Archive for May, 2007

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

From Bust To Best: How To Increase The Quality Of Your Presentation In Under And Hour

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

As you gaze outside of your window to see the sun peeking out from behind the clouds on what you thought was a predictable day, your boss walks by to let you know that a top prospect is coming by the office in about two hours. You think this is good news for your organization only to hear your boss say, “I would like you to do a 45-minute presentation.”

Immediately your heart rate increases, you start to perspire and perhaps your head is spinning. Your meek reply in the affirmative reveals your lack of confidence in your abilities. What if your reply was more akin to, “Sure, I’ll be glad to knock our prospect’s socks off with a great presentation.” What would need to change in your approach in the next two hours for you to deliver a presentation that is your best instead of one that went bust?

Presentations have a way of leaving a legacy long after your program has ended. Even if the prospect doesn’t buy from you right now, a high quality presentation will definitely be remembered in a positive light. This might mean referral business down the road. Plus the quality of your presentation will impact how your boss and any other co-workers view you and your abilities. This may affect future assignments of your choice and even your promotion prospects.

Is this enough pressure? Many people in a similar situation take the stress that they are under and pour ‘gasoline on the fire’ as their panic and worries further erupt. While it is important to acknowledge one’s feelings of inadequacy, they must quickly be replaced by feelings of positive action. You can worry all you want, but the real question to ask yourself is, “How can I improve the quality of my presentation now?”

We are a society of storytellers. This is in spite of the pressures of instant messaging, cell phones and programming your personal digital assistant to vibrate each time you receive an E-mail. Your audience won’t remember the three features about your product or service. They will remember the story you told about a photograph that relates to the three key benefits to them.

In photography there is a concept called the Rule of Thirds. The Ancient Greeks discovered that all beautiful works or art could be divided into thirds. Showing a photograph of three windmills, one in the left hand plane, one in the center and one in the right hand plane might be the metaphor for your organization’s three key benefits to your prospect. One of the windmills can stand for ‘great relationships.’

Change Your Surroundings
At this point, you probably have worried for about 10 minutes. You are now down to and hour and 50 minutes to both prepare your presentation and arrive a little early into the room where you will present. The absolute best thing you can do right now is to get out of your office and change your surroundings. This is a critical first step that most people overlook. Your physical state of being will definitely affect your emotional state. For example, it’s hard to come up with new ideas when you are constantly in the same surroundings.

You just received uncomfortable news, your body language probably isn’t the most positive (i.e. slumped shoulders, head down, etc) and what you need to do is to change your body language and surroundings by going for a walk. Head for the elevator or the front door and plan to stroll at a comfortable pace for a few minutes.

While you are walking take deep relaxing breaths. Don’t forget to take your notebook or a journal and a pen. You’ll need these items in a minute or two. I like to find the nearest coffee shop that is playing relaxing Jazz music. It’s important to limit your distractions. You need to focus all of your energy and creativity on the task at hand.

Visualize Your Success
Just as you are sitting down to a cup of gourmet coffee, close your eyes and imagine your prospective customer enjoying your presentation. At the end of the presentation, imagine your prospective inspired enough to take positive action that you have controlled based on your presentation quality. Keep breathing deeply and smile as you look up towards the ceiling. Describe in your notes how you are going to feel, the confident way you will be standing and how the rest of your week will be affected in a positive way.

In photography a picture isn’t taken per se, it is actually made. When I make a photograph, I have to anticipate the shot and try to insert myself in the right place at the right time. I visualize how the final photograph is going to look even before I press the shutter. This is why I might wait for an interesting person to walk in front of a bright yellow background.

Develop a Framework
Just as writers develop an outline for an article, story or book, it is critical for you to develop a framework. This framework relates to the sections that you will be presenting to your prospect. Let’s say that you now have an hour and 30 minutes to prepare. This is still plenty of time.

I have worked with various types of organizations and have found the following framework works best if you have about 45 minutes to present. You can reduce or increase the amount of time around each section, but spend most of the total time talking about the prospect or getting the prospect to tell you what is important to them. I am going to make an assumption in that you know something about your prospect already.

· Introduction about Organization = 5 minutes
· About the Prospect = 10-15 minutes
· Optional Special Segment = 5 minutes
· Assurance (past performance) = 10-15 minutes
· Summary = 3-5 minutes

Simple is Powerful
At this point resist the temptation to front-load your presentation with your organization’s history, how you were acquired, and the fact that your chairman or director is the grand nephew of a former U.S. President. It just doesn’t matter. The only thing that is going to ultimately matter in your presentation is how your products or services are of value to your prospect. Now that you have developed the framework, start filling in the sections. The first section is the introduction. Start by introducing yourself and anyone else in the room from your organization. This is part of putting people first, because it will be the solid relationships that get the product or service to your prospect and provide for repeat business. Remember the earlier story about great relationships and the windmill? Next you need to talk about your themes and how they are of direct benefit to the prospect. This will get their attention right away.

