Thursday, February 28, 2008

Useful Advice For Cats: How To Care For Your Human

For us cats there are several sweet advantages in having a human as a pet. But remember you are taking on a big responsibility when you adopt one or more humans. Humans are demanding pets that need daily care and attention.

With responsibility come both advantages and disadvantages. If you adopt a human you must get used to spending time at home. Your human does not deal well with being left alone - they will get into all sorts of mischief. For example, if you are gone just two or three days you run the risk of seeing posters put up all over the neighborhood. Your human will put out an APB on you ! Often with an embarrassing text that reveals all sorts of personal details - and usually accompanied by an unflattering photo of you - with morning fur and crumpled whiskers. Exactly the kind of thing that attracts ridicule from all the neighbor cats.

So please consider carefully if you are ready for a life with humans. And remember humans generally grow very old, so there is a big chance that you will spend the rest of your life with your human.

Entertaining your Human

The litter box provides a great opportunity for entertaining your human. Naturally there is all the fun your human can have cleaning and scooping out the box. A lot of human time can also be used getting fresh litter - going to the pet store, transporting it home etc. However many humans like new challenges. Utilize your litter box time in making interesting and artistic renderings of countries or well known islands. Your human will have lots of fun guessing which one you made. Humans like game-shows - so this should be a popular activity. When your human increases in skill you can also make portraits of family and friends. Start with profile portraits - this will make it easer for your human.

Shredding

Make it a priority to shed indoors on appropriate surfaces. Fleece is a particularly suitable material to shred on. All you need to do is pass close by your human when he or she is wearing fleece. All cat hair within a radius of about 2 feet from the fabric will immediately be transferred to your human. No brushing necessary for several days ! Another good solution is to get access to a filled clothes hamper. Jump into it and give all contents a good work over. An extra bonus with this method is that most cat hairs will survive a trip to the washing machine. Your human will be stylishly accessorized with cat hair on all outfits.

Extra Food

All chances for a bit of extra food must and should be taken advantage of. Whenever your human is in the kitchen there is a prime opportunity of getting an extra snack. When your human is busy at the kitchen table place yourself in your humans blind angle (just behind the ankle is usually a good spot). And the second your human moves one of both feet you jump back screaming your most heart-wrenching cry. Your human will automatically assume that he/she stepped on you. When your human looks back scared to see what is happening look up at him/her with a painful expression on your face (practice this before hand in front of a mirror). Your human's bad conscience will often result an edible apology.

Grass Etiquette

Before you eat grass make sure that you are close to a suitable place to throw up on. Delicate furniture fabrics, precious carpets, and shoes are all good places. If you choose furniture aim for the part that has non-removable fabric. When you are getting down to business make sure you back up a step or two so that you cover the largest area possible. Another technique is to do several items with pauses in-between. Persian carpets will give a good camouflage effect and your little gift will often not be discovered until somebody steps in it.

Preventing your human from wasting valuable time

One of the most important tasks we cats have is to prevent humans in wasting their time. Humans love to spend their time on things with no relevance for cats. For example watching TV, reading, talking on the phone - and many other things that have no entertainment value for us cats what so ever. A lot of methods can be used to prevent human time waste - use your imagination. Some especially effective techniques will be mentioned here.

Watching TV; make sure that you always position yourself between the TV and your human. On the coffee table for example. You can also lie on the TV and let you tail or paws swing down in front of the screen. This method is most effective on small screens where you can cover a large percentage of the screen. It is a bit trickier with a flat screen - and only recommended for the agile kitty. A variation can be used with a computer screen. The new flat screens often leave a lot of empty space on the desk - so just get up in front - remind your human of how wonderful you are.

Cleaning; stalk the vacuum cleaner and attack when it passes by. You can also pretend that you want to attack the vacuum cleaner but "accidentally" catch a foot instead.

Garden work; jump repeatedly up-and-down and scatter any leaves that your human has raked together. Attack gardening tools - especially while they're being used. Immediately dig up any newly planted seeds, plants and flowers.

