Positive Living Help: August 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

Power To Change

How do we find power for change? There are some basic practices that will help us to make meaningful changes in our lives. The power to change lies within each us. We must recognize the value of learning positive practices that will help us to make dynamic changes in our lives. The power to change is within our grasps.

Action is one of the key elements to change. We must be ready to take some kind of action for change to take place. Positive talk is good, but action must be in the picture for effective change to take place. You must have a plan of action; list your steps. Do not put your plan of actions to far out in the distance future. Taking action sooner then later will help you to feel good about your change.

Another element that supports the power to change is motivation. When we begin to take positive actions toward change we often become motivated. Motivation is like a flame that turns into a fire. Our motivation will help us to continue on the road to successful powerful changes in our lives. Motivation is a by product of right actions, if there are no right it will be hard to get motivated.

Focusing must be part of the process to having the power to change. If we are not focused, it will be hard to change. We will expend a lot of energy without the ability to focus. The ability to focus will increase our ability to make positive changes. Our power to change is related to how focused we can become. By becoming more focused we have the power to make more changes.

In positive writings and books we can find the strength, courage and power to make real changes in our lives. The set aside scriptures can be used as a main source of gaining the courage needed to accomplish this task. Let us find the time to read these types of writings. A regular habit of reading the right materials will give you the strength for powerful changes.

The power to change is within our reach; we must walk the path.

I retired from United States Navy in 2003, after serving over 21 years of enlisted active duty onboard several different ships and a few shore assignments. I am married. My wife and i have two daughters. We have two dogs, Chow Chow's, to be exact. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Liberal Arts (Focus area Psychology) from Excelsior College class 2004. http://belwrites.com

Surviving As A Contractor In California

So you want to make big money making a living as a contractor in the state of California. Well now I bet you have seen contractors on TV or maybe you know someone who is a contractor. You see these men and women playing the part as Mr. or Mrs. Money bags. If you have the slightest thought that becoming a contractor will provide you with a life of riches think again.

Most contractors that I know and have worked with over the years don't think of there jobs as easy. They have to work everyday and a lot into the night doing estimates or meeting with potential clients because they are to busy during the day. The life of most contractors in the beginning will be difficult to say the least. But if successful you will make a great living for yourself and your family.

Now that we got the false illusion of the contractor answering his cell phone all day at some nice golf course having lunch talking about the money that he just made selling his oil stocks. We can start on reality. If being a contractor was that easy everyone would be a contractor. Right..... Well maybe not everyone.

I have been a contractor for over 22 years and in construction for 30 year. I have seen a lot of changes over the years. I remember when a few contractors that I worked for made a lot of money during the late 1970's. These guys had Ferraris and money to burn with one exception they had no idea how to save any of it. These guys went on vacations and bought extravagant toys for them selves. Out of most of the big framing contractors I worked for about 10 percent are still in business or actually saved their money during the good times so that they could make it through the bad times.

These contractors never thought it was going to end. Life on easy street that is. But it did and most went by the way side. I guess that is the nature of business. Especially the current economic business cycles that we seem to go through over the years. If you don't have the money to advertise or carry a payroll. Your business is going to suffer during the bad times. Sure there is credit and bank loans but you still have to pay that money back. IF you can't save your money stash some away for advertising.

Some of the best advice I can give a contractor anywhere especially in the state of California is " Don't Think The Great Times Of Easy Money Will Last Forever". Save some of the money you make just in case you need to get through the bad times. You will thank me for this latter, Some time down the road. Take this advice and put it into action starting right now.

Greg Vanden Berge has over 30 years of experience in residential home building and remodeling. This provides you with the comfort of knowing that you have a professional with the knowledge and skills to complete your construction projects in a timely manner.

Our low overhead along with our new online estimating system will provide you with the most competitive construction pricing in the area. We continue to educate ourselves about the new home improvement books and building systems in the construction industry. If we have any doubt that something might not work we don't use it. We have found some of these products to be the root of some major home building problems.

Click on the Home Remodeling Ideas to get more information and a possible online estimate for your home improvement project.

Greg Vanden Berge Quotes

The Power of Subliminal Suggestion

Are you looking for a technique that will help you influence others' opinions and actions? Many people believe subliminal suggestion is a method that will work to manipulate others' minds. For the last hundred years, governments and advertisers have tried to use subliminal suggestions to persuade people.

Perhaps you are not interested in persuading others, but you are intrigued by the idea of increasing your own satisfaction in life. Many experts believe subliminal suggestions can be used to enhance performance at work, help you quit smoking, or build your self-assurance.

While there is no concrete evidence that subliminal suggestion works, many people have been convinced of the power of subliminal messages. Subliminal communications supposedly bypass the thinking, conscious brain. Instead, they pass directly into the subconscious part of the mind and influence a person's belief and knowledge structures.

It has been proven that the subconscious mind picks up messages throughout your daily life experience. The subconscious does use that information to change behavior in the conscious mind; examples include instinctual reactions to stimuli. Those who believe in the power of subliminal suggestion believe that the subconscious mind is very powerful, and that it exerts a lot of control over conscious decisions.

Many celebrities like Anthony Robbins and Tiger Woods claim that subliminal suggestions are a key to their success. These celebrities use books, videos, and other forms of subliminal control to influence their performance and concentration. Like these well-known stars, many people attempt to harness the power of their subconscious by subjecting their mind to rapidly flashing images or subtle auditory suggestions hidden behind music.

Proponents say that subliminal suggestion can be used to improve your life in many areas. Subliminal messages can help you achieve goals like losing weight or gaining self-confidence. By influencing the conscious mind through imprinting messages onto the subconscious mind, perhaps you can improve your life as well!

To find out more about how to use subliminal suggestion, just click here

Home Improvement Tip - Fixing a Squeaky Floor

Question: I have a floor that every single time I step on it I get the most annoying sound. I don't know what it does to me or why it bothers me so much. My kitchen floor squeaks and actually moves up and down if you are standing on it. The whole floor moves. How do I stop it from moving and squeaking. Help Me Greg!

Answer: It sounds like you have a broken floor joist. You are going to have to go under your house. If you have a basement this will be a little easier to fix. It is my guess that you don't have a basement or you would have seen the broken floor joist by now.

Have someone stand on the floor in the spot that squeaks and have them move up and down while you are under the house. Don't have them jump up and down while you are under the house. This could cause more damage to the structural framing of the floor. Once you are in the right position under the floor you can have them start moving slowly. What you are looking for is one of the floor joist that are moving.

If you see one of them moving. Look to see where the damage is. Is it a split, crack, wood rot or a big knot in the wood that has loosened up and fell out. Once you find the damaged floor joist you can now think about repairing it.

If you don't see any floor joist moving. Have the person on top start moving a little bit more and you can even have them jump on it a few times until you see something out of place. If you still don't see any broken floor joist. Start looking at the sub-floor, this will be plywood of some form, 1 x 6 or 2 x 6 materials.

What you are looking for is movement of any kind. Is there a separation or movement between the sub-floor and the floor joist. If you still can't find the problem maybe it is time to call in a professional.

The main thing you are going to be looking for is movement of any kind.

Most squeaky floors are caused from the sub-floor rubbing up and down on a nail. If you have carpeting and you have a squeaky floor you can do your best to locate a floor joist and screw right through your carpeting into the floor joist.

For more help on fixing squeaky floors visit http://gregvan.com/wood_repair.htm

Thanks for the great question. I hope it helps.

