Tips For Woman

Vitamins and minerals

2009-10-06T13:07:00.000+07:00

Natural vitamins are found only in living things, that is, plants and animals. Your body, with a few exceptions, can't manufacture vitamins. They must be supplied in your food or in dietary supplements but supplements can't replace food, especially fruits and vegetables which provide thousands of substances, some of which have well-known functions, and some whose roles in the human body are not yet understood or recognized.

Vitamins and minerals ...

? reduce your risk of getting a stroke or heart attack!
? strengthen your nails!
? improve your hair condition, strength and growth by providing certain essential nutrients to the hair follicle!
? beautify your skin by keeping it smooth, soft and disease-free!
? provide essential compounds that are necessary for growth, health, normal metabolism and physical well-being! Without them, you would die!
? promote normal growth and development!
? maintain bone density and strength!
? regulate blood clotting!
? help in the function of nerves and muscles, including regulating a normal heart beat!

When it comes to choosing a healthy diet for their children, many parents don't realize the important role that beverages play. For example, fruit flavored drinks and soft drinks are not a substitute for real fruit. Many of these drinks only contain 10% real fruit juice. The very best drinks are made from

Men and Woman Jokes

2009-09-06T13:06:00.000+07:00

The woman applying for a job in a Florida lemon grove seemed way too qualified for the job.

Foreman: "Look Miss, have you any actual experience in picking lemons?"

Woman: "Well, as a matter if fact, yes! I've been divorced three times."

* * *

There were three guys talking in the pub. Two of them are talking about the amount of control they have over their wives, while the third remains quiet.

After a while one of the first two turns to the third and says,

"Well, what about you, what sort of control do you have over your wife?"

The third fellow says "I'll tell you. Just the other night my wife came to me on her hands and knees."

The first two guys were amazed. "What happened then?" they asked. "She said, 'get out from under the bed and fight like a man'."

* * *

Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends.You order what you want, then when you see what the other person has, you wish you had ordered that.

* * *

At the cocktail party, one woman said to another, "Aren't you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?" The other replied, "Yes, I am, I married the wrong man."

* * *

After a quarrel, a husband said to his wife, "You know, I was a fool when I married you." She replied, "Yes, dear, but I was in love and didn't notice."

* * *

A lady inserted an 'ad' in the classifieds: "Husband wanted". Next day she received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: "You can have mine."

* * *

The bride, upon her engagement, went to her mother and said, "I've found a man just like father!" Her mother replied, "So what do you want from me, sympathy?"

* * *

When a woman steals your husband, there is no better revenge than to let her keep him.

* * *

Man is incomplete until he is married. Then he is finished.

* * *

A little boy asked his father "Daddy, how much does it cost to get married?" And the father replied, "I don't know son, I'm still paying."

* * *

Young Son: "Is it true, Dad, I heard that in some parts of Africa a man doesn't know his wife until he marries her?"
Father: "That happens in every country, son."

* * *

"I never knew what real happiness was until I got married; and then it was too late."

* * *

A woman was telling her friend, "It is I who made my husband a millionaire."

Friend: "And what was he before you married him?"

Woman: "A billionaire."

* * *

During a heated spat over finances the husband said, "Well, if you'd learn to cook and were willing to clean this place, we could fire the maid." The wife, fuming, shot back, "Oh yeah??? Well, if you'd learn how to make love, we could fire the chauffeur and the gardener."

* * *

When making love, most married men fantasize that their wives aren't fantasizing.

* * *

How do most men define marriage? A very expensive way to get your laundry done free.

* * *

The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once.

* * *

First guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!"

Second guy: "You're lucky, mine's still alive."

Healthy living With Mediterranean Way

2009-09-05T13:28:00.000+07:00

Mediterranean style of eating patterns can make us healthier and longer age. Condition? Should consume lots of vegetables and seafood. Plus "a little" red wine and enough rest. More healthy body and life expectancy is longer.

Mediterranean style diet has many benefits. If done correctly, then the disease such as heart attack, high blood pressure, to some types of cancer would be far from you. Enough nutrition experts recommend that this type of diet. Need not be bothered to read the user guide for more diet, calorie count, to search for food that are difficult to obtain. This diet is very simple, but delicious. So what, is, in fact this Mediterranean style diet?

This diet is actually based on the traditional meal pattern, countries located in the Mediterranean Sea, such as Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, North France, Morocco, Turkey and Southern Italy. Cuisine in each country that may feel different and also different techniques cook. But if we look more detailed, in fact there is one similarity. Overall use fruit and vegetables that quite a lot. Plus seafood, olive oil, garlic, spices and fresh red wine. They only use a little red meat and milk. It also rarely use the sweet and the food is preserved.

Live longer
Monash University's research appears to support this opinion. Compared with Australia, the heart attack on migrants from Greece is below average. But her children, the descendants of the first Greek in Australia, had a heart attack a number approaching the average. What is it? Apparently eating healthy tradition of ancestor is replaced with more food, red meat, fast food and sweet food.

Health in this Mediterranean style diet can not rely on one food only, but a number of variations of food. For example, the use of olive oil that many will contribute to a high-monounsaturated fat and low saturated fat and polyunsaturated. Tomato, garlic, red wine, and vegetables provide antioxidants high womb. While seafood contributes omega-3 fat is good for the heart.

Lifestyle factors
Research shows sports, stress reduction, and social support have contributed to reduce the risk of heart disease. If you look at how to cook Italian or Greek, they went to the local market to get fresh ingredients and not over-cook. Fast food or food terproses rarely used. Similarly, cultural food take away the style of Western also rarely found.

Not seldom they walk or bicycle to nearby villages to do the sale and purchase agreement. Many of the food prepared by hand, not with the tool. Similarly, a variety of vegetables each day that quoted from the garden. More kesegarannya guaranteed. All this activity will endorse a more healthy body. This healthy dish can also strengthen ties in the family and community. You can eat lunch together with a relax, and resumed the day of rest. Create a day that relaks with the family to stay healthy.

Switch to olive oil
Olive oil contains more than 70 percent fat "good" mono-unsaturated. Highest abortion among other types of oil. Extra virgin olive oil with the cold-pressed process has natural antioxidants such as vitamin E, such as in polifenol and karotenoid. Extra virgin olive oil is also low so that the acid is suitable for salad and vegetables are cooked. Pure olive oil is usually a mixture of extra virgin oil saitun and processed. Suitable for this type of cooking.

Create a healthier pasta
Pasta often considered a fat food. But the sauce is pastanya that contribute to more obesity. To be healthy, use in the Mediterranean style of topping up your fettuccini. Try tomatoes, or tomato-based sauce, chili, zucchini and other various vegetables. Add the seafood and fresh ingredients such as basil or oregano.

Use garlic
Garlic has been smooth flow of blood, reduce cholesterol, and improve blood vessel elasticity. In raw, garlic also contains the ability antibakteri way stop bacterial growth and also the evil fungus causes fermentation.

Tomato
Tomato is very popular in the Mediterranean region. Can be used in pasta, pizza to be sliced for salads or dried. In addition to source vitamin C, tomatoes contain lycopene, antioxidants for a Mela-wan oxygen free radicals. Lycopene is what makes tomatoes red. Tomato cooked with the oil tambahakan will add power to the body absorb lycopene.