Closed Doors

Under no circumstances accept closed doors that separate you from your human. At any and all times you have a right to know what your human is doing. If the situation do arise when you by accident have been placed on the wrong side of a door you need to make your human aware of this ASAP so he/she can remedy the situation immediately. Loud meows and scratching on the door should be sufficient to get your humans attention. If this is ignored you need to take more drastic measures: Make a sound as if you are going to throw up. This sound can be heard by all humans in a 50 feet radius. This sound can also be heard through closed doors. The "puke sound" will always result in your human's immediate presence.

Sleeping Time

It is important for us cats to prioritize our sleeping time. The objective is to get as much sleep done as possible while your human is awake. You will then be especially well rested and bushy-tailed at night when it is your job to keep your human awake. You can for example use the classical "cat-play with toes" and attack everything that moves under the duvet. You can also reenact highlights from last year's Grand National Steeplechase by revealingly galloping across the bed. A couple of loud meows will give it an extra exiting dimension for your human

Houseguests

Houseguests require special attention and handling. The following procedures should be followed:

Houseguests that either do not like us or are allergic to us: As soon as they sit down - jump onto their lap.

Noisy children that run after you and/or pull your tail: It is your duty to punish them - it can be necessary to use both claws and teeth. However be prepared that this can result in noise that is even more annoying and of an even louder decibel level.

Guests that try to get in contact with you by ingratiating themselves and speaking in a sweet voice: Should just be ignored. If they try to approach you, back away 5-6 feet - never further away than they feel encouraged to try again. With a bit of practice this game can he kept going for hours.

Bad Weather

Even in bad weather it can be necessary to go outside. The rain and wet ground will result in an unpleasant layer of dirt and mud on your paws. However this can easily be dried off on certain appropriate indoor spots. Find a light carpet, a duvet cover or nice piece of furniture and walk over it a couple of times. When your paw tracks are almost invisible your paws are clean and you are ready to go outside again.

Training your Human

Sometimes it can be necessary to discipline even a well-trained human. However do remember never to hit a human. At the most mark with a soft paw on the human's arm or hands. But try first to make your human understand what it has done wrong. And most importantly: be patient! The human intellect is relatively limited and it can be difficult for them to understand our wishes and needs.

Even after approximately 5000 years of domestication the human species still has primitive instincts and it does take time to train your human completely.

Door Training

One of the first things you need to teach your human is to open the front door, the garden door and backdoor when required. This is done by walking up to a door and make an impatient and very loud meow. Make some tripping steps with your back paws obviously indicating that you need to go to the outdoor litter box. When your human has gotten up from the couch and opened the door you decide that you do not really need to go outside right now. Just for appearances you can stand in the open door and pretend that you are thinking about the situation for a few seconds before you turn around to go inside again. Repeat this procedure several times a day. This will keep your human in good door opening form.

Inspection of the House

A house usually has unlimited possibilities for suitable sleeping spots. Every possibility no matter how theoretical should be investigated and tested. Cardboard boxes, cupboards, drawers, couches and beds are obvious localities, but places such as old slippers (size 11 or higher) open gymbags or kitchen cupboards should not be overlooked.

The house should further be investigated for all possible toys. An old sock can represent several hours of entertainment if you get your claw on a loose end and unravel a couple of miles worth of yarn. You human will love to tidy up after your play.

Martine Carlsen is owned by two wonderful silver abyssinian cats, Sonny and Cher. She is also a web designer and the proud owner and creator of http://www.carlsencards.com. And as you can tell from her website, cats play a big part in both her life and her work.

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Download theft and how to prevent it.

If you sell digital products online, there's a good chance that your products are being stolen. Here's how it works and how you can protect yourself.

A customer buys your product. After downloading their purchase, they visit a forum and post your download link for other members to use. By the time you realize what's going on, hundreds or even thousands of people have aready downloaded your product for free. Since a good number of these people would have probably bought your product, you end up losing a lot of money.

If you use PayPal, it can be even worse. If you don't encrypt your payment links, it's easy for someone to view your source and find your download page. They could also change the price and end up paying you $.01 for a $90 product.

