Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Happy 15th birthday to the World Wide Web

Happy_birthday_www If your house was burning down, what would be the first thing (thing - not person!) you would save? Family photos? A grab-bag with all the important family documents in it? Your handbag?

For me, it would be my computer - my trusty laptop. I do so much with it - make my living, communicate with friends and family, pay my bills and keep track of my accounts, educate and entertain myself, keep myself up-to-date with what's happening in the world... I'd be lost without it.

But, much as I love my computer, it wouldn't be half as much use (or fun) if I couldn't connect to the Internet - which brings me to the subject of today's posting - the World Wide Web is 15 years old today. April 30, 2008 marks the 15th anniversary of the date when CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) announced that the web was free for use by anyone.

To commemorate the anniversary, msn.com looks at 15 ways in which the World Wide Web has changed our lives - for better or for worse...

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Carnegie Mellon Professor, Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university before a packed McConomy Auditorium on 18 September, 2007. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

Friday, April 25, 2008

What to do if you can't pay

Pound_coins 'Times is', indeed, 'hard'... and, even if we're not actually struggling to pay our bills, we can't help wondering what will happen to property prices and how we'll cope when that fixed rate mortgage ends this year...

If you're stretched to the limit and reaching the point where you're starting to miss payments, cast your eyes over 'What to do if you can't pay' on uk.msn.com - the article covers mortgages, rent, council tax, gas, water and electricity bills, credit cards and loan repayments. The general message is: communicate with the creditor, try to come to an arrangement and keep paying SOMETHING, even if you can't afford to pay the whole bill.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Create an online VA business to fit your life!

Do you have secretarial skills? Have you ever thought about setting up your own business as a Virtual Assistant? Kate Bacon, a coaching colleague of mine, is offering a unique new training programme which will give you the skills you need to set up your own VA business. Here's what Kate has to say about the course:

Among the many opportunities for online businesses there are a few that really are potential winners. As a Virtual Assistant (or VA) you can utilise the administrative skills gained in the”real-world” as a PA, Executive Assistant, Secretary or Office Manager, transferring them to provide remote administrative services to clients from the comfort of your own home-office.

How do you make the shift and learn the skills necessary to run a successful business? (It takes more thought than simply setting up a computer with broadband connection!) Kate Bacon of Pier to Peer Coaching (who has run her own VA business for 5 years) has created a unique, specialist training programme for individuals wishing to turn their secretarial skills into a viable business.

Graduates of the VA Business Start Up Course (the virtual group training programme) talk about how they’ve each created their own VA business for very different reasons. To read their inspiring stories, click here...

Pier to Peer are offering their next course, commencing Saturday, 3 May at 11:00am BST, as a Spring Special Offer. To take advantage of this reduced price, click here, remembering to insert the Reference Code: AH on the secure payment page!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Top 10 First Aid Mistakes

First_aid_kit Placing a severed finger directly onto ice to preserve it, pulling off clothing which is stuck to burnt skin and treating a sprain with heat - these are just some of the mistakes we make when administering first aid. To find out what you should and shouldn't do in a home health emergency, visit the Newsweek website and read Top 10 First Aid Mistakes.

Monday, April 21, 2008

When bargain hunting becomes an addiction

I_love_shoppingAre you the sort of person who can't resist a bargain? Do you get so excited when presented with a great deal that practical considerations, such as whether you need or can afford the bargain you've found, just never enter your head? In this article for msn.com, Melinda Fulmer examines how, for some people, bargain shopping can be as addictive as drugs or alcohol...

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Double dipping and the five-second rule

Chocolate_cakeHave you ever heard about the 'five-second rule'? I hadn't until I read about it in the Superliving ezine this week. The five-second rule states that, if you drop your last piece of your favourite chocolate cake on the floor, so long as you pick it up within five seconds, it's okay to eat it...

Then there's the knotty little issue of double-dipping - where, for example, someone dips a corn chip into salsa, takes a bite and, rather than be left with the remaining bite of salsa-less chip, dips the remainder of the chip back into the salsa.

Last year, food microbiologist Professor Paul Dawson of Clemson University in South Carolina carried out the first credible scientific research into both floor-to-food contact and the practice of double-dipping and, as you'll see in this article by Kristie Batten, the findings provide food for thought...

Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Daffodil Principle by Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

The Daffodil Principle

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come and see the daffodils before they are over.” I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. Going and coming took most of a day - and I honestly did not have a free day until the following week.

“I will come next Tuesday,” I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call. Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove the length of Route 91, continued on I-215, and finally turned onto Route 18 and began to drive up the mountain highway. The tops of the mountains were sheathed in clouds, and I had gone only a few miles when the road was completely covered with a wet, gray blanket of fog. I slowed to a crawl, my heart pounding. The road becomes narrow and winding toward the top of the mountain.

As I executed the hazardous turns at a snail’s pace, I was praying to reach the turnoff at Blue Jay that would signify I had arrived. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren I said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these darling children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!”

My daughter smiled calmly, “We drive in this all the time, Mother.”

“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears - and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her.

“I was hoping you’d take me over to the garage to pick up my car. The mechanic just called, and they’ve finished repairing the engine,” she answered.

“How far will we have to drive?” I asked cautiously.

“Just a few blocks,”Carolyn said cheerfully.

So we buckled up the children and went out to my car. “I’ll drive,” Carolyn offered. “I’m used to this.” We got into the car, and she began driving.

In a few minutes I was aware that we were back on the Rim-of-the-World Road heading over the top of the mountain…

“Where are we going?” I exclaimed, distressed to be back on the mountain road in the fog. “This isn’t the way to the garage!”

