with this game, drinking with this game or just trying to have a fun evening with friends, because it is fun whatever you are playing for.

The best way to play the game is with at least 4 people but no more then 8. You will also need 2 or 3 decks of cards to play Animals and a table for everyone to sit around.

Before the game starts each player must choose an animal noise and a hand gesture to represent them in the game and going around the table each player must announce the name of their animal, the sound the animal makes and its hand gesture. An example of this would be to say I am a cat, meow and the hand gesture may be wiping your face with the back of your hand.

In this game the dealer remains standing the entire round. The dealer will go around the table continuously dealing 1 card to each player until all the cards have been dealt. The dealer must stay at a steady pace and go not too fast and not too slow.

the players must continuously scan the other players top cards and when someone has the same number card on top of their pile as you, you have to make that persons sound and hand gesture. If you do it before they do you get all their cards.

That person is not out of the game the next time the dealer goes around they still get another card. The person with the most cards at the end of the game winds, and is the dealer for the next round.

For kids this is a great game because they have to remember everyone's noise and gesture, this is a fun way for them to help develop their memories, and a great way to get them away from the television for a little while.

For those looking to gamble this game may not earn you as much as playing Blackjack but it is a lot if fun to sit around and make fools of yourselves and make a few bucks. All you have to do is set an amount and everyone puts their money into a pot and the winner gets the pot. It does not get any easier then that.

The drinking game has an extra rule or two. If you make someone's noise and gesture before they do yours, besides getting their cards they need to drink and at the end of each round all the losers need to drink.

How To Play Texas Hold Em

Texas Holdem has become such a popular Game that most tournaments now days are Texas Holdem games, and there are even 2 or 3 television shows dedicated to the game. Texas Holdem is a 5 card poker game, but instead of each layer being dealt 7 cards, the dealer deals 5 cards in the center of the table, these cards are used by all the players to make the best hand possible. To make your hand each player is also dealt 2 cards and the object is to use the cards in your hand and the ones on the table to make the best hand you can.

There are 5 rounds of Texas Hold’em Poker and they are:
The Pre-Flop
The Flop
The turn
The River
The Showdown

During a Texas Holdem game between each round there is a round of betting, and is when players with bad hands may fold.

In the game of Texas Holdem the first round is the pre flop. During this round the big and the small blinds place their bets, the big and small blinds are the first two players to the dealers left. Before the players are allowed to look at their cards the small blind must place a bet of half the table minimum and the next player who is the big blind must place a bet of the table minimum and then the dealer gives each player their hole cards. The hold cards is the name of the 2 cards each player has that are exclusively theirs, these cards guarantee that each player has a chance to make a better hand then the other players, without them all you would have is the 5 communal cards.

In Texas Holdem the next round is the flop. This is when the dealer deals out the first 3 of the 5 communal cards. It is during this round that most players will fold; betting in this round is usually very conservative because 2 more cards are still needed and betting big on the chances that the cards you need are the ones that will appear is taking a big chance with your money, one that can coast you to bust out of the game early.

The third round is called the turn. The turn is when the dealer puts out the 4th communal card. At this point you can get a good idea of your chances of getting a winning hand and now is when the betting starts to heat up, and more people will drop out of the game.

The river is the last of the 5 cards to be turned over by the dealer. At this point all the cards available to make the hands have been put out, this is also the last time to bet before turning over the cards.

The last round of Texas Holdem is the showdown, this is when all players turn over their cards and a winner is declared.You now have all the information you need to start playing Texas Holdem.

Beginners Guide To Texas Hold Em

Texas Holdem is by far the most common for of poker played today due to is popularity there are even several TV shows of the game. Besides being popular texas Holdem is also the best game for a beginner to learn, the game can be learned after a few minutes and afte just a few hours of practice you can be playing fairly well against other beginners, but to really get good you must play often.

Texas Holdem is played the same way in the casino, online casinos and in your home with your pals.

Texas Holdem is played in the following manner:
1. Betting structures can vary. In Texas Holdem rarely are antes used. Most Texas Holdem games start with first two players on the dealers left placing predetermined bets. These players are called the small and large blind, and their bets are called posting the blinds.

2. Each player receives 2 cards face down. These cards are called you pocket cards and they are the only cards that are unique to you.