Fortunately, there is a solution. Sam Stephens has written a powerful, secure script called DLGuard. This script is an easy and effective way to prevent link sharing, but it does much more than that. DLGuard completely integrates with ClickBank, PayPal, 2Checkout, AlertPay, PayDotCom, EBay, EA Script and many other third-party ecommerce scripts. DLGuard supports single item sales, multiple item sales and even membership subscriptions. It even helps you to protect and track products you're giving away for free and works with your autoresponder to help build a responsive list of customers. You can download DLGuard at http://urlfreeze.com/stevenh77/dlguard/

DLGuard prevents link sharing by giving each customer a secure download page. You can set this page to expire after a certain amount of time and you can limit the number of times a customer can download your product from this page. It also prevents search engines from indexng your download page, or worse, your actual product. Many search engines can read PDF files and convert them to HTML, so customers could actually be stealing and reading your product directly from Google.

While you can't prevent theft entirely, DLGuard does provide a lot of protection and prevents casual sharing of download links, which accounts for the majority of download theft. Get it now at http://urlfreeze.com/stevenh77/dlguard/

Steven Hancock is the author of the Marketing Essentials blog.

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Every Song Tells A StoryBut Does It Need To Be An Abstract Novel?

For a musician, your songs are your art. They are the physical embodiment of your creative gifts. Every bit of anger, happiness, angst, joy, pain, elation, knowledge or humor goes into the story known as your song. You write and re-write it, scouring over each note and wordperfecting it for recording and live performance.

But when you play it for others, youre not getting the reaction you expected. Your friends, fans and family seem less than enthusiastic as they dully respond, Yeah. That wasumgood. How could this be? You poured your soul into this piece. This was your Stairway To Heaven! This was your Smells Like Team Spirit! Its a lyrically amazing ode about the persecution of pagan midwives in grass hut tribes! It flows, it breathes, and its seven and a half minutes of pure musical perfection!

Whoa. Stop right there, Mozart. You wrote a seven and a half minute song about the persecution of pagan midwives in grass hut tribes and youre wondering why youre thirteen year-old cousin fell asleep in the middle of the fourth verse? You wrote a seven and a half minute song about the persecution of pagan midwives in grass hut tribes and youre confused as to why your drummers girlfriend began calling her friends on her cell phone before the song had reached its bridge?

It may be hard to believe when youre penning an opus such as this, but the normal human brain is wired a little differently than an accomplished musicians, like yourself. And although music is art, its also popular culture and the goal should be for others to enjoy your creative efforts as much as you do.

So, how can you make sure that your writing experience is as positive as your audiences listening experience? What can you, as musicians do, to eliminate aspects of your songs that may alienate, confuse or just plain bore your fans?

The following are a few tips that may add success to your songwriting experience:

1.) After Four Minutes, It Becomes Background Music---Music aficionados aside, the average person has roughly the attention span of a young adult hummingbird. As a songwriter, you need to grab your audiences attention and hold it until the end of the song before they flit off to something else more interesting to them. Although four minutes (or less) may seem like the blink of an eye when a songwriter is storytelling, its a very long time to expect your run-of-the-mill club-goer or web-surfer to stay fixated on your music.

2.) Tell Your Story As Directly As Possible---We all love allusions, allegories, vague references, and subtle metaphors but use them sparingly or become a beat poet. A little abstractness goes a long way when writing a popular song. Song lyrics fly into peoples minds as quickly as the bassist plucks out quarter notes. If you make your lyrics too complicated, then your audience may still be trying to figure out the verse when youre already playing the chorus. This could prompt the average listener to tune out your masterpiece, order another beer and switch on their Ipod.

3.) If English Is Your First Language, Use It In Your Song---Its great that youre an educated, cultured, artistic intellectual sponge. But remember that most people who hear your music are not book worms or art whores. Big, involved words make for memorable song lyrics but use them occasionaly. Its good for your fans to ponder the meaning of a particular lyric but give them too many to ponder and theyll get so caught up in the words that they may forget your song.