Let me go back to a metaphor. When the simple shapes like the circle, triangle and square are used in a photograph, the photograph becomes more powerful. This is because it is easy for people to ‘get it.’ The primary reason why people are photographed against plain backgrounds is the photographer wants the viewer to be naturally drawn to the person and not be distracted by a cluttered background. The simple photographs are the most powerful ones because the message or messages get though to the viewer easily.

When you have simple messages that are meaningful to your prospects, they ‘get through’ the distractions and are easily remembered. And if you weave them through your program so that they can be repeated appropriately, your prospect will be more inclined to take positive action. Simple messages are the most powerful. An example of a good simple message is great relationships.

Remember It’s All About Them
Now that you have successfully planted your key messages, you need to make sure they pass the value check. Many organizations get confused between features and benefits. A computer software company that has knowledgeable technical staff is definitely not a benefit. This is a feature. The benefit or more appropriately the value to your prospect is their software will have the maximum ‘on’ or up time to benefit your prospect’s operation. Seeing how bug free the software actually is one way to check this.

If you will be assigning a dedicated project manager to your prospect, the feature of this arrangement will be a single point of contact. The value you bring to your prospect is ‘Strong Relationships.’ Notice I didn’t say exactly ‘great relationships,’ but I said strengthen relationships. This is another way to weave your messages. You don’t have to necessarily repeat everything exactly.

Assurance
Now that you’ve made your value known, how does your prospect know that you can deliver? Where have you done this type of work before? On a recent prospect appointment, I met with an executive from the construction industry. He asked if I had worked with any other construction companies in the past improving the presentation skills of their executives.

While it might have been helpful to show a portfolio of work from the construction industry, what he really wanted was the assurance that I am capable and competent to do the work with stellar results. This means being familiar with the type of people in his industry and their buzzwords.

I mentioned my work with executives in the architectural field. This is a related industry and one that is integral to the work performed in construction. I went on to say it is more important to bring diverse ideas from outside of the industry. New ideas will allow for innovative thinking and improved results. However, if you do have specific industry experience, then it is appropriate to bring it up in this section too.

When I took a photograph of the U.S. Capitol early one winter morning, I knew that I had to get up before first light and arrive at the Reserve Officers Association (ROA). The ROA is directly across from the front of the U.S. Capitol. As I set up my camera and tripod on the roof of the ROA, I knew that I would only have about 20 minutes of light in what is known as the magic hour. It should really be called the magic minutes. My past performance in taking architectural photographs gave my current customer the assurance I would be competent enough to perform the work with stellar results.

Weave Your Messages
As you develop your program, keep coming up with ways to weave your key messages into your presentation. If you are planning on assigning a project manager to your prospect, then one of your key themes for the presentation ought to be ‘Great Relationships.’

You would have introduced the concept by introducing your people first. If you were a bit cleverer, you would have told a story around the value your organization places on relationships. Since you know your prospect, you would want to show how they value great relationships too. In the assurance section, you would want to make reference to other clients where great relationships were critical to the success of your joint operation.

Do you see how the appropriate placement of your key messages helps to control what your prospect is going to remember? The way to tie a ribbon around your weave of key messages is to tell a story that directly relates to your message of ‘Great Relationships.’

Create a Powerful Close
I am always amazed at how much time individuals spend on crafting the beginning of their presentations. Typically it’s always about them to boot! It’s important to spend sufficient time to create a powerful ending that relates to your prospect. When I mentioned the importance of stories in our society, I touched upon the importance of simple, yet powerful communications. While you might not have remembered this exact wording, I’ll bet you remembered the concept of simple photographs with triangles, circles and squares are the most powerful.

Let me go back to a key message of great relationships. Can you think of a story in your organization or in your profession that depended upon great relationships? Expand your field of view even further and look at your previous experience. Maybe you were in the military and you know the high value placed on relationships by your fellow soldiers.

My Grandfather was a sergeant in WWI during the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918. His position was overrun at one point and he was wounded. He used his survival skills to hide under the debris around him. He pretended to be dead as bayonets poked frighteningly close. After the enemy passed, he slowly got up and found a buddy from his unit who couldn’t walk.

My Grandfather limped back to friendly lines over two miles away while carrying a wounded comrade on his shoulders. For his heroism he was awarded the Purple Heart. Clearly the military values great relationships. If you had this kind of story, can you see how powerful it can be? It is more powerful if it directly relates to the value or key messages that you introduced in the beginning.

