Tis the season when lots of people drag a real tree into their house and decorate it. Some people buy live trees that are balled in burlap instead of a cut tree. A live tree is a great idea, but many people make serious mistakes when it comes to handling a live tree, and they end up losing their money. The information in this article also pertains to any live tree you are planting, be it now during the winter, or during the summer.

1. Before you even take the tree in the house, dig a hole for the tree where you expect to plant it after the holidays. Put the soil in a wheelbarrow and park it in the garage. You’ll need loose soil to backfill the hole, and the ground might be frozen after the holidays.

2. Keep your live tree in the house for as short a time as is possible.

3. Keep the ball plenty moist while in the house, but not in a tub full of water. You don’t want the ball to dry out completely, but by the same token it shouldn’t be soggy all the time either. Just moist. You can wet it thoroughly, but then don’t water again until the water is almost gone.

4. After Christmas move the tree outdoors as soon as possible and plant it immediately. If you were not able to dig the hole earlier, the ground is frozen, and the tree cannot be planted, leave it outside and pack bags of leaves or bales of straw around the ball. Find a way to heel it in in such a way that the amount of sun and wind the root ball receives is minimal.

5. Try and plant the tree immediately if you can. You do not want to store the tree on top of the ground during the winter if you can avoid it. Putting it in your garage is not a good idea either, it is likely to dry out in there. The absolute best place for the ball is in the ground, even if the ground has frozen after you dug the hole. Just set the tree in the hole and backfill with loose soil. Make sure there are no air pockets around the ball. Backfill only with small particles of soil. If this cannot be done because the soil is frozen, just set the tree in the hole and backfill as soon as the weather permits.

6. Check the ball for nylon string. Cut and remove any nylon string. Sometimes the diggers wrap the string around the stem of the tree. If the string is a cotton type, like sisal twine, you can leave it on the ball but remove it from the stem. If the burlap is nylon it should be cut in many places or removed. If the ball is wrapped with a wire basket I recommend leaving it on. It will help to secure the tree and keep it from rocking back and forth with the wind. The roots will find their way through the wire and the burlap. Just cut the burlap where you can.

7. Do not plant the tree too deep. This is the number one reason for plants that do not survive. They should not be planted any deeper than they were in the nursery. The top of the ball should be one to two inches above the ground level. If you have heavy, wet, clay soil, you should plant it even higher and build a bed up around the ball. When you plant them too deep the plants literally suffocate.

8. Do not fertilize the tree at the time of planting. You can fertilize it in the spring, but only with an organic fertilizer. If you have compost available, mix some in while planting. Fertilizer can do more harm than it can good. I always recommend organic fertilizers. It’s hard to make a mistake with organics. It’s always a good idea to stake trees when you plant them. If the wind is constantly rocking them back and forth they will have a difficult time establishing new roots in their new home.

You are welcome to use this article on your website or in your newsletter as long as you reprint it as is, including the contact information at the end. Website URLs must be active links. You are welcome to use this article with an affiliate link, http://www.freeplants.com/resellers.htm

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com

If there’s any emotion that gives us trouble it’s anger. Experiencing it is hard on bodies. It raises our blood pressure, causes our hearts and heads to pound, makes us sweat and shake, and separates us from reason.

We don’t need medical studies to tell us this. We know it makes us feel bad. All that adrenalin rushing around with no outlet for release. It’s a call to action, and often there’s no outlet. We just have to sit and endure. No wonder we resort to shouting and pounding our fists as if this would drive the source of our frustration away.

And, sadly, it often does. Anger is also hard on the hearts of those around us. Expressing it can be detrimental to relationships. We don’t always have the patience and understanding to listen to our loved one’s anger, and the quality of mercy can become strained.

Is the answer then to suppress our anger? This has become akin to argument about nature v. nurture, where we attempt to decide whether a person’s personality is nature (the way they were born) or nurture (the way they were raised). Is anger nature or nurture? We’re born with the ability to get angry. It’s a basic emotional response to frustration or danger that we need, because it gives us information. As has been said, “Anger is good for knowing what you want, but not for getting what you want.” Our response to anger, is partly innate (nature) and partly learned (nurture).