4.) Obscure Musicality Can Be Confusing Too---Lyrics arent the only way to confuse the average listener. Obscure time signatures, discordant instrumentation and avant guard drum lines may seem like genius to your fellow musicians, but if your listeners cant tap and/or hum along, you may find yourself only invited to perform in underground opium bars where the audience members have all had one too many hash brownie.

If youre not sure where to begin, start simple. Write a short, but sweet, song that packs an emotional punch in a universal way. Write about something everyone is familiar with: love, politics, lifestyle issues or the sociology of being a human being on the planet. Once people have fallen in love with your music, it will be easier to get them to give the extra listen to your more complicated, artistic pieces.

Remember that just because a song is popular or easily understood, doesnt mean that its not good creativity. Art is subjective, and truly in the eye of the beholder. Your least favorite song could be someone elses favorite. You never have to stop being creative or artistic, just acknowledge that theres an audience out there that wants to hear what you have to saybut theyll need to be able to comprehend it first.

Sheena Metal is a radio host, producer, promoter, music supervisor, consultant, columnist, journalist and musician. Her syndicated radio program, Music Highway Radio, airs on over 700 affiliates to more than 126 million listeners. Her musicians assistance program, Music Highway, boasts over 10,000 members. She currently promotes numerous live shows weekly in the Los Angeles Area, where she resides. For more info: http://www.sheena-metal.com.

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Your Real Estate Career Begins With Education!

When I started investing in Real Estate I didn't know where to start. I mean how does one go about buying a property that needs work and isn't bringing in a dime from rent. Like many I felt that I probably was just able to buy the home I currently live in on my current income. How in the world was I ever going to talk the bank into giving me another loan to buy an investment property when I had no idea what I was doing.

Once I acknowledged my Real Estate Investing ignorance I did what any smart investor would do. I started my career with education. Oh boy was I in for a real eye opener. The more I learned that more I realized I had no clue about investing. But I kept on learning and getting my hands on everything I could. I turned my car into a mobile University. No more smooth jazz in the morning, it was time to fill the air with the voices of Real Estate gurus.

Now before you jump up and go drop a few thousand on a course you saw early this morning let me suggest a few more economical ways to start your education. These are the ways I started and still educate myself.

Since your reading this article lets start here. The internet is a great source for learning about real Estate Investing. REIHouses.com is a great place to start. Once you start searching around for information you will find an endless supply of information.

Next hit the library. My library has a website that I can search the entire catalog and have the items I want delivered to the closest branch. The other great thing is they have a bunch on audio. This way I can go pickup my selection and pop one in my cars cd player right away.

OK this one is huge. Probably one of the most valuable resources for your money. Find your local Real Estate Investor Association. There are so many advantages of joining REIA. First off it is a great way to network with other Real Estate Investors. Another reason is that they usually have their own library of educational material that you can check out just like your local library. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on material you can check it out for a month. Go through the material if you think it would be a good purchase then you can go out and buy your own copy. I have used this method several times. I'll be writing an article on all the reasons to join REIA later but for now I'll keep it to that. To find a REIA near you go the National Real Estate Association web and search the national directory. http://www.nationalreia.com/

By now you probably have enough information to go out and get your hands on some great Real Estate Investing educational material. But while we are at it I want to add one more great source that I use. That is pod casts and downloadable audio programs on the internet. Now pod casts are usually free and you can find several at iTunes.com or Yahoo Pod cast Directory. Audio book sites offer downloadable audio books like you would buy at a book store but usually a little cheaper and you can download them instantly. Once you download them you can either upload them to your iPod or other MP3 player of burn cd's to take with you in the car or wherever you like to listen. Of course you can also listen to them right from your computer if you like.

I sincerely hope that this will help you get started on your journey to investing in Real Estate. The amount of information you will take in will at times feel like your trying to drink from a fire hose but keep at it and I promise you will be doing deals before you know it.

For more great information about Real Estate investing please visit http://www.reihouses.com

Mr. Jason Blanton is an Active Real Estate investor and contributor to http://www.reihouses.com.

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