3. After each player is dealt their hole cards a round of betting takes place starting with the player to the left of the 2 blinds this round of betting is called the pre-flop. Just like in any other poker game a player can call raise of fold during their turn.

4. After the Pre-Flop round is over the dealer will remove the top card from the deck and discard it, this is called the Burn Card. This is done to make sure that no cheating is done. The dealer will then turn over 3 cards in the center of the table. This round is called the Flop. Any player may use any of these cards to make the best 5 card hand possible, but you are not allowed to actually touch the cards, each player can use the same cards if it help them, this is why your hole cards are so important.

5. As with the pre-flop there is now another round of betting, it is at this point you will start to see players folding.

6. After the betting is over, the dealer will burn another card, then deal the fourth of the communal cards. This card is called the Turn card

7. Again another round of betting begins and now is when you will start to see the size of the pot really grow.

8. One last time the dealer burns the top card before turning over the last card of the game, called the River card. Players now have all 5 of the communal cards and their own hole card to make the best 5 card hand.

9. One last chance is given to raise the bets or get out of the game. After this each player still in the game will show their cards. This is called the Showdown. The player with the best hand is declared the winner and wins the pot.

Now that you know the basic order of the game you are ready to start playing Texas Holdem. Holdem is a simple game to learn but if hard to master. This is the part that will take you many hand and many dollars, but if you put in the time you will be rewarded for it.

How To Prepare For A Long Flight

The first thing I like to do is to get as little sleep as possible the night before I fly, this way by the time I get to the plane I can hopefully just go to sleep and wake up at my destination. I only recommend this if you are able to perform any tasks you need to do before your flight. If you have to drive for 5 hrs first you may want to get a good night sleep, and maybe take some Tylenol pm or something else to make you drowsy. Many people like to get a little drunk on a flight, I am not one of them, but if it helps you relax and get some sleep then I say go for it, just don’t allow yourself to drink to the point where you become an obnoxious drunk on a plane.

My next tip is to get to the airport 3 hours in advance, this is for 2 reasons. By getting there so early I am always one of if not the first to actually check in for my flight, which usually gets me a good seat, and I don’t have to wait in long lines. The other reason for always getting t the Air port at least 3 hrs before your flight is, if you check in early you cant get bumped from the plane, the people who get there last minute sometime here the words overbooked.

Things to pack in your carry on:

When ever possible I try to avoid putting things under the plane, but sometimes it is unavoidable, depending on how long I am going away for. What you take with you on the plane can make a big difference between having a pleasant flight and being so unbelievable bored that you go mad.

I always make sure to bring a fully charged MP3 player, my MP3 player hold 20 gigs of music so I never have to go into my bag to chance a CD or a memory card, and I have way more music to listen to then time to listen to it. This way I have the music for any mood I may be in, so I just load it up and listen as I fall asleep on the plane.

Just incase I cant sleep I will also make sure to bring a book with me, if for whatever reason I can not fall asleep which does happen to me, I like to take my mind off things by getting lost in a good story, but something light and entertaining, I have always found a good Action book or even Science Fiction to be good for that.

I also recommend bringing a thick soft sweater with you on the plane, this can be used if it is cold on the plane, or you can use it as an extra pillow.

I like to play video games, so I travel with one of the new hand held video games everywhere I go, so if I am not in the mood for reading I can play some games and keep myself occupied, and that really is the key. Keep yourself busy on the plane and you will be amazed at how fast the flight goes, if you stare at the clock and focus on the planes progress it will feel like forever.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

How To Protest The Online Gambling Ban

Protesting the government is not a cast of protesting a company because you do not like a product, this is a case of you trying to change the mind of the government and this can be hard to do, but it can be done.

Before you can even have a chance at holding a successful protest the first thing you should do is to circulate an online petition, this will give you an idea of how many people support your cause and gives you a list of names with phone numbers that you can call to get people to come to your protest.

The next step is to go online and find other groups protesting the new internet gambling act, and see if that group would be willing to join your protest, the more people protesting the online gambling ban the better the chances are of getting the law reversed.

After this you should start a letter writing campaign not only to your local congressmen but to all the Congressmen and see where they stand. Some of them will not be in support of the online gambling ban and will be willing to not only sign your petition but will be hey may be even willing to speak at your protest.

