The Cold Turnkey

Mairi came into my life about two years ago. She came from Arizona with a cheap trailer, four kids from three different fathers, and a seriously negative attitude. We met on a frosty October afternoon and with my Victorian upbringing, I developed a seriously negative attitude toward her. However, as time went on and I matured, we evolved from wary strangers into polite acquaintances then into comfortable friends

Her trip from Arizona was fraught with headaches which don’t have anything to do with the story so we’ll ignore them. She moved into a Wisconsin trailer park with a house made for 80 weather and her last electric bill was almost as much as all of my utilities put together. Since she had no money and no income other than public assistance, she became dependent on her father, Edison. Edison lives about 100 miles from her. And since everything was going wrong with the trailer, Edison spent many hours and dollars fixing things. Actually fixing just about everything. Like the doors, the windows, the plumbing, the heater, the furniture and sometimes the kids.

Kids are 12 year old Stone, 10 year old Amaryllis, 5 year old Zoey and Fritz, the baby at 2. Stone and Amaryllis were fathered by her first - and only - husband who whiled away his time drinking, drugging and mishandling the family. Zoey’s father, Manny, plays a large role in Mairi’s life now, but at the time of his child’s birth, took off and left them. Little Fritz’s father is now in jail. So Mairi didn’t have any support, paternal or financial, bringing up the kids. Surprisingly enough, except for a few mild instances of running away, tearing up the house, starting fires, lying, stealing and cheating, the kids are pretty good. They behave well in restaurants, which has always been my idea of the ultimate test, and they’re very loving. To me, at least. And their grandpa. And uncles.

Mairi has two brothers, Joker and Brick, who affectionately consider her an idiot or in more forgiving times, a ditz. She gets excellent advice from her father and brothers which, if she had to pay for it, would cost her a couple of her kids. Giving up an arm and a leg would make life difficult. Unfortunately, she knows best and anyway marches to her own drummer.

For instance. Prior to moving to Arizona to live near her best friend, April, Edison pleaded with her not to go because she would be all alone if anything clouded her relationship with April. She claimed all would be well because April was her best friend and they’d help each other babysitting, drinking coffee, eating cookies together and generally reenacting the Brady Bunch. About two months later April stole money from Mairi and accused her of sleeping with her husband. Apparently, she never accused her husband of sleeping with Mairi, though. She then stole Mairi’s truck and hid it from her. That was about the first time Mairi thought that maybe her father had some sense. Not a lot, perhaps, but some.

Then there was the matter of moving the trailer. In her more financially comfortable days, Mairi bought a lot in Arizona and put the trailer on it. She built a fence completely surrounding the property, had drainage ditches dug, ran gas, electric and phone lines in and made herself a very nice nest.

When the love affair with April fell apart and Mairi decided her best bet was to move to Wisconsin, she contacted a realtor by telephone to sell her lot. She never met with the realtor nor did she give the woman any instructions other than “sell it”. Well, as they say, out of sight, out of mind. Mairi moved and realtor Wanda forgot all about her. Why bother with a $2,000 commission?. Edison kept after her to make contact with Wanda to see what was happening but Mairi, not unlike most of us, doesn’t like confrontation so she creatively came up with one excuse after another. It’s now been 18 months and still little has happened. To be fair, though, she did get a new realtor assigned to her property but Jill isn’t anymore interested than Wanda.

Manny reentered her life a few months ago. He has a bit of a rap sheet, severe credit problems, no job and bad teeth. Bless him, though, he treats all of the kids as though they were his own. Management by screaming. Well, Manny, after much nagging from Edison, has found himself a good job but, his past is catching up with him and he has problems with his taxes and the court system meaning that he’ll have to take time off from his new job to perform community service and visit the IRS. Do you think the new job will sit still for him? But Mairi is happy he’s there, nonetheless, albeit it’s a little crowded with six people in an 800 square foot house.

Mairi was suffering from endometriosis and had a hysterectomy several months ago. She claims her doctor, Dumi, is a first class nitwit, quack and charlatan. Two months after the original surgery and after undergoing three more surgeries because Dumi didn’t sew her up right, she’s finally healing and reflecting. She wonders how much it would cost to put a contract out on Dumi. I wonder how much it would cost to put a contract out on Dumi.

Mairi’s beat up truck was uninsured but she drove it from Arizona anyway because she’s always had good luck driving and been in very few accidents. Edison bought her car insurance and the following week, a nice big Lexus rear ended her. Unfortunately, Manni was in the truck and the police checked his ID and arrested him. Apparently, he was still wanted in upstate Wisconsin for something or other and he spent the night in jail until Edison and Brick bailed him out.