Now that you have a powerful ending story and a solid framework, go back and craft a good opening story. A good opening story is designed to get the audience’s attention and to hold their interest. A good opening story about great relationships might relate to your organization’s emphasis on giving employees the time to have outside professional interests in groups or associations. Mention the key relationships that are developed in these places and how they increase the connection your organization has to the community. Give a specific example.

Take Another Walk
Congratulations are in order. You were able to create a great presentation in about an hour. Since you have about 30 minutes remaining, you better get back to your office and into the conference room early. However, the last thing you want to do know is to hurry. Walk confidently back to your office and visualize how impressive your presentation is going to be. Keep breathing deeply and relax.

At one client, I had finished a three-hour information-gathering meeting only to be asked unexpectedly to speak for about 15 minutes to the entire office of 80 people. The principals of the firm wanted me to present a roadmap of program we were going to be implementing. I didn’t want to go directly from one meeting to another, so I went outdoors. I told the principals of the firm that I needed a few minutes to prepare.

This involved me heading out of the office to take a walk around the block for 10 minutes or so. During this time I practiced deep breathing and had my camera with me. I was able to take a very interesting photograph of Georgetown in the early evening during those magic minutes. Doing something completely different for a few minutes helped me to reset my mind and provided an effective transition to the next task.

Present with Power
Another deep breath and ahhh you’re on! You have your notes to the side in case you loose track of your place. Since you have a framework, you don’t have to follow a script or notes written too small for you to read. The only things to remember are your three key messages.

When you have more time, you can further develop the content you just created by practicing. A key concept organizations need to embrace is creating and nourishing a culture of presentation excellence. An important part of this culture is ‘blessing’ employees who take time to rehearse their presentations. When you rehearse and rehearse again, you can better control what you want your prospect to remember.

As you tighten the weave of your messages in the same way that a spider tightens the weave of her web, you will be able to move toward what is known as the Quality Quadrant. This is an area where your content is pretty much finished, so you can focus on your delivery. The more polished your delivery is, the more natural your presentation will seem to your audience. With limited time, you need to focus on your messages and repeat them appropriately.

These messages are the value that your organization brings to your prospect. It is the glue that holds your presentation together and will be the items that you prospect is likely to remember especially when you match your messages with appropriate stories. At the end of the day, we enjoy listening to and telling stories. When you change your surroundings, visualize your success, create an effective framework and weave key messages into your presentation alongside of appropriate stories, the great relationships you are showing to be of immense value will shine through.

Mark Sincevich works with individuals and organizations to increase their communication power so that they gain a fresh perspective, generate new ideas, sharpen the focus and create more business. He uses a unique photography angle in his creative keynotes, meeting facilitation and powerful presentation skills programs. Mark is the Founder and Chief Perspective Officer of Staash Press, a member of the National Speakers Association and the Executive Director of the Digital Photography Institute. In between assignments, Mark can be found spending time with his family or writing in cafés with character. He can be contacted at 301-654-3010 or http://www.staashpress.com

Posted in Health-and-Fitness, Home-Schooling, Reference-and-Education, Stocks-Mutual-Funds | No Comments »

Fiber - Are You Getting Yours?

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Fiber foods are not only healthy, they are delicious. If fiber is new to your eating habits, you are about to discover some new foods, and you’ll get your fiber at the same time.

Health Benefits

Although experts agree that fiber in all its forms promotes digetive health and helps to prevent irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity. Harvard University found that surprisingly, the incidence of colon cancer did not seem to be affected by the amount of fiber eaten. However, the type of fiber, made a difference. Whole grain (like brown rice, oats, etc.) not only contain fiber but, more importantly, nutrients like anti-oxidants are likely the cancer-fighters. Folic acid and mulitvitamins, found in orange juice and leafy greens, can also reduce the risk of colon cancer by up to 75 percent.

Increasing Fiber Decreases Calories

Did you know that increasing the fiber in your diet actually reduces the number of calories your body absorbs from food? Eating moderate amounts of fruits and vegetables makes a significant difference. In low fat diets, 96 percent of calories consumed were absorbed, compared with 91 percent with high fiber eating. Sounds like a small difference? Five percent can add up meal after meal, day after day.

Other Weight Loss Benefits of Fiber

High fiber foods also tend to lower levels of insulin, the hormone that stimulates appetite and can lead to the urge to binge. In addition, improving your digestive processes wtith fiber can help rasie your metabolism, energize you and burn more calories in all of your daily activities.