Greg Vanden Berge has been in the home building and remodeling business for over 30 years. With this knowledge he has created a few websites that provide useful information for home owners as well as contractors. His main goal is to educate professionals in the home related businesses, dealing with problems that can easily be avoided with just a little bit of information.

His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.

Visit us now for Home Improvement Tips

Nothing Will Be Impossible

Non Physical Conscious Awareness

Human Consciousness can be measured with an Electro-Encephalograph (EEG) machine. What we do not see is the non-physical aspects in the Aura of the person - the electromagnetic field of energy that surrounds the Human Body.

The Human Aura is multi-dimensional; it is not just a shell-like field of energy which is like an egg around the body. It has different layers, which correspond to the different layers of the physical body: the Whole Body, Organs, Cells, Molecules, Atoms, Finer Particles, Light Body and Core Being or Vacuum.

As well as these layers we have the Energy Centres - Chakras - coming out like cones. As the colours of these cones merge with each other we see different colours of light being formed to give us a point in the Aura of each shade and hue.

You can watch the Aura having different shades of points of light, acting like radio tuners receiving similar frequencies from our environment; the Human Body can tune into all frequencies at the same time and we can interpret these with our emotions and feelings.

When we smile we can feel the energy in our cheeks extending out from our body like angel's wings or like a magnetic field; this is created within the body, as would happen in a bar magnet. The field of energy which our physical body creates extends out into the non-physical Aura and beyond, like the force field surrounding a magnet.

Our body is sensing the astrological influences from the planets, as we exist in the Earth's Magnetic Field. All these different electromagnetic levels of energy and force have an influence on our consciousness and our thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

We notice how we feel happier on a bright, sunny day than we do when dark storm clouds are over us.

We live in an invisible field of Electromagnetic Energy which covers the full spectrum: Gamma Rays, X-Rays, Ultraviolet, Visible Light, Infra-red, Radio Frequencies, etc. We are connected as One with this field of Energy and it is part of our Conscious Awareness.

As well as this natural electromagnetic field from our solar system, we are also influenced by the electromagnetic smog of mobile phones, TV and radio and all the other methods of man-made communication using this underlying field of energy in which we live.

Human consciousness can use the underlying electromagnetic field to send messages telepathically, and to get premonitions and dj-vu insights.

The Universe uses this field of Power and Force in an effortless way, to bring about synchronicities in our life; our vibration draws to us the things which are patterned in our being; something magical seeks us out and happens in our life.

As more humans become aware of this non-physical electromagnetic field of energy, it grows stronger and the synchronicities happen more often. The accident rate is declining as everything acts as part of the whole and moves in a frictionless flow of life in Conscious Awareness.

By George E. Lockett SSHA, IIHHT -- HealerGeorge(C) Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved. Tel: +44 (0)1286 882701 Visit HealerGeorges web site to experience the power of Distant Healing or listen to HealerGeorge Radio giving Questions and Answer advice mixed with Spiritual Music. You can also enjoy many free benefits on HealerGeorge, like listening to Free Guided Meditations. Why not order HealerGeorges Latest book entitled A Journey into The Self The Multi-dimensional Nature of Being Human By George E Lockett. It is all available off the web site. HealerGeorge Web Site and New Book Description: What is this book going to do for YOU? For those who are seeking a complete energetic makeover, as you read it you will feel a stirring and awakening in the depths of your heart. For those who have questions about Shifts in Consciousness, Energy Balancing, and Healing within the body, you will find clear answers.

Home Improvement Tip - Fixing a Squeaky Floor

The main thing you are going to be looking for is movement of any kind.

For more help on fixing squeaky floors visit http://gregvan.com/wood_repair.htm

Thanks for the great question. I hope it helps.

His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.

Visit us now for Home Improvement Tips

If I Hate My Brother

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Satan's Little Kingdom

In 1967, the world was abuzz with something sinister going on in San Francisco, CA. A new church had arisen, a church dedicated to the Devil. Created by a former musician and magic enthusiast Howard LaVey who renamed himself Anton Szandor LaVey, it performed public rituals supposedly dedicated to the glory of Satan and the celebration of Earthly pleasures and delights.

Every Friday night, LaVey and his friends and followers conducted a black mass that was a purposeful perversion of Christian church traditions. The music was a corruption of Catholic hymns. The altars were nude women. Semen and milk were used instead of wine. And crowds of reporters looking for shocking pictures and juicy stories (especially reporters for men's magazines) snapped away at the show in front of them, writing story after story. Many Christians were aghast in fear that Revelations 13 was slowly starting to play itself out especially as the Church of Satan's membership grew by leaps and bounds.

But hidden from the cameras was an internal struggle within the Church. The whole point of the Church was to scare and shock Evangelicals and Catholics. It was a show, a performance and many members joined for the glory of being associated with the infamous church, its naked altars and sinister allure. In an interview, Tom Blackwood, a former Priest of the Church shared that when it came to its membership tally, LaVey would pad the numbers.

"If you sing a song with Satan in it, write a book or some articles about Satanism or black magic and you're in."

LaVey also realized the problem of Satanists joining the group just to scare the willies out of Christians among their family and friends. In a Newsweek interview in 1971, he addressed the problem head-on.

"Satanism is developing two circles, an elitist group which I always intended my church to be, and the faddists who are becoming Satanists because it's the thing to do."

He was growing tired and frustrated of just spooking people he didn't like very much. He wanted to practice what he called real Satanism. Combining Nietzsche, Rand and supposedly some writings of the infamous Cabalist and Hermetic Aleisteir Crowley, LaVey preached an ideology that celebrated the human being and all the inherent flaws, imperfections and pleasures the human form entailed as divinity in its own right. While Ayn Rand preached that people should only worry about themselves and their own personal interests, LaVey took the concept one step further and said that each person was a God or Goddess.

But that caused even more of a problem, especially after LaVey's death and the subsequent splintering of the Church. Each member was a supposed divinity and free to create his or her own doctrine. These individual doctrines competed with each other and leaders of small Satanic groups were constantly fighting with their flocks which often thought they created a better magic theory after a year or two of listening to the High Priest. As Blackwood puts it...

"Because LaVeyan Satanism teaches that each human is a God, everybody thinks he's Zeus or Thor. So what happens when you get Thor and Zeus in the same room? They're going to fight. Satanists today bicker endlessly about what's true Satanism and who has the best theory of it."

When LaVey stopped all public ceremonies in 1975 and worked until his death to create a real culture of celebrating the individual and Earthly pleasures, he unwittingly engineered the splintering of the Church. The infamous Black House from which the group was ran since the 1960s was demolished in 2001 after its condition declined so much, it was deemed unsafe for habitation by the city. The current leaders of the Church of Satan are now based in New York City. They advertise some events and a radio show but the original group that made headlines in the 1960s and 1970s is no more. Satan's kingdom on Earth is limited to a small number of people busily engaged in arcane arguments over the finer points of what they think is black magic.

This article is featured on Weird Things (http://gfish.wordpress.com), a blog that explores the strange, unknown, technology, space, science and strange things with a skeptical and analytical eye.

Removing Interior Walls

Here's a word of advice for any contractor, Carpenter, handyman or homeowner that is planning to remove an interior wall from your home or someone else's. Beware of removing interior walls, to eliminate your fears of the house collapsing. Some of the interior walls inside of the house are important structural components of the building.