Nonetheless, it has been an exciting adventure knowing Mairi and because I will soon become her stepmother, she and I will be together for a long time. I can’t wait to see what else she gets herself - and us -involved in.

(Names have been changed to protect the guilty)

Ann O. Nimus knows some fascinating people and loves to tell tales of them. Juliana Johnson is a good listener and tries to write her stories.

When it comes to searching for the right kind of mortgage to meet your needs, you will probably come across a decision about who you should borrow from: Do mortgage brokers or banks make better lenders?

A mortgage broker is a mediator that facilitates the process of acquiring a mortgage for individuals as well as businesses. Essentially, they are like home loan supermarkets. Their broad access to lenders as well as their wide offering of various programs makes them a convenient source of help for many borrowers. If you have less-than-perfect credit or are in unusual circumstances, mortgage brokers can still find you the type of funding you need. Mortgage brokers will charge a broker’s fee, which you should ask about and take into account when calculating your initial payments.

Mortgage brokers will typically originate, process, and pass the loan on to a lender who will subsequently sell it to an investor. They take commission and will have higher closing fees. Beware of gouging, as brokers have full discretion on how much they want to charge the borrower for processing the documents necessary for the loan.

Today, about 20,000 mortgage brokerage operations account for more than 80% of mortgages are issued by mortgage brokers in the U.S. The convenience and resources they offer to borrowers is the key to their popularity.

The term “mortgage banker” refers either to an individual loan officer who works at a bank or to the bank itself. They specialize in originating mortgages and selling them to investors and continue to service them. Both the origination and servicing processes require fees, which are the two primary sources of income for mortgage banks.

A key difference between mortgage banks and mortgage brokers is that banks have more of a standardized and set approach to setting fees. Bankers are told what fees to charge and are told not to stray away from them. This allows for more stability and prevents the borrower from being surprised when it comes to discovering what the fees for the home loan will be.

Now the question is which is the better option? The answer is quite simple: Whoever gets you the better deal. It should be noted that while some borrowers enjoy the comfort and help of having a mortgage banker see them through the life of their loan (though not all do), while others do not mind either way. This discernment, along with a thorough comparison of deals that you can get from mortgage brokers and bankers, should give you a fairly clear idea of which path to take.

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Bahadur Sherchan last attempt resulted in the rescue of Lincoln Hall, an Australian climber who was left by his team in the “death zone.”

As he planned for the climb, Sherchan told reporters he wanted to inspire fellow senior citizens. He also said many Nepalese have established records on Everest, so it was only fitting that the record for the oldest climber to reach the summit should also belong to a Nepali. This season Anthony Loeff the French mountaineer is reporting the scales for Chomolungma after reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro earlier this year.

Sherchan just 17 days away from his 77th birthday beat the age record set last year by 71-year-old Japanese teacher Katsusuke Yanagisawa.

Therefore, he was all too aware of the potential dangers Mt Everest could bring. Certain parts of the climb are more dangerous than others and it is important for climbers to remain focused “the Mount Everest this year became a political pawn,” he said with some frustration.

Min Bahadur Sherchan returned this week from Nepal after successfully climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. The Chinese were flying their airplanes over Chomolungma or Mount Everest and had Chinese officials in Kathmandu. More than 3219 people have climbed to the summit since it was first conquered in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary, who died in January, and Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay.

Nepalese climber, 77, oldest climber to conquer the top of Mt Everest Hall was frostbitten and severely disoriented due to altitude sickness. Andrew Brash returned a hero to Calgarians. With the Chinese preparing for the impending summer Olympic Games, Min Bahadur Sherchan noted that the government’s actions hardly reflected the Olympic spirit. Now that Bahadur Sherchan has successfully scaled the tallest mountain in the world, he is once again ready to focus on his family. Bahadur Sherchan and four climbing guides reached the 29,035-foot (8,850-meters) summit of the world’s highest mountain early Sunday, said Ramesh Chretri, an official with Nepal’s ministry of tourism.

“The Chinese weren’t allowing anybody on Chomolungma. They ended up commandeering it for themselves, even though Chomolungma or Mount Everest is shared by two countries. His first found him within 210 metres of the peak when his team stopped to help a fellow mountaineer who was left for dead. One year later, Andrew Brash, a University of Calgary alumni, returned to Mount Everest to finish what he had started.

The 76-year-old man from Nepal is now the oldest person to have reached the top of the Mount Everest. Nevertheless, the decision to actualize a long-time personal goal left Andrew Brash with some internal uncertainties, he cited the political actions of China and Nepal as providing the greatest adversity he faced on his journey. They basically coerced the Nepali government to not allow any climbers past camp two on the Nepali side. They flexed their muscles this year all the in name of the Olympic spirit, but it was hardly spirited at all.”