If you grow up in a family where emotions are expressed, then you learn to do the same. You also learn how to express them, whether in an assertive, constructive manner, or a hostile, verbal attack.

If you grow up in a family where emotions are considered “infantile,” or “unbecoming,” then you learn to repress them. Your body will still experience them physiologically, but you aren’t mindful about what’s going on. In the worst-case scenario you become numb, unable to connect with others and with life. We are our emotions, and if you have none, at least none that others can discern, then for them, there’s no one home!

This history of anger-management is the history of cultures and times. It’s an emotion that, when not contained and channeled, can be harmful to the individual and to society. In the US, we’ve gone through different fads from keeping a stiff upper lip to letting it all hang out.

What’s the common sense approach? What do you innately know about anger? What do you observe from those around you?

Perhaps you know someone like Bill. He lives in the Sunny Meadows subdivision. Recently there was a construction project going on behind his subdivision that was causing concern. How they built the roads in and out of the project would affect housing values. At the meetings with city council, Bill was the spokesman for the group, angrily stating the case and demanding action.

When you told his wife how glad you were that Bill had taken on this fight single-handedly, she replied, “He’s like this about everything.”

Bill was unable to attend the last meeting because he was in the heart hospital having tests.

Edward, on the other hand, never gets angry. Even if you insult him to his face, he just smiles, but it’s a smile that kind of makes you sick. You’d think his life would be a bed of roses, but Edward suffers from migraines, osteo-arthritis, and stomach problems. He lives alone because he can’t sustain an intimate relationship. His partners find he can’t deal with conflict. He’s great during the courtship, but when it comes to the daily stuff, he’s seething inside, but cold and distant on the outside. He can’t get it out, so there’s no connection. His partners, tired of walking on eggshells, shadow-boxing, and getting the cold freeze, leave.

Sandra is on an even-keel most of the time, though you’ve seen her get angry occasionally. When she does, it doesn’t last long, and she expresses herself in an assertive, direct, and nonviolent manner. She’s comfortable with her emotions, and has had practice choosing appropriate strategies. She’s in control of her feelings, not vice versa.

When you’re around Bill and Edward, you don’t feel safe. Bill is anger looking for a place to happen, and you know you’ll be the object sooner or later. You’re afraid Edward is going to implode some day from holding it all inside, and that when it does erupt, it’s going to be very primitive. There’s something to be said for practicing the overt expression of anger, and Edward has had none. In the meantime, his shutdowns remind you why the deepest level of hell in Dante’s “Inferno” was ice, not flames.

You feel comfortable around Sandra because you know you’re dealing with a full and balanced personality; someone who is in control, and making choices about anger and other emotions. You know that if something’s wrong, she’s going to tell you about it before it gets out-of-hand. If she does choose a verbal strategy when angry, it’s constructive and she’s had practice. Constructive discontent is an emotional intelligence competency. It can be learned. In fact it must be learned for a healthy person and healthy relationships.

Should you hold anger in, or express it outwardly? Research suggests that either extreme puts you at risk for heart disease.

Anger is hard on your heart! It’s hard on the hearts of those around you as well.

So what’s the solution? It’s best not to get angry in the first place. Failing that ideal, you can develop your emotional intelligence, and get smart about it. Flexiblity is an EQ competency, and it appears to be the key to managing anger. A study of how men coped with anger revealed that those who were rigid in their approach – either always holding it in, or always expressing it — had higher total cholesterol and higher bad LDL cholesterol levels than those who had a more flexible approach.

“It depends” is the answer to how you handle anger. Sometimes it should be kept in, and sometimes expressed. If you always hold it in, or always express it, you know nothing about anger. An “always” strategy with any emotion is no strategy at all. If you’re unable to think about it, it remains in its raw state.

Emotions come from the reptilian and limbic brains. In order to choose a good coping strategy, you need to be able to move up to the neocortex and make a decision. This involves considering the information the emotion is giving you and decided what to do about it, including doing nothing. Practice makes perfect, and it starts with self-awareness.