Some of these walls hold up floors, roofs and other loadbearing sections that could create safety problems within the structure of the house itself. This is an area where an expert with framing skills should be consulted. What is the definition of someone with excellent framing skills? Some one with at least 10 years as a master framing carpenter.

My home building experience consists of three decades for over 30 years of assembling some of the most difficult sections of a home. During these years I have seen damage done to houses from removing structural interior walls. Most of this damage could be repaired with a little structural engineering. Some of the damage could not be repaired and caused other damage to different sections of the house. The damage caused in some cases to the floor and the roof framing had to be completely rebuilt.

I'm not telling you about every single thing I have ran into but you would be surprised if I started to make a list of all the homeowners and professionals in the building industry or home selling and buying business that contacted me to remove a structural component of a building. There have even been a few of these people that told me everything was going to be okay just go ahead and remove the structural building component.

Needless to say I would leave these people very irritated but I'm sure they found someone to do the job. The bad news is I was normally the person they would hire to go back and repair the damaged building after these people were gone and out of business. There have been cases where people have removed an interior walls against my better judgment and over the years of driving by in these homes I personally got to witness the structural damage that was occurring on the outside of the house.

I have no idea what the inside of the house looked like but could only imagine. My advice again when removing interior walls is to hire an experienced contractor or at least get some advice from an experienced framing carpenter. This does not include your basic know it all that has basic construction experience like your father in law, parents, friends, golfing associates or people you work with that tell you not to worry about it, just do it, everything will work out just fine.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on building and remodeling your homes and What Does A Shear Wall Do

Religion Articles

Are You a Spiritually Balanced Person?

Spiritualism is the ability of a person to know beyond the senses. The world can be understood as the combination of the matter and spirit. While the matter is visible and known to the senses, the spirit that is the cause of the matter is not known to the senses. The knowledge of the spirit is obtained by the observation of the matter.

Spirit is all pervasive in the world as all objects are derived from this spirit. The spirit is, therefore, also known as God, Paramatma (Universal Soul), Supreme etc. All branches of knowledge are an attempt of the man to understand this spirit. Einstein expressed this desire of the spiritual person in the following words,

"I just want to know the thoughts of God. The rest are details."

Spiritualism, contrary to the common perception, is not other-worldly as it is very much related to this world. It is an attempt to discover the ultimate reality which is hidden behind the material beings. When Newton saw an apple falling from tree, he did not focus his thoughts on the apple but on the force that is driving the apple to the ground. Then he found that the same force works between every material object of the universe. He called it gravity. Yet no one has ever seen the gravitational waves or understood the reason why such forces emerge from the matter. Yet this knowledge has been extremely valuable for the mankind.

Spirituality too is nothing but an attempt of the man to discover the unseen and unknown force that drives every reality of this world. The only requirement to become spiritual is to change the focus from the "form" to the "formless" as Osho said,

We should drop our obsession with form so that the formless can enter. The moment the manifest leaves our mind, the unmanifest enters."

Many thousands years back, Upanishads, explained spiritualism as the highest knowledge of the world in the following words (Mundaka, I, i, 6)

By this knowledge, the wise realize everywhere that which can not be perceived and grasped, which is without source, features, eyes and ears, which has neither hands nor feet, which is eternal, multiformed, all pervasive, extremely subtle and undimishing, and which is the source of all.

If the knowledge of the spirit can not be acquired by the mind and senses then, how one can get it. The answer is that the spiritual knowledge can be obtained only by the spark of the spirit that is present in every living creature, which we know as soul. Thus the source of spiritual knowledge is the soul which alone is capable of understanding the knowledge of the spirit. It is for this reason that the spiritual knowledge is also called self-realization as it emerges from within and not from outside.

Four Means of Spiritualism

The goal of spiritualism is to know the spirit, the all pervasive reality of the universe. It was found that such knowledge is possible only when the person transforms himself to a spiritual person and moves in the path of divinity or salvation. This is also known as yoga or union of Self with the God or Divine.

Bhagwat Gita provides for four paths of salvation viz. Gyanayoga (knowledge of Supreme), Karmayoga (Selfless Action), Bhaktiyoga (Faith) and Dhyanayoga (self-realization).

Since all branches of knowledge are nothing but the branches of the same tree, hence all the four paths are common in other branches of knowledge like science which describes these four steps as hypothesis, experimentation, analysis and theory.

However, people often follow the simplest path and stick to only one path instead of balancing the four methods of union. However, these people feel disappointed and disillusioned soon as they fail to evolve spiritually.

Only a person who strikes proper balance in all four types of spiritualism attaints the spiritual evolution.

1. Knowledge: Understanding Scriptures

The truth of spiritualism is hidden in the scriptures. Yet it is not the words of the scriptures that carry the essence of the knowledge but the spirit of the scriptures that can be realized only by the soul. Scriptures requires highest level of imagination and thoughts. The meanings of the texts of Bible are not comprehensible like science. For example, read this texts from Bible

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. John 6:35 (KJV)

Scriptures are like poems which mix reality with imagination and symbolism. The proper understanding of scriptures requires deep knowledge of life and man. Try understanding this para of Bible

Jesus said to her, `I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'" (John 11:24-26)

Yet man with repeated effort and deep desire can grasp the truth of the scriptures just like a person after repeatedly seeing movies of different kinds or after reading fictions develop the ability to understand the truth after filtering the fiction or symbolism.

2. Selfless Action: Verification of Knowledge

Once a person has developed some understanding of the scriptures, the next step is to ensure that what he understood is correct. It has to be tested and verified just like a theory in science has to be verified by experiments. Roger Bacon (1214?-1294?) English philosopher, scientist said,

The strongest arguments prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all speculation.

It is for this reason that Gita has given highest place to Karma amongst all paths of salvation as without action, the knowledge can never be verified. Further, like scientists, the person has to keep himself away in participating the experiments and work merely as an observer. Thus the requirement is selfless karma. Only when the experiment is done without selfish motive, the results are accurately known.

If the laws of the scriptures are properly understood, then the result of an action would result into the goal as predicted in the scriptures. If the results does not match than either the theory is wrong or the experiment is wrong.

3. Faith: Believe in Scriptures

If the theory is correct and the experiment has been performed rightly, the results of the action are same irrespective of the observer and the person. In this regard, there is no difference between a scientist and a spiritual person. Thus the results prove the theory that causes the development of faith in the theories of the scriptures.

Faith is the first achievement of the spiritually awakened person. He experiments not on others but on him, hence there are no chances of errors or manipulation. Can anyone doubt the truth of an incident which he has witnessed by his own eyes? Hence the faith is automatically generated. Repeated success of the experiment deepens the faith of the theory and his capability to understand the scriptures and the nature of the spirit.

Faith is highly valued in all religions. Bible elaborate the importance of faith in the following words

He (Jesus) told them, "Because of your lack of faith. I tell you with certainty, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.

Yet faith can never be forced as it is impossible to influence the soul. No one can lie to himself or fool himself. Faith or belief comes only when a person is really convinced about the truth or accuracy of the principles. Yet once the faith is achieved, nothing remains unachievable.

4. Self-Realization: The Power of Concentration

It takes considerable time before a person has developed the correct understanding of the scriptures and able to distinguish the truth from the symbolism. In the beginning, large deviations are found in the theory and the results of the action. However with concentration, one can realize the fault and get the right knowledge and right experimentation.

The process of deep thinking or concentration is often called the self-realization in religion as this knowledge is realized from within. In Gita, it is called Dhyanayoga or self realization which is the pinnacle of spiritualism. Self-realization has been given the highest place in all religions. In the Gita Lord Krishna says

I shall fully explain to you the Self-knowledge together with Self-realization after knowing that nothing more remains to be known in this world.