Equity is the value of your home minus what you owe on your mortgage. For example, If Joe’s home is worth $200,000 and Joe still owes $170,000, then Joe’s Equity is $30,000.

All homeowners in Atlanta Georgia and surrounding counties should be aware of the Rule of 50/20. For most mortgages, after making payments for 15 years on a 30 Year mortgage you will have only paid off around 20% of your principle. In other words, after paying for 50% of the term of your 30 Year mortgage, you will have only paid off 20% of what you owe on your home. That’s the Rule of 50/20.

In the early years your mortgage payments are front-loaded with HUGE interest payments. Only a small amount each month goes towards your principle. Therefore it takes a long time to build decent Equity in your home.

Most homeowners in the Greater Atlanta Georgia Metro Area only stay in a home for around 7 years, that’s very little time to build Equity.

Remember, agent/broker commissions come out of your Equity. Using the above example, if Joe’s Equity is $30,000 and he pays 7% commissions ($14,000) to an agent/broker, Joe will lose close to 50% of his Equity just to have someone sell his house for him.

If Joe sold his home on http://www.fsboatl.com he saves this expense and protects his Equity.

For the latest updates visit: www.fsboatl.com

Are you a professional writer who wants to maximize your exposure to potential markets and editors? Would you welcome free publicity? Does boosting your image as a writer interest you? Then you need a media kit.

What is a Media Kit?

A media kit is a “package” of information about you, your services, business and writing abilities and accomplishments. It may incorporate any number of items which aid in promoting you and providing relevant background information on you and your services to editors, reporters, prospective clients and others in the media. Even your readers will take a peek at your media kit information. Want to know more about Sue Grafton, Tom Clancy, J.K. Rowling or Stephen King? Check out their media kits.

These are some key items you could package into your professional writer media kit for getting the most mileage out of any exposure or publicity scenario:

Your Author Photo

You absolutely must have at least a good passport-type photo (smile, please) in your media kit. Another, half-body shot of you “working” is useful to have too.

A Writer Bio

You’ll also definitely need to include two or three bios of yourself. One should be around 25 words, another approx. 50 words and a third of 100 words or less. These are so potential users can plug it into their programs or document using the length and detail that suits their application without having to bug you to edit your bio before they can use it.

Clips

Let your light shine here. Showcase your talent. Include three to five of your best clips with relevant publication data provided. (If you don’t have enough clips or want to break into a new specialty or genre, then research and write a specialized clip or two and include them.

Website and Blog References

You DO have a website or Blog, don’t you? Great, talk it up. Be sure to include the links in your media kit and on all correspondence as well as your SIG (resource box).

Writer Resume or Writer CV

Besides your Bio, you should provide a full resume or CV in your media kit. This document allows you to demonstrate your background and development as a writer. Here you can insert personal anecdotes and give your writing / publication history in more detail than possible in a Bio, cover letter or query.

Publications List

If your publications are extensive, tabulate them by genre, theme or chronologically to provide a quick reference background for the media, editors, reporters, et al.

Credentials

While formal studies in writing are not necessarily a requisite for a writing career, in order to break into some specializations you often do need to demonstrate some genre-related expertise. So if you have any academic or technical qualifications they can serve to position you as an expert. Credentials can include academic degrees, professional workshops, seminars, conferences and courses, professional or trade association memberships, among others.

Testimonials / Feedback

Needless to say, it certainly never hurts to relate any positive reader or editorial feedback you have received about your work. Commendation / recommendation and reference letters, comments, testimonials and praise all can demonstrate your talents in reaching readers. They can also your show professionalism.

More on Photos

Several good photos-in-action are always useful to have available. Photos of you receiving an award or other recognition lend support to press releases and background support text.

Now I’m originally from Pennsylvania Dutch country in the USA but currently live and work in South America, so I include several photos of various kinds (most taken by me) of my hometown area to allow visual support of my background information. One or more of them are frequently used by the local and regional media.