Fiber Choices

So, how do you incorporate more fiber into your diet? There are many delicious and nutrious high fiber foods to choose from, including:

Apples (with skin)

Raspberries

Prunes

Beans

Green Beans

Peas

Nuts

Broccoli

Cabbage

Leeks

Asparagus

Sweet Potato

Brown Rice

Whole wheat pasta

Brown Rice

http://www.carbohydrate-guide.com/archives/2007/02/15/fiber-are-you-getting-yours.html

Posted in Business, Insurance, Music, Sales | No Comments »

What Can Credit Repair Services Do For You?

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Are you desperate about your bad credit score and are looking for a good solution? Possibly considering the services of a credit repair firm? You should be aware that you can do credit repair yourself, and there are a lot of online resources and articles that can show you how. But for this article, let’s take a look at credit repair companies and what they do.

Many credit repair services say that they can improve your credit score by 100 to 150 points. The process of credit repair will usually take from 30 to 60 days. The fee for doing your credit repair is generally around $500. You are strongly advised to select a credit repair firm that offers some kind of money-back guarantee if they are unable to significantly improve your credit score.

By law, a credit repair service cannot guarantee the improvement of your credit report. Companies that make false guarantees about their services are contravening the law. They may also be scams intended to part you from your money. Before you deal with a company, make sure that they are a reputable organization. Contact your local Better Business Bureau and see if they have a listing for the credit repair firm before you hire it.

Some companies may not be outright scams, but can still harm you if they engage in bad business practices, possibly due to lack of training. These include credit repair firms who try to dispute your credit report by providing inaccurate or even false information–something you should never do with a credit reporting agency.

You should read and understand the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA), which contains a number of provisions that protect your consumer rights and help you to tell if a company is being unfair or even fraudulent. For example, the CROA states that a credit repair group cannot charge you up front, and must perform the services outlined in the contract before they can extract their payment from you. The CROA also states that the contract must specify the entire fee for the service, and give a detailed description of the services that are to be rendered. It also allows you to cancel your contract without penalty or obligation as long as you do so within 3 business days from the initial signing.

You can get tips about DIY credit repair and read other articles that can help you with your credit at http://creditrepairinsider.info

Posted in Arts-and-Entertainment, Dogs, Hair-Loss, Music | No Comments »

Valentine Recipes - The Italian Way

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Reflecting the country’s diverse cultural history and traditional heritage, Italian cuisines are some of the most famous dishes appreciated all over the world today. From everyday preparations made in exotic Italian style to special recipes for special occasions, Italy offers the world a wide variety of cuisines. While a traditional Italian menu comprises of some main items like antipasto, primo, secondo, contomo, dolce, caffe and liquors, in celebration of special occasions and holidays, Italians have their exclusive range of culinary preparations. Events like La Festa di San Giuseppe, Christmas and Valentine’s Day are celebrated in Italy with special preparations like Zeppelin (a Sicilian pastry), preparations made with fava bean and seafood preparations.

As in various other parts of the world, in Italy also Valentine’s Day is celebrated with different types of cakes, pastries and special dessert preparations. The Italian Love Cake is today one of the most popular Valentine’s Day preparations, popular not only in Italy but also in many other countries. Prepared with cake mix, ricotta cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence, the Italian lovecake is one of the most special treats you can give your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. The topping of this delicious cake is usually prepared with chocolate pudding, milk and whipped cream.

Along with special Italian pastries, items like Italian wine and traditional Italian pizzas (prepared in shape of a heart) are some other preparations from this land that form some of the world’s favorite Valentine’s Day treat today. So try preparing some authentic Italian dishes this Valentine for your beloved or go for an Italian-styled celebration in a famous Italian restaurant. Once you try out some exclusive Italian preparations, you can rest assured the experience will be one that you will remember for a lifetime.

Dave Fooder runs a premiere exchange recipes network online. Visit his site http://www.cookscentral.com for Fast Free & Easy Cooking Collections and enjoy exchanging recipes.

Posted in Gardening, Home-and-Family | No Comments »

3 Convictions

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Normally, my arena for article submission is within the self help (but not inspirational) or addiction (treatment) categories. It became clear to me that I was not opening myself up to the full scope of my feelings and interest by limiting myself this way. When I wrote “Authentic Leadership” an article I’ve posted on this site I revealed more about my beliefs than I had since leaving Yale’s Divinity School some twenty years ago. It felt great to say openly what I have been feeling for some time.

Then I the urge came again while reviewing some of the post in Linkedin, of which I am a member. They have this really great service where it permits members to pose questions of all sort and members you are linked and even general members can respond. Most of the answers are well thought out and insightful in ways I not thought possible. It gave me the comments that I hoped for when I started to blog and write for publications such as ezinearticles.com.

The urge has continued to the point that now I feel empowered to openly confess devotion to Christ. All to many times I let those I differed with tell the world about their version of Christ and I set quietly with my own not willing to be associated with any kind of out pouring, but not any more.