Francis Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer, philosopher explained the power of thinking in the following words,

No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking.

A Balanced Approach to Spiritualism

Every person who intends to know the spirit or God has to balance all four paths as no single path can lead to spiritualism. Mere bookish knowledge of the scriptures can make a person philosopher but not spiritual. Knowledge without knowing is like cloths which are worn externally and can be changed anytime. This knowledge does not transform the person as he does not really know the spirit. He could only know the body of the spirit and not the True knowledge of Spirit just like none can understand a person merely from his photograph.

Similarly all selfless actions do not provide any benefit to man. First of all, without knowledge it is impossible to do any action as every action originates from a motive or desire. Action without proper knowledge may cause more harm to the person instead of giving any benefit to him.

The blind devotion or faith in the words of the scriptures is the most fetal error a man can commit in the name of religion. Such people are called fanatics or fundamentalists as they instead of knowing their scriptures know only the words. Thus they take body as the whole truth can commit unpardonable crimes in the name of God.

Finally, mere concentration does not yield to anything. It is virtually impossible to see the unseen and understand the formless without having some basic knowledge of the scriptures. Even the most awakened persons started from the scriptures before, they could develop their new understanding of the spirit. Self-realization does not come in vacuum but its feet lies firmly on the existing base of spirituality and religion. Yet the understanding and knowledge arising out of self-realization is fresh like a new born child, as it is designed from a purpose to help solve a real-life problem.

When a person combines all the four means of spiritualism, he is able to move to the higher and higher orbit of spiritualism and attain divinity, the goal of spiritualism and religion.

Dr. Awdhesh K Singh is an Engineer by education and philosopher by passion. He holds his PhD degree in the area of E-Governance.

He has published several papers in International Journals and Conferences on the subject of E-governance and the application of Artificial Intelligence tools like Fuzzy Logic (FL) and Expert Systems (ES) for E-governance.

He has keen interest in the study and application of Religion, Spirtuality and Philosophies for solving the real-life problems of the modern world.

Many of his articles are published on the website of Aatmic Science Forum and Science of Soul.

His can be contacted on the email aksinghirs [a] yahoo.com

Need Help Remodeling In Carlsbad

What you are thinking about remodeling your house and you live in Carlsbad. Let me give you some advice about some local contractors and some of the people involved. I used a company called Service Magic to find a local heating and air conditioning contractor. All I had to do was go on the internet , type in some information about my self and what I wanted to have done to my home. This didn't seem that bad of a idea at the time. But look what I found out.

I went to their web site, filled in my information and with in minutes I had received the names of at least 4 contractors. Wow this is neat. I didn't even get to start calling any of them when my phone rang. It was one of the contractors secretaries. She introduced herself and asked what would be a good time for someone to come out to look at the work I wanted done.

I was surprised at the speed things were taking place but in a way glad that I had a reputable contractor from one of the largest construction referral services on the internet. I told her 10:00 would be fine. I got a call shortly after that from one of the other companies. He wanted to meet me that mourning at 8:00 if it was Ok with me. I told him of course, let's do this. Then the next one called and I thought great you can come at 1:00. Well you guessed it the next one was coming over at 2:30.

The first contractor showed up as scheduled at 8:00. We talked about what I wanted done and he whips out his note book and starts figuring out a price. This took place around 15 minutes into the meeting. This guys good I thought. Being a General Contractor in Carlsbad myself, for a job like this I would go back to my office and figure out a price and then double check my figures for a accurate estimate. It took this guy less than 5 minutes to create a proposal of around 10,700 dollars for every thing.

Well I was thinking to myself, the job should be around 7,000 dollars but what do I know about construction. I informed him that I would think about it and that I was going to meet with a couple of other contractors that day. He ask me who the other contractors were. I proceeded to tell him that I probably shouldn't tell him who they were. Well your not going to believe this. He put on his physic hat and told me who was coming over. The only thing he didn't know was what time they where coming over.

Oh I forgot to mention before he left he told me he would knock ten percent off the job if I signed the contract right now. I pretended like I was excited just to see his reaction. He looked at me like he had won the gold metal in sales. I told him thanks but I bet your new offer with the ten percent discount will be good for the next few day. Right I asked. He wasn't looking that excited any more as he replied with a Yes it will be good for a while. I thanked him and he went on his way.

My 10:00 never showed but his secretary gave me the old, " He had to go do a emergency job and could he reschedule tomorrow at the same time. I said that would be fine. As a contractor myself I have always put the work I had to do first and foremost.

About 12:30 I get a call from my next heating and air conditioning contractor. He is running late but will be there at 1:30. I appreciate the call and I will see you then. The only problem now is that I have another contractor coming at 2:30. That give the next contractor less than one hour before the next guy shows up. I never liked going over to someone's house and running into another remodeling contractor.

The next contractor was very informative and knew his stuff. I listened and learned. He told me he was going to have to go back to his office and would have a price back in the mourning. Great I told him as I hurried him out the door.

The last contractor of the day shows up and wants to know whose been over to the house, was it these guys or those guys. I told him I wasn't going to tell him who was over. Now this guy was a salesman. He did a little more probing before he let me in on the fact that his company doesn't do complete home installations. He made up some story that his company only replaces the forced air units. I could tell he didn't want to do the job once he found out I knew what I was talking about. So I said my good byes to Mr. Salesman.

The bad part about him was latter on that week his company sent us some mailers. The kind that doesn't have your name on it and everyone in the neighborhood get's one. I couldn't believe my eyes when I started to read this letter. It said we would be glad to give you an estimate on all your heating and air conditioning needs or services. " We Do Complete Installs". I told my wife we could have used this a few weeks ago. Then I recognized the name of the company and now knew that the salesman had lied to me for sure.

That night I started to think about what was going on here it seemed like I was being set up. Everyone knew what was going on but me. It seemed clear to me that these people knew each other.

Well as time went on we ended up hiring the first guy that came over. He seemed to have the best product at the most reasonable price. His company also did a great job. Keep one thing in mind here out of five contractors that I gave the opportunity to bid the job. Only three showed up and from them I only got two bids. Why didn't I get more bids? Quite frankly I was to busy working at the time and of course the other two guys were always going to show up and that kind of strung me along. My mistake.

Here's the kicker to all of this. Service Magic calls me up one day to tell me they would like to start sending me construction leads as a General Contractor.

I listened to what they had to say and was almost ready to sign up with them again. That's right, I was signed up with them when they first started until they changed the rules on me. The salesman that originally contacted me said if I paid them the 100 dollar sign up fee they would let me pick what jobs I wanted to do. That lasted about 5 months before I noticed that they were not sending me siding referrals to pick from. I called them up only to talk to someone who didn't understand the State Of California Contractors Licensing Board.

Well I wasn't about to reinvent the wheel. I simply told them that I should a least get my money back, right. They said they would look into it further as I never heard from them again about my 100 dollars. Well things have changed at Service Magic since I was with them when they started.
As a home owner you don't think you are paying Service Magic because all you do is fill out a simple form giving some information about yourself.

I found out that Service Magic sent all four of these contractors my original information. Each contractor then had to pay 55 dollars each to Service Magic for a total of 220 dollars. All I have to say is how are they getting away with charging this much money for sending a out a simple referral to these contractors.