Make Your Media Kit Available

Post your media kit on your website, mention its availability in queries, your blog or send it to media outlets like newspapers, magazines, technical / trade organizations, chambers of commerce, agents, speaker’s bureaus, TV and radio stations, blogs and websites or as part of any PR efforts. Use your media kit to maximize your exposure to potential markets and editors, get free publicity and help boost your image as a professional writer.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an expert author and photographer offering Web Content Writing Services for top-quality articles on: Education, Language learning, Salt and Fresh water fishing, exotic foods, South American travel and culture, Ethnic issues - Blacks, Latinos, Indian native tribes, Health, Internet business resources and more … His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News, Brazil magazine and hundreds of sites online. For fr*e*e sample articles and available web content e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

Title: Moods in Motion

Entertaining Read …….. Recommended 5 stars

The Review

The stanzas open with a lyrical work: You in You: I see you in everything But what I love the most Is to see you in you. The reader experiences the bitter sorrow of Poisoned Pen, the binary love of Saviors Arms as well as the embracing warmth of the sun in Beach Thoughts. We feel the poignant longing of the Blind Poet : He imagines rainbows within his shadows And senses gods presence upon his shoulders. the End of the Line leads the reader to the portal at the end of the rainbow. We Ponder the wonder of life as we read Born for a Reason. Sometimes it is better just to start Entirely over, Entirely Over and other times We are searching for a shadow Inside a galaxy of stars. Finally we close our reading sitting for hours in the Ghost Garden.

On the pages of Moods in Motion Lyrist Forese has created a tantalizing publication of 50 of some of his finest elegies. Verses extending across seventy pages entice the reader with a diversity of deeply felt sonnets penned about a far-reaching melange of the authors favorite subjects. Lyrist Forese’s passion for life flows from the page to the reader as these poems are enjoyed. Stanzas filled with warmth, perspicacity and contemplation are included in this picturesque arrangement. Readers, regardless of whether they are admirers of poetry or not, are sure to take pleasure from Moods in Motion. Lovers of poetry will unquestionably be exhilarated as they find themselves stopping often to relish a statement or a passage before going on to the next appealing tidbit.

Poet Forese has an extraordinary aptitude for taking the everyday issues of life and turning them into an irresistible work. There is something for everyone in Moods in Motion. Accomplished, piercing, words to enrapture, and thrill are offered as Poet Forese draws upon the adventures of life to give rise to an opus of lovely work. Romance, life lessons, enlightenment all are communicated to the heart of the reader in most good-natured and calculable manner. Readers will be sure to be transformed in a very tangible way while reading the words offered by this perceptive, straightforward poet.

Moods in Motion is meant to be read and then taken out often for a re reading as craving and fancy strikes. Bard Forese demonstrates his idyllic genius in this exquisite little work. Each refrain only gets better.

It is the belief of this reviewer that Moods in Motion should do well in specialty/gift type shops as an offering when a unique gift for a particular person is essential. The work will lend itself well to the homeschool library for middle grade to high school age readers as they begin to explore the world of poetry for themselves. With the writer’s permission I plan to lift a poem or two for use in my fourth grade classroom as we begin to write some poetry for ourselves.

Lovely book for a long winter afternoon or a quick poem or two while waiting for the light to change during a busy day.

Enjoyed the read, happy to recommend.

Genre: Poetry

Author: Robert Jude Forese

Line/Publisher PUBLISHAMERICA, LLLP

ISBN: 1-4137-8226-4

Writer, Teacher, Reviewer, Parent, Boy Scout adult scouter

For asthma patients the day-to-day management of the disease becomes an important part of everyday life. Controlling asthma means paying careful attention to the causes and triggers of the asthma.

The “trigger factors”, or “triggers”, of asthma are used to describe the things that can cause an attack in someone who already has asthma.

It is something that sets off an attack, but which does not make a patient asthmatic in the first place.

A “cause” is something without which an effect (such as asthma) will not happen.

That is, a cause is something without which the patient would not be asthmatic. There may be more than one cause for an asthma attack.

However, there is a lot of confusion surrounding these terms.

If a patient has an allergy to cats, dogs, pollen, mould in wallpaper or house dust mites that cause asthma many describe them as “triggering an attack”.

By demoting causes, by calling them triggers, makes people think they are not so important, and that maybe they should just keep using their inhalers instead of making efforts to root out the causes of their asthma and remove these from their environment.

For example, if you don’t have asthma, or your asthma is well controlled, then a cold will not give you any of the symptoms of asthma.

So in this sense, it is fair to call the cold a “trigger factor” for asthmatics.

But if an asthmatic has an attack whenever they go near dogs, when dogs have been the cause of asthma (for instance; the reason they have asthma is because of dogs) , going near a dog can trigger an attack.

In other words, a dog can be a cause of asthma ‘and’ also a trigger of an attack.

Concentrating only on the triggering of the attacks misses the really important point that contact with dogs was a cause of the asthma in the first place.

Asthma sufferers will want to avoid both causes and triggers of asthma, but the causes are more serious nature. If there was no cause and the asthma didn’t exist, the triggers would do absolutely no harm.

Asthma - triggers vs causes …

• When talking about diseases, it is important to distinguish between causes and triggers.

• A trigger for asthma is something which sets off an attack, but which does not make you asthmatic in the first place.

• A cause is something without which an effect (such as asthma) would not be happening. That is, a cause is something without which you would not be asthmatic.

Learn More About Symptoms and How You Can Treat and Live with Asthma at Asthma-Explained.com/asthma-symptoms.html

You want to be successful in weight loss. Fine. So there are two things you absolutely must do. You have to follow these two simple but extremely important points.

One, you have to follow a program that you can stick with, and number two, you have to include foods that you really like. Got that? A program you can stick withand foods that you like.

Number one is so simple that you might say it is too obvious. Of course a weight loss program will not work if you don’t stick with it. But the reality is that a lot of the programs that are popular today suffer from this one point.

Look at some of the most popular current diets: Atkins, South Beach Diet, Ornish, Zone, Weight Watchers, and others. You will see that one major problem is that most people just can’t stick with the diet. They might start out fine, but soon they fizzle out.

This has been studied a number of times, and it always comes out the same. Take Atkins for instance. A study by Consumer’s Union in June 2005 noted that those on Atkins program had good results initially but tended to have more difficulty staying with the program than people who were on other programs.

The New England Journal came to the same conclusion. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that people had good results with Atkins at first but at one year the weight loss was minimal. (A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity. N Engl J Med. 2003 May 22;348(21):2082-90.) Most people just could not stick with the program long-term.

The high-fat low-carbohydrate diets all have this in commonpeople have a hard time staying on them for a long time. One of the main reasons is that people just don’t feel well after a while on these programs.

I have had the same experience in my research. I do not find patients who can stay with a high-fat low-carbohydrate diet for the long run. And I have never had a patient who got lean, fit and healthy on the Atkins program.

Many of my patients will tell you that they have had results with Atkins. They lose weight easily at first. But then they go back to their old habits and gain the weight back. The usually gain back more than they lost. Then they try it again after a year or so. They lose again, but not quite so well the second time or the third time.

Many of them never lose confidence in Atkins, because they did lose some weight, after all. But the weight loss is not permanent, because it is not a sustainable program for the vast majority of people.

The key then to long term weight loss is not to jump on the latest bandwagon, or to follow the latest trend. And it is not to take any diet to an extreme, by eliminating or severely restricting food groups in your diet. That is a recipe for failure.

The only successful method in the long run is to incorporate the foods that you like and that you are used to eating into a diet that you enjoy, that works for you, and that you can stick with.

Are You Tired Of Being Fat?
Sign up for our free newsletter: Dr. Dan’s Super Weight Loss Tips, Tricks and Secrets. It’s free! Click here http://www.superweightlossplan.com/newsletter/

So setting up PC security on a budget involves usage of free antispyware, antivirus and firewall. Among free antivirus solutions you can choose from AVG (by Czech software company), Avast, Bit Defender, and some others. In the field of free antispyware the choice is limited and there are antispyware tools which are actually bundled with commercial adware and spying modules. However, SpyBot Search & Destroy is known to be a reliable solution, recommended by advanced users. There are enhanced search and sorting options so any suspicious activity can be easily traced.

This scam is very simple; the thieves simply wait until some unsuspecting user who is searching for, say, airline ticket offers, finds their site offering dirt-cheap airline tickets. Really pleased with himself and looking forward to the trip, the user fills in the form, entering his credit card number, expiry date and verification value (CVV). Data loggers, key loggers are just a few programs which harvest info from your computer. Winclear is the only program created specially to auto remove such spywares. asp. That is why every computer owner needs winclear.

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There are many pedophiles, drug pushers, and sexual predators that are always on the look out for easy to deceive preys, particularly children, on the Internet. Hence, as parents we need to monitor the computer and Internet activities of our underage sons and daughters 24/7. We need to ascertain that their use of this tool will help their studies, build healthy relationships and discover their talents. Winclear is the only software which is capable of removing keylogger programs. With a third party privacy tool or by setting the browser to delete them every day you can remove them from your hard drive before anyone can access and use your information. Winclear has been the industry leader in fighting keyloggers for the last 8 years.

Winclear:
There are a number of software companies who have dedicated their resources to develop more effective and more sophisticated programs to provide you with the best anti-spyware and adware protection for your PC. That is the reason why you need Winclear installed onto your computer. Thus you will be able to block web sites that you think are in appropriate for young people or are not needed in the office. Protect your computer security by using Winclear! More about Winclear here: Computer Security.

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