Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Can New Dishes Help With Portion Control?

New plates, dishes and containers claim to help with portion control. But Good Housekeeping found they didn't always get the job done.

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Monday, 29 November 2010

Oruchuban Ebichu ep. 24 (eng. subs)

Ep. 24 Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster. (You can drink whatever You want.)

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Sunday, 28 November 2010

Debt Management, Budgeting and Financial Controls - Planning The Budget

Planning the Budget

In the previous exercise, we have identified all costs and all income and now have a clear picture of the current situation. Using this information, the budget we set will, in effect, be an overview of how we live our lives from this point on. There will be certain rules that we have to stick with, but we will know that sticking to the rules will allow us to achieve our future financial goals.

The next part of the process is a little more painful and certainly more laborious than the last, but nevertheless must be done. Begin with the easy stuff first. This is the middle section on the budget sheet, i.e.:

- motoring expenses;

- food and housekeeping;

- miscellaneous goods and services;

- personal and leisure;

- sundries and emergencies.

There will be lots of low hanging fruit here (easy savings to be made).

For example, let's say your daily expenditure diary reveals that on your commute to work you buy a newspaper at the railway station and a coffee while you wait for the train. You buy lunch at the deli around the corner, but go to the local pub for a sit down lunch and a drink on a Friday. You have a drink with colleagues after work on average 2 nights a week and buy an evening paper to read on the train on the way back from work. This is what this expenditure looks like over the week:

Morning coffee: 1.50 x 5 = 7.50

Morning paper: 0.60 x 5 = 3.00

Lunch at the deli 2.50 x 4 = 10.00

Bar lunch: 7.50 x 1 = 7.50

After work drinks: 2.80 x 2 = 5.60

Evening paper: 0.50 x 5 = 2.50

Weekly total: 7.50 + 3 + 10 + 7.50 + 5.60 + 2.50 = £36.10

Look at this again. Every single item is discretionary, yet it will cost you £144.40 in a 4 week month.

You may not be able to give everything up on the list, but taking a flask of coffee to work with a packed lunch may be a start. Many newspapers now offer yearly subscriptions that will cut the weekly bill by more than half - if you still need to have a newspaper every morning and every evening (do you?). The pub lunch could be dropped and the drinks with the colleagues after work cut back to one drink one evening a week - still sociable enough for most people.

In this example we might get back something like £130 per month. If there are two of you doing it, it might be more like £260 per month.

You need to do this type of breakdown and cost reduction exercise on each line item. Drop things like takeaways to a once a month treat and (if you do not already) learn to cook and cut out ready meals and other prepared food. You will not only save money, you will find you start living healthier too.

Examine closely how you do your motoring. Could you mange with one car instead of two? Could you get rid of the gas guzzling 4 x 4, which would reduce insurance, maintenance, road tax and fuel bills - all at once? Hopefully you are getting the idea by now.

Once the individual figures have been reviewed and cost reductions identified, you can put the new figures into the budget sheet and we can now start to see the new budget taking shape.

Next we can look at the first section. That is:

-housing costs;

-rates and utilities;

-important household services;

-personal insurances.

These are largely fixed costs, but there are opportunities here too. Housing costs such as rent or mortgages can be reduced. Mortgage deals can be switched to take advantage of new lender deals, or fixed rate schemes taken on if interest rates look like rising in the near future. The term of the loan can be extended or (if things are really tight) payments dropped to interest only for a while. You need to ask the question.

If you are renting, could you manage with a smaller property, or a one in a less fashionable area? Could you move closer to work at the same time and reduce daily travelling costs?

Take a look at what seems to be fixed costs such as personal, or household, insurances and compare rates and benefits. Deals in this area change literally every week.

Gas and electric costs can be reduced by switching supplier or, better still, turning down the heating and switching off lights and appliances when they are not being used. Focus on this for a while and you might be pleasantly surprised at the difference it will make.

And so on.

The last cost section is the credit card and unsecured debt one. Much like insurances this may be a more flexible area than you think. If your credit rating is good then you have lots of room here to take on new cards and deals with 0% interest rates. Make sure when you do this that you close down the accounts you are transferring from. That is, you do not increase your overall indebtedness, or availability of debt.

If your credit rating is already poor, or bad, this may not be an option for you, so you will have to find other ways to reduce your repayments. One thing that creditors like to see is that their debtors are in control of the situation. A well put together budget sheet like the one we are in the process of outlining here can be a huge help.

Using the budget sheet you can identify all income and expenditure that needs to be made before handling your unsecured debt. This will leave you a set amount that can be used to negotiate reduced payments to your creditors.

This is a separate subject in its own right, but showing you are in control of your own finances may allow you to negotiate a reduced payment plan with the companies concerned.

Any other thing you can do in this area to consolidate debt and reduce overall interest payments needs to be examined closely.

However, you need to resist the temptation to make any loan consolidations that involve using your property for security. There is probably another way, so explore the other ways first.

The last section is income. You may have been tough with yourself in the cost section, but the other dimension to the budget is of course income. The more you increase your income, the less you need to cut back (or the bigger the benefit if you do).

Whilst writing 'increase your income' is very easy for me to do, in reality it is much harder to do. However, there may be opportunities you had not considered which may be worth exploring such as overtime, weekend shifts, unsociable shifts, additional responsibilities that could be taken on, or even a second job. Switching jobs could also be an option as could be starting a completely new career.

In other words increasing income is not always about getting further up the greasy pole, sometimes it is about taking a sideways move into any area you had not considered before.

One last point on income: while you have the budget sheet in front of you it is worth evaluating the cost of work. In other words, when you add up travel, parking, fuel, dry cleaning, child care, work wear etc then subtract it from your income - that will give you a true figure of what you earn.

Finalising the Budget

The above represents a substantial investment in time and effort. The end result will be a budget sheet which is accurate, personally optimised and which puts you in control of your own finances.

Having made this effort, you should now have identified specific allowances for each item and you now need to be sure that money is allocated each month to cover those items whether they occur weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly.

It is unlikely that you will be able to reduce all of your costs, move house, change jobs, etc, all at once, so you may have recognised already that this budgeting exercise can be a progressive thing that happens over time.

Therefore, to begin with, you will need to ensure that costs are under control and, as a minimum, outgoings equal income. Over time you will look for cost savings and income increasing opportunities and, once taken advantage of, you can then revisit the budget sheet, put in the new figures and move on.

One completely free benefit to all of this is that, once it is all complete and you are sticking to it, you get a full night's sleep whenever you want.