Try a variety of seafood
Fish and other seafood, such as squid and oysters, contain omega-3 fat that powerful. There is also a protein and mineral contents such as Iodine and potassium. Omega-3 is known for its ability to reduce the risk of heart disease with a lower triglyserida (blood fat) and prevent the occurrence of heart trouble tap (arrythmia). .

Smoothie and Shake Tips

2009-08-06T19:01:00.001+07:00

A smoothie is basically a blended fruit drink. The best-tasting smoothies are made from fruit that is fresh or frozen, and not canned.
All smoothies begin with a liquid base. This can be orange juice, milk or another liquid.
You can make a frostier drink by freezing fresh fruit before making a smoothie.
Smoothies are best when they're fresh out of the blender, but they can be frozen the night before, as well – just remove the smoothie from the freezer about an hour before drinking.
You can replace a meal with a smoothie or shake by adding a scoop of high-quality protein powder and a tbsp. of high-quality olive or flax oil.

Design of Passion award

2009-08-05T19:31:00.005+07:00

Thanks a lot for My lovely friend Sifa (Langit Malam) for this award. Because this is my first award.

award : design of passion
owner : Tips For Woman
Sent by:

Anggy,Rizky,Arya,Ote,Tatsuya,Irawanqq,BilbOyzshop,gr3nall ,information ,DaStRo ,SiFa

How to cook a healthy potato

2009-08-05T19:10:00.003+07:00

Many believe the mother of French fries can be part of good diet and balanced. In fact, anything you choose, no problem. Because potatoes are eaten with the skin make vitamin C Feed, and one of the best sources of fiber and potasium. Meanwhile, the chef trying to find better ways to make potatoes, good oil to use with the "healthy" or without fried. This is the trick fry potatoes, that can be enjoyed without the worry of fat hikes after that.

Buy frozen potatoes. Several companies now produce frozen potato with materials that have been tested first, and their fat, good for the body. Look for frozen potato products that kalorinya no more than 120 grams. For info, 3 oz in each dish are 3.5 grams of fat.

Stock fried potatoes. Dish of potatoes fried with a new way of processing, which is first boiled and then fried before given the wind, can be an option. 3 oz Each dish contains about 180 calories, 6 grams fat, 1 gram of fat and saturated.

Create your own. We can make your own potato relish dish that is rich with antioxidants to follow this recipe below:

Rainbow potatoes (for 4 portions) 5 potato slices fruit 1 cm long. Rendam potatoes in cold water for 45 minutes. Then, cut 1 medium sized sweet potato lengthwise, as much as 1 cm. Hot oven to 200 degrees Celsius. potatoes are soaked, Mix with the sliced sweet potatoes, 3 tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper. Horizontal row in the brass. Rooms up to 40 minutes, back, and roast again until the potatoes so the color brown.

5 Easy Steps to Speed Up Your Computer With no Fees

2009-08-01T13:46:00.000+07:00

A lot of people are interested in making the most of their hardware. With that, here are 5 simple tips on how to make your Windows Operating System run faster without having to purchase additional hardware.

1. Defrag Disk allows to Speed Up Access to Data

Disk fragmentation is one of the cause for computer's slow performance. When files are fragmented, it leaves gaps here and there and the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to link it back together. By running the Disk Defragmenter it will speed up the response time.

* Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
* Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze
* Click Defragment

2. Detect and Fix Disk Errors

Your hard disk will develop bad sectors over time. It will slow down the hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and fix disk errors, there's a tool called the Error Checking utility. What it does is that It will scan the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and then repair them, rsulting in faster performance.

* Follow Start > My Computer
* In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties
* Click the Tools tab
* Click Check Now
* Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box
* Click Start

3. Turn Off Indexing Services

Indexing Services is a small application, but uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won't do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.

* Go to Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click Add/Remove Programs
* Click the Add/Remove Window Components
* Uncheck the Indexing services
* Click Next

4. Remove Fonts for Speed

Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, limit your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

* Open Control Panel
* Open Fonts folder
* Go through and remove the ones you hardly use

5. Run Registry Cleaner

Over time, the Windows registry becomes bloated with invalid and corrupted entries. These invalid entries remains due to the uninstallation of software that leaves a trace. By not having a clean registry it will slow down your computer significantly. By using an advanced registry cleaner it will repair and remove those invalid and corrupted entries. We recommend Registry Easy as it's the best one on the market.

World's Best Cruise Ships

2009-07-31T13:41:00.001+07:00

With the best cruises you can explore the vast seas and exotic locales in a relaxed manner while enjoying the best benefits offered in the ships. With ships that feature world-famous chefs, premiere spa service, Broadway shows, and even helicopter tours, these fantastic ships are sure to make the trips exciting and memorable. Whether it is a family, luxury or a romantic trip that you are looking for; here are some of the best cruise liners for you.

Norwegian Cruise Line

This cruise ship is famous for its tours of the Hawaiian Islands. As big as three football fields the chip has 25 decks and 372 rooms for the guests together with exclusive suites. The travelers have full freedom to choose from a range of activity and dining choices. There are a range of international dishes that are on platter and guests can look to have a great time indulging in some of the finest cuisines from around the world. There are also 13 bars where the guests can have some of the choicest drinks.

There are also a wide array of on-board activities to choose from including ping-pong, yoga, aerobics, cooking, and talent shows.

Radisson Seven Seas Mariner

This cruise line is famous for having some of the best trips to great locales including Sydney, Singapore, Sweden, Cape Town and Peru. While on board, there are spa and massage facilities that are there. There are also golf cages where you may like to practice your swing. For the intellectuals there is the Lecturer Program where world famous historians, diplomats, and anthropologists speak about a range of world issues. There is also a well stocked library where you can spend a quiet afternoon.

The ship features all-balcony accommodations and luxury and comfort is guaranteed. The cruise is also well known for its dining facilities. Travelers can enjoy some of the best dishes from the onboard branch of the famous Le Cordon Bleu culinary school.

Nantucket Clipper

The cruise ship is favored by travelers as it visits places that other ships generally do not go to. The intimate settings and the personalized services offered by the guests make it an enjoyable experience to be on board. The ship follows routes along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, Latin America, Canadian coast, French Canada, the Great Lakes and Nova Scotia. There are also many other optional excursions that are available to guests allowing them to explore wonderful sights including colonial Southern mansions, ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal, Niagara Falls and many more. There is also an on-board historian and naturalist who will give talks on the day's sights.

Seabourn Spirit

This is cruise ship renowned for its opulence and excellent service. There are 8 decks and all suites accommodations. There are a host of signature delights that the passengers are treated to once they are on board. The ship's itineraries are exotic and are favored by the well heeled travelers.

A trip on these cruise lines is something that you will treasure for a long time.(steven kirby)

Financial Advisors - Helping Or Selling?

2009-07-30T13:35:00.000+07:00

Financial Advisors are not the core problem with mutual funds. No doubt most of them really mean to help. But the Mutual Fund Industry teaches them to do some silly, counterproductive things with your money, things that have you working longer and enjoying life less. Here's the amazing thing about financial advisors: They are, after all, "financial professionals."

The reality is, they don't understand how to grow your money any better than you do. And not only don't they understand, they just don't have the time. They're very busy bringing on new business; so busy, in fact, they don't have the time to really look at what's best for their clients based on their own research. So they use independent rating companies or the Morningstar Style Box, or a 3-5 year on-line view of fund performance as a substitute for real research.