The next step is to plane your protest. The timing of your protest is important if you choose to protest at the Whitehouse you do not want to do it when the president is not there or if you choose to make your stand at congress do not do it at a time they are on a brake, this can make a big difference in the effectiveness of your protest.

Make sure to have a well written press release to the press at least 2 days before the protest to ensure that you will get press coverage. The more people who hear about your protest the more names you can get on your petition.

The point of a petition is to basically let someone know that people are not happy with what they are doing, and if enough people protest the government you can get them to change their decision. This is especially true with a politician. They know thee job depends on votes and if they are going to gain enough votes to secure their job they will do it even if they truly do not agree with it.


You must apply for a permit to protest at least 30 days in advance, or if there are delays you may not have a permit on the day you have told your protesters to show up, to truly insure you have time, apply for the permits at least 60 days in advance.

When applying for the permits you should be able to find out about the rules for setting up any sound equipment you will need so you can make the arrangements for them.

The only thing left to do for your online gambling ban protest is to wait for the big day.

How To Recognize A Gambling Problem

With more and more people gambling these days, there are more reported cases of gambling Addiction then ever before.

Gambling problems can manifest themselves in many different ways. Some problem gamblers will have all of these signs of their gambling problem and some others may only have one. Gambling addiction affects players of all different forms of gambling like Blackjack, Poker and even Bingo

The most important thing to remember is just because their life is not horrible because of their gambling does not mean there is not a problem, many people can have serious gambling addictions and still hold down a job and make it seem as if everything is fine. This just means that this person has not hit a bottom yet, but eventually it will catch up with them.

Most addicts will stop socializing with anyone not into their addiction, so if suddenly someone you know cuts out all their friends from their life and starts to isolate themselves this can be a sign.

A simple thing to look for is if they are overly interested in the sports scores, and if after reading them to they become ecstatic or depressed. No one likes it when their favorite team loses, but a gambler will have major mood swings depending on if they are winning or losing.

A big sign of gambling addiction is someone who is constantly having money problems and asking to borrow money but never pays it back, but sometimes out of nowhere this person will seem to have large sums of cash.

Lying and stealing is another good clue to a gambling addiction, they will make up all sorts of excuses for their odd behavior, and you may notice small, but expensive items missing from your home.

If when visiting this person if you notice that some of their things are missing, or if they tell you they have had to sell some things, then there is a good chance that what they sold either went to pay of gambling debt or to make new bets.


There are many other signs but these are the most common symptoms of gambling addiction according to addiction professionals. If you see 2 or more of these symptoms in someone you know you should immediately try to get this person to accept their problem and seek professional help.

Without help gambling addiction leads to the same place as drug addiction or alcoholism, eventually they will be overcome by their addiction. At this point they will be fully cut off from friends and family.

Most gamblers with bad addictions usually wind up jobless and in many cases homeless if their addiction is allowed to go unchecked for too long, and studies have shows that people with gambling addictions are more prone to illness because thy allow their health to lapse.

For more information on gambling addiction talk to your family doctor or look on the internet for the gamblers anonymous web site, or from one of the many internet web sites dedicated to helping gambling addicts to locate professional help in their area.

How To Start Your Own Small Business

Opening your own business can be a real big gamble. If you do not do your research well, you will wind up like most small businesses, and that is out of business in less then 6 months.

The most important thing to remember when opening up new business is the location. When doing your research for your new business you want to make sure you are the only business of your time in the area. If you are opening a video store you do not want to open near another video store. Remember if you are exclusive to the area, you will automatically get the business of those living in that area.

The next most important thing about opening a small business is you supplier. Do not have just one place to get supplies from, you should have several. By having more then one you can assure yourself that you are getting the lowest prices from them. And if they know about each other they will try to outdo each other to get your business.

Make sure that the products or services that you will be offering are desired, do not just decide to open up a store with out doing any market research is like playing craps, dangerous unless you really know what you are doing.

Advertising is important. Remember just like a casino you are trying to make money and not lose it. By spending some money on advertising you will increase your sales from your opening day. It is best to have a professional help you with your advertising rather then dong it yourself, there is no point in spending money on advertising if no one in your target demographic is going to see it. An example of this would be like using facial expressions to bluff in a poker game against blind players.