About the Author: ©Susan Dunn, MA, THE EQ COACH, http://www.susandunn.cc . Providing coaching, Internet courses and ebooks around emotional intelligence for your personal and professional success. I train and certify EQ coaches worldwide. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for infor on this fast, affordable, no-residency program. Email for fr** EQ eIne.

Source: www.isnare.com

The craft of writing as well as its theories can be studied and
learned but article sense or the ability to ìsmellî the topic
that would generate traffic in your website can only be learned
through experience and interest.

That is, basically, how successful online entrepreneurs write
their articles. They know that there could be no better way to
generate ideas in order to make articles but to write what
interests them most and what they have experienced. They also
know that it is through article marketing that they can generate
traffic and profit on their business website.

Sounds easy? Guess again.

People think that writing is so easy. They thought that it is
just a matter of incorporating words and ideas. In reality, it
is more than that. What they do not know is that writing is more
than just words and ideas; it also entails the proper skill in
order to come up with an article that focus more on generating
traffic to your website.

Articles used in article marketing should be informative,
motivating, appealing, and enlightening. It is one way of
generating traffic to your website.

You should write articles that will make your readers feel that
they have learned something just by reading your article. It is
the only way to hook up your readers so that they will read your
article throughout the end.

All of these things may seem overwhelming to a budding writer
but as long as you have the passion and dogged determination to
succeed online, then, everything will come off smoothly,
quickly, and easily. Here are a few tips on how to quickly and
easily write traffic generating article:

1. Think first, and then write.

Clear writing is the result of clear thinking. If the ideas are
confused in your headÖif the points you want to make are vague
to youÖthey will not be any clearer just because you want to put
them down into writing.

To write clearly, you must think beforehand. You must figure out
just what you want to say and why you are writing in the first
place. Know who your readers are and write for them. Only then
can you expect clarity, conciseness, consistency, and accuracy.

Doodling and thinking what you want to write and how to start it
will cost so much time. The point here is that you should be
able to come up with an article as quickly and as easily as
possible.

2. Get to the point

Most of the writing that online businesses do is to inform. So
it is generally a good idea to tell the reader, at the
beginning, what it is all about. Suspense is so important in
some forms of writing, but rarely in write-ups used in article
marketing.

The beginning of a piece of writing is the most important part.
So start punching right off. Come to the point quickly. Get the
readers into the main idea. Or tell the reader something that
will make him sit and take notice. Preferably something that is
of interest to him.

You will find that if you pick out your main idea and state it
briefly at the beginning, you will have little trouble staying
on the beam for the remainder of the article. And the reader
will have less trouble following you, if he has some idea where
you are going.

3. Help people solve their problems

It is important that the write-up that you will create is
something that will help people solve their problems. You should
not focus more on how you want your readers respond to your
product.

Hence, try to write a ìhow-toî article. It is another type of
informative story, the purpose of which is to explain a process,
the way of doing things, or how a certain product is made.

Writing articles that include top lists of something can also be
beneficial to your readers. The lists will serve as a guide to
the readers when buying or choosing some products.

By placing some information about your business at the end of
each article, you will be able to promote your business quickly
and easily.

And because the readers find your article very useful and
informative, they will be enticed to visit your website. Without
knowing it, you are already generating more traffic to your site.

4. Be positive

State a fact or idea directly, whenever possible. People will
never read your article, much less attend to your business, if
they find it so hard to understand your write-up. They will tend
to think that if your article is not as good as it may sound;
then, your business might be just the same.

5. Make your articles focus on your clients and not on your
business

The problem with most people why they do not generate the
necessary traffic to their site is because they are so
self-centered. They are so concerned with generating income and
profit that they focus more on advertising their business.

In article marketing, what matters most is how you focus more on
how you can help the reader attend to his or her needs. It is
how you will create the feeling of need for your product because
it is one way of solving their problems.

The bottom line is that when writing articles that will quickly
and easily generate traffic to your site is based on the fact
that you should first try to solve the peopleís problems. Itís
on how you will be bale to provide them solutions that they will
be attracted to your site.