If not, they'll use some sort of software, which is what I call "rear-window-basis software." And if you've ever sat down with a financial advisor, they ask your age, and then in about one minute, somehow they know the exact split to recommend. In 60 seconds or less, the financial advisor will say, "Oh, you need to be in a 60/40 split - split 60% in cash, 40% in bonds."

It takes more than a minute to figure out what is best for a client. There are hopes, there are dreams, there are risks, there are rewards, and there is no way some computer software program can kick out a number to tell me what's best for my client. Just to be clear, this software is ridiculous. It's silly. A software program that knows what's best? Absurd.

But again, it's simple, it's easy, and the financial advisor can push the responsibility off on the rating company or the software they use. Now, I'm not saying whether financial advisors are good people or bad people, I'm simply pointing out that these advisors don't really know how to grow money. Again, it's because of what they're paid to do. They're salespeople. They're not doing deep-value security analysis.

Here's the ultimate silliness: Not having time, the advisors probably do the best they can. So they look to the mutual fund companies and ask, "Hey, what should our clients buy?"

I'm not sure we should be looking to fund companies to ask them what we should buy. It seems like Little Red Riding Hood asking the wolf, "Hey, where do I go for a really good meal?" And she gets there and finds out, of course, that she's the meal. You really should use an objective, unbiased point of view to help with that.

There is another thing that advisors do that is mistaken and horrible for your wealth. If you have an advisor from a publicly traded company, I can just about guarantee that you were told to do this. It's called rebalancing. Rebalancing is typically done at the end of the year. If one of the sectors grew a lot and the others didn't, some of the winnings from that sector are put into the sector that didn't grow that well. What's crazy about this is that that's predicting. You're predicting that the bad sectors or investment will start doing well. I mean, you have to be predicting, or you wouldn't put that extra money in the downturning investments you have.

Predicting is really dangerous. It's also dumb. Think of it: it's 1986, and you put 4% of your portfolio into a company called Microsoft. This grows and grows, and by 1996 it represents 70% of your portfolio. Your portfolio, because you had that huge gainer, has grown way, way faster than the S&P. So your financial advisor says, "Wow, no, that is growing way too fast for you. That is making way too much money for you. We've got to pull the reins in on this. That's getting risky." Only it's not. If you put 4% in an investment and this grows over 10 years and represents 50% or your investment, it's okay. In one sense, you only risk that 4%.

Rebalancing is very dangerous, as this limits your winners and promotes your losers. You can never hit the big numbers if you keep selling your winners like rebalancing would do. So if your financial advisor has suggested rebalancing, you should seriously consider moving somewhere else. I've never met or read about someone that uses rebalancing who's wildly successful in growing and protecting their funds; the ones with mediocre-to-poor returns? I've met plenty of them who do rebalancing.

So why do financial advisors suggest rebalancing? Good question. It must be so they can look like they are working for that 1% you are paying them to grow your money slightly worse than the unmanaged S&P 500 index.

How I can prove most advisors don't know how to grow your money? Go pull up a list of your stock market returns since you started investing and compare them with the returns of the S&P 500 during the same time period. About 99% of you will notice that the unmanaged S&P500 has outperformed.

Relinquishing control of your financial future to a sales person, even one you like, does not work. Look at what has happened to the share price of those institutions. They have not grown their clients' money in a decade.(Ronald Peck)

How Can I Play Windows Media Files (Wma and Wmv) On a Mac?

2009-07-29T13:39:00.000+07:00

Apple's Quicktime movie format (recognizable by its *.mov extension) has become and almost standard for video files. It beats most other video formats in terms of compression and both video and audio quality. The quicktime format, however, is by no means the only format for videos out there. In a world where over 90% of all personal computers run Microsoft Windows it is no surprise that you are bound to stumble over videos in the Microsoft Media File format (.wma and .wmv). How can you play these kind of videos on a Mac?

While there are about a handful of options, two of them are more reasonable than the others for a bunch of reasons: the Flip4Mac Quicktime plugin and VLC Media Player.

Flip4Mac

Flip4Mac is a plugin for Apple's Quicktime movie player. Being a plugin it will enable Quicktime to play Windows Media Files. This has the advantage of there not being an additional application being installed on your Mac. Also, you will be able to watch (and listen to) Windows Media files in the software you are used to that has the type of user interface you expect when working on a Mac.

Flip4Mac is produced by a company named Telestream which offers five different versions of the plugin (Player, Player Pro, Studio, Studio Pro, Studio Pro HD). While it is reasonable to buy one of the commercial editions (buying software to support developers is always a wise idea) you can do very well with the free edition.

Installation of Flip4Mac is very easy. After downloading the plugin from either the Telestream site or Microsoft (for links see the resource box) open the downloaded .mpkg file and the plugin will be installed.

After installation you will be able to play following additional file formats with Quicktime:

Windows Media Audio (.wma)
Windows Media Video (.wmv)
ISO Mpeg Layer 3 (MP3)
ISO Mpeg-4
Microsoft Motion JPEG
And a few other, less used formats

VLC Media Player

The free VLC Media Player is your second reasonable option. This piece of software is open source, continually worked on by its open source developer community and is probably the most versatile media player in terms of supported formats out there.

Installation is as easy as downloading the dmg file (for a download link see resource box) and then drag and drop the dmg file into your Application folder.

VLC Media Player is a very reliable and versatile media player. There is one downside however: like so many other pieces of software written for all major platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS) its user interface does not follow Apple's guidelines. VLC simply doesn't look or feel like a Mac application.

Summary

Both, VLC Media Player and Flip4Mac, are very good options if you need to play Windows Media files on your Mac. There is no problem having both of them installed on the same machine. If, however, you prefer to have as little software installed on your Mac as possible, you should opt for Flip4Mac.

Cell Phone Forensics at Its Best

2009-07-28T13:37:00.000+07:00

While everyone is aware of how far technology has come today, many forget really how much specific devices can tell about various events. Cell phone forensics has become a vital piece of information and evidence that is used in criminal trials. Between being highly sophisticated and rather simple at the same time, this device can be extremely beneficial in criminal investigations.

The main reason cell phone records are used in court is to determine where people were and who they were talking to. What you may not realize is just how easy it is to track where you are when you were talking on the phone.

Despite cell phones being fairly sophisticated devices, they really are nothing more than a two-way radio. They are constantly connecting and communicating with a network by sending pings to the nearest transmission tower. Because of this, it makes it fairly simple to route calls correctly.(Ed Opperman)

There are multiple antennas that track your phone's signal because of the fact that a single tower only covers a few square miles. However, cell phone forensics is made possible with the help of countless towers spread all over. As you move, your call travels and is handed over to the base station that receives the strongest signal from the phone. This means that wherever you go, your signal can and will be tracked.

The carrier keeps detailed records of which towers your phone has made contact with and what time it did so. What this means is that where you and your phone are located can be tracked within a few hundred yards. Urban areas allow you to be tracked even more precisely by the block.

To make cell phone forensics even easier, many phones have become equipped with GPS chips. As long as it is turned on, this allows the carrier and anyone looking to attain evidence and records your exact location in real time.

This information has different ramifications on different people. For some, it can be a great way to track down where your husband or wife really went during a "business vacation." For others, it can lead to your conviction in some kind of criminal trial. It all depends on how you look at the technology and what you are hoping to get out of it.

For now, there is no doubt that cell phones have played a major role in criminal cases and many other types of trials. With the ability to track where you are, where you have gone, and what time you were in the location, cell phones can either be your best or worst enemy in regards to cell phone forensics.