When picking your stock it is sometime better to have a better selection of items and maybe not so many of each item, this way you can see which items sell best and order more of those more popular items, and less of the less desired ones.


In business you should not try to open a business unless you already have experience running a related business. You may think you know how to, but to do it correctly you really need experience, after all if you were in a casino and looking to play poker you would not want a roulette dealer who is trying to figure out the rules as he goes would you? Chances are you would want an experienced poker dealer.

Depending on the type of business you are opening try keep your staff as small as possible, and if it is possible try to get friends and family to help you out. This will allow you to keep your costs low until you can really get a good idea of if you are making money or not. Once you are making money you can go out and hire people.

How To Survive A Good Review

When the first reviews for my most recent novel (Great Sky Woman, Random House 2006) started coming in, my emotions went through the usual roller coaster. The first, from Publisher’s Weekly, was 90% positive, but mentioned that, in their opinion, it was slow in spots. My stomach sank. Slow? In spots? Oh my God—all is lost!

The second review came in two weeks later. This one, from “Booklist,” used words like “magnificent” and “engaging” and “adventure on a grand scale.”

I sighed. Boy, oh boy, did I need to hear that. Why? Because I am an insecure artist. Because I spend, on average, two years researching and one year writing my novels. Because I care so very much about each and every one of my literary children. Because I pour my life into every project I work on, break my head open, remove the protective walls from around my heart. I have to, because that is the only way to access my talent. I CAN’T do less than my very best—that would immediately devolve to hack work, and that I cannot do.

Some say to ignore reviews, that they are only the opinions of people who, often, are jealous of work they themselves could not create. I choose not to embrace that opinion. To me, reviews are the opinions of informed, professional readers. Such people are not necessarily any better informed than the average reader, but what they have to say is certainly worthy of attention.

To be absolutely frank, there have been times I curled up and cried because a reviewer I respected disliked my work. And other times when handsprings across the living room were the order of the day. Such violent ups and downs can hardly be good for your blood pressure (let alone the household pets) but for an artist who cares, really cares about reaching out to the world, about creating a dialogue with readers present and unborn, there seems little choice.

An artist needs feedback. We must know whether what we do communicates the message intended. That doesn’t mean all glory and complement. Harsh but honest criticism can help an artist understand what the public sees when they read the work, watch the film, view the dance. To the degree that such work is intended to make a statement, to communicate a state of emotion or elusive concept, we MUST know how the public reacts.

But there are times when the good review is more damaging than the bad one. It often seems that a large proportion of artists are people who crave a deeper, more fluid connection with the outside world. Who in early life felt their voice stifled, felt invisible in the middle of a crowd. So they learn to speak their truth in some other form, and a creative performer was born.

Deep within such an artist is a driving, gnawing, ravenous urge to be loved, respected, seen, heard. It is the stifled urge of a child dancing in the living room for the guests, saying “look at me! I’m special!”

Of course, attention isn’t always on the artist herself: sometimes we merely want to draw attention to some cause, or effect, or external reality or philosophy we consider important or of interest. At the heart of all of this, however, is the sense that our perceptions are worthy, our hearts strong, our song as valid as that of any other warbler in the forest.

And when those reviews come in, we can either read them at an emotional arm’s length, or we can take them to heart, suffer the slings and arrows—and rejoice in the victories.

Which are more important? I’m not certain. But when those positive reviews come, I notice that I don’t take them as seriously, as deeply, as the negative ones. I don’t dare. That little boy inside me wants too desperately to believe that he is loved and appreciated, that he has made something worthwhile. When the positive reviews come, it is easy to listen to the accolades, to glow in the applause…

But God help you if you ever need it. Then, with an exquisitely perverse precision, it will be withdrawn. Chasing after the approval makes it dissolve, and we become like a third-rate comic frantically mugging for a once-appreciative audience, begging them to laugh until they are embarrassed for him.

I love the process of writing. I love the books themselves. I love my audience. And I love those reviews, too much, it sometimes seems. And at those times, a little voice whispers in my ear: "The writing isn’t for them. Never for them. It was before they were. And if they turn their backs, you will write still. Don’t be lulled by the fact that today’s reviews are positive. Don’t be frustrated if tomorrow’s reviews are bad. Listen to the voice in your heart, the one that whispers of discipline, and pain, and creative ecstasy. That voice was there at the beginning, and will be there at the end."