So here goes, I have already mentioned the two different angles I’ve described my personal creed of belief. In my response to a question on Linkedin I confessed my affirmative view of existence based on God’s promise of Grace, and in a descriptive piece on leadership I embraced how God’s might deeds and man’s response as the matrix to how authentic leadership (one of my other articles available on ezine) should be measured. So now, I see it only fitting to declare openly what I believe and why (at least in a narrative or confessional sense, given the Meta nature of such declarations).

To start, I’m going to operate from the assumption that you have not read any other piece than this. I have already offered above links back to the referred post, but I will not attempt to retell the situations that generated them. Except that I will introduce the categories defined by H. Richard Niebuhr in “Christ and Culture” – meta-types of those that follow Christ.

1. For the exclusive Christian history is the story of a rising church or Christian culture and a dying pagan civilization.

2. For the cultural Christian, it is the story of the spirit’s encounter with nature.

3. For the synthesist, it is a period of preparation under law, reason, gospel, and church for an ultimate communion of the soul with God.

4. For the dualist, history is the time of struggle between faith and unbelief, a period between the giving of the promise of life and its fulfillment.

5. For the conversionist history is the story of God’s mighty deeds engaging the corruption of man in a dramatic and continuing process. Whereas the reaction is demonstrate in man’s responses to them is mediated by the promise of Grace, and its replenishment. The conversionist lives some what less “between the times” and somewhat more in the divine “Now” than do his various brothers listed above. Eternity to the conversionist, like me, focuses less on the action of God before time and less the life with God after time and more on the presence of God in time. Hence the conversionist is less concerned with conservation of what has been given in creation, less with preparation for what will be given in a final redemption, than with the divine possibility of a present renewal.

What distinguishes conversionist is their more positive and hopeful attitude toward culture and its technology which opens up nicely with the ambitions expressed in working with Addicts to manage their life towards thriving.

So to restate more fully – I stand on three theological convictions.

1 – Christ Persist

The first of these relates to creation. The Dualist tends to concentrate on redemption through Christ’s cross and resurrection. To this follows that creation is a sort of prologue to the one mighty deed of atonement.

Whereas, I see things in the context of Paul’s words of “…all things were created through and for him”. Pointing us this way reflects the creative activity of God and Christ-in-God, neither overpowered by nor overpowering the idea of Atonement. Hence I see man the creature, working in a created world, living, as I see it, under the rule of Christ and by the creative power and ordering of the divine Grace, even through in his unredeemed mind I may believe that I live among vain things under divine wrath –

Christ does persist!

Finding the room for the affirmative and ordered response on the part of created man to the mighty deeds of God is my rock. Knowing that the ordering work of God; even though the creature may go about his work unwillingly as he tills the ground, cultivates his mind, and organizes his society, and through he may administer perversely the order given him with his existence –

Christ does persist!

Unlike those that would place emphasis on the one time back then of the story. I place the work as in the Nowness of everything in the immediate world around us, focusing on the replenishment work of God. Not that I wish to turn away from the historical Jesus to Logos that was in the beginning, or that I deny the wonder of the cross in marveling at the birth in a barn; my task is to dare to manage the ongoing process of holding together in one movement the various themes of creation and redemption, of incarnation and atonement in the face of tragedy and despair.

2 – From Corruption

The second theological conviction I support is an understanding of the nature of man’s fall from his created goodness. Some would place the notions of creation of finite self hood or matter involved fall. To be in the body is to be away from Christ; noting good dwells in the flesh; to be carnal is to be sold under sin.

To which I take the step to separate the conditions of life in the body from creation. It is a kind of reversal of creation for me, and in no way an action of God’s. It is moral and personal, not physical and metaphysical, though it does have physical consequences.

The results of man’s defection from God, moreover, all occur on man’s side and not on God’s. The word that must be used here to designate the consequences of the fall is “corruption”. Man’s good nature has become corrupted; it is not bad, as something that ought not to exist, but warped, twisted, and misdirected.

He loves with the love that is given him in his creation, but loves beings wrongly, in the wrong order; he desires good with the desire given him and misses his true good; he produces fruit, but it is misshapen and bitter; he organizes society with the aid of his practical reason, but works against the grain of things in self-willed forcing of his reason into irrational paths, and thus disorganizes things in his very acts of organization. Hence we are a world struggling to maintain rather than bent on destruction.

Our problem is one of conversion not of replacement. This is true even if the conversion be so radical that it amounts to a kind of rebirth.

3. His Mighty Deeds Continue

The third is a view of history that holds that to God all things are possible in a history that is fundamentally not a course of merely human events but always a dramatic interaction between God and men. As stated earlier I’ll state again – for me the eschatological future has become for me an eschatological present. Eternity means for me less the action of God before time and less the life with God after time and more the presence of God in time.