“We’re going to my garage the long way,” Carolyn smiled, “by way of the daffodils.”

“Carolyn, I said sternly, trying to sound as if I was still the mother and in charge of the situation, “please turn around. There is nothing in the world that I want to see enough to drive on this road in this weather.”

“It’s all right, Mother,” She replied with a knowing grin. “I know what I’m doing. I promise, you will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”

And so my sweet, darling daughter who had never given me a minute of difficulty in her whole life was suddenly in charge - and she was kidnapping me! I couldn’t believe it. Like it or not, I was on the way to see some ridiculous daffodils - driving through the thick, gray silence of the mist-wrapped mountaintop at what I thought was risk to life and limb.

I muttered all the way. After about twenty minutes we turned onto a small gravel road that branched down into an oak-filled hollow on the side of the mountain. The fog had lifted a little, but the sky was lowering, gray and heavy with clouds.

We parked in a small parking lot adjoining a little stone church. From our vantage point at the top of the mountain we could see beyond us, in the mist, the crests of the San Bernardino range like the dark, humped backs of a herd of elephants. Far below us the fog-shrouded valleys, hills, and flatlands stretched away to the desert.

On the far side of the church I saw a pine-needle-covered path, with towering evergreens and manzanita bushes and an inconspicuous, lettered sign “Daffodil Garden.”

We each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path as it wound through the trees. The mountain sloped away from the side of the path in irregular dips, folds, and valleys, like a deeply creased skirt.

Live oaks, mountain laurel, shrubs, and bushes clustered in the folds, and in the gray, drizzling air, the green foliage looked dark and monochromatic. I shivered. Then we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight, unexpectedly and completely splendid. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes where it had run into every crevice and over every rise. Even in the mist-filled air, the mountainside was radiant, clothed in massive drifts and waterfalls of daffodils. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow.

Each different-colored variety (I learned later that there were more than thirty-five varieties of daffodils in the vast display) was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

In the center of this incredible and dazzling display of gold, a great cascade of purple grape hyacinth flowed down like a waterfall of blossoms framed in its own rock-lined basin, weaving through the brilliant daffodils. A charming path wound throughout the garden. There were several resting stations, paved with stone and furnished with Victorian wooden benches and great tubs of coral and carmine tulips. As though this were not magnificent enough, Mother Nature had to add her own grace note - above the daffodils, a bevy of western bluebirds flitted and darted, flashing their brilliance. These charming little birds are the color of sapphires with breasts of magenta red. As they dance in the air, their colors are truly like jewels above the blowing, glowing daffodils. The effect was spectacular.

It did not matter that the sun was not shining. The brilliance of the daffodils was like the glow of the brightest sunlit day. Words, wonderful as they are, simply cannot describe the incredible beauty of that flower-bedecked mountain top.

Five acres of flowers! (This too I discovered later when some of my questions were answered.) “But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn. I was overflowing with gratitude that she brought me - even against my will. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“Who?” I asked again, almost speechless with wonder, “And how, and why, and when?”

“It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.” Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house, my mind buzzing with questions. On the patio we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking” was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman, two hands, two feet, and very little brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

There it was. The Daffodil Principle.

For me that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than thirty-five years before, had begun - one bulb at a time - to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. One bulb at a time.

There was no other way to do it. One bulb at a time. No shortcuts - simply loving the slow process of planting. Loving the work as it unfolded.

Loving an achievement that grew so slowly and that bloomed for only three weeks of each year. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world.

This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principle of celebration: learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time - often just one baby-step at a time - learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time.

When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

“Carolyn,” I said that morning on the top of the mountain as we left the haven of daffodils, our minds and hearts still bathed and bemused by the splendors we had seen, “it’s as though that remarkable woman has needle-pointed the earth! Decorated it. Just think of it, she planted every single bulb for more than thirty years. One bulb at a time! And that’s the only way this garden could be created. Every individual bulb had to be planted. There was no way of short-circuiting that process. Five acres of blooms. That magnificent cascade of hyacinth! All, just one bulb at a time.”

The thought of it filled my mind. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the implications of what I had seen. “It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn. “What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”

My wise daughter put the car into gear and summed up the message of the day in her direct way. “Start tomorrow,” she said with the same knowing smile she had worn for most of the morning. Oh, profound wisdom!

It is pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, “How can I put this to use tomorrow?”

Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Great Quotes - On travel (and procrastination)

Palm_trees_and_beach You cannot assume that something beautiful and unique that exists right now will be the same tomorrow. Better get to that unsullied oasis in your dreams without delay - because you may look up one day and discover they've opened a Wal-Mart there...

Phil Keoghan

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Do you have what it takes to start a business?

The_bossPassion for your product or service, perseverance, realism and the support of family and friends - these are all on the list of 'absolute essentials' for someone who wants to succeed with their own business. To find out if you have what it takes to release your inner entrepreneur (and make a success of it!) check out Have you got what it takes to start a business by Rosie Beasley.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Does the recommendation of 8 glasses a day hold water?

Glass_of_water_with_lemonWhere did the recommendation that we all should be drinking eight glasses of water per day come from? Apparently, no-one knows because Dr Dan Negoianu and Dr Stanley Goldfarb from the University of Pennsylvania have reviewed every published clinical study into the subject and found that none of them showed any benefit to organs from increased water intake.

In fact, we can get all the fluid we need from our food and drinks such as tea, coffee and fruit squash. In this article by Alice Hart-Davis for msn.com, scientific experts, including a dermatologist, a nutrition scientist and one of the UK’s leading experts on hydration, debunk the popular myths about water consumption.