Once they are already generated to your site, it would be easier
for you to introduce them to your products. And because they
find your article very useful, they would have a propensity to
patronize your product or services. That is simply the power of
writing traffic-generating articles.

Alzheimer’s disease is a condition affecting up to 4.5 million
Americans. While there is no known cure, studies have been
conducted that indicate there may be ways of preventing the
onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

The disease is characterized by symptoms such as forgetfulness,
memory loss, and reduced ability to concentrate, and in later
stages the sufferer may display anxiety and delusions, loss of
speech and inability to sit up or walk. It is a slow disease
with symptoms manifesting and worsening over the period of many
years.

The now famous, groundbreaking “nun study” went a long way
toward identifying characteristics that would indicate the
likelihood of Alzheimer’s onset later in life. 100 nuns have
been studied over a period of fifteen years, beginning in 1991.
Over the course of those years, their genes have been tested and
analyzed, physical balance and strength charted, and cognitive
tests run to determine how many words the women could remember
several minutes after reading them, how many animals they could
name in a minute, and if they could correctly count coins. The
research shows that people who scored lower on cognitive ability
tests when young were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s later
in life. Early cognitive ability was measured based on writings
done by the nuns while in their early 20’s. Those showing more
“idea density” - the number of ideas expressed in the fewest
number of words - and better linguistic and grammar skills had a
much lower incidence of Alzheimer’s later in life. Scientists
are of the opinion that good cognitive skills early on creates a
sort of “neurocognitive reserve” which will be drawn on later,
effectively preventing Alzheimer’s. Exercising and improving
cognitive skills via writing, reading and learning - anything
that stimulates the brain - may go a long way toward active,
clearheaded and graceful aging.

There are a number of other things, as well, that you can do to
help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. Many of these prevention
techniques involve limbering the mind and working on memory
skills long before Alzheimer’s onset is a danger. Just having a
mentally stimulating job that involves creative thinking or
manipulation of data is shown to have a connection to lower
incidence of Alzheimer’s later in life. Doing crossword puzzles
and playing card games were found to have a significant positive
impact on later mental dexterity. Employ memorization techniques
used by actors. Actors don’t merely memorize a series of words.
They also combine appropriate movements, and evaluate the intent
behind the words to be delivered. This “active-experiencing”
method of memorization was shown to also improve the memory and
cognitive skills in older people who were taught the technique.
Limbering your mind now may promote a limber mind in your latter
years.

Proper diet and exercise promote good health in general and may
ward off countless problems including Alzheimer’s onset. The
addition of fish oils, Vitamin E, and Vitamin C to the diet have
all shown to contribute to a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s.
Keeping cholesterol at a healthy level prevents build-up of
amyloid plaques in the brain - a characteristic in Alzheimer’s.
Finally, physical activity has been shown to prevent deposits in
the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Exercise your mind and body, and make good lifestyle choices, as
the only “cure” for Alzheimer’s as yet, is prevention. While
there is believed to be a genetic component which would
predispose someone to the risk of Alzheimer’s, awareness, early
planning and mental exercise, and smart dietary choices may aid
to reduce your likelihood of developing this mysterious and
debilitating disease. A healthy mind and a healthy body now will
make for a healthy mind and body later.

Fruit smoothies provide you a different way to eat fruits. Smoothies mixed with other ingredients and nutrients can serve as a way to clear your acne and provide nutrients to clear constipation. Blended nutrients are digested quicker when in a liquid slurry then when in a solid food. Smoothies can be created that help build, cleanse, and heal your body.

In cases where you are depleted of various vitamins and minerals, smoothies are a way to bring these nutrients quickly into your body.

During the period where you have acne, drink more smoothies to detoxify toxic matter in your colon and else where in your body.

The smoothies I list in other articles provide you with plenty of fiber. Fiber is one of the main foods you want to increase in your eating plan.