Only in this sense do I have to exceed to the mystery of progress and upward movement, the rising of men’s souls and deeds and thoughts in a mighty surge of adoration and glorification of the One who draws them to himself. This is what human culture can be-a transformed human life in and to the glory of God. For man it is impossible, but all things are possible to God, who has created man, body and soul, for Himself, and sent his Son into the world that the world through him might thrive.

I’m what my handle states - an Oldude. The problem with this acknowledgment is my thinking and ambitions have not quite got the message of my “oldness”. I’ve started an online behavioral clinic and my rant is about how to improve long term happiness - For the World. My thing, I believe I can change the world - isn’t that a hoot. The way I intend to change the world is to foster a wider and deeper appreciation for “hipness”: The daring, flair and grace of Jay z; the political savvy of Cornel West; the creativity of Mos Def with the business and cultural daring of Richard Simmons. I’ve thought enough - being a philosopher of sorts - and trained hard with some of the sharpest minds ever on the planet - Cornel West and Michel Foucault to know the total absurdity of trying to change the world - but I do and I will. There it is showing my age again.

Posted in Blogging, Dating, Relationships, Self-Improvement | No Comments »

Tagliatelle Alla Bolognese

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Italian dishes are some of the tastiest preparations in the world. Along with including various healthy ingredients like fresh vegetables and grains, a large number of Italian recipes are served best with different types of specialized sauces and condiments. Among the rest, meat sauces, prepared in a variety of ways, form some of the most common parts of a variety of Italian recipes. From pastas and spaghetti preparations to lasagna and meatballs, meat sauces are served with a wide variety of Italian dishes.

Italy is a land of variety. Although people from other countries tend to identify all Italian recipes as belonging to one common land of origin, in truth every Italian region, every city has its own culinary specialties. Tagliatelle alla Bolognese is a special form of meat sauce that can be served along with a wide range of Italian cuisines. Among the rest, Ragu alla Bolognese is one of the most famous types of Italian meat sauce. Prepared with beef or a combination of beef and pork, you can use Tagliatelle alla Bolognese along with a wide variety of main dishes.

The main ingredients required for preparing Tagliatelle alla Bolognese are ground chuck, ground pork, ground veal, finely chopped onions, carrots and celery stalk. You will also require tomato paste, meat broth, olive oil, half a cup heavy cream, fresh tagliatelle pasta and salt and pepper according to taste.

The first step in preparing Tagliatelle alla Bolognese is to cook the beef, veal, pork and pancetta in olive oil until the meat turns brown. After removing the additional fat, you are required to add the carrots, onions and celery. When the vegetables soften, you should add the tomato paste and meat broth and cook until al the broth evaporates. You need to add three cups of broth and repeat the process three times until the sauce obtains a thick consistency. You will then need to add the cream and simmer the preparation. After seasoning with salt and pepper, you need to cook the Tagliatelle alla Bolognese in salted water till the preparation becomes dense. Served with pasta or spaghetti, Tagliatelle alla Bolognese adds its own distinct charm to every Italian preparation.

Dave Fooder runs a premiere exchange recipes network online. Visit his site http://www.cookscentral.com for Fast Free & Easy Cooking Collections and enjoy exchanging recipes.

Posted in Gardening, Internet-and-Businesses-Online, List-Building | No Comments »

Italian Preparations

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Although most people identify Italian food with some of the nations most famous dishes like pizzas, spaghetti and lasagna, in reality, Italian food encompasses a wide variety of traditional and modern cuisines. One of the main benefits that Italian food has over that from other parts of the world is its healthy constitution. Prepared from a variety of healthy ingredients like legumes, vegetables, grains, nuts and fruits, Italian food preparations are some of the best for your health and vigor. Along with reducing risks of heart diseases and cancer, Italian food preparations are some of the best you can have for the overall maintenance of good health. Among others, lasagna and spaghetti are some of the tastiest and best known Italian preparations.

Prepared with pasta, cheese and meat-sauce layers, lasagna is one of the most famous Italian dishes today consumed all over the world. Lasagna is usually prepared with pasta or noodles, either freshly prepared or prepared and softened from a day before. The meat sauce is usually prepared with ingredients such as ground beef, tomatoes, pork sausages and a combination of pasta sauces. In addition molten cheese is also added. Other ingredients usually required in the preparation of lasagna are onion, garlic, salt, pepper, eggs, mozzarella cheese, red pepper and marinara sauce with wine. One of the chief characteristics of lasagna is that it is a layered dish. In a baking pan a layer of sauce is first laid, over which layers of pasta or noodles, mozzarella cheese and then another layer of sauce is placed. Some shredded cheese is also added at top. The whole preparation is then covered and baked until the cheese melts. The preparation is then allowed to stand for 10-15 minutes before it is served. Chilling the noodles overnight before preparing the lasagna allows the flavors to soak in better and thereby, improves the overall taste.