Next

Sticking to the budget

How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories Furnishings for Your Home

Saturday, 27 November 2010

Home Organizing Tips : How to Create a Household Organizer

Create a household organizer by using a file drawer or big notebook with different files for each family member. Whether creating a system to write down phone messages or chores to be done, organizing a family's busy schedule is simple and easy with ideas from a professional house cleaner and organizer in this free video on housekeeping. Expert: Ann Myrick Bio: Since 1997, Ann Myrick has been a professional decorator, house cleaner, home organizer and planner. Filmmaker: Tim Brown

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Friday, 26 November 2010

Housekeeping Tips : How to Remove Sweat Stains

In order to remove sweat stains from clothing, use a combination of water and aspirin to make a mixture for cleaning spot stains. Wash a piece of clothing in the washing machine after cleaning sweat stains with help from a professional house cleaner in this free video on removing stains and cleaning tips. Expert: Rachel Yatuzis Contact: www.greenkleeninc.com Bio: Rachel Yatuzis is a professional house cleaner in Nashville, Tenn., specializing in using everyday household items for cleaning purposes. Filmmaker: Tim Brown

Furnishings for Your Home

Thursday, 25 November 2010

How to make a proper habbo retro [no debbo] [no hamachi]

Here are all download links: holo cms: rapidshare.com winRar: www.rarlab.com MySQL: dev.mysql.com xampp: www.apachefriends.org Microsoft Visual C#: www.microsoft.com TortoiseSVN: tortoisesvn.net -------------------------------------------------------------------------- v23 dcrs link: rapidshare.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- local host link: localhost (remember to have Apache and MySQL running or it wont work) local host change password localhost local host admin: localhost ----------------------------------------------------------------------- dcrs for lazy people: External Texts field: www.habbohotel.co.uk External Variables field: www.habbohotel.co.uk Habbo DCR field: images.habbohotel.co.uk ----------------------------------------------- how to add the v23 dcrs to your retro: Installing your own dcr's: 1. Download the V23 DCR's in the link above. 2. Extract them to your Desktop. 3. Now you'll have a folder on your desktop with the DCR files in it. 4. Make a folder in C:\xampp\htdocs\ and call it v23. 5. Put all the stuff in the map to the map you've created in htdocs. 6. Open external_variables.txt. 7. Search for: ''yourip'' without quotes for some times untill you've got them all. 8. Change them to your ip, 127.0.0.1 or your Hamachi IP. 9. Save. 10. Go to Housekeeping. 11. Go to Site & Content. 12. Fill everything in, it will look like this: External Texts field: OpenDNS External Variables field: OpenDNS Habbo DCR field ...

How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories Furnishings for Your Home

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

The Henry Vacuum Cleaner is a Popular Vac

The idea of a vacuum cleaner as a housekeeping tool was brought to us by an Englishman named Henry Cecil Booth. In the 1950s, this man invented the very first one and dubbed it "Puffin Billy". It started as a gasoline powered machine, but nonetheless was the beginnings of the Henry vacuum cleaner.

The body of the vacuum cleaner was left outside while it was in use due to its large size, the smoke, the horrible odor and the noise. This equipment ran using lengthy, lightweight hose put through the home's window in the room that was being cleaned.

There is a change from the vacuums of the past to those of the present day.

The initial model of the Henry vacuum cleaner was very big in size and made a lot of noise. Obviously, this was not a very popular model and didn't sell well. James Sprangler introduced some simple modifications which changed the vacuum cleaner into the cleaning tool that we know today, e.g. a fan, a pillow covering, and a box type structure.

Sprangler as well as the Henry vacuum cleaner project was unable to continue with his venture, he then sold his patent to Henry Hoover whom invented the Hoover. The Henry Vacuum cleaners paled in comparison with the updated Hoover design of later years.

The Hoover brand of vacuum cleaner was a runaway success; even today the brand has its command and presence in the market, and Hoover is known as one of the few organizations that deliver on their promise. The Henry vacuum cleaner is now available for use!

After starting out with only very simple designs, the company now boasts more than six models of Henry vacuum cleaners, including cylinder, upright, centralized, wet vacuum cleaners and more!

You need to analyze each one for its strengths and weaknesses individually, in order to avoid offering so much that you don't pay attention to warning symptoms. The best for your home is not the most expensive or the most beautiful, but the one which can take care of your needs in the house. But odds are the Henry vacuum cleaner will suit your requirements.

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Monday, 22 November 2010

Meet Success: Business Profile of Sylvia Acevedo, Communicard Owner

Sylvia Acevedo needed a break from her technology job so she bought an old Victorian house to remodel into a bed and breakfast. "Being an engineer working in technology, I really felt I didn't do a lot of tangible work. But with the bed and breakfast, at the end of the day, I felt like I had actually done something."

And, of course, she had—because as she renovated the house, she transformed it into a beautiful B&B. She had no problem communicating with the construction crew, who were mostly Hispanic, because she grew up speaking both Spanish and English. "My mother was from Mexico and all of my grandparents lived there," she says.

"People would see me talking to a crew of workers and I literally would have contractors stop and hand me the phone, asking me to translate for them," she says. That's how she realized communication between Hispanic construction workers and non-Spanish-speaking supervisors was really a problem.

Being a software engineer, Sylvia's mind immediately went to solving the problem. "I think it's because I've always been an innovator and I see things maybe in a way that provides a side-door solution. I don't just look at the situation and say, 'Okay, it's a bottleneck'. I try to look at new ways to solve the problem. And in this particular situation, the problem was communication." But she didn't follow through on her ideas for a few more years.

After two years of renovating and running the B&B, Sylvia was ready to get back into the technology field, so she hired a manager for the bed and breakfast, and started a software development company with three others. A few years later, Sylvia and her partners later sold the software company.

"That was really interesting," she says, "because we sold it for stock and then the stock market crashed. But that was an important learning lesson because I learned a lot about creating a company that supported intellectual property and taking it from literally concept to actually building a company."

By this time she had also sold the B&B for a tidy little sum and was ready to solve the communication problem she saw a few years before. She realized there were a lot of non-Spanish-speaking people in the United States who were hiring people who only spoke Spanish for service jobs. "And you have a challenge because how do you direct the work that needs to be done?" she says.

The solution? The CommuniCard, easy-to-use Spanish/English communication cards. There's a deck of housekeeping cards with pictures of the tasks and English/Spanish translations, and several accordion-folded, laminated pocket cards for the construction industry showing tools, tasks and translations, and a similar pocket card for the lawncare industry. This allows the supervisor to merely show the card to the worker to communicate. For instance, one of the cards shows a person cleaning a big window with a spray bottle in one hand while using a squeegee in the other. The wording below the illustration says, "Clean the windows. Limpia las ventanas." So if the worker cannot speak English, or even read, it is clear what is being asked.

Before putting it into production she tested it extensively, first in Texas, and then across the United States. "I went to Northern California, Southern California, New Mexico, Colorado and across the South and Texas. I found the biggest needs were in construction and housekeeping," she says. She began by interviewing the people who hired these workers—everyone from Junior Leaguers, to people in office settings who hired workers, to companies and construction firms. She also began to go to day-labor sites and construction sites to interview the workers. But the supervisors weren't appreciative of her being on jobsites, even if she only spoke to workers while they were on their breaks.

"So I would approach them at bus stops, churches, and schools." And what she learned was very informative. "We began to get a lot of feedback and the product changed dramatically as a result," she says.

All in all, she spoke to over 4,000 people. After the informal research, it was time for something a little more elaborate. "We've done many focus groups, and we do them on all the products," Sylvia says. The interviews are conducted by a professional, trained moderator who's bilingual.

"And that's a very important issue," she says. "When you have a vision for a product, you really need to get customer input. But there's also a fine line between getting too much input and not enough. I didn't want to go into analysis paralysis or information overload."

One of the important outcomes of the focus groups was that one person in the first focus group had such a huge need to solve the communication problem that he approached her about investing in the company. She accepted, and for a stake in the company, he paid for the initial production of the cards.

The company is now in the middle of its second year and sales are increasing. So far, they've sold thousands of the cards, but it's slow going. Sylvia originally thought the product would be sold through retail stores, but she found that her previous distribution experience was no longer valid.

"My experience was dated. It was years before Wal-Mart had taken over and many of the people that I went to call on in the industry were no longer there. In fact, the businesses were gone."

Finding a roadblock in the path to retail distribution was a big disappointment, but the company simply adjusted its thinking and found another way. Now, instead of selling through national retail chains as she had hoped, CommuniCard products are sold through trade associations and the company's website, as well as through a few local retail stores.

To promote the innovative product, Sylvia doesn't use traditional advertising. She has found that public relations works best because it's such a new product that requires too much education and explaining.

It's a low-price-point item, with the housekeeping cards selling for $15.95 and all the others selling for less than $10, so Sylvia has found that tradeshows are not particularly effective, either. "You're competing with so many giveaways at tradeshows that I found it really diminished the value of our brand. People would say, 'Gosh, they just gave me this really cool saw that's worth 30 bucks and you're not going to give me this for $10?' So I found it to be very expensive and unproductive," she says.

Nevertheless, in its first year of business CommuniCard -- found at [http://www.communicard.com] -- sold well over 5,000 units of the housekeeping cards, and somewhat less of the others, generating just under a $100,000 in sales.

The company has branched out into consulting as well as product sales because there's a need for the expertise Sylvia has acquired through all her research. "Most marketing firms focus on selling consumer products to Hispanics," she says. Instead, she focuses on solving problems. For instance, the bus company hired her to find out why so few Hispanics ride the bus.

Sylvia was also recognized in 2004 as the National Businesswoman of the Year by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

CommuniCard recently introduced a new set of cards for law enforcement, and police departments have had great interest in them. Sylvia offers to customize the cards with the police department's badge, and this requires an order of hundreds, which customers are readily doing.

The company has also been researching other languages to see what new products might be developed, but so far they haven't found the right match. "When we tested the (original) cards in Chicago, people wanted cleaning cards in Polish. But that's such a small market. We'd only be able to sell those in New York, Chicago and maybe Boston. Whereas the housekeeping cards in Spanish/English are selling across the country," she says.

One of the things that Sylvia made sure to do was protect her idea. She has a patent pending and, of course, everything is copyrighted and trademarked. As a result of her software engineering background, she knew how important this was. She says she often urges other women inventors to protect their assets, and she has helped several either copyright or trademark their ideas.

One of the things that has surprised her is people need these products so urgently they are willing to pay FedEx delivery charges to get them overnight. "I bet we get no less than three orders per week where people want the product so fast that they're willing to pay more in shipping than the product costs," she says, which leads her to wonder if the product is correctly priced. "We're constantly evaluating," she says.

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Sunday, 21 November 2010

Going Above and Beyond for an Affluent Clientele

I read a story about the Ritz Carlton Hotel recently that has me thinking about what it means to truly court and cater to an affluent clientèle in a way that will keep them interested and involved with your product or service.

The Ritz Carlton Hotel has a policy that any employee (and I mean, any employee from the housekeeping staff to the desk clerks) can spend up to $2,000 a day (without prior authorization from management) to solve the problems or needs of any of their clients.

A business man was staying at the Atlanta Ritz Carlton and headed out to Hawaii for a very important meeting and presentation. He realized he had forgotten his laptop in Atlanta. Without his laptop, he had no presentation. He called the hotel and his call was routed to housekeeping who had informed him that they had found his computer.

The client asked them to send the computer by Federal Express. He explained that he had to have it the next day for his presentation.

Early the next morning, a woman from Atlanta Ritz Carlton's housekeeping department showed up in Hawaii and handed him his computer. She said, 'This was too important.'

Will this man ever stay anywhere else when he's in Atlanta? Doubt it. Will he tell this story to all of his friends? You bet he will. And his friends will tell their friends who will tell their friends. And the publicity and good will that was created by this one interaction will further ingratiate an already well respected organization in the mind of the clientle they cater to: the affluent.

Going above and beyond doesn't mean we have to spend $2,000 a day. Sometimes it means an effortless consideration. Sometimes it can be as simple as a note, a birthday card even.

One of my coaching students, a financial adviser, recently told me a story about sending a birthday card to one of her EX clients. This was an EX client only because she was prevented from courting her due to a non-compete clause which was about to expire. My student followed up the birthday card with a phone call a few weeks later and the ex client (soon to be reinstated client) said to her, 'You know, my husband's financial adviser sent out a birthday card as well. But instead of sending me the birthday card, he sent it to my husband, whose birthday isn't for seven months.'

Mistakes happen. But this was totally avoidable and costly for that other financial adviser.

Attention to detail, going above and beyond, simple pleasantries, even a kind word. . . all of these things not only make other people feel compelled to do business with you, but they make the recipient feel good. Funny thing is, they also have the added bonus of making the person giving them feel good.

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Saturday, 20 November 2010

Top 10 Most Popular Magazines

We all see those magazines at the checkout counter, from entertainment to news to food and celebrity gossip. Have you ever wondered which magazines are the most popular? Well, here are the top 10 from bottom to top:

10. TV Guide - The first TV Guide was published in 1953 and featured Desi Arnaz from I Love Lucy, the most popular current show of that time. Though many newspapers publish their own TV listings, TV Guide is still going strong.

9. Sports Illustrated - The most popular sports magazine, Sports Illustrated enjoys a big boost in readership every year for their annual swimsuit issue. The current incarnation of Sports Illustrated published its first issue in 1954 and covers all the major sports. The #1 cover athlete is Michael Jordan with an astonishing 49 covers. The magazine has a weekly circulation of over 3 million.

8. Time - Time is one of the oldest entries on this list, with the first issue being published in 1923. Time is known for picking a "Person of the Year" each year. Time covers a variety of topics but is mainly a news magazine.

7. Woman's Day - As the title states, Woman's Day covers topics of interest to women including food, recipes, beauty, fashion and fitness. The first issue was published in 1928.

6. Game Informer - Game Informer is a monthly magazine dedicated to video games and consoles. The magazine features reviews and articles on PC games, as well as Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation and PSP games. Game Informer started publishing in the summer of 1991.

5. Ladies Home Journal - This magazine is the oldest on the list, with its first issue being published in 1883. Ladies Home Journal was one of the most popular magazines of the 20th century and it is still being published today. The magazine showcases content aimed at women and housewives.

4. Good Housekeeping - This magazine was started in 1885. Another magazine aimed at women and housewives, Good Housekeeping is famous for its "Seal of Approval" that it gives to different products that have passed their testing. Many famous female writers have contributed articles to the magazine, including Virginia Woolf and Somerset Maugham.

3. National Geographic - The magazine of the National Geographic Society, this magazine helps to broaden knowledge of world history, science, culture, nature and geography in order to document and conserve them. The monthly magazine was first published in 1888. The magazine is published in many different languages.

2. Better Homes and Gardens - This is a monthly magazine that showcases homes, gardens, cooking, gardening and decorating related content. Founded in 1922, it has a readership of nearly 8 million.

1. Reader's Digest - With over 8 million subscribers, this is the #1 magazine in the United States. Founded in 1922, Reader's Digest offers content of interest to families. Many international editions are published and worldwide readership of Reader's Digest magazines is estimated to be over 100 million people.

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Friday, 19 November 2010

How to Start a Webinar

So you've decided to run a webinar. Good for you! Webinars are a wonderful way to create information products. In fact, they are probably the easiest media for the new learning content creator.

But how do you start a webinar?

First off, you need to put the old "I am different" argument away. All learning content is roughly the same. Only in the design and the actual creating do they differ. All products need to follow the same basic structure and process. What is different is the number of sub-topics (or chapters or modules) and the number of items to be covered by each sub-topic and section.

In other words, you need to start your webinar with an introduction.

Traditionally, a webinar starts like a live seminar. It begins with a number of housekeeping elements.

For example, a typical webinar might start like this:

1. Title page

2. Welcome

3. How to ask questions

4. Who is giving the seminar

5. A personal picture or family picture

6. What will be covered (topic)

7. What will be covered (table of contents)

And in many ways this traditional intro makes sense. The title page exists because people will be joining the webinar over an extended period of time. In fact, one of the tricks is to tell everyone to sign up 5 minutes early in order to get on. The title page helps these early folks to know they are in the right place.

The welcome page helps to start the webinar and make the audience feel valuable. (You know they are -- they don't know that you do.

In a live seminar or speech, you need to do a bit of housekeeping. Such as telling the audience where the washrooms are. How to use the microphones. How to exit the building in case of fire. And so on. None of which exists in a webinar. But its equivalent does. Things like how to ask questions. Should you mute or is everyone muted from the beginning etc.?

Because not everyone attending a webinar knows the speaker it's important to introduce them and why they should be listened to. In a traditional live speech this is where the speaker walks on. Unfortunately, unlike most other video formats, webinars don't normally show the speaker. To make the speaker human, pictures of the speaker are useful. Especially if those pictures are of them doing normal human type things. After all, you want the audience to like you.

In a traditional live speech, the first words you hear from the speaker is the introduction and the content. Specifically, what the topic is about and what will be covered in the seminar or speech. In a webinar the speaker typically has been doing the speaking all along. And he or she simply continues on telling the audience what will be discussed in general terms and then goes into the details of what will be covered. Effectively this is the "Tell them what you will tell them" portion of the old training saw.

And it's not a bad way to start. But there is a better way!

How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Thursday, 18 November 2010

Does Your Cleaning Business Have a Mission Statement?

Along with a business plan, a mission statement is an important tool that will capture the spirit of your business. A mission statement helps to clarify the goals and objectives of your company. In just a sentence or two, the mission statement for your cleaning business will set your business goals, your underlying philosophy, and what special benefits you have to offer to your customers. A good mission statement will reflect that special niche that your cleaning business is catering to and provide a long-range vision for you to build on.

Following is a sample mission statement:

"ABC Cleaning Company is committed to delivering the exact services our commercial cleaning customers want, listening closely to their expectations, taking a pro-active approach in defining their needs, and building the best partnering relationship possible. We are also committed to acting with honesty and integrity at all times in all aspects of our business, to being professional in doing our job, and to delivering a consistent, high level quality of work."

A well thought out mission statement will take more than just a few minutes to develop - it takes careful thought and planning. Spending time developing those few sentences that define your business can be just as valuable as the final statement. Going through the process of evaluating your cleaning business, and then defining your customers and your services will help you to look at your cleaning business from your customers' perspective. Don't get bogged down with technical jargon. Focus on defining your company's strengths and why those strengths benefit your customers.

When you are ready to begin, sit down in an area with no distractions. To come up with the statements that will sum up what your cleaning business is all about, consider the following:

- What specific need does your business satisfy?

- What are the principles and values that guide you in the everyday operation of your business?

- Who are your customers?

- What level of service will you provide?

- What image would you like your business to portray to your customers?

To write an effective mission statement, sit down with those who are closest to your business and jot down notes to answer the above questions. Look at mission statements from other businesses and start brainstorming. Once you have a couple of key ideas draft those thoughts into complete sentences.

Once you have formalized your mission statement use it in your promotional materials. The statement will be a quick and easy way for your customers and potential customers to learn about your cleaning business. Keep your mission statement visible and live up to it everyday. This will show your employees and customers that you practice what you preach.

Copyright 2006 The Janitorial Store

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

What Are Your Long Term Career Goals - Job Interview Question

This open-ended question, and others like; "Where do you see yourself in five years?" throw most candidates off balance. The object of the question is to check for your self-awareness and communication skills.

Dan Harrison is the staffing manager for Wesco Corporation and is about to interview three candidates for a project manager position. He is looking for someone with planning and long-range vision skills.

Phil Holmes describes his goal - "To be a Marketing Manager within five years, and have a hand picked team reporting to him."

This is a very specific and narrow goal, which may not be an option at this company. The "hand picked" team demonstrates a lack of flexibility. Best to stay away from too specific a goal.

Shawna Green answers - "I have been so busy with my responsibilities and achieving company goals, that I have not focused on personal long-term goals.

While a strong work ethic is certainly desirable, this answer does not demonstrate vision or planning.

Marsha Severson states- "I plan to return to school to earn my MBA, and have my own consulting business one day.

While it pays to be honest, this answer could turn the interview in the wrong direction very quickly. The employer is looking for someone to stick around for the long run, not to stop over on the way to a new career.

Focus - Exercise

If you are the type of person who prefers an organized way of life, you may find this question a "piece of cake". But, if you are among the majority of persons who let life happen as it comes along, you will probably not have a smooth answer without some forethought.

* What are your goals? - The best answers will come from you thinking about what you want. Most successful business people will tell you that a key success factor is the ability to set and achieve goals.

Begin by setting short-term goals. Right now your goal may be "to get a job". But, what kind of job? And, where do you go from there?

* Be employer-centered - The employer is looking for someone to come in and solve problems. Since planning is a key factor in this job, think of examples where your planning has made a difference in results.

Scripting

After giving some thought to where you want to go and how you can help the employer achieve results, try scripting your answer to focus.

I have learned that long-term goals are best achieved when I break them into shorter goals. My short-term goal is to find a position that will place me in a forward-moving company with solid performance and future projections. As part of a team, I want to add value and continue to grow the company. My long-term goal will depend on where the company goes. My plan is to move into a position of responsibility where I can lead a team.

No one can tell you exactly how to answer this question - it will come from what is important to you. However, the more and focused and employer centered you can be about your goal, the better your chances will be of steering the interview in the right direction.

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Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Vegetable Stir Fry

Try this quick, delicious and healthy recipe - the classic stir fry. Good Housekeeping Videos: www.goodhousekeeping.com Good Housekeeping Magazine: www.goodhousekeeping.com Subscribe to Good Housekeeping: subscribe.hearstmags.com -

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Monday, 15 November 2010

Necchi Bu Nova Sewing Machine Heavy Duty Industrial!

Up for auction is a "NECCHI BU SERIE NOVA" sewing machine that was "MADE IN ITALY" and "Guaranteed by Good Housekeeping". The serial number is "U317410" and is marked on the bottom. The tag on the motor is marked "Necchi Sewing Circle ~ AC-DC ~ 115 VOLT ~ 1.1 AMP ~ SER. NO. B9763 ~ SPEC. NO. 211 ~ NEW YORK ~ MADE IN USA". This sewing machine is 8 3/4" from top to bottom, 16 3/4" from side to side, and 7 1/2" from front to back. This would be a great addition to your craft or sewing room! We are listing this item on eBay, so if you're interested in purchasing this item, please contact us at grainery@adams.net.

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Sunday, 14 November 2010

Best Skin Firming Cream - Separate the Good from the Bad

What exactly has to go into a product in order for it to qualify as the best skin firming face cream or lotion? A skin firming cream should be light years ahead of its closest competitors in terms of quality and effectiveness. Let's take a quick look at what should and should not go into a top notch skin care product.

The best skin firming face cream or lotion should contain as ingredients only fresh pure vegetable and plant based oils. These types of oils blend more naturally into the skin due to the similarities that they have with our own natural oils. Stay away from products that contain messy petroleum based compounds as the central moisturizing ingredients.

What the choice of petroleum products as active ingredients in your skin firming lotion does is that it lowers the effectiveness of the product as a whole. Petrolatum and mineral oil have been the choice of moisturizing agent for the majority of the cosmetics made for many years now. The reason for this is because they are both inexpensive and in available in abundance.

Discovered many years ago on an oil rig, petroleum jelly became the choice of nearly every cosmetics manufacturer in the world. It is a natural byproduct of the process of converting crude oil into usable gasoline. Petroleum jelly has no place in a product that is supposed to be the best skin firming face cream in the world.

That is exactly what petrolatum and mineral oil are, is petroleum jelly in slightly more liquefied forms. These compounds will leave your skin felling greasy, as they cannot absorb readily into the skin. This causes dirt to be more attracted to your skin, blocks your pores, and keeps any decent nutrients from being able to enter your body.

A skin firming cream or lotion should also contain extracts such as Maracuja passion fruit. This extract is rich in the essential linolenic acid, which acts to nourish and revitalize your skin. It will also regulate the production of oil in your skin, preventing your skin from becoming either too oily or too dry.

The best skin firming face creams and lotions should contain active Manuka honey from The Manuka bush native to New Zealand. Rich in antioxidants, this honey is known throughout the world for its antifungal and antibacterial properties. It has been used by the people of New Zealand for medicinal purposes since before there were written records.

There are many fine ingredients that can be used to create a top rated natural skin firming cream. Babassu palm oil from the Amazon region of Brazil, moisturizes your skin, but also forms a healthy protective layer that keeps the moisture in while keeping out dirt and grime.

The best skin firming face creams and lotions that are being produced in Europe, in New Zealand specifically. There is a company there that is producing amazingly effective products that are giving people results that have never before been seen. You owe it to your skin to seek these products out, and to try the best skin firming face cream available today.

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Friday, 12 November 2010

Attitude In The Workplace: How Your Work Attitude Can Define You

Your attitude in the workplace can be one of the most - if not the most - telling aspect of how others in the company look at you and feel about you as a coworker.

A first impression can be a hard thing to shake especially if it's a bad one. In other words, once you have gotten a workplace reputation as being lazy, a slacker, a whiner or other negative tag, it can be hard to get rid of.

Think of someone you've worked with who perhaps didn't work as hard as you expected them to and then think about how you felt about every time you had to work with them.

Perception is often reality and once people get an idea in their head about someone or something, it can be difficult to get them to think differently.

In my experience, your attitude in the workplace can sometimes define you more than the work you actually produce if your coworkers come to see you as someone who is reliable, competent, intelligent and someone that they can rely on.

One of the worst feelings can be to work with people who don't seem to care and don't appear to pull their own weight.

When I think about people I've worked with who I've seen in a positive light, they tend to be people who outwardly display a positive attitude in the workplace.

They tend to take the initiative and are reliable. They are someone that you look forward to working with. They don't complain or bad mouth their company or coworkers and basically get on with the job at hand. They don't wander around bothering other people because they aren't doing their own job.

Basically, they are people who would be missed if they left the company.

Having formerly worked for a company that regularly laid off staff, I can tell you that the people who were let go first were often those who were generally regarded as being staff who didn't display these positive traits and therefore weren't seen as being employees who needed to remain employed.

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Thursday, 11 November 2010

Good Housekeeping - Eat Well, Lose Weight

So here you are a couple of months into yet a new year. When this one started you probably had the some idea of some of the things that you wanted to change. Let's face it, one of the biggest New Year resolutions is "I'm going to lose weight this year". How's that going for you? If you're anything like me, you've probably put it off just a little bit longer because of some event coming up in your life that you were going to have to eat at. Whether it be someone's birthday or a family dinner, you knew that there would be a cornucopia of fantastic food ahead of you and you didn't want to deprive yourself whilst everyone else had a mouthful of baked ziti.

Don't fret. Fortunately, it's very rarely "too late", unless of course there's a size 4 little black dress that you have to get into by Friday and you're a size 10. At that point I would suggest picking up a new "little black dress" and saving that one for when you are a bit closer to that goal weight.

On T.V. and on the internet, heck, anywhere you look nowadays there's some ad somewhere for either some miracle diet or miracle pill that's going to make you lose weight faster than you put it on. Chances are these "miracles" as they are called are either really expensive or a scam and in some cases both! Honestly, from what I've found out there, the biggest "secret" is really cutting your calories and exercising. Okay, wait, before you roll your eyes and click on your Google search bar, I do have a point. Keep reading, I promise it's a good one.

It's hard to find foods that taste good and are good for you. Sure, a salad or a carrot can be great for you, but honestly they get boring. If they didn't everyone would be skinny, heck all those miracle diet companies would be out of business. There are a slew of diet cookbooks out there. Here's one that I've found which is pretty good in serving up some decent dishes: Good Housekeeping: Eat Well, Lose Weight.

Why is it good?
- For starters all of your calorie and nutrition information is right there on the page with the recipe. It also includes the serving size so you know you can't eat the whole meal. Well, you can, but that may be a bit self defeating.
- Next, there is a whole section for those of you who "don't have time to cook healthy". (I personally love this section because I'm one of those.) In this section is a selection of meals that are done in a half an hour or less, start to finish.
- There is a section on restaurant favorites, including a spinach lasagna.
- Everybody is represented here, from the meatlovers right down to the vegetarians and everyone in between.
- Some of the meals are just one dish. In the cases of those that are not, there is a section on side dishes including a variation on seasoned potato wedges, sans frying.
- For those of you who are into crockpot type recipes, there are a few in there. I haven't tried them yet, but they look mighty inviting.
- Lastly there is a section on desserts. Really, why should you deprive yourself completely? Especially if you don't have to.

Now I don't want to give you the impression that these lower fat, lower calorie dishes are as good as the real thing. Let's face it, fat makes everything taste better. If it didn't then we probably wouldn't need this cookbook. The only issue that I've found is that some of the seasoning amounts have to be tweaked a bit to compensate. Don't go too crazy with the salt, as you don't want to shoot your blood pressure through the roof. That may be a little self defeating, but some of the other seasonings can be added to taste. Play around with them a little bit. It makes it a little more exciting if you can make the dish your own. Just beware if you make substitutions, you don't want to kill the nutritional value of these meals. Otherwise, why bother making them?

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Wednesday, 10 November 2010

DT TALK 2010 | AFL Dream Team Episode 9

www.dreamteamtalk.com - tell your friends! Highlights include * Around The Grounds and news of the week * Boag's Draught Golden Stubby Award * Warnie trials Josh Gibson for his Dream Team * We name heroes and villains in the rucks and forwards * Chopper is back from Kokoda * Some housekeeping including Thursday night start this week Don't forget we now alternate an episode one week, and a live show the next week. Thursday nights on www.dreamteamtalk.com

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Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Fayetteville NC Hotels

Many people seeking a Fayetteville NC hotel are looking for a hotel that offers an extended stay option. Those who have family and friends living in Fort Bragg or many spouses of military personnel as well as business people and those relocating to Fayetteville, NC find the convenience of an extended stay hotel to be the perfect accommodation.

Extended stay hotels generally offer a monthly or weekly rate for rooms. Most extended stay hotels also offer a daily rate, but this is generally higher than the monthly or weekly rates. The rule of thumb with extended stay hotels is that the longer you stay, the cheaper it is.

Many extended stay hotels offer housekeeping services, but not usually on a daily basis. In most cases, they will offer housekeeping three times a week or less. What is nice about extended stay hotels is that they are fully furnished, clean and have kitchenettes where you can prepare some meals, so that you are not eating out all of the time. Like most other hotels, they have laundry facilities on site.

While many extended stay hotels have restaurants, most offer coffee or even a continental breakfast in the morning. Some extended stay hotels even offer a buffet breakfast every morning and cocktail hours in the evening for guests.

The Suburban Hotel is a Fayetteville NC hotel that offers extended stay. There are both one bedroom and two bedroom rooms available with a kitchenette and living area. The Suburban Hotel has an on site laundry facility, spacious rooms, and a fully equipped kitchen that is perfect for those who are staying for a little or long time in Fayetteville, NC. There is even cable television and high speed Internet access available.

Another Fayetteville NC hotel that offers extended stays exclusively is the Extended Stay Hotel Fayetteville. This large hotel is perfect for families on vacation or those who are staying for a longer period of time in Fayetteville. Rooms have either one or two bedrooms, a fully equipped kitchen with cooking facilities, full sized refrigerator and microwave, on site laundry facilities, high speed Internet access and cable television.

A computer workspace makes this the perfect extended stay hotel for business travelers who find themselves staying in Fayetteville for several weeks. The fully furnished, spacious and completely renovated rooms are kept in excellent condition and there is housekeeping service available on a weekly basis. Local calls are free and there is even personalized voice mail so you can feel as if you are staying in your own home.

In the mornings, the Extended Stay Fayetteville has a gourmet coffee bar with a small continental breakfast available for guests.

The Studio Plus at Crosscreek in Crosscreek Mall is another Fayetteville NC hotel that offers extended stay. The Studio Plus is perfect for the business traveler or single person who also seeks economy. The spacious, oversized room has a sleeper sofa and a separate, complete kitchen. There is even an outdoor pool and fitness center where you can relax after a hard day of work. The Studio Plus has phone service, voice mail, cable television and internet access - everything a business traveler could want and more! There is even a 24 hour guest laundry facility on the site. Rates for the Studio Plus run daily, weekly and monthly and are very reasonable. Best of all, the Studio Plus at Crosscreek is located very close to downtown Fayetteville.

When choosing a Fayetteville, NC hotel, ask yourself if you would benefit from choosing an extended stay hotel. If you are traveling with family and want additional privacy, or are traveling on business and plan to stay a while, an extended stay hotel is smart choice.

How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Monday, 8 November 2010

The Settlement Cookbook: An Immigrant's Guide to Assimilation

The deep, dark recesses of the brain of any student of early 20th century American history should light up, tingling, when they compute the importance of The Settlement Cookbook and the Settlement House, established by Lizzie Black Kander. Both the concept and the woman made an indelible mark on America.

A native of Milwaukee, Lizzie Black Kander (b. 1858) was a moving force in establishing Milwaukee's first social settlement in 1900. This organization, under the auspices of the Federation Jewish Charities of Milwaukee, was known everywhere as "The Settlement" or "The Settlement House." It offered instruction to newly arrived immigrants in vocational and domestic skills, plus classes in English, American history, and music, in hopes of introducing immigrant women to American consumer culture.

From the classes at the Settlement House sprang the need for somehow replicating recipes, household hints, and advice on housekeeping that were written on the chalkboard. The students, most of them high school girls, needed to get home before dark but were spending way too much time copying the lessons.

Mrs. Kander thought the creation of a cookbook would help alleviate the situation and allow more time for actual instruction. Since the gentlemen on the Settlement Board of Directors weren't willing to risk the magnanimous amount of $18 on this venture and no other Jewish organizations were offering help in funding, Kander went to the printer husband of one of her female friends in hopes of assistance. He printed this landmark cookbook which was supported by selling advertisements from establishments such as the Boston Store, the Pfister Hotel, and the Plankinton House Hotel, to name but a few.

Because of the funding, Kander was able to augment the contents of the original book with more recipes donated by her friends, Milwaukee society matrons, favorite European recipes from her students and their families, and even was able to include recipes from noted chefs here and abroad.

In April, 1901, the first run of the cookbook made its appearance in the guise of The Way to a Man's Heart...The Settlement Cookbook. Divided equally between simple recipes for girls just learning to cook and more involved and complex recipes for those cooks with previous training, The Settlement Cookbook also included household tips, and housekeeping advice. Spill grease on your floor? Immediately pour ice water on it to harden the grease. How to properly set a table? Always use clean linen, even if it is coarse and cheap. And so forth. Throughout the book, an underlying current implies that if you follow all the recipes and other directions implicitly, you will become a good American.

The Settlement Cookbook was Jewish by association only. After learning the book was written for and financed by a Jewish organization, many people automatically assumed it was a Jewish cookbook, not meant for any other group of Milwaukee residents but the Jews. From the very birth of the project, The Settlement Cookbook displayed a patent disregard for Jewish food regulations: it offered recipes for borscht, chopped herring, and paprika schnitzel in the same breath as recipes for oyster bisque and scalloped ham and potatoes for its non-Jewish readers. Just in the space of the two above-mentioned dishes, several rules of Kashrut (dietary laws, or the body of regulations in keeping Kosher) have been broken: oyster bisque contains oysters (shellfish that are prohibited) and cream; scalloped ham and potatoes is a double whammy with ham (from the pig which has a cloven hoof) and scalloped potatoes covered in cheese (milk and meat must not be consumed together). The Settlement Cookbook was a combination of Jewish, German, and other European recipes.

It is quite easy to be deluded with the ethnicity of the book. I have a tattered, hand-me-down copy of The Settlement Cookbook from my mother whose mother was Hungarian. I still remember my surprise the first time I let my fingers walk through the recipes, stopping here and there, to look at early 20th century standards in food and housekeeping. What were all these non-Jewish recipes doing in the book? They don't belong here! It must be a printing error; they must belong in another cookbook. I was in mild shock looking at pork recipes and others of their ilk. Where was the recipe for Eastern European sweet and sour cabbage soup with chunks of beef and dozens of plump raisins floating throughout? What do I need to make Gefilte fish from scratch? Do I boil or bake my bagels?

Conceivably the most successful fundraising cookbook in American history, The Settlement Cookbook was initially sold for 50 cents per copy. It has been revised into 40 editions, including one in Yiddish for the young immigrant women for whom the book was written. It has sold more than 2 million copies and still funds charitable projects to the present. It is still a source of funding for the all-purpose Jewish Community Center of Milwaukee and remains a vibrant reminder of American social history.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: A close-up look at television's bad boy, Master Chef Gordon Ramsey, from his family's itinerant beginnings to the phenomenal success he enjoys world over. Is he vitriolic all the time or is it part of his TV persona?

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Saturday, 6 November 2010

Housekeeping Tips : How to Clean Tempur-Pedic Foam

Tempur-Pedic foam, known as memory foam, should be cleaned regularly by sprinkling baking soda over the surface, allowing it to sit and vacuuming up the debris. Absorb moisture and odors from a memory foam pillow or mattress with a demonstration from a professional home cleaner in this free video on housekeeping. Expert: Rachel Yatuzis Contact: www.greenkleeninc.com Bio: Rachel Yatuzis is a professional house cleaner in Nashville, Tenn., specializing in using everyday household items for cleaning purposes. Filmmaker: Tim Brown

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Friday, 5 November 2010

The Good Life: Series 3 Episode 3 (Part 3 of 3)

*A Tug of the Forelock* Tom converts the rotary cultivator into a means of transport. The Goods agree to do some housekeeping for the Leadbetters to earn extra cash.

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Thursday, 4 November 2010

Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Housekeeping Checklist - the Secret to Staying on Top of the Clutter

Being organized is vital as you try to keep your household clean and in good running order. Just as businesses use checklists to make sure that things get done, you too can use one to make sure you stay ahead of the clutter in your home. A thorough checklist and calendar system can help keep you accountable to your chores, and give your family the nice home they deserve. These three tips will show you the importance of housekeeping checklists and the accountability they can foster.



Declutter Checklists. A good checklist should include every room of your house, and every major surface or item in the room that requires cleaning or straightening. You can create a separate checklist for each room, or a list for each type of room. For instance you could have one list for all your bathrooms, and another for all your bedrooms. You should also keep track of the supplies you use for the cleaning so you can buy more when your supply gets low.

Calendar System. There will be checklists that will need attention every single day, and others that will need completion only once a week or once a month. It is always a good idea to schedule your time for running your checklists, if you can. This allows you to control when and how long you work on the chores. Do not beat yourself up if you miss an appointment on your calendar, just pick up that checklist at the next available time you can fit it in.

Chore Charts. It is a wonderful idea to get your children involved in the chores from an early age. You can use a chore chart to both remind them of their chores, track their progress and reward them for good work. These values will help your children throughout the rest of their lives.

Approaching your housework in an organized manor will make it both more complete and easier in the long run. You do not have to create checklists like NASA or anything, just use them to remind you of all the items that need attention, and so that nothing is left out. These checklists will help you to stay accountable to yourself and your family, and help you provide them with the beautiful home you want them to have.

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories

Tuesday, 2 November 2010

How to Keep the Environment Clean

The two aspects of our environment most invoked when we talk about keeping the environment clean are litter and water pollution. We will discuss both in this article.

Litter

Litter is ugly and it can harm people and wildlife. Picking up litter can be costly for cities and highway departments.

Dog fouling in public places (another form of litter) is a serious health risk, particularly for young children.

Cigarette butts are another unpleasant form of litter. They may seem small, but with several trillion butts littered every year they are the number one source of litter in this county. Cigarette butts make up a large part of much urban litter and they can take up to 12 years to break down.

So how do we keep litter off our public places and keep the environment clean?
The answer is, of course, firstly educate the public to take their litter home, and when they do not, it is necessary to ensure that efficient street cleaning is provided.

Street cleaning is controlled by the Department of Public Works in all towns and cities and is usually removed by appointed contractors or the Council's own direct labor force. When it works well you will usually find that the local businesses take an active interest in assisting in streamlining the process with also making further regular consultation with the community. Street cleaning is often, but not always, carried out for extended hours, and these hours may range from 8 am until 12 or 2 pm in our big cities. Street cleaning is an absolute necessity in all modern well run cities.

Street cleansing is a manual task and labor is a significant cost. Satisfaction with the cleanliness of streets and commercial areas has improved in the UK since privatization. One reason likely for this is that previously the Council's staff had to be the policemen ensuring the efficiency of their own work. Human nature is such that to be on both sides of such a role seldom works efficiently.

Street cleansing is only a part of city housekeeping which in this article is just a part of how to keep the environment clean. The council (municipal) health department's business is to see that all the people have pure air, pure water, pure food, and are protected from contagious diseases.

Street cleaning is an important element of city housekeeping and is provided more and more by highly mechanized equipment such as through the use of street sweepers and flushers. Most streets are scheduled for cleaning at least five times per year, and paved alleys are cleaned once.

Street cleaning must always be strictly enforced, and react to events when litter will build up more quickly, but without clean water in the rivers and streams throughout the city the municipal authorities could hardly be said to be keeping the environment clean.

River Pollution

The avoidance of river pollution is if anything more essential than street cleansing, especially where the poorer population must rely on the river water for domestic and even drinking water use.

If asked how to keep the environment clean from river pollution we would have to say by collecting all sewage and treating it before allowing it to discharge back into the river downstream.

River pollution is the most devastative phenomena to health in the poor and developing. Pollution is occurring when the water shows an alteration of physical and chemical parameters such as odor, taste, colour, turbidity.

If polluted water is tested in a water quality analysis laboratory there are a number of tell-tale changes you will notice. These are exemplified by changes in total hardness, pH, chlorides etc. Expect to see BOD, and COD in increased quantities as well, among others.

River pollution is a serious problem. In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the issues involved but, at the same time, continued urbanization and industrialization and the continued growth of population produce ever-increasing amounts of waste for disposal.

Dangerously, River pollution is concentrated around urban areas. River Pollution is a major environmental problem today, but we don't seem to be making as much progress as we should. Perhaps the reason is ideological?

Where sewage treatment plants have been installed the levels of indicator bacteria and nitrogen in the discharge should be tracked to measure management performance. If a failure in discharge quality occurs the municipal authorities must act to determine changes needed in monitoring protocol to avoid any further occurrences. It is important to also report progress and recommendations to inform planning and management decision-makers. Levels of any pollutant can be measured by water quality testing methods, and once the analysis has been provided it is always important to check the data carefully against the legal standards. For example, the State of Florida sets the safe health standard for bacteria as less than 1000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 milliliters.

The most common sources of pollution are domestic water discharges from the houses in the catchment area, and uncontrolled dumps of solid domestic wastes along tributary banks and in dry ravines. Industrial discharge can be a major cause of pollution. Each industrial discharge usually contains chemicals and organic compounds which can enter the bodies of many aquatic animals. Even ground water can be polluted from the soakage pits, septic tanks, manure, garbage, etc. and that eventually discharges to the rivers still worsening the problem.

Industrial pollutants from smaller units continue to be a problem. While most of the large and medium industrial units have put up treatment plants and are using them. 40 per cent of the industrial waste seen in one example - a whopping 4000 mld - is from small scale industries in cities and residential colonies.

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Monday, 1 November 2010

Get Organized - When Lists Don't Work

Generally speaking, a list is a good thing because...

When you write a list, it helps you focus. When you follow a list, it keeps you on track and moving toward list completion. And when you cross off list items, you feel productive.

And yet, despite proven results and positive qualities, lists don't always work for everyone, every time because...

When you have to make a list, it means you have lots to accomplish. When you have lots to accomplish, you suddenly don't want to do anything but sit on your couch, watch TV, and eat ice cream.

In other words, making a list is making you procrastinate. At this point, you've entered into a mind-game between your lazy self and your productive self, and your lazy self is winning!

If you find yourself in a similar situation, I encourage you to fight back by creating a "NOT To-Do" List to help you get organized.

The "NOT To-Do" List is exactly as the name implies; a list of things you do not want to do.

For example...

#1 The Not To-Do List for Housekeeping

- Throw shoes by the front door

- Let mail pile up on the kitchen counter

- Forget to file bills at the end of month

#2 The Not To-Do List for Time Management

- Hit the "snooze" button on the alarm more than once

- Check email more than 2 times per day

- Turn on TV while getting ready for work

With the "NOT To-Do" List, you're giving your lazy self permission to be lazy while, at the same time, giving your productive self permission to get things done.

Furnishings for Your Home How to Choose Your Bathroom Accessories