In her book, New Facts About Fiber, 1997, Betty Kamen, Ph. D., talks about how fiber helps skin diseases,

“Treatment of any skin condition is always more effective when the intestinal tract is free of disease-producing fungi. Vegetable fiber is recommended to reduce yeast colonies between your intestinal villi – the threadlike projections covering the surface of the mucous membranes lining your small intestine, which serve as the absorption sites of nutrients. Fiber also helps to avoid yeast cells from invading your lymph tract and circulating blood. This is effective in clearing seborrheic eczema (the kind that causes excessive discharge from the sebaceous glands, forming greasy scales and cheesy plugs) and other skin conditions.”

Drink your smoothie slowly. Do not drink it like water. The best way to drink it is to move the mixture around in your mouth so saliva is mixed with the smoothie ingredients. Drinking a smoothie too fast can lead to gas (air in the smoothie) to form in the stomach and intestine, which can cause some discomfort.

Once your smoothie is made, drink it within a few minutes. The smoothie ingredients will start to decay quickly as it has air mixed in from the blending process. If you fill a thermos to the top, you can use the smoothie for later.

In her book, The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies, 2003, Natalie Savona, gives some hints on storing your smoothie.

“There really is no such thing as storing a juice or smoothie – you can’t beat drinking them the moment you’ve made them. However, you may like to take them out to work or on a picnic. In that case, the best way to store them is to put a teaspoon of vitamin C powder or a squeeze pf lemon juice in the bottom of the jug attached to the juicer. The vitamin C acts as an antioxidant, preventing the juice from turning brown. The same goes for smoothies. Also keep the drinks covered and cool – in a sealed container in the refrigerator, or in a thermos flask”

Look for my articles on making a smoothie for acne and good health.

Rudy Silva has a degree in Physics and is a Natural Nutritionist. He is the author of Constipation, Acne, Hemorrhoid, and Fatty Acid ebooks. He writes a newsletter call “natural-remedies-thatwork.com.” More acne hints and information on his acne e-book can be found at: http://www.acne-remedies.for–you.info

I know that many out there want to improve their photography in one aspect. Flower photography. With gardening as popular as it is this shouldn’t be a surprise. Flower photography while looking like one of the simplest forms of photography can quickly become one of the most difficult. Here are a few tips for you. (Keeping in mind that basic good photography skills are always used.)

1. Soft diffuse light. Today it’s very overcast outside, and if there were any flowers in bloom today would be the perfect day for capturing some great images. Soft diffuse light enhances color saturation, so if you wondered how or why pro photographers flower images seem so deep in color this is one of the reasons why. (There are exceptions to this rule. I do some flower photography is bright or dappled sunlight but I’m usually trying to get an effect of light passing through the petals.)

2. Slow film speed. 200 speed or less. The slower speed films have greater detail and for flowers you’re going to need to get close anyway and you want the nice sharp detail of a slower speed of film. I use 100 speed for my flower photography.

3. Tripod. Use one for this type of photography. Set up your shot, get everything in sharp focus, and then shoot. A tripod will keep your camera from moving on you and allow you to get the sharp detail you will need.

4. Look for great colors, a flower in full bloom next to a bud, and don’t shoot on windy days. Keep contrast and color in mind at all times and try different compositions each time you take a shot.

Flower photography can be a lot of fun especially if the flowers are your own.

If you have some specific questions please visit my Photography and Design Forum at: http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php and post your question there.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Copyright 2005 Kelly Paal
Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. She owns her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

Positive feedback is vital for growing a business and good reputation on eBay, especially when building feedback to sell BUY IT NOW or open a shop on eBay. Bad feedback can be avoided, even removed, read on to learn how.

eBay Feedback is the process where buyers and sellers rate one another based on actual trading experience. If the transaction is good you can expect positive feedback from buyers and sellers. Neutral feedback indicates room for improvement; negative feedback denotes an unacceptably flawed transaction –

Usually!

I say ‘usually’ because things don’t always go according to plan. Feedback is subjective – some people are more easily pleased than others, some more forgiving while some are more honest. I have seen positive feedback left by people who haven’t even received their product yet, and negative from others who just enjoy being cruel or haven’t even paid the seller. Jealousy, bad hair days, downright nastiness, all contribute to negative feedback which few sellers can avoid.