That voice, and no other, can you trust

How To Throw A Poker Game In The Home Without The Wife Finding Out

It is not uncommon for a man to want to have a night out with the boys, maybe play a little poker. It is also not uncommon to have the plans of men thwarted by their wives.

To help with this problem I am telling you the secrets about how to have some harmless fun at home without the wife catching on.


The best way to get rid of the wife so you can have a little “Man Time” is the easiest but most expensive way to do it. For her birthday you get her and one of her friends a trip to a weekend spa place.

Your wife will think you the best hubby ever and will never suspect you are going to throw a poker game in her absence, and the best part of this plan is that when it is over your wife will be so grateful for what you have done she may be more inclined to allow you to go out with the boys more often.

The next way is a little complicated and will only give you 4 or 5 hours of time at best, but it is much less expensive then a trip for 2. It may seem a little childish and yes I also have seen it on TV but a scavenger hunt scam can work.

The trick to the scavenger hunt is that each spot has to mean something. An example would be the first place you ever went on a date as one of the places she needs to go.

The end of the game is the most important make the last stop a restaurant and make sure to be there before she does. A good idea is to try to think of something meaning full in the area of where you live so you do not have far to drive, this will leave you the maximum amount of time to lay poker with your pals.

I have to admit this is not the ideal way to play poker, but getting away with even an hour of poker without her knowing is more excitement than any regular poker game could ever be.

Now that you have a plan to get her out of the house you need to be ready to go. The most important part of this is a large plastic drop cloth. This is so that if anything spills it will be simple to clean up.

Make sure you are ready to go with the table and chairs and make sure they get put back exactly the same as when you took them. You may want to use a digital camera to make sure you remember exactly how everything was before the game, because I promise you that you wife does.

If you send your wife on the trip I do not recommend using a cleaning service right before she comes back. If the house is too clean she will know something funny is going on

The last two tips I have is to make sure that you have a really nice gift around at all times just incase she finds out, and the other is that if your wife and your friends wives are friends do not invite those friends, if one guy gets caught you will all get caught.

Good Luck.

How To Throw A Poker Run

My first motorcycle was a 1957 Harley Davidson. When I found the bike for sale I had no money, but I knew I needed to have this motorcycle. So I came up with a way to raise the money and throw a great party at the same time. I threw a Poker Run. The concept of the game is easy. Each person tries to make the best 5 card poker hand.

The way it is played is, each bike has to ride along a planed rout, every few miles there are checkpoints at each checkpoint along the way each bike must stop and receive a card. Along the rout there are 7 checkpoints, and at the end the rider with the best 5 card poker hand wins the prize

Over the years the poker run has been adopted to lovers of many different hobbies.

The poker run was originally an event bikers played on their Harley's, but over the years it has been borrowed by boaters and even runners.

Throwing a poker run is fairly simple but takes time and some not to hard work. The first thing you need to do is get approval from the towns that your poker run will go thru. There may be some paperwork and fees.

You will also need to make sure that at the end of the run is at a park or event hall. Depending on where you live you may also need a permit for the park.

Next you will need riders. By figuring out how much you want to have for the prize money and how much the part after the poker ride will cost you can figure out how many riders you will need and how much the entrance fee will be, but it should be no more then $100 per bike.

The next thing you will need to do is register riders. The best way to do this is to make a website, go to biker bars and biker events in your area. If you live in New York don’t go to Daytona Bike week to sign up riders, most people will not travel that far for a poker run. Try to get locals.

After you have registered the riders you now have to plan for the party. Along with registering riders for your poker run you should also sell tickets so friends and family can join in the party after the ride is over and the poker winner is declared.

The best way to advertise the party is on a local radio station and with posters around town. The more people you can get the more money you will have for a prize and for whatever cause you are trying to raise money for.

You can either, buy your own food and get some friends to help cook or you can look in the phonebook for a caterer and you should be able to find a caterer who will throw you a great BBQ.

Then all you need to do is wait for the big day and enjoy all the bikes, poker, beef and beer.