Dave Fooder runs a premiere exchange recipes network online. Visit his site http://www.cookscentral.com for Fast Free & Easy Cooking Collections and enjoy exchanging recipes.

Posted in Business, Gardening | No Comments »

An Allegory about the Isreal-Palistine Situation

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Imagine a large house that has an extended family living in it. The family has lived in the neighborhood peacefully for generations with no major problems during this time. Then, one day a group of uninvited outsiders show up at the door claiming that their God gave them the house and that the family should leave immediately. As might be expected, the homeowners refuse.

The outsiders decide to harass the homeowners by breaking windows, blowing up the mailbox, scribbling graffiti on the walls and generally making themselves extremely annoying. The homeowners call town hall to protest the harassment. When the outsiders are presented with the complaints by the city officials, they give a tale of woe that includes long years of suffering and deprivation. They also claim discrimination and unjust treatment for many generations. Besides this tale, they offer circumstantial evidence that they once lived in the house many years ago and therefore have a right to live there again.

The government sees that the outsiders are a rowdy bunch with no respect for outside authority, and that they are well equipped with an attitude that enables them to keep up their campaign of harassment indefinably. Consequently, they decide that something must be done to keep the situation from getting totally out of hand.

The government and the neighbors get together to formulate a plan that they see as a solution to the problem. The plan is to let the outsiders move in to the house with the government’s apparent approval. Once they are settled in, the neighbors will get together and forcefully evict them, claiming that the outsiders are breaking long standing neighborhood covenants. The outsiders will be sent packing, the government will be seen as doing the right thing, and the homeowners can move back in to the house, bringing everything back to normal.

When the plan is implemented, the homeowners leave, some moving in with the neighbors and the rest moving into the basement. The outsiders move in to the main house and everything seems to be going as planned.

When the eviction notice is presented to the outsiders, things go terribly wrong. Rather than leave peacefully, the outsiders tear up the notice and beat up the community leaders, putting several in the hospital. They then proceed to threaten the rest of the neighborhood, intimidating everyone that prevents any one group to try anything in retaliation.

The homeowners, who move in to the basement thinking they will get right out again, are now considered refugees by the outsiders. The outsiders continueto keep them in the basement, abusing and humiliating them every chance they got.

Over the next thirty years the neighbors tried to reclaim the house for the homeowners several times. Each time they were soundly beaten to a pulp and loose many building plots illegally taken as punishment.

As time goes on, the homeowners in the basement are abused and humiliated more and more harshly, trying many times to get some sort of justice by striking out with what little resources they have. This is seen as terrorist activity by the outsiders, who continue to abuse and punish them, creating a never ending cycle of violence.

Even though the outsiders have all the power, they continue to act like victims, insisting that the downtrodden and humiliated homeowners trapped for 50 years in the basement of their own house make the first move toward peace.

This story has no happy ending because the outsiders, equipped with way to much raw power, see no reason to try anything that might be perceived as weakness. Firmly believing in the doctrine that might makes right, they see brute force and violence as a way to solve their problems. Having a cellar full of angry and humiliated people in their house is considered better than addressing their grievances, as the cellar door can always be made stronger.

They do not seem to see that if 50 years of arrogance, violence and humiliation haven’t solved their problems, its time to try something else.

Posted in Babies-Toddler, Computers-and-Technology, Games | No Comments »

Staying In Ship Shape

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Whether you’re on the water for a week or a month, smart sailors want to stay in shape. But how can you get your daily workout in, in small spaces? Take a tip from business travelers and frequent fliers who have found the best way to make the best of workout on the road to create your own workout on the water.

You don’t need (or have the room for!) big, bulky equipment. A quick search of the web revels lots of different manufacturers that have all sorts of kits for cardio workouts, stretching and strength training and even yoga and Pilates.

One drawback to many of these kits is that a DVD guides the workouts. If you don’t have a player on your boat, or it’s not located in a convenience workout spot, that could be a problem. One solution would be to watch it at home to become familiar with the exercises before setting sail. Or, go on line to one of the myriad exercise and fitness sites, print out pages of your favorite exercises and put them in a waterproof sheet protector from the office supply store.

If you feel the need for travel equipment, The Healthy Travel Network (www.healthytravelnetwork.com) is a great source for exercises on the go. Of course their store sells lots of travel fitness equipment, ideal for small spaces, including resistance bands, stability balls, water-filled weights, floatation devices for water workouts, and yoga mats.