How to Speed Performance on Windows XP Home - Your Ultimate Guide to XP Home Performance Tuning

2009-07-27T19:50:00.001+07:00

You want to know how to speed performance on Windows XP Home because after a few weeks of purchasing your computer, you are already experiencing slow speed or the performance of your computer is not as good as it was the first time you bought it. The operating system may not be as fast or there might be some frequent errors that occur from time to time. This article will show you how to improve performance of the system.

Slow performance issues on a windows XP operating system are oftentimes rooted to a corrupted registry. As such, cleaning the registry is an effective solution to fix and restore the reliable performance of your operating system. The registry is the focal point of all the files, programs, settings of your system and when the registry becomes corrupted, these results to several issues the most common of which is slow performance. Getting a good registry cleaner or fix is an effective way on how to speed performance on Windows XP Home.

How to speed performance on Windows XP Home need not be a daunting task. You may be frightened to do something about your computer because you think that anything that has to do with the registry is highly technical. But with technology making things simpler, easier, and more convenient, the only thing that you need to do is to find for the most effective registry cleaner software that will detect all the errors and fix them accordingly. Even this effort of finding one should not be difficult as you can take advantage of the vast resources you can get from the internet. Do your search and visit several review sites to get enough information from which you can base your sound decision.

You would think that the registry cleaner is just mean to delete all unnecessary registry files and junks from your computer. No. An effective registry cleaner has also the capability of compacting your registry; optimize it in such a way that after the process, your Windows XP Home behaves almost exactly the way it does when you first bought your computer.

There are countless valuable resources and materials that you can get from the internet showing how to speed performance on Windows XP Home. Sometimes all it takes is to pull up the correct site and presto, you can now have a revolutionary tool at your hands to fix the registry and enjoy the fast speed of your computer system.

Find out how to speed performance on Windows XP Home painlessly using registry cleaner. Do a free registry scan now.(george Tho)

Benchmarking - How to Achieve Spectacular Mediocrity

2009-07-27T19:32:00.000+07:00

Benchmarking is the ultimate admission that most mutual funds aren't true investments, they're marketing tools. If you believe in benchmarking, then you need to read this article, for benchmarking is not in your money's best interest.

There's a most dangerous game that's played at the mutual funds. It's something called benchmarking, or relative returns. And it is very dangerous to your wealth. Let me explain this game that is being played. Let me tell you what benchmarking is. A benchmark is something like the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ. And what fund companies or financial advisors ask is, "Well, what's the benchmark?"

Let's just use the S&P to figure this out.

An advisor may not tell you this, but this is really what's happening: He'll say, "I'm going to make sure your money grows or falls within 1% or 2% of what the S&P benchmark does." So if the S&P benchmark goes up 25% in a year, the money that the fund family or financial advisor manages will grow anywhere between 23% and 27%. You may say to yourself, "Hey, that's not that bad. I don't mind if someone can grow my money plus or minus 2% when the market grows 25%." But you should mind, because this makes their job limited to staying close to the benchmark so their relative returns look good. Relative to what the benchmark is doing, their returns will look either not bad or a little bit better. But 85% of mutual funds are actively managed mutual funds, and they're all doing this benchmarking.

That means that you could buy an index mutual fund, pay 1/8th or 1/10th the fees, and get either the exact same returns or a much better return by simply buying the index. At the very least, you're wasting money in fees. The fee may sound small, only 1% of assets under management. But if you're investing hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, this quickly costs tens of thousands of dollars a year that aren't growing for you. If you take that number and grow it out over 30 years, it's easily worth $500,000 if you don't pay those fees and invest them in the same index mutual fund.

This benchmarking is a standard formula for avoiding failure, but not for achieving success. The mutual fund industry, financial planners, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Raymond James, Edward Jones, Ameritrade, they create that structure: "Oh, look; we've stayed next to the benchmark." And most investors go, "Oh, that's great. You stayed next to the benchmark."

Now, when the benchmark goes up 25%, that's one thing; but what if the benchmark falls 38.5 %, like the S&P did in 2008? Well, they're going to do the same thing; they're going to stay, plus or minus a couple of percent, alongside the benchmark and charge their management fees and expenses. Again, why would you want to stick with a benchmark that's falling?

Because of relative returns or benchmarking, you may say to yourself, "Well, what can I do? The benchmark fell" or "the market fell." And the answer to that is, you don't have to stick with the benchmark when the market is falling.

There are periods of times when owning stock is not prudent. That's right, I'm saying you should not always own stocks, you shouldn't always necessarily own stock.

Conventional wisdom says that if you're not in the stock market, you don't win. That's garbage. There are periods of time when you should not be in the stock market. Wall Street "experts" tell you investing is a highly complex business and you had better act like a lemming and do what your trusted financial expert tells you to do. But this strategy only works in long-term secular bull markets. What about the other 50% of the time?

Thi wonderfull post on Tips-for-woman.blogspot.com from By Ronal Peck

Choosing A Car Accident Insurance Policy

2009-07-27T18:35:00.000+07:00

Everyone who drives a car needs car accident insurance policy. In most states, it is actually required by law. The problem arises with what kind of car accident insurance policy you should get.

Car accident insurance policy is based on different factors like age, gender, model of car and of course the type of coverage you are looking for.

Before deciding on a car accident insurance policy, the first thing you need to find out is what coverage you need. Some of the coverage may be required by law while others are optional.

Here are some basic types of coverage you can get:

• Liability – This covers the expenses for injuries and property damages other people sustained after an accident including medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost wages. It also pays for damages to property and to the vehicle. This will only cover those costs if you are at fault

• Collision – Pays for damages to your car that is caused by a collision with another vehicle or object.

• Comprehensive – Pays for loss or damage that is not a result of a car accident. This includes loss as a result of fire, flood, vandalism or theft.

• Medical Coverage – Pays for your medical expenses regardless of who is at fault as long as injuries are caused by a car accident.

• Personal Injury Protection (PIP) – Required by some states, it pays for the medical expenses of the insured driver for injuries that are caused by a car accident.

• Uninsured Motorist – Pays for the damages to your car if the one at fault has no liability insurance.

• Underinsured Motorist – Pays for the damages to your car if the one at fault has insufficient liability insurance.

• Rental Reimbursement – Pays for the damages to a rented car that was a result of a car accident.

After you understood the types of coverage, you can consider these factors to decide what kind of car accident insurance policy you need.

• Know your state laws – Know what car accident insurance coverage is required in the state you live in. For the record, 47 out of the 50 states require all drivers to have liability insurance and fifteen states require all drivers to also buy PIP.

• Know your options – Know what type of coverage you need. That is the key to choosing the right car accident insurance policy.

• Know how much are you able to spend on insurance – After you examined what is required by law and your actual insurance needs, the first thing you need is liability coverage. It is not recommended to purchase the minimum coverage because if you are the cause of a car accident, it might be insufficient. For the other types of coverage, examine how much more can you spend for insurance after getting sufficient liability coverage.

• Know your car – Ask yourself, if your car was totaled or was stolen, will you be able to replace it? If not, then you may need comprehensive and collision coverage.

• Know about your other Insurance – A lot of people do not realize that other types of insurance like health and homeowner’s insurance may cover damages caused by car accidents.

Guides and Tips to Car Accident Insurance Claims

2009-07-27T18:26:00.001+07:00

Millions of car accidents happen each year in the United States alone. With these accidents come thousands of fatalities and countless injuries.

When you sustained a personal injury or one of your family members died because of a car accident, you may be entitled to some compensation from your insurance company or the insurance company of the person who is at fault for the accident.

Car accidents are traumatic enough for the victims, the physical stress coupled with high emotions and the worry about the future can put one on edge especially if the victim is a breadwinner or someone who contributes a significant amount to the family’s finances.

The complications of claiming car accident insurance might add to the trauma if one does not go about it correctly.

Car insurance companies may look like the friend you really need during times of distress but these companies’ priorities are still themselves so they would look to pay you the least amount possible or nothing at all.

What you can do after a car accident is follow some basic steps if you want to ask compensation from your or the person at fault’s car insurance company.

Here are some steps you can follow when you want to file for a car accident insurance claim:

• File an accident report even if it is just a minor accident.

• Get a copy of the police report.

• Check what kind of protection your car accident insurance provides.

• Make sure that your medical record will be released and presented to the insurance company.

• File a claim for physical injuries through medical coverage.

• If another party was at fault for the accident, file the claim under uninsured motorist coverage.

• Prepare car repair estimates from at least two companies.

• Document all expenses including car towing and storage.

• If you have rental reimbursement coverage then you can ask the insurer to arrange a temporary car for your use.

• If other damages were discovered during repair, you should notify the insurer as well.

An attorney who has experience with negotiating with car accident insurance companies will be very helpful to your cause.

Here are some things that you can do to help speed up and ensure your claim’s success:

• Notify the insurance company about the accident immediately.

• Read your insurance policy so that you are aware of what type of coverage you have.

• Get details of the accident. Include location, road conditions and the weather. Get the car model, color and plate number of the vehicles involved as well.

• Take note of the insurance details of the other people involved.

• Document all expenses and receipts that you accumulated because of the car accident.

• Check if you have other insurance that covers the same accident.

• Consult with a car accident lawyer.

These are just some tips you can follow to ensure the success of your car accident insurance claim.

Over 2,000 Indonesians in Taiwan Married to Locals

2009-07-25T18:19:00.000+07:00

Over 2,000 Indonesians in Taiwan are known to have married locals in the past few years, Dr Andrew Nien-Dzu Yang, secretary of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, said here on Thursday.

The figure was still small compared to the number of marriages between Taiwanese and Chinese as well as Thai, he said in a lecture to participants of a workshop on development of Taiwan’s media.

"We don’t have any problem with Indonesian spouses. Many of them are Indonesians of Chinese descente," Yang said.

He said over the past two decades Taiwan had experienced an assimilation boom composed largely of spouses from mainland China and Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Indonesia. These new immigrants, more than 90 percent of whom are female, numbered more than 399,000 at the end of 2007, making them the fifth largest demographic group in Taiwan.

To help these immigrants assimilate, the government plans to spend NT$3 billion (USD91.4 million) in ten years following 2005 to support council services, educational programs and other schemes designed for foreign spouses.

Various government agencies and non governmental organizations have also provided translation services and free language classes for foreign spouses to help them overcome linguistic and cultural difficulties, he said.

Furthermore, the government conducted a program to financially support foreign spouses of middle-and low-income families. Those who have remained jobless for more than 12 weeks are eligible for subsidies of as much as USD472 per month for up to six month. Free vocational training program, in the meantime, are also available to assist them o find employment, he said.

Go Green: Turning Your Jealousy Into Strength

2009-07-24T13:25:00.000+07:00

The other day I read about an acquaintance, another author, I know who was featured in The New York Times. As I came upon the story, try as I might to fill my mind with the bird songs and daisies of good will, I felt sandpaper scrape my soul. Immediately, her shiny success became my failure.

Jealousy stung me like tear gas, laced with longing and sadness. Yes, of course, I’d much prefer you think I’m someone who levitates on my good desires for everyone else. And, really, I am sometimes. But other times, I’m tiny-hearted, insecure and ratty with psychic holes that leak out precious energy.

But finally, I’m no longer interested in making myself wrong for these falls from grace. I’m interested in restoring my natural light. I’m devoted to using everything I have, at every moment, to take me into the life of my purpose, my peace, my freedom and my own true success.

Since everybody’s “going green” these days, and proud of it, I thought I’d like to turn “green with envy” into an alternative power source as well. Lord knows, many of us have warehouses of this fuel. Besides, our emotions are never wrong. They are simply the yellow check engine lights, telling us that something needs our attention and care.

Jealousy is an emotion that many creative, intelligent, ambitious people feel. It’s the darkened cousin of the wholesome desire to reach your own dazzling potential. Unfortunately, it’s the wounded one that feels powerless or as though life is unfair or that somehow you will be forever deprived of what you need and deserve. It’s a misguided focus. It happens. But the good news is that you can use this activated energy to get even more focused, loving, and graceful in your own life.

Here’s three different approaches I’ve found helpful to turn jealousy into strength:

Put Your Focus Where It Belongs

I imagine drawing a circle around myself and staying inside my circle. It’s my reminder to focus on my own good life, and the purity and power right in front of me. I choose to bless my life, just as it is, for all that I have and all that I do not have. I choose not to reject my own life, but to embrace it with the ultimate tenderness and reverence.

I remind myself that Spirit is the source of my good. I am never deprived of what is truly mine. My job is to tend my own garden. When I’m jealous, I’m so busy watching my neighbor’s garden grow, that I allow my own fruits and flowers to wither with neglect. Jealousy reminds me to water my own plants, stand on my own soil, take important and timely actions, and focus on tending the bounty I have and the harvest yet to come. If I look outside my circle to see what someone else has, it drains energy from my sphere, my budding wonder, and my responsibility.

Turn Jealousy into Clarity

Your jealousy is a powerful flashlight. It shines a beam on your true desires. Take the focus off what the other person has, and begin to notice and name what you truly want. Jerry and Esther Hicks, in “The Law of Attraction,” write that it’s the contrast of what we don’t yet have that causes us to “launch rockets of desire.” When you see something that stings you, it helps you to stir up passionate energy about your desire. Take a moment to imagine having that desire come true for you. Stay in the good feeling place, of “yes, this is exactly the kind of thing I want in my life,” perhaps as though you found something in a catalog you’d like to order. Pretend you’re ordering it now. Avoid the negative backlash of “but I don’t have that in my life and I probably never will.” Bring your attention back to your clarity. Is there an action you’d like to take now that you have this clarity? Would you like to take this moment and commit to this desire? Or pray for this desire, ask f or help in seeing what thoughts or attitudes you might want to shift? Real clarity often inspires commitment, movement, and right action.

Bless the Ones Whose Turn It Is

I find it helpful to celebrate the success of others. Of course the first time someone suggested this to me, it sounded as though I was supposed to swallow arsenic and call it pepperoni. But it works. Instead of standing in the shadows, and seeing myself as different, (read in inadequate), I cross the finish line with them and enjoy the ribbons. I imagine the dreamer in them that hoped for a triumph such as this, and I’m grateful they got it. I’m grateful dreams come true. I don’t see us as different. We’re all going to win and we’re all going to lose. I choose to bless the ones whose turn it is now to stand in the sun for a moment. I also know I don’t know their whole story. Even if I think “they just lucked out,” I don’t know the road they walk on, what struggles they have faced or yet will face. I know that no one is where they are by accident and that we’re all the favored children of a loving, generous Universe. I also know I can block my good, by resisting their good. It’s hard to be in the flow, when you’re grinding your teeth.

A friend of mine, a speaker, once told me that she loved seeing other speakers who spoke on her topic get better speaking engagements than her. I must have looked as though I’d seen a ghost, because she quickly explained. “We’re on the same team. They’re teaching the same message. And the more people they reach, the more people are now available for my message.”

So next time you hit some healthy jealousy in your life, don’t allow that hot stone to sit upon your heart. Go green. Recycle. Use that disagreeable fire. And burn your way back into grace.

by: Tama J. Kieves

iPhone 3

2009-07-23T23:15:00.000+07:00

I like the iPhone. I really like it. With all the phones thrown our way I still went out and bought the original iPhone. It has been a game changing device. It has made other cellphone companies work on improving their interfaces and phones - or at the least they outright copy the iPhone.

Unfortunately the 3.0 OS update has all the feel of a rush job. That however is not Apple's biggest sin with this release. Apple has unprecedentedly, and arbitrarily, withheld the best of the new features from iPhone 2G and 3G model owners. The features that are exclusive to the 3GS have been proven to work just fine on all iPhones. In short, evidence strongly suggests that Apple is forcing users to buy an entire new phone in order to get software features that have been proven to run very functionally on existing iPhones. Suggesting that not even Apple thinks the new iPhone 3GS is that big of an upgrade.

The evidence of Apple's rush job are many, starting with the iPhone OS 3.0 update itself. Rather than the hundreds of new features they claim, it really does little more than fix some bugs and inferface issues and add in features missing on the iPhone that every other smartphone had since before the iPhone was concieved. Apple gets their figures by breaking down each item, such as finally making landscape mode work in all built-in applications, into each application and more.

Greed

While I won't go over all the new features in detail here, as you can (and probably already have) read them on Apple's website or in any of numerous articles elsewhere, I will give you the highlights:

Various interface changes and bug fixes
Cut and Paste
Landscape Typing for email, notes and more.
Improved Safari
Voice Memo app
Enhanced Push Features
Stereo Bluetooth
Tethering (where allowed)
MMS
Voice Control
Video Recording

The first six items are common to all iPhone models for updating. However the 2G won't get stereo bluetooth, tethering or MMS. The 3GS is the only model to get Voice Control and Video recording which are arguably the two most exciting enhancements.

The chipsets used in the various iPhones are all capable of A2DP (Stereo). In fact this was a bitter complaint from the days of the first release of the iPhone. Most annoying is that Apple still hasn't enabled all the bluetooth features with this upgrade.

There have been tethering applications for (jailbroken) iPhones that work on the 2G just fine. It's not as useful to tether to an 2G's EDGE connection but it's better than nothing.

SwirlyMMS and others have also proven that the 2G can handle MMS and in fact, during the 3.0 OS beta period, some developers were able to turn these on for the 2G and they worked.

Voice Control clearly can work on all models of iPhones as apps like Cactus and Melodius' Dialer has shown. I doubt anyone needed this pointed out to them.

Video Recording can work, if not at 30fps VGA, on all iPhones as well. Cycorder (again for jailbroken phones) is a great proof of concept that shows this can be done. Yes it's not top quality but then again, videos from the 3GS aren't top quality either.

Aside from video recording, which will be forthcoming apparently, the new Palm Pre is a big competitor on all these fronts and in many cases handily bests the iPhone. Apple is rushing and reacting, where it shouldn't, as they perceive the Pre as threat. More on this later.

Splitting features across these models is bad for Apple, bad for developers and bad for users. This can lead to third party applications and games that only work on specific iPhone models. Developers having to decide to support the 3GS's newer and faster processor and graphics unit and deal with confused and irritated users who don't understand.

Marketing's fine fingerprints are all over this release. They're crippling it all over the place to force upgrades to newer hardware and hoping no one realizes. This is simply shortsighted and greedy on their part. It's over promising and under delivering. Not a usual Apple hallmark.

It's not like we don't pay for these upgrades. Sure, iTouch users pay an upgrade fee, but iPhone users pay a monthly bill that they get a part of for every account. Original 2G owners, like myself, didn't get their phones subsidized and paid a huge amount of money and still had a two year contract that Apple shared. We all pay for this upgrade every month - so why don't we get the same features?

Blink

There's one clear reason why Apple would throw together this underwhelming upgrade. The Palm Pre. The first real competition the iPhone has faced. The Palm Pre is another game changing smartphone that not only provides similar ease of use but improves on the iPhone OS in many ways. Apple's marketing has tried to either match these features with the 3.0 upgrade or disparage the features with falsehoods (ie: multitasking uses up your battery faster than push technologies). Another strong indication of a "Rush job" is the fact that the 3GS is outwardly identical to the previous model, it's much easier to rush out a new version when you don't change ANY of the external hardware.

The Palm Pre is also an attractive device with more features. It fits nicely in the hand, offers a physical keyboard, it's fast, and Sprint's service plan is very competitive against AT&T. You can argue Sprint vs AT&T all you like - it really comes down to location and how well these carriers serve your market. In my location both work very well and very fast for wireless Internet.

So Apple moves quickly to counter the Palm Pre with an interim upgrade that addresses most software differences with other smartphones and tosses out upgraded hardware. But marketing steps in and the OS upgrade gets diced up so that you only get certain features on certain models of iPhone. Again remember that the upgrade is not free. Like all smartphones, and many non-smartphones, upgrades to firmware are part of the price of admission and your monthly fee. It's been a standard issue in the wireless market long before Apple joined it.

Black Eye

Apple also has now driven a huge wedge between the graphic processing abilities of the various iPhones. Knowing that an Apple phone would eventually see a massive upgrade of its graphic processing ability was a given. That said, giving an otherwise incrementally updated iPhone a massive boost in graphics ability is a very mixed blessing for both game players and game developers. Game consoles are based on stability, the least common denominator factor. Once a console is released, developers and gamers can both be certain that any game will run on any version of a given console platform. A Sony PS2 game developed this year and purchased today will run fine on a console made 9 years ago.

While the iPhone isn't a game console, it has become a strong contender, perhaps overwhelmingly so, in the portable game arena. The 3GS hardware upgrade should allow for better looking games, but developers may have to create different versions of the same game for the iPhone platform. If they decide not to develop multiple versions, they'll either ignore the new features and develop to the least common denominator, or restrict iPhone 2G and 3G owners from buying their titles.

Experience has shown that when a platform is segmented like this, developers tend to disregard the better graphic features and code for the largest segment of the market until an overwhelming number of users have the newer hardware. Given the number of 2G and 3G iPhones currently in user's hands, widespread developer use of these new features may take quite a while. One wonders if the graphics update was simply a "me too" response to the graphic ability of the Palm Pre, as both the 3GS and Pre have nearly identical power.

This will be a problem for developers who can no longer develop to a generic iPhone. Now they have to keep in mind that the bluetooth is deliberately crippled on the original iPhone, that the video recording APIs only work on the 3GS and too many other differences to list.

The 3.0 OS upgrade, if all features were equally available on all models, is a solid upgrade. But that's not what Apple has done. Instead 2G and 3G owners get a 2.6-ish upgrade. Evidence strongly suggests the only reason new features are exclusive to the 3GS is because Apple's marketing department decided to withhold those features from existing users. Only the new iPhone gets everything and it's the smallest iPhone market share. Which is likely to mean these new features won't get exploited by anyone but Apple. Users of other models will be unhappy.

So instead of the new iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0 OS shooting down the competition, the Palm Pre and others get to dodge the bullet and Apple gets a black eye in the process. Bad move.

Risoles

2009-07-23T13:55:00.000+07:00

Ingredients: 250 gr flour, 70 gr butter, 1 egg, 2 pieces of chicken legs, 100 gr carrot, 50 gr scallions, 4 pieces of shallots, 2 pieces of garlic, 15cc sweet soy-sauce, 200 gr bread crumbs, salt.

Direction:

Mix 1/2 of the egg with flour and butter
Form thin layer of squares - for wrappers
Remove the bones from the chicken legs, cut into small pieces
Skin carrots, boil until half done, and cut into
tiny pieces. Cut scallions into tiny pieces.
Grind shallots and garlic.
Heat pan with butter. Put in shallots and garlic.
In a couple of minutes, put in chicken
Stir a little bit, and put in carrots, scallions
Mix evenly.
Add salt and pepper to taste, add sweet soy-sauce.
Cook until chicken is done.
Put 1 spoon of the result above into each square.
Wrap it.
Dip it in the 1/2 egg left, pour flour.
Heat oil in a pan.
Deep fry the risoles on medium heat until golden brown.
Serve with hot chili pepper.

Buying Real Estate - A Guide For the Savvy Investor

2009-07-22T20:26:00.000+07:00

We are in a New Era. Obama. The credit crunch. Globalization. Localization. The economic recession.

Whoah.

The world is smaller. Internationals are looking to buy property here because it is cheap and abundant. There's a fire sale going on and you don't want to miss out.

Warren Buffet said in his famous quote "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

My financial mentor by proxy, Robert Kiyosaki says that we are moving from a three class system --the Poor, the Middle Class, and the Rich, to a two class system -- the Poor and the SuperRich. I don't know about you, but I choose to be in the SuperRich class. Guess how most of us will come to be a part of the SuperRich? You guessed it...most will make their money in Real Estate! Even if you, like me have other interests and hobbies, real estate is a great place to start building a nest egg!

Folks, now is the time to let go of fear and get greedy. Not greedy in the bad Mr. Scrooge-sort of way, but get greedy in the let's make it happen now - I have the power to uplift my whole community if I can get my stuff in gear and make some moves in this market - sort of way.

The pundits say that the market will bottom out this year, which means act now. Act soon. Just Act.

So how can you get in now, when the getting's good?

Step 1: Stop Listening To The News.

Alternately, I should say stop internalizing it. The news is driven by fear. There is opportunity everywhere. Realize this before it is too late. People will look back on this time we are living right now and say "Wow - that was when the money was made." In five years you will wish you had acted now. The wealthy are still strong. You can become one of them. Live in the world of infinite possibilities.

Step 2: Get Informed

Use the Internet as your first step. The more informed you are, the better you are able to snag some deals. You can research target markets, trends, neighborhoods etc, and learn about the good deals cheaply and often before everyone else does. Get your preliminary information together. Craft your housing dream. This may include a personal residence or investment residences that you plan to buy and hold for later.

Step 3: Figure Out What You Really Want

After you have done your research, make a list of what it is you really want. Make a plan for what you really want. Maybe you're just starting a family and are a first time home buyer (you get the sweet $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit!). Maybe you simply want to buy your first home for now, and build up to owning a couple of investment properties that you will rent out. Maybe your kids are grown and you want to rent your home and move into a smaller apartment. Maybe you would like to take a humanitarian role and buy a couple of section 8 homes (which cash flow like crazy!). Maybe you want an apartment building. Maybe you want to purchase some commercial properties. Find something you like that fits you.

Also, figure out what you can afford vs. what you are willing to pay (these can be very different). For instance, I wouldn't recommend paying more than a third of your income toward your property if you are paying off a mortgage.

Some advice and things to consider when deciding what it is you really want:

DO buy in a district with good schools. When you are ready to sell your property, this will count a lot to most home buyers and substantially raises the value.

DO plan for holding costs, such as the mortgage you will be paying while you are fixing your property up preparing it for sale, or while you are finding a good tenant.

DO your due diligence in finding a tenant - a bad one will cause you a world of pain. Spend time up front finding a good one.

DO buy with equity.

DO get a good deal on a home that has been on the market a long time.

DO make good use of the fact that we are in a buyers market.

DO think long-term. A buy and hold strategy works better in this market than buy and flip.

Step 4: Cash, Credit, and Hard Money

Once you have figured out what you want, you need to figure out how you will pay for it. It's no secret that we are in a new matrix. Banks aren't giving away loans like they were two years ago.

1. Cash

If you are among the wealthy and can pay cash - all the better (get those jaws off the floor - there are still, and will continue to be, scores of people that can afford to do this!). My advice is to definitely contact a real estate wholesaler because cash is still king. With a wholesaler you can easily find what you are looking for for as low as 50 cents on the dollar.

2. Credit

If you need financing from a bank, they have tightened their requirements and you will need a better credit score and a good down payment. Regardless, you can still get a mortgage loan if that is what you are looking for. Have a good credit score or raise a poor one. This is not as daunting as it sounds. It can be relatively easy. Pay off old debts. Clear negative remarks. Get some help. It can be done. Next, you will need a 20% down payment.

3. Hard money

Hard money is awesome. They are like banks but their terms and rates are very different. If you are not familiar, find and read a good article on hard money lenders.

Hard money is an option when cash and bank credit are out.

Step 5: Shop for It

Communicate your needs and wants to either an agent or a wholesaler that can help you get what you want. Develop this relationship. Real estate wholesalers often have their finger on the pulse of the deals and they can find you what you want before everyone else does, and at a much cheaper price. Whichever way you decide to go, whether it is with a realtor, a wholesaler, or even on your own through a for sale by owner sale (FSBO), take advantage of the glut of homes on the market.

No matter what you do, you should look for a discount. In this market, the deals are out there and you would be crazy to buy retail.

I would be very wary of those websites and 800 numbers that make you pay for listings of discounted properties, as these are usually scams and/or use old listings that are probably sold already. Also, banks keep information about their failed loans private, so any site that says that they list REOs (bank owned properties) is probably also a scam.

When considering a property, hire your own inspector and appraiser that are looking out for your interests exclusively.

Step 6: Buy and Enjoy

Congratulations! Whether your new purchase is for your personal use or for building your wealth portfolio, enjoy it and build upon it. Keep moving toward your goal of joining the SuperRich.

by: Miko Crawford

Raja Ampat Island

2009-07-22T19:34:00.004+07:00

The Raja Ampat Island in Irian is group spreads out over a huge area and consists of over 610 islands. The four largest islands are Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati and Misool. The area's reefs are covered in a diverse selection of both hard and soft corals. Most of the areas reefs are pristine, with mile after mile of perfect hard corals, drift after drift of soft corals of many species and colors ranging from brilliant red, to shocking yellow pretty pink and exotic purple. Most reef dives are very colorful. The tourist would be able to experience the best dives sites within those islands, which include Cape Kri, Mellisa's Garden, Sardines Reef, The Passage, Nudibranch Rock, Wai Island Night Dive.

Raja Ampat is the western island of Papua Island. The name of Raja Ampat based on the legend. This area had begun with 6 eggs that found by King Waikew in Waigeo Island. But from the 6 eggs, just 5 eggs had crack. The last was become an egg stone till now on.

From the fifth eggs that had cracked, the 4 eggs was become men who become King of four big islands that is Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati and Misool. While the one egg became a woman, had wash away and stranded in Biak Island. That woman was born a child named Gura Besi that known as the historical man of Raja Ampat, because of his heroic story.

The regency that formed based on the constitution number 26 in 2002, is the development of Sorong regency on 12 April 2003. This area has 46.000 km2. But, 85% of this area is archipelago area. There are 610 islands in this area. But most of them have no social life. This regency has 10 districts and 85 villages with about 48.707 men.
Geographically, this area has strategic location. Its boundaries is:

North side: Pacific Ocean
West Side: North Maluku
South side: Maluku Sea
East Side: Sorong Regency

For the fauna sector, Raja Ampat has rarely fauna, such as; red birds of paradise (Paradise Rubra), Wilson birds of paradise (Cicinnurs Republica), Maleo Waigeo (Spilocuscus Papuensis), and rainbow fishes. Hence, for the flora, Raja Ampat has many kinds of Orchids, Waigeo palm, ironwoods or black woods, 'keruing', 'ulin' woods, etc.

Because of its various nature profit, Raja Ampat will declared by Maritime Ministry Freddy Numberi as ancient regency, based on its location that not only rich of fishes, but also its sea herb and the pearl.

North Maluku Jolted by 5,3 Earthquake

2009-07-22T19:30:00.002+07:00

A tectonic earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale jolted North Maluku at 8:46 p.m. local time on Saturday, the meteorology and geophysics agency (BMG) said. The epicenter of the quake was located at 1.75 degrees southern latitude and 128.98 degrees eastern longitude at a depth of 33 km below the sea level, but had no potential to cause tsunami.

But so far there was no immediate report of casualties and material damage from the earthquake which occurred 209 kilometers southeast of Labuha, North Maluku; 227 kilometers northeast of Ambon; 275 kilometers southwest of Sorong in West Papua; 333 kilometers southeast of Ternate. At 3:52 a.m. on Saturday morning another earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale also rattled the northeastern part of Manado in North Sulawesi province.

The tremor’s epicenter was located at 4.87 degrees northern latitude and 126.52 degrees eastern longitude, at a depth of 30 km beneath the sea level, around 98 km northwest of Melonguane, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said in its official website. The earthquake did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami, the BMKG said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or material damage. In addition, on Friday (July 10), an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale also rocked the eastern part of Central Sulawesi province, forcing thousands of residents to rush outdoors.

The epicenter of the quake which struck at 11.50 a.m. was in Tomini Bay about 52 km southeast of Gorontalo city at a depth of 211 km beneath the sea level, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said in its official website. Meanwhile, last July 6, an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter Scale jolted Meulaboh, Nangro Aceh Darussalam (NAD) Province.

The temblor’s epicenter was located at 3.14 degrees northern latitude and 93.35 degrees eastern longitude, around 327 km southwest of Meulaboh at a depth of about 10 km below sea level. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

On December 26, 2004, a 8.9 magnitude undersea earthquake and a subsequent tsunami devastated part of Aceh province, killing around 200,000 people.

source from Harian Kompas

Borobudur Temple

2009-07-22T15:10:00.001+07:00

Borobudur was built on a small hill in the Kedu Basin, a rich, fertile valley surrounded by spectacular volcanoes. To the east lie Merapi and Merbabu and to the north lies Sumbing and Sindoro. The unusual jagged Menoreh Hills encircle the temple to the South and West. The temple is also located near the meeting place of two rivers, the Elo and the Progo. These rivers are believed to be symbolic of the Gangga and Yamuna, the two rivers feeding the Indus valley in India. The location was most likely chosen for its central location and expansive views.

Borobudur lies directly south of Tidar Hill, a small knob on the valley floor which according to myth nailed the island of Java in place. We get a sense of the grandness of the landscape when we rise to the final terrace of the monument which opens up into a 360 degree view of the magnificent valley. This feeling of freedom and openness evokes the sense of spiritual release that occurs in Buddhist philosophy when one enters the Arupadhatu, the sphere of enlightenment which is manifested on the final terrace of the monument.

This famous Buddhist temple, dating from the 8th and 9th centuries, is located in central Java. It was built in three tiers: a pyramidal base with five concentric square terraces, the trunk of a cone with three circular platforms and, at the top, a monumental stupa. The walls and balustrades are decorated with fine low reliefs, covering a total surface area of 2,500 m2. Around the circular platforms are 72 openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha. The monument was restored with UNESCO's help in the 1970s.

The Touch of Golden Red

2009-07-22T15:07:00.000+07:00

Marriage is beautiful, every wedding dinanti by all humans human. Not one if you choose red color as the best for your cosmetology in this special day. Gradient red and gold is a unique blend and make you appear fresh.

Application of gold mixed with red eyes and correct at your lips. Select a light red or red is often called china. To get a blend of sweet, use eye shadow and lipstick with this color, while a blush on the right with orange-peach rather than pink.

Form of finery for the smokey eye with you use china in the red, followed by a sheath of gold powder (glitter) on the bone above the eyes to the side to side. Meanwhile, for the lips, after using the color, the gold powder to give integrates perfectly. The result? Outstanding!

Top 10 Wedding Beauty Tips

2009-07-21T13:02:00.000+07:00

You find the perfect wedding dress, invitations, photographers, music, flowers, and many more. But there is still one more thing: your face. Beauty on the wedding day should be the priority.

This is a day where you will be guaranteed to be a star. It is natural to feel depressed because you know everyone will notice you. Not time in the day you try something risky, or experiment with make up to look right. Beauty trends change as quickly as fashion trends so very good to make a beautiful appearance that is not cracked time. Photographs taken at the wedding is for you forever - you would not want to see photographs of these 20 years later and see which looks untidy.

All makeup products you must be a strong durable, beautiful, and integrates to give the best look at the photos. To make sure you use it the right way, follow the top 10 wedding day beauty tips from expert, Bobbi Brown:

1. Flash photography emphasizes pink color tone, so be sure to even out skin color with yellow-toned foundation. Start from the nose and mouth, and to Justify the entire face.

2. Complete the concealer and foundation with a sheer finish loose powder to make it more durable and to ensure the skin does not shine at the photos.

3. If you have neck gown open, make sure to give your neck and chest topping bronzing powder.

4. Although you will not weep to think - there are certainly opportunities. Use water-resistant eye liner that can hold water eyes. If you choose to make use of the brush slightly wet eyeliner to make them more durable. End with water-resistant mascara.

5. After applying all eye makeup, end with a highlight on the brow bone to the effects of bright. Use your finger to wipe light matte shade shadow on the outside corner of your brow bone.

6. For the cheeks bright durable, use two layers blush. First, application neutral shadow on the cheekbone - Justify to the hair, then down to a more soft look. Then the application on the cheekbone shadow.

7. Neutral lipstick and pale akan lost time in the photos, so choose a lipstick one or two times brighter than your regular life. Pink, red plum and roses is a good choice for the bride.

8. To make your lip color last longer, make the line and cover mouth with a neutral color lip pencil before applying lipstick.

9. Bring touch-up kit that includes concealer, pressed powder, lipstick or lipgloss, lip liner, tissue, and mint. Also, make sure you have a small equipment box sew (for emergency clothing repairs, such as plunging down a button or casual), static spray, and brush away lint to makeup or food stains.

10. It's your big day. Take a deep breath and have fun!