Positive feedback is vital for growing a business and good reputation on eBay, especially when building feedback to sell BUY IT NOW or open a shop on eBay. Feedback – positive and negative (neutral doesn’t count for % rating) is represented as a proportion of overall feedback. So the lower your feedback rating, the higher the impact negative feedback has, unlike PowerSellers with, say, 10,000 feedbacks, for whom one more negative has little or no effect.

Once feedback is given, even in the heat of the moment, it can’t be changed, so a negative stays with you for life. That’s more or less what eBay says, but the reality is different. Feedback can be retracted by mutual consent (learn more via ‘Feedback’ in your eBay account) and via firms like SquareTrade – www.squaretrade.com – who mediate between members to remove negatives.

It’s vitally important to understand why people leave negative feedback and take steps to avoid these most common reasons:

* Delay in sending product. ‘Delay’ for some people is more than a day between paying and receiving their product, for most three or four days is acceptable. Seven days is too long. If there is a delay, be upfront about it, write to buyers, apologize and give an explanation and revised delivery date.

* Sending product badly wrapped. Pack products carefully, using bubble wrap or padded bags. It can be expensive but you are allowed to add packing charges to postal costs.

* Not sending product at all. More than three negatives for this will get you suspended or barred from eBay. Not sending a product is inexcusable and you should only list items you already have or can easily obtain.

* Item not as described. Describe items as carefully and comprehensively as possible and always include a message like: ‘Item described to the best of our ability. Money back on all items with inadvertent listing mistakes or errors.’

* Not answering emails. Often the problem isn’t yours, the other person may have spam filters preventing your email getting through, often they just don’t check before leaving negative feedback. An estimated one-third of emails miss their intended destination, mainly due to spam filters.

But most PayPal letters make it through spam filters and they’re rarely missed by people who’ve binned many of your earlier communications. Virtually everyone opens emails saying ‘There’s money in your PayPal account’. Poor communications can be solved by sending a small amount of money via PayPal with a message ‘You have spam filters in place, contact me asap’. Or similar. Be careful, remember the recipient of money usually pays PayPal a transaction fee. Not so where you partially refund someone paying you through PayPal. Do this by entering the appropriate transaction within your PayPal account, scroll down to ‘refund’, pay a small amount back. The recipient won’t pay but he will get your message. Don’t refund by PayPal for buyers paying you by cheque or cash. They will be charged. The exception is where you send a token amount, plus PayPal charge, to the recipient.

* Charging high postage and trying to make more money that way. You can charge extra for packing and processing but be realistic. Don’t charge $10 for a package costing $3 to post and $2 for packing materials. It’s unprofessional and will earn negative feedback and complaints to eBay.

* In retaliation for leaving negative feedback for other eBayers. This is the most common reason for negative feedback and something you must learn to live with. If you’re honest and leave negative feedback to warn other buyers and sellers against a member you consider dishonest or untrustworthy you will get negatives. You must decide if warning others is worth the red mark!

* Just Because! You will never please them all and it isn’t worth your time trying.

Getting Good, Avoiding Bad and Managing Problem Feedback

* Retaliatory negative feedback is the most worrying aspect of all for serious business eBayers who, though they know it’s their duty to warn other sellers about undesirable customers, are often too afraid of incurring negatives in return. I only give feedback when it’s already been left for me. In my listings and compliments slip I say: ‘If you have a problem email us at myemailaddress and we’ll sort it out right away. Otherwise, leave feedback to let us know your product has arrived in good order and we will reciprocate within 24 hours.’

* ‘Reciprocate’ is the important word, and if someone leaves positive feedback we normally leave the same; if they leave neutral or negative we contact them to ask why. If we consider reciprocal neutral or negative feedback is warranted, that’s what they get. To my mind it is totally, totally wrong to leave neutral or negative feedback for anyone without first trying to resolve the problem. In this case our negative or neutral feedback isn’t retaliatory, it’s simply to warn other sellers about the buyer’s lack of care and communications skills.

* You can pre-approve bidders, allowing you to sell purely to individuals who have no negative feedback themselves and don’t leave it unnecessarily for others. You might get people to email you before bidding, you check them out, you approve or bar them from bidding. Personally, I can’t see the point.

* You can cancel bids or forbid certain people from bidding. Visit eBay’s Feedback Forum for lots of advice and comments from seasoned sellers.

* A friendly, considerate disposition, and the ability to handle difficult people, all help avoid the ‘Big N*’ which can seriously damage your business. (*Negative feedback!!!). Now let us get real, bear in mind the bigger you get, the more items you sell, the more negatives you might genuinely earn, and the more difficult people you will encounter. Be careful, considerate, communicate.

Learn from earned negative feedback, try to avoid undeserved complaints, and learn to live with whatever else happens.

Avril Harper is a triple eBay PowerSeller and editor of eBay Confidential and webmaster of http://www.publishingcircles.com. She has produced a free guide - 103 POWERSELLER TIPS - which you can download with other free to distribute reports and ebooks at http://www.toppco.com

Did you know there is a way you (yes you) can beat even the savviest and toughest fighters in the world…regardless of how much you know about fighting now?

Even if you’ve never taken one single self defense lesson and even if your attacker has ten plus years of hard fighting experience under his belt?

I know it sounds almost crazy, but it’s absolutely true.

Here’s why:

You can get an immediate advantage over any fighter, in any environment simply by learning the finer points of what is called ” the fake.”

In fact, the fake is an extremely potent fighting “tactic” street-fighting teachers explain almost as soon as new students sign up for their classes.

Why?

Because if you can master the art of faking people out in a fight — by faking a punch to the face…but then landing a kick to the knee cap instead, for example — you can beat anyone in a fight. I don’t care who they are or who you are. You can do it if you know what you’re doing.

Frankly, this was one of Bruce Lee’s most treasured fighting “secrets” and has been used by people for centuries to take out bigger, stronger and more skilled fighters.

This is also why the savviest fighters never underestimate any opponent — even if their look small, weak and inexperienced — and why you shouldn’t either.

Since you’re going to write your newsletter on a regular basis,
it’s essential that you choose a topic you’re passionate about.
Otherwise, it will be too boring and difficult for you to keep
writing a valuable, informative article every day, week, or
month.

I speaking from personal experience. I once started a newsletter
about a profitable niche, but I didn’t enjoy writing about it. I
spent a lot of time and energy choosing a name, designing a
professional cover, creating an HTML template, and so on.

But after writing a couple of issues, I discovered I couldn’t
continue doing that for a long time. So I stopped publishing my
newsletter.

If I knew this secrets earlier, I wouldn’t lose that much of my
time. But now you know it. I shared this secret with you so that
you could save yourself a lot of time by avoiding the mistake I
made.

Choose a topic you’re passionate about, so you will have fun
writing each of your issues. And be creative. You don’t have to
start another newsletter about making money online.

Here are the steps you should take for finding a good, creative
topic for your newsletter…

STEP 1: Pick a pen and a piece of paper and go somewhere that
nobody disturbs you. Brainstorm as many ideas as you can think
of. Write down everything your mind comes across - even the
craziest ideas. Because they will act like a path to more
creative ideas.

STEP 2: Look at your list and choose the topics you enjoy
writing about - no matter whether you think they’re profitable
or not.

STEP 3: Cross out the ideas you think you don’t have enough
information to write informative articles about on a regular
basis.

STEP 4: Finally, pick the topic you think will be more
profitable. Yes, I know you want to make money from your
newsletter, but believe me, it’s the last thing you should
consider while choosing a topic.

Congratulations! Now you have a great topic idea for your
newsletter.

Very early on in life I gained a healthy respect for an extremely simple yet ‘sofa’ comfortable piece of plastic mould, a feature that is found in most houses, public places, restaurants and in trains, planes and larger sized all-in-one camper vans! It was the toilet seat.

In times gone by (during the darker years) there were no toilet seats and people had to either suffer soil rash or chill waves from the iced up ceramic pot! Then a new day dawned and life improved immeasurably, first of wood and then of plastic the toilet seat arrived on planet earth and was here to stay! Formed, holy and curvaceous: white, cream or liberally embedded with imitation piranha fish, barbed wire or flowers - none of which go with the flow! Whatever trend, statement or poor sense of owner’s humor these seats take after they are without doubt one of the most comfortable seats to find oneself sitting on and it is thus with wonder that airplane seats or McDonalds plastic bucket chairs are not fashioned around the delightful and often attractive comfort of a toilet bowl?

Despite the all pervasive comforts of the bum rest, my healthy respect is not formed from the many comfortable seats that my cheeks have rested on or a result of anything sordid or degrading but gained from using a single toilet with ten sisters for most of my informative years! I am the youngest of the gaggle: so there was no way out, no commode to hide in! I was basically scuppered from day one; as soon as I was able to raise that toilet lid and place my pecker beneath my sisters had it in for me! The argument or battle invariably revolved around the raising and lowering of the seat! They wanted it permanently down and I just kept on forgetting to lower it after having splashed and splattered freely from my stance.

In fact with so many sisters it was very hard to butt into any conversation and thus I was always being given the bums rush whether the problem was about toilet seats or not. My arguments were constantly flushed away, there was no bottom to my sister’s attitudes in dealing with my habits, so I often took my feelings to the closet were I would lick my wounds quietly!

There was basically no chance for me as regards the toilet seat and although it took many years to ‘wipe me clean’ I eventually and partially subconsciously came around to their way of wanting things! I lifted the toilet seat up when I needed to pee and I put it back down again after I had finished! They had the pleasure of having the mould awaiting their eager behinds without having to lean over and pull down the offending seat first!

At the age of twenty-two I stepped out into the world to experience life outside, leaving all the bull…. behind! I took with me that healthy respect of toilet seats and woman and everywhere that I went those toilet seats went back down. Yep, my sisters had won that **** fight!

But life is not so simple! I am now fifty-five and have just been made privy to some startling ****-stirring **** that has shocked me to the very cheeks of my buttocks! I live in Beijing, having resided here for twenty years, and for all that time I have continued without fail to lower seats behind me every where that I go! Every seat that I have had the pleasure of pleasuring the underside of gets lowered back to the horizontal so that any woman following after can conveniently get down to business without first having to reflect on the selfishness of man.

But my once tolerant wife can no longer keep it in. She has started to become irritable, I can’t leave my pipe on the mantelpiece, can’t wear my shoes inside and the latest one of “lift the toilet seat up when finished”, has become a sore point between us!

Sorry, did I hear correctly? Did you say lift it up. I felt at that point that I needed the services of a psychiatrist if not a fully-equipped hospital for mental disorders (for myself not my wife) or that I should get immediately ****-faced on whisky in some weak attempt to extricate myself from the sewer that I now seemed to be floating in! But after settling the wife down and making her realize that I was not giving her trouble, she explained this new (to me) ruling.

In Asia it is all ‘****-about-face’ with regard to toilet seats! In Western culture the woman tends to rule the roost and so men invariably lose the battle of the toilet seat! Here in China things are slightly different. The man is the most important thing around and nothing else really counts, including the woman, the wife, the girl friend or the mother! Thus it is the duty of the lady of the house to make sure that their mans comforts are suitably catered for, including the permanent raising of the toilet seat so that when he decides to splatter he can do so without first having to raise the offending lid!

I am in permanent shock! I spent my informative years being conditioned daily to lower a piece of plastic and by the age of twenty I was prepared for the world. I spent the next twenty years acting upon my education only to find that I had been doing it completely wrong in the land that I lived. For over twenty years I have been walking around puzzling and annoying mothers and daughters after my visits. I can picture the subsequent conversation after my departure, “what a disgusting man that is, leaving the toilet seat down”. And the daughter would reply, “I know mum, I won’t be seeing him again!

Life has pissed on me from a great height!

Do I lift seats up or leave them down? But then again, I don’t really give a shit!

About the author:

Author and Webmaster of Seamania. As a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for fifteen years. Now living in Taiwan he writes about cultures across the globe and life as he sees it.