If you don’t want to pack equipment at all, consider the FitDeck, a unique deck of playing cards containing illustrations and instructions describing 50 different upper, middle, lower, and full body exercises.

The exercises call for basic body movements and require no equipment or machines of any kind. Each card allows you to choose from among three fitness levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

If you’re close to shore, consider docking and taking a daily walk or going for a run. Run the Planet (www.runtheplanet.com) offers 4420 descriptions of where to run and walk in 3281 cities around the world presenting running information told by the locals. A great way to see the local scenery while you get your heart pumping faster.

For the times when you’re not near shore, consider a water workout. These workouts are not just for little old ladies in the shallow end of the pool. Check out sites like Water Workout (www.waterworkout.com) where you can pick webbed gloves and shoes to add resistance, and CDs of upbeat music with audio cues to change activity. And if you are heading to deep water, or if you’re a beginner or get easily fatigued, make sure you invest in a flotation belt to keep you buoyant.

So no matter where you sail, there’s always a way to stay in shape!

Brandon Bissell CEO Boaters Basement http://www.boatersbasement.com

Posted in Acne, Anger-Management, Home-Improvement, Interior-Design-and-Decorating | No Comments »

The Advantages and Disadvantages Of An Internet Home Business

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

A growing disillusionment with life in the corporate world has resulted in a migration towards internet entrepreneurism and the dream of someday being able to enjoy a greater degree of financial freedom, leading to a much higher quality of life.

Now that the personal computer has become an essential part of most households in the civilized world, the home office has become a viable phenomenon. When you combine that with the exciting new advances in internet technology, it becomes apparent why more people than ever are now willing to start their own internet home business, or participate in the kind of internet work from home opportunity that would have been out of the question just a decade ago.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages of working from home with your own business? Let’s have a look, first of all, at the disadvantages.

Phone Calls Depending on the type of home business you’ve chosen, your clients will assume you are available all day, every day. Added to that, you will probably be working with international customers who forget about time zones! The plus side is that not all online work requires direct customer contact. Your Home is your Office There is no distinction between home and office, so you never get the feeling that work is over for the day. You can’t switch on and off as many do. However, there are no bells to work to and no boss checking his watch when you leave, so you have more time to complete your work.

You Must be Disciplined Because you work from home it may seem like the hours you work don’t matter. You can take a few hours off whenever you feel like it because you can make it up tomorrow. The problem is, ‘tomorrow never comes.’

When the children and your spouse have left the house there is no human interaction like there is with a job. Friends may visit but they usually distract you from your work or feel that because you work at home you have all the time in the world and they can visit whenever they feel like it. You need considerable discipline to work when there is no boss to grade your performance.

Financial independence is a significant factor If your work at home business makes you financially independent, it doesn’t matter that you work at home. The hours you work don’t matter if you are happy with your standard of living. If your work at home income does not exceed what you were making from your job, you need rethink your whole work at home strategy and come up with a niche and a marketing strategy that will give you the income you desire.

Seems like a daunting list of disadvantages doesn’t it? I’ve got good news… An internet work at home business is certainly NOT doom and gloom! Now let’s discuss just a few of the advantages.

Convenience Long frustrating commutes are a thing of the past. Your commute is on foot and measured in seconds depending on the size of your home! There are no traffic jams, and you can start work whenever it’s convenient to you; one of the major pluses of working at home.

Safety You won’t be joining thousands of others under pressure to get to office by start time, so you will be less liable to have a road traffic accident. You can get out of bed each morning fired up with the enthusiasm you get from owning your own internet home business, go for a swim, then relax with a delicious cup of coffee while you read the morning paper and maybe even have some breakfast. All this before you start your working day.

Time with your family All the time you used to spend traveling back and forth between home and work can now be spent with your family. Work at home parents have the pleasure of being there while their children are growing up without the expense or the worry of daycare!

Lower Travel Costs How much does it cost you to commute? The maintenance costs of your car, gasoline or perhaps the cost of public transport? This must use up a fair amount of your disposable income. When you work from home your related travel costs are negligible, and the wear and tear on your vehicle is greatly reduced.

These are exciting times in the home opportunities marketplace, and finding a home based business that suits your individual style is easier than ever. But before you take the plunge into entrepreneurship you must weigh the pros against the cons and be sure that you’re looking with a realistic eye at all sides of the work at home opportunities you are considering.

ProfitMarketer Janice Sharman, is an experienced Home Business Entrepreneur, who will take you by the hand and show you how you can start and successfully run your own Internet Home Business. For more information on how to start your own home business visit:
http://www.profitsguru.biz or http://www.computer-work-at-home-job.ws

Posted in Golf, Recreation-and-Sports, Reference-and-Education | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »