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Spas and Meditation

Posted by admin in Religion & Spirituality - (0 Comments)

It is a rare pleasure that you get the chance to spend time with yourself, in complete solitude, enjoying the pattern of your thoughts play out in your mind until they become like so much background noise, and you find yourself living in the moment.  This is the ultimate goal of most forms of meditation, and it’s hard to do, but there are some contemporary tools that can make it easier.  Water therapies such as hot tubs, spas, and their variations can be a reliable way to teaching your body how to relax, and this is a key to meditation.  One of the truly great things about meditation is that it doesn’t cost anything, and you don’t really need a hot tub to get to a state of nirvana, but it can help.

Training the mind and body to relax is a lifelong venture, and it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do.  The stress of the job melts away in moments, and the things that seemed important and urgent just moments ago might reveal themselves to be inconsequential to the big picture.   There are some who will take meditation as a calling, to give up all worldy goods and start off on a search for meaning.  There are others who just meditate every once in awhile, when things get overwhelming.  But there is plenty of evidence to suggest that people operate better, and feel better, if they can get in at least a little bit of meditation every day.

There are many eastern traditions that use water as a source for meditation, and this is another way that hot tubs can help to connect you with that fire within.  Water meditations are plentiful, and there are many spiritual paths that use water as a subject of contemplation.  Meditating in the water is like meditating near the ocean.  There is a direct logical connection in your thoughts, but also a deeper connection that the body recognizes instantly, and it can be a very pleasurable way to begin exploring these other states of consciousness.  The main side effect is health and balance, even if you do it wrong.

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Treasure Hunt at the Huntsville, AL Flea Market

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One morning we were in the mood for a drive. It was a nice warm fall morning, the sun was shinning and there were hardly any clouds in the sky. We headed out of Memphis to the east on two lane highways. We drove along the winding roads through the hills and valleys of southern Tennessee and northern Alabama. The day was perfect for a drive and the fall colors were so pretty.

Driving long we went through small towns, villages and farms it was very pleasant. When we take these drives we are always on the hunt for antique sops, flea markets, yard sales and thrift stores. We have an obsession with vintage and antique thing, clothing, accessories, furniture, house wears etc. We buy an sell and trade through an antique mall in Memphis and smaller items we market on the Internet though sites like Etsy.

On this drive as we were heading along we stopped in a shop near Athens, AL and they told us about a Sunday flea market that was held weekly in Huntsville, AL. The shop keeper said it was a really good flea market full of fun stuff to dig through. I got on my lap top right away and booked us rooms at hotel Huntsville because it was late in the day and we would be getting to Huntsville late.

Well we were sure glad we did go to Huntsville, AL that evening and stayed the night. When we got over to the flea market in the morning things were just getting under way, so we started looking. It took us nearly the whole day to rummage through the entire flea market. We came away with a bunch of treasures and things to fix up and work on. We were particularly pleased with an art deco lamp, some vintage 1900′s ladies gloves and a maple desk from the 1950′s.

After this trip Huntsville, AL is on our list of places to return to and scour for other treasures!

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Leonard Cohen in New York

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One of the best things about traveling to New York are the live shows.  This past Saturday night a legend of the music world played at Madison Square Garden.  Leonard Cohen just put out a new album last week, and just a month following Cohen’s seventy fifth birthday he took the stage and rocked the house, in his cool and very gentlemanly way.  His album was recorded thirty nine years ago, when showtime was 2 am.

Saturday night, the crowd showed up much earlier, his voice was a bit rougher, but that was the only difference.  He was backed by other members of the band, each with their share of grey hair, and they were a tight jazz, folk, rock mix of some of the best virtuosos in the business.  I had left the 5 star hotel in New York I was staying in and walked to the show, wondering about the man I was finally about to see perform live.  I had listened to his music throughout my college days and I was wondering if he would play any of his classic tunes.  Songs like Bird on a Wire, Suzanne and Everybody Knows, were anthems to me and my friends.

And I was not disappointed, nor was anyone else in the audience a few nights ago.  Cohen set lasted for almost three hours.  And at the end of his ever famous, Hallelujah, the crowd could stay in their seats no longer, and Cohen received his first standing ovation of the night.  Today, Cohen may not be able to hit the high notes of his youth, but the man just emanated wisdom, and he carried himself as a man with experience.  His songs have always been wise, but he now has the experience to fully carry them, if that makes any sense.  This was one of the most remarkable live shows I have ever seen.

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Home Depot makes use of sales management training

Posted by admin in Business - (0 Comments)

The previous sales management training I received on my other job has actually allowed me to survive in this economic black hole.  Though I was one of the many who got fired from my previous job, I am grateful for the time I spent there as it helped me to get another job almost two weeks after being fired.

It is at a smaller company, but my wages haven’t been cut down that much, I have health insurance, and most importantly, I am doing the thing I love, which is sales.  I can sell anything.  I don’t care what it is.   Right now, I’m working with a large nursery, with Home Depot actually.  Though I don’t have to get my hands physically dirty, there has been a lot of work involved.

Home Depot might actually spend the money on those of us in the lower tiers of the company (in comparison to the other above us, we’re pretty small time) with corporate team building programs.  I’m excited about it because I love to learn new things that will help me be a better salesperson in any way I can be.  I think part of the reason I’m able to sell anything is that I like to learn new things.  If there’s a quality product, then I can sell it.  I’m learning all sorts of new things at my latest job.  In fact, I actually got a tiny little Venus flytrap, but so far, nothing has landed in it that I can see.

I’m also learning a lot about cactus since my job is set out in the Southwestern parts of the United States.  I was surprised that people seem to buy so much of it.  I would think they would be sick of it from seeing it out in the desert, but it’s popular for its water conservation properties, and if you get the right kind, it’s prickly fruit.  You can actually make jam out of the stuff.  With all these facts, I’ve been better able to train people.  You never know when whatever you have learned will come in handy, from facts about cactus to sales.

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The Perfect Hambuger

Posted by admin in Food & Drink - (0 Comments)

The smell of a summer grill is really tough to beat.  It inspires memories in everyone, and brings back the carefree days of childhood, when the only real worry was if there would be enough hot dogs.  When you have your own outdoor kitchen, all this is available, and it becomes a lifestyle, dedicating at least part of your day to enjoying being outside, and making meals a social occasion.  Your friends and neighbors will start coming to call, wondering what you might be cooking up next.  With a drop in gas grill, your ability to control the temperature is extremely precise, so you can do all the tricky things that make meals surprising and delicious.

The precision is a wonderful benefit, and it helps to open up all kinds of possibilities for your culinary repertoire.  The ability to prepare the right meat in exactly the right way is the sign of a great chef.  You may not have high culinary aspirations, but you will be surprised at how easy it is to learn some great techniques.  Every kind of meat behaves in a particular way when it hits the grill, and it’s good to have a sense of how they respond.  There are tons of articles offering advice on how to make nearly everything, and a stunning number of recipes that teach you how to make the perfect hamburger, and they’re worth investigating while you’re finding your own rhythm.

The best way to learn, however, is with practice.  With hamburgers, there will be a big difference between what you can find at a large grocery store, a local butcher, or a carnicería. The smaller shops are much less likely to add water to the ground beef.  This means you have more control over how the meat is actually going to behave on the flame.  Water is, of course, what makes it cook faster, and it also cooks out of the beef very quickly.  Once you get an idea of how this actually works out in practice, you can start playing with your own perfect hamburger, and you’ll see there are limitless variations on what you can do with a seemingly simple food.

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Cape Town Exposed

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Traveling to Cape Town can be one of the most exciting times in a life, holding the potential for splendid memories that are impossible to even imagine ahead of time.  Rich in culture, and beautiful beyond measure, Cape Town is in one of the most amazing countries in the world, and it’s an extremely lively city.  One of the world’s big financial and creative centers, it attracts a large variety of travelers, for business or pleasure.  Some of the best minds in the world are born here and visit here, to take advantage of the thriving scene.  It’s a place for many elegant things, including luxury hotels.  Cape Town is a remarkable place, and better seen from remarkable accommodations.

With a gorgeous sense of design and style, the citizens of Cape Town represent a stunning number of cultures and languages, and they all play out visually in the streets and in the galleries here.  The visual sense, you’ll soon discover, is extremely keen here, and there are always many fine details finely decorated to add touches of elegance, as well as personal statements.  This is evident in all the visual arts, and in the visual sensibilities on the sidewalks, even, and there are fantastic galleries in town.  One of the most unique is Exposure.

Their specialty is photography, and particularly experimental photography.  This experimental gallery is also a shop where people can by photographic accessories, and it’s a fascinating artist-run space that has some fairly spectacular exhibitions, such as the recent MTCS Project, which featured work by Chris Saunders, a South African photographer who divides his time between Cape Town and Johannesburg. One of the main interests for Exposure is lomography, with photographs taken on old Lomo cameras.  The old school images are refreshing in a digital age, and there is a certain immediate hipness factor when technologically proficient generations of artists work with low-tech materials, making an inherent tension to a work that gives it a nostalgia for a thing that never was.

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A Spooky Training Seminar

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This year the company did something completely different with our Halloween party.   Rather than just the usual games, the usual punch, and the usual candy, management decided to make Halloween a corporate team building programs experience.  A few employees were irritated by this sudden information, but the experiences went well in the end.  Everyone was still dressed up and still had a fun party.

If anything, the party atmosphere helped to lessen some of the tension and drudgery of the typical sort of seminars we go to.  Our CEO, a 55 year old, three piece suit businessman, actually arrived to the party in a Rocky Horror Picture Show costume.  That should provide you with some idea of how relaxed the atmosphere of the office was.  It was his invention too, from pieces he had been collecting for three months from antique stores here and there in the city.

In the beginning of the day, we had pumpkin pasties, pumpkin orange juice, Krispy Kremes, and a whole bunch of sugar that left everyone soaring for about four hours.  During those hours, we took a tour around the rest of the office for those who chose not to get into costume: most people had a good laugh.  In spite of all the fun we had, it seemed like we got more work done than usual.  The costume party went great, a guy in Luscious Malfoy costume winning the grand prize of, of course, more candy and a cheesy little handcrafted trophy he gets to keep on his desk.   He also went the handcrafted route for his costume.

In the afternoon, we had our miniature, “unofficial” (people thought it was too fun to be a real one) training seminar.  The people holding the seminar threaded fun games in with the normal business matters, an idea that helped make the day go quicker.  If anything, the costumes, the candy, and the laughter actually helped to strengthen our company morale and loyalties between employees.  My boss of the Rocky Horror Picture Show costume is, in fact, considering throwing another seminar/party for Christmas.

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Indianapolis for our anniversary

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For our anniversary I booked us a suite at Indianapolis luxury hotels we will be spending 4 days and 3 nights, as they say on the game shows. It is going to be a surprise, I know Indianapolis probably doesn’t sound all that exotic but it is a great place to visit and there are a number of things we enjoy doing there.

My wife and I met there one summer while we were in college at and working at the Zoo over the summer. It was a fun but hard job working around the animals and interacting with the zoo visitors. And of course the best part I met my wife. Hence Indianapolis for our anniversary.

We will be arriving in the afternoon on Thursday. I am looking into some theater or symphony or performance to attend that evening. The problem is making the choice, trying to keep in mind what we will both enjoy and narrowing it down. I suspect a decision is coming soon. Friday and Saturday we are going to be spending at the Zoo after all we met at the Zoo years ago and an opportunity to relive that summer when we both met there is just too tempting. We have not been back to the Zoo since the summer we met there so this will be a big surprise to my wife and having two days there to take out time and see it as it is now and reminisce over old times. Friday night is our anniversary so I am planing a nice dinner at a 5 star restaurant and an evening of jazz at a nearby night club. Saturday evening I’ll leave open to what ever we feel like doing at the time. Sunday will be a lazy day with a slow moving morning and an early afternoon brunch before we begin heading home.

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The Best Time in Dubai

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I had the best time in Dubai! Dubai so cool! I was really scared about going at first, I mean, I was flying into a strange land, but it was the best thing I’ve ever done.  I stayed in a five star hotel in Dubai and it was the best, so clean and lavish, opulent really. I felt like a queen. There so much money here and tons of big new cars. The roads are wide and there’s flowers and fountains everywhere you look. It’s so completely different than the rest of the Middle East. There were no stray dogs or vermin, it was so weird being there. This was no New York City.

The skyline is comparable to Manhattan, actually, I think it makes Manhattan’s skyline look small. I thoroughly enjoyed the night. I could stand out on the balcony of my hotel room and watch the sunset, it was so magical here. At sunset, I heard the call to prayer at a mosque. That’s one sound I’m so glad I got to experience, the call for Muslims to prayer, it’s so soothing and eerie at the same time. The night lights started flashing on all the tops of the skyscrapers and this whole new vista was sparkling and twinkling, it’s a sight imprinted on my mind forever.

I went on a Desert Safari, apparently this is ‘the’ thing to do while in Dubai. My safari experience was a little manic. I was in this 4×4 jeep and we were traveling at what I thought to be terrifying speeds all over the sand dunes. It was totally fun! They even let me drive the 4×4 for a bit. Then I rode on a camel, a smelly and rude camel I might add and I did some sand surfing. I was having a total blast!

Before the sunset, I headed to the beach, which wasn’t too far from my hotel. I was told that it’s okay to where a bikini. Who would’ve thought? The next day, I took full advantage of Dubai’s Duty Free shopping! It was incredible, the prices were shockingly low. All I can say is I’m so glad I got over my fear of traveling to foreign countries and that I picked Dubai.

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Duluth an interesting history

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Duluth, MN is a port city located on the banks of Lake Superior in north eastern MN. In 1886 Duluth was declared “The Zenith City of the United States of the Unsalted Sea” by Dr. Thomas Preston Foster the founder of the first news paper in Duluth, MN. In those days Duluth was on the cusp of a boom with the opening of the Sault Ste. Marie canal and the announcement of the coming of the railroad, thus making Duluth the only port city with access to the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Oceans. At this time the growth of the lumber industry, increased mining and railroad building was at such a rapid pace the influx of workers to the area could not keep up with the demand for labor. The growth rate in Duluth was so rapid in 1869 to 1870 that the city was expected to become larger than Chicago quickly. Jay Cooke a wealthy Philadelphia land speculator decided to have Duluth be the ending point of several rail lines: Northern Pacific Railroad, the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroads all giving credence to the growth predictions. This all came to an end in the stock market crash of 1873 when Duluth nearly went out of existence. However by the end of the 1870′s the railroads were completed, mining and lumbering had continued and Duluth boomed again. By 1900 the population was nearly one hundred thousand people ad was a thriving community once again.

Today Duluth, MN is a popular place to visit to experience the beaches and shores of Lake Superior. Sandy beaches and grassy and marsh lands all around adding to the enjoyment of wild life. Duluth has a quaint charm and appeal with the Victorian architecture and turn of the century buildings. When staying in hotels Duluth one can inquire about the activities available in the area. Boating, fishing, swimming, hiking, site seeing or just taking it easy. Duluth, MN is bound to become more popular as the word gets out.

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