The contractor unfortunately passes this expense on to his customers. You as the home owners end up paying these fees as a cost of doing business with them. Some contractors think this is a great way of doing business but you might think differently in the future if you start paying over 100 dollars for a simple construction referral.

His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.

Visit us now for Home Improvement Tips

Another Crappy Rule In The Bible

How Do We Interpret Things?

With lot of things or events happening around us on a daily basis, we start believing that events control our lives and our environment has shaped who we are today. Right? No. . . wrong! It is not the events that shape up our lives, but our beliefs as to what those events mean to us. Take for example, two children born of the same father. where father is an alcoholic, drug addict, bitter and cruel who killed a liquor store cashier. One of his son turned out exactly like him. Where as his brother has a totally different story. . . a man raising three kids, happily married, working as a general manager for a blue chip company, finds work both challenging and rewarding. How these two people turned out to be totally different from each other, in spite of having grown up in the same environment?

When both were asked privately about this. . . they had the same answer. . . "What else could I have become with a father like that?"

Similarly, two women turning 70, each take a different meaning from the same event. One knows. . . that her life is coming to end. To her living seven decades means that her body must be breaking down and she did better be ready to exit from this game of life. The other woman decides that what a person is capable of doing at any age depends upon their beliefs and she sets a higher standard for herself. She decides that mountain climbing might be a good sport to begin at the age of 70!For the next 25 years, she devotes herself to this new adventure thus scaling some of the highest peaks of the world. Thus in her nineties, Hulda Crooks became the oldest woman to ascend Mount Fuji.

What I am trying to make a point here is. . . it is never the environment, it is never the events of our lives, but the meaning we derive from these events. . . how we interpret them, that shapes who we are today and who we will become tomorrow. So start giving the right meaning to the events of your life and make them memorable ones!

Get all motivational tips at Deepak.M's Self Development Zone Get all articles related to self improvement or self development at Self Development Zone.

Repairing a Leaking Toilet

Let me explain how a toilet works. First when you go to flush the toilet a little arm pulls a rubber flapper up and lets the water drain into the toilet bowl. The water draining into the toilet bowl forces the old water out along with the number two or number one waste and extremities.

If the toilet sounds like it is running there is a good chance that the seal between the rubber flapper and the plastic rain at the bottom of the toilet is broken somehow. The sound you are hearing is water running around this ring and in to the toilet bowl.

This leak is actually causing no damage to the toilet itself but is wasting water. Hence the water bill will be a little higher if you don't fix the leaking toilet. The best way to find out if this is actually your problem is to take the toilet tank lid off. Then stick your hand down into the toilet bowl and press gently on the rubber flap.

If the water stops leaking or starts running faster this is your problem. Turn the water off to the toilet. There will be a shut off valve on the wall under your toilet bowl in the bathroom. After you turn the water off removed the plastic flap and examine it.

You will be looking for a warped toilet flap or of some sort or grooves on the flapper itself. Take the toilet flapper down to your local home improvement store and buy a new one. Go home and replace the new toilet flapper and this should solve 90% of your leaking toilet problems.

There is one more thing it could be. With the toilet tank lid off, check to see if water is overflowing into the little round plastic pipe. This plastic pipe should have a small hose running from the float valve assembly into it.

If the water is over flowing from the toilet tank into this little plastic pipe you will need to adjust the float.

First thing you will need to do is while the toilet is running lift up on the float lever arm. If the water stops you can simply bend the metal arm of the float lever. The purpose of bending the arm will force the float deeper into the water there for stopping the water from rising over the small tube in the center of your toilet.

There are few parts to a toilet and most parts can be purchased at your local hardware or home improvement centers. Toilet repairs like this can be made simple and the parts used to replace are inexpensive.

Happy Toilet Repairing.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more House Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on building and remodeling your homes and Some Great Plumbing Ideas

Was Jesus A Good Example

Saturday, August 29, 2009

What Are Business Ethics

Business ethics are a matter of much debate. Every MBA entrant is taught the meaning of them, and yet many will never follow these guidelines in their real life careers. It has become a vast and complex field, and is the subject of much research. Business ethics encompass a large and significant portion of what it takes to do business today. Under the umbrella of business ethics comes:

The social responsibility that a business is supposed to have towards the community in general, particularly the one in which it operates or has any interests. An example of this would be the Exxon Mobil oil spill. It is the responsibility of a business to protect the interests of the people, animals and environment where it uses resources. Due to improper handling of the issue, it became a public relations nightmare for the company. Exxon has now been ordered to clean up the area which it should have taken care not to damage in the first place. Indifference to business ethics in this case, caused a negative public image for the company and a huge lawsuit.

Issues regarding a companys responsibility towards its shareholders. This is a heavily regulated area but one that requires a lot of government intervention due to certain unethical practices adopted by many companies in the past. The concept of increasing shareholder value is part of the fundamental principles of a company and if business ethics are not brought into play here, the business can collapse due to the pressure exerted by shareholders.

Inter-company dealings and negotiations. Often rivalries in business can turn ugly due to the amount of money and ego riding on them. Hostile takeovers and business espionage are some of the examples of unethical behavior within the business world. If discovered, these deeds can be punishable by law or simply public opinion. To allow for fair play and keeping the best interests of the consumers in mind, the government regulates a great deal of what goes on in company dealings. Microsoft has been the target of much abuse and outrage due to its allegedly monopolistic techniques of doing business. While this has not sunk the IT giant, many say that it may have long term repercussions. The government has also stepped in to make sure that other businesses and consumers are not harmed.

Stakeholder protection. Every business has stakeholders other than its owners the employees, the stockholders and the general public. The business has to ensure that the rights and interests of all of these groups are adequately protected in the course of its operations. The recent outcry about the harassment and bad working conditions of employees in Wal-Mart led to the generation of a lot of negative press about the outsized department store. This gives the competition the lead and rivals take the opportunity to get ahead while the company is busy trying to do some damage control.

Fundamental business practices of a company. Underhanded dealings, the use of substandard products, spreading misinformation about the product, hiring illegal workers at lower than minimum wage, etc. prove that a business is run in an unethical way and that it is not a high quality work place or service provider. For instance, cigarette companies that spent most of the seventies telling people that it was not unhealthy to smoke, though they knew this to be untrue. In a recent judgment, one such company was forced to pay out $28 billion.

William King is the director of Wholesale UK Dropshipping & Wholesalers Trade Suppliers, Wholesale Dropshipping & Dropshippers Directory, Wholesalers Products & Dropshipping Supplies Directory, and UK Wholesalers & Wholesale Dropshippers. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements

Installing a 32 Inch Back Door

In some older houses you will find a 30 inch back door. Have you ever tried to move a refrigerator or some large furniture through a 30 inch door? Keep in mind most bedroom doors are 30 inches wide and are in 36 inch hallways. 30 inch doors and bedrooms make it tough to move some furniture in too.

Let's start with the price difference between a 30 inch door and a 32 inch door. The cost difference is usually going to be around $20. If you are building a hundred homes this could become quite an additional expense. So we can understand why the home builder installed a 30 inch door in the back of our home.

He got the extra money in his pocket, you got a headache.

Here's the big problem. If you ever want to install a larger door you will need to replace the structural door framing. Now this is where you could run into a little bit of an expense. Changing the framing for a wider door could become quite costly. It could actually cost over $1000 in some cases.

Now if the homebuilder would have originally installed a 32 inch door in your house it might have ran him as high as an additional $45. How can this be? I will give you the first clue. There is a good chance the homebuilder will not be moving into any of these houses. If for some strange instance he did move into the house, he would learn the same lesson whenever he needed to move a large item into the house.

I'm a contactor and learned this lesson in a long time ago.

If you are building a new home you might even want to consider installing a 36 inch back door. This door will give you plenty of room when it comes to moving large items in or out of your house. The cost difference between a 36 inch door and a 32 inch door is usually around $20 also.

When building a new home most people don't give very much thought about their interior or exterior doors. Here's a simple chart I made to help with some basic door decisions.

Bathroom Doors Should Be 28 Inches Wide Minimum.
Bedroom Doors Should Be 30 Inches Wide Minimum.
Front Doors Should Be At Least 36 Inches Wide
Back Doors and Garage Doors Should Be At Least 32 Inches Wide

If you are a professional football or basketball player don't use these numbers above.

If you have large sliding glass doors or French doors throughout your home and can use them to move large items into the house you can install whatever size doors you choose that are comfortable to walk through.

Give some thought when installing a new door on your next project and keep some of the above tips in mind..

If you are designing a home give some thought to the stairways and hallways in the home as well.

Visit us and get more information on building and remodeling your homes and Bay Window Ideas

Nothing Will Be Impossible

What Is Stress And What To Do About It

Stress is a fear that some resisted experience will happen unless you control something that is out of your control.

For example, you might be facing eviction unless you can pay your rent. And you don't have any certain way of making an income.

Or you might be in danger of experiencing the wrath of a person who explodes for no apparent reason.

Or you might fear condemnation and there seems to be nothing you can do about it.

The keys to unraveling this are one or more of

* Let go of the resistance. One way to do this is to feel the feeling associated with the resistance and then loving the feeling. You will be amazed at how effective this can be.

* Communicate with the people in the situation. Get yourself in a good mood before contacting the person / people. It might help to write out what you're going to say. There is no need to try to memorize this. The idea is to clarify your thinking. Then you can discuss the situation in a friendly manner. You might find that the person is helpful and comes up with solutions for you.

* Learn more about the area, e.g., get more training in the subject area so you can get more control.

* Pray. This isn't presenting a wish list to God. You can simply ask for God's help.

* Turn everything over to God. Be willing to accept whatever God sends your way.

* Put the situation in a different context. You might consider the situation to be a thrilling challenge.

* See what you can learn from the situation. Then move forward with your new knowledge.

If you keep doing one of more of the above on a regular basis, you'll expand the quality of your life. Why not give it a try?

Jim Kitzmiller is the author of Rocket Fuel for the Soul -- Blissercise Self-Help Manual. The book's bliss exercises (blissercises) surpass usual positive thinking approaches by bypassing the logical mind. The blissercises cover 46 different areas of life.

Jim leads self-help workshops and does spiritual coaching.

What Does a GFI Do? - Electrical Problems

In your bathroom you should have a GFI electrical outlet. Most new homes or newly remodeled homes require you to have GFI electrical outlets in the kitchen. Most older kitchens do not have GFI electrical outlets. GFI stands for ground fault circuit interrupter.

Why not call it a GFCI instead of a GFI electrical outlet? Well it is called a GFCI in some instances. GFI is short and is the most common name used by most electricians and builders for this type of outlet.

GFI 's come in 15 amp and 20 amperage outlets. GFI outlets must be wired properly. Make sure you're using the proper wire size when hooking up the GFI outlet.

How do I know which size wire to use? This all depends on how far away you are running it from the electrical panel. There are charts you can use to figure this out. If you are not running the electrical wire more than 80 feet from the electrical panel you can use 12 gauge electrical wires for a 20 amp GFI. This is a general rule of thumb for most electrical house wiring.

If you're going to be using a 15 amp GFI and you are going to be less than 80 feet away from the electrical panel you can use 14 gauge electrical wires. Again this is just a general rule of thumb for most electrical house wiring.

A GFI is a light duty electrical plug used in bathrooms, kitchens and the exterior of your house. The sole purpose of the GFI is to shut the breaker off faster if there is any moisture or light load problems.

Let's say for instance you have your hair dryer plugged into the GFI outlet. The hair dryer somehow falls into the sink while it is on or plugged in. The GFI outlet will instantly shut off because of the sensitivity of the breaker inside of the plug it self.

The GFI plug has a test button and a reset button on it. If you are continually resetting the GFI you will wear it out eventually. I have had GFI plugs after resetting the button about 10 times break and no longer able to use them.

The GFI electrical plug is a great idea and if you don't have them in your bathroom or outside of your home it would be a great idea to have an electrician install them for you.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more Home Building Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

San Diego Termite Damage

Nothing Will Be Impossible

The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle

Jim Rohn has been writing and speaking on success for over 40 years. He has been called America's Foremost Business Philosopher. He does not disappoint in his little book, The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle.

For those familiar with Rohn's work the themes and stories in this book will be mostly familiar. Even if you have heard Rohn speak you will benefit from reading this book.

Rohn approaches success through five factors, or pieces of the puzzle. They are Philosophy, Attitude, Activity, Results and Lifestyle.

Jim Rohn's chapter on Philosophy can be summed up in his quote: To have more we must first become more". He teaches that we make our own future. Like many other authors of note he stresses taking responsibility for our lives. He teaches that to have more we must be more. He reminds us to work on ourselves first and foremost to make ourselves more valuable in the market place and to achieve more. He then takes the reader down a road teaching how you can and should improve yourself so you can be more.

In his chapter on Attitude he stresses the importance of our attitude in all things. He teaches the value of being present, of learning from the past, and of applying those lessons to the future. He teaches how to plan for the future building on the lessons learned in Philosophy.

In Activity he tells us that no matter how well we plan and how clever we are if we do not act on our plans no progress can occur. All achievement is the product of our action. He stresses the need for sound planning and discipline.

In Results he discusses the measurement of what we do to learn how to improve on our results. He then discusses the importance of expanding our capacity and improving our results.

In Lifestyle Rohn points out that you do not need to be rich or powerful to enjoy life and live with a touch of class. He gives good examples of this and how to enjoy life without the need for conspicuous consumption.

In his conclusion Rohn discusses the importance of a sense of urgency in what we do. Our time is limited and our opportunities are numbered. He stresses that we must exploit that time and opportunity for once it passes it is lost. He also compares the level of success of those who have a sense of urgency with those who do not.

In these 121 short pages Jim Rohn teaches many of the most important principles of success and achievement. This little book is worth its weight in gold.

1991 Jim Rohn
Dickinson Press Inc.
Southlake, Texas

Daniel R. Murphy -- helping people build wealth through self education and development. For more Free Special Reports and other information leading to personal success and financial independence visit http://www.books2wealth.com.

Check out what we have to offer. Sign up for the free ezine, Creating True Wealth, bringing you book reviews and helpful articles twice per month to help you build wealth, manager your time and achieve success. You will secure your future through your continued education and self improvement.

When We Choose Misery Over Happiness

I am not one to feel sorry for most people. They seem to have a unique ability to cause themselves the most damage during certain parts of their lives. I have met some pretty self destructive people in my life. Being raised by a mother that lived in misery and love.

My mother had a difficult childhood. It seemed as if every corner she turned there was a obstacle either right in front of here or waiting just around the corner. Her father died when she was 12 year old. He was a farm laborer and didn't make much money. In other words they were poor...... She got sent to live with a few foster families and according to her she was molested by one of the fathers she lived with.

Soon her older sister invited her to live with her. My aunt was married to the owner of a pottery business and had 2 children about 10 years younger than my mother. My aunt soon realized she had a live in baby sitter that allowed her to stay out drinking most of the day.

My Uncle was what you would call a drunk back then, now we call these people alcoholics. Well any way I think you are starting to get a picture of my mothers life up to this point. It is probably safe to assume that this isn't the ideal life for a young woman.

The next event to happen in my moms life was for my uncle to fall in the shower one night after tying one on that night. He died soon after but my aunt seemed to make a another good choice and ended up marring the owner of the bar that they spent most of their time in.
The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Allan K. Chalmers

By this time my mom was in High School and met my future father. It wasn't exactly a marriage made in heaven. My dad was always an easy going man. He seemed to let most stuff go in one ear and out the other.

As you guessed it they had a few children. Nice one Dad and Mom. According to the books I have read on Angelic beings. People that believe in the after life and angels. They tell me I had a choice and was able to choose my parents....... What was I thinking...... I should have choose someone with some money and a couple of parents that were deeply in love .

How did I end up here in this situation.

I ended up loving my parents like most of us. They seemed to be doing the best that they could possibly do raising me, my bother and my sister. My mom and dad ended up getting a divorce and I went to live with my father.

My Father is remarried to a wonderful woman that seems to bring him a lot of happiness.
I haven't seen my mother for a while now. She lives with a life of excuses and misery. Her childhood was not the greatest but that doesn't give her the right to bring misery into other peoples lives. She has made a conscious choice to live what seems to be a painful life. Maybe her choices in life have made me choose happiness over misery.

I have always wondered what it is that motivates someone to live a life of true unhappiness when it takes the same amount of energy to live a life of joy. Life is meant to be full of joy and happiness so start today by making the right choices to live a fulfilling life of happiness.

If you are reading this and can't make up your mind what kind of life you truly want to live visit me at http://live.spiritualideas.com/ . Change your thinking and change your life.

Greg Vanden Berge will help you create a new approach to life and discover talents you never knew you had. We can help you get the most out of yourself all the time. Start developing your innate strengths and abilities to start enriching your life TODAY !

Wrong With Bible Verse

Living Life Fully - Self Help Tips

I was in deep thought recently, and for some reason time was on my mind. I though, "Wow, time does seem to go by pretty fast!" I can recall back to my middle school years when I, for whatever reason, could not wait to become a "Grown Up."

Mainly for the purpose of doing things that I couldn't do at the time due to age restrictions. Things like hanging out with my friends pass when the street lights came on, and working to be able to purchase what I wanted when I wanted it. Now that I am grown, I often take time to reflect on my younger years and how SIMPLE life was. It seems as though worries were very minimal at the time.

I can remember how so many of my peers held BIG dreams and goals for their future. There were countless doctors, actors and actresses, attorneys, inventors and so on. Not only did we envision ourselves achieving these goals, we also had everyone telling us that we can be whatever it is that we want to be. This gave us that level of belief and certainty. Then, as years progress and our minds develop, something begins to put limits on our minds. Next, the thoughts that invade our brains are thoughts of discouragement. We begin to lose the belief that we can be whatever we want to be. To add insult to injury, we also no longer hear those words from others encouraging us to reach our dreams. We are now taught to live a mediocre life and be like everyone else. Life is too short!

We need to breathe life back into our dreams once again. Take those dreams and make them our goals. When you actually take and put it on paper, now you have a physical form of your dreams to look at. The next thing you want to do is to formulate a plan that will help you reach these goals. Please don't let time pass you by without you at least seriously trying to pursue your dream lifestyle. The opportunities are in abundance for everyone to use and to take advantage of. Don't give in to a life of mediocrity.

There are two types of people in this world. Those who watch others dreams come true, and those who make their dreams come true. Which type of person are you?

http://www.jay-livesuccess.blogspot.com

Putting God on Trial

I was listening to something interesting the other day when someone mentioned putting God on trial for some of the atrocities in the world. If God is the creator of the universe and all that is, or all that ever will be, how can we put him on trial, he's our creator. We can't put our spiritual master on trial can we, he'll just escape anyway if we convict him, won't he. He's got to be smart enough to break out a prison.

As a child I often thought about God and why he would allow such suffering throughout the world. It never made sense to me when I was child and it still doesn't make sense to me today. Why would the creator, want us to suffer, with even the littlest of problems. Other religions have explained it as if God was teaching us a lesson and that's why we have hardships in our lives.

Do you think God ever went through these hardships? Did God have problems finding a job or gathering some food? Does God even eat? Okay now I'm getting off the topic here,(I wonder what God does eat)... if children do something wrong, most of the time their parents will discipline or correct them. If adults to things wrong, the government will discipline and reprimand them. Sometimes these punishments can be severe. It depends on the crimes committed.

If man has to be put on trial for committing crimes like murder, genocide, and general atrocities towards mankind, should God also be put on trial or is he above man because he's God. I can't imagine the creator of the universe ever being put on trial for man's crimes against humanity or other men, but it seems like someone who is all powerful and all knowing could help his children out of this little mess that we're in today.

Couldn't God help us like we help our children. We as parents might not have all the answers, but we do not claim to have them. We are not all powerful and all knowing, like we would assume God to be. When is God going to help us solve some of our major world problems, like genocide and starvation.

Putting God on trial might not solve all of our problems today but it would be nice to have some help with our problems. If he created us to please him, do we have to go on trial one day, for all the things we did or ignored while we were alive. Something to think about isn't it.

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing and personal development. Check This Out What Happened to the Wise Men's Gifts

Greg is currently working on a video library filled with great movies on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world.

Are Christians Really Interested

Friday, August 28, 2009

Daily Discipline - Self Help Tips

The best part of Super Bowl Sunday has nothing to do with football. The dozens of incredible stories of overcoming every obstacle to reach the top are the most exciting part of the day. No matter if you are a football fan or not it is a real lesson.

Kurt Warner was bagging groceries when he got a call back to the NFL. Everyone thought his career was over. Not only did he take his team all the way to the Super Bowl, 10 years later he is still playing at the top of his game. He is not the biggest, fastest or even strongest quarterback in the league. His greatness comes from the intangible qualities he brings to the game; indomitable will, competitive spirit, drive, dedication, and excellence just to name a few.

You have the chance to write your own story of overcoming all odds. Just about anything you want to accomplish in your life is possible with the right mind set, and dedication. If someone else has done a thing, why not you?

The larger the goal you want to accomplish the more important your daily discipline. Ask yourself, what did you do today to advance your #1 goal? How about yesterday and the day before?

What are you going to do tomorrow? Have you already planned what you will do? If not take a few minutes tonight before you go to bed and plan it out. Visualize what you need to do to move yourself forward to the next step. Don't wait another minute. Take action now.

The number one excuse I hear from people for why they didn't take an action toward accomplishing a goal today is that they didn't have time. If you don't have time to work on what you claim is your most important goal then one of two things are at work; either it is not your real number one goal and therefore a priority or you need to rethink your schedule and task orientation.

How many times do you think Michael Phelps missed swim practice in the 3 years before winning 8 gold medals at the Olympics last year? None.

The daily grind of just getting through the day can easily stretch through the entire day. You can spend hours staying busy answering emails, fiddling with your PDA, checking updates to Facebook, etc. 10 minutes an hour at the coffee machine can eat up 80 minutes a day. If you can find just an hour a day to dedicate toward an important goal and you can repeat that hour every single day for a year, that is 365 hours. If you wrote just 500 words a day during your hour you could write 182,500 words, the equivalent of two full length epic novels or three medium sized books.

Don't wait and get started NOW!

And as always, I am here to help you release your Inner Genius.

http://www.anthonylbutler.com/inner_genius.html

http://www.anthonylbutler.com

Need Help Remodeling In Carlsbad

That night I started to think about what was going on here it seemed like I was being set up. Everyone knew what was going on but me. It seemed clear to me that these people knew each other.

Here's the kicker to all of this. Service Magic calls me up one day to tell me they would like to start sending me construction leads as a General Contractor.

His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.

Visit us now for Home Improvement Tips

Spiritual Dictionary

Questioning Your Religion - Movie Video

Are you one of those who believed in your religion wholeheartedly and never has doubted it. Watch this video to gather some more information about questioning your religion.

Start Living Your Dreams Today and Create a Wonderful Life For Yourself And Your Family. Greg Vanden Berge is one of the best inspirations on the planet. You will be hearing a lot about this guy in the future. You can count on it.

Inerrancy of the Bible - Are There Mistakes in the Bible

What does the word inerrancy main? Inerrancy would refer to text that is accurate and totally free of any errors or without any mistakes. Does this sound like any book that you have ever read or have knowledge of. Maybe there is a one sentence book that could fall into this category.

Most books however and even this article has mistakes. If I made a decision to base my life, my entire life and that of my children and grandchildren, I would want to make sure that it was accurate as possible.

Is the Bible, 100%, 90%, or even 50% accurate. Are these stories that were written by people many years ago and the lessons have been helpful but now need to be rewritten.

Does the Bible actually contain the will of God? Some scholars believe that certain sections of the Bible meet this criteria while others do not. How can these people judge if they are not God and how can we believe in this stuff is not true.

If the Bible was inspired by God but written by men, this could actually mean that God had complete control over writing the Bible or does this mean that the man wrote the Bible with gods inspiration. I'm inspired by God daily and often write about it, but don't seem to have enough followers to make it into the biblical Hall of Fame. I'm writing with inspired beliefs right now.

If there are errors in the Bible, how extensive or how many errors are there actually. There are actual stories that can be documented as historical facts. This doesn't mean the rest of the Bible is factual, nor does it mean it is historically inaccurate.

The Bible has some errors in it and some facts that we can prove but leaves us with the question, is this a book from the Creator of the universe or a book written by men, to make us believe, it was written by God and if so why are we still believe being in it. Why do some people read this book and other religious text daily? What motivates them to read holy Scripture regularly but doesn't seem to allow them enough time to find out if they are reading accurate information.

The biggest problem I have with the inerrancy of the Bible is the fact that most people tend to ignore certain truths and cling to their childhood beliefs about religion. If this is not the way or the truth, I would want to start looking for it, instead of following someone else's dreams or religious doctrine.

Greg is currently working on a video library filled with great movies on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion. Religious Education And Fear

Nothing Will Be Impossible

Change, Happiness, Success And Our Core Values

The saying that "change is the only constant thing in this world" holds profound meaning in every sense of the word. Backed by this universal truth is also the dictum that there is no such thing as 'forever'. However, amidst all these acclaimed universal truths, there are things in this world that stay eternal: One of them our set of core values the fundamentals that enable us to find happiness and success in our lives.

In his # 1 National Bestseller book that sold over 10 million copies, author Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1990 ed.) illustrates his own personal experience on change. As a parent, he claims that to change a situation, we first have to change ourselves, and to change ourselves effectively, we first have to change our perceptions. However, Dr. Phil argues that it's more complicated than that. Illustrated in his book Life Strategies - Stop Making Excuses! Do What Works, Do What Matters (1999 ed.), he firmly wants to instill in our minds the glaring truth about change that we can not change what we do not acknowledge. In similar fashion, I totally agree on his argument. It's like saying that the hardest thing to open in this world is a closed mind - therefore making change difficult to occur.

There are some people who have a mindset to make some changes in their lives and choose to be happy. Even the great Chinese philosopher Confucius would agree in his belief that "man must be wise and unafraid to live a happy life" - a philosophy similarly shared by his contemporary, Mencius where he enumerates three mature virtues of his 'great man' as wisdom, compassion and courage deliberated in Lin Yutang's book, The Importance of Living (1962 ed.) a must-to-read book for daily living.

Likewise, Stephen R. Covey focuses the "Character Ethic" as the foundation of success things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty and the Golden Rule.

In his book, he presented Benjamin Franklin's autobiography as the epitome of these values "a man's effort to integrate certain principles and habits deep within his nature", he explained. The Character Ethic, according to Covey teaches us that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.

In addition, Anthony Scire's dynamic and contemporary book The Power of 2 (2003 ed.) promotes building solid relationships over the long term and encouraging us to be "nice, kind and good" to everyone we know and meet. This highlights Henry James's core value of kindness:"Three things in human life are important", he said. "The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind." In the same book, then eminent Bishop Fulton J. Sheen admonished us to also take control of our emotions so that we may live a successful and happy life. He said: "Each of us makes his own weather determines the color of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits."

Change therefore is inevitable in our lives. If - and when it comes, our core values should help us adapt to the consequences of change. Hence, as exemplified by great and wise men of past and present generations, our happiness and success depend upon our core values and attitudes.

Letty R. Vendramini
http://www.7PowerWords.com/

Your Voyage To Happiness Begins Here. Learn how you can find real happiness in your life and how to live it to the full. Abandon unhappiness and achieve true lasting happiness. Discover the "real you" and unleash the joy within.

Visit http://www.BestSecretsToHappiness.com/ and receive Your FREE Happiness Report Worth $47 On How You Can Find True Lasting Happiness In Your Life. Click now to download. Alternatively Letty regularly writes articles on How To Sustain True, Lasting Happiness available to view at http://www.BestSecretsToHappiness.com/blog/

Letty R. Stevens Vendramini acquired two degrees in Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B) Minor in English and Bachelor of Social Work (BSocWk). Letty teaches subjects in Philosophy, Psychology, Public Speaking, Argumentation and Debate, English Grammar and Composition, Research and Thesis Writing and Business Ethics. Letty is a part-time Private Practitioner in Social Work-Counseling. She is also a writer, a newspaper columnist/correspondent and an editor.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Checking the Building For Square

The most important thing when building a home is the ability to keep everything as square, plumb and level as possible. Starting with the foundation, if the foundation is not square or level, the rest of the house is going to be out of alignment.

You've probably heard the saying, start with a good foundation. This applies to the building industry as well. There are quite a few ways to build a square foundation, it all depends on what kind of tools you have, to build it with.

Some of these tools can be quite expensive but it used every day can save you a lot of time and of course time is money.

You don't need expensive tools to build a square foundation. You could actually build a square foundation with less than $100 worth of tools. It might take you a little longer but could be done.

Let's start with the 3 - 4 - 5 rule.

Okay lets see if I can explain this in layman's terms. If no West side of the foundation is 3 foot and the north side of the foundation is for foot, then the diagonal measurement from the southwest corner to the northeast corner would be 5 foot. Out of square building can create foundation problems

This can also be done using 30' x 40' should equal 50 foot. You can use this if the building is large and you need to check it for square.

By measuring the foundation diagonally from each corner, the measurement should be exactly the same. If it isn't, the building is out of square and should be adjusted before the concrete is poured. This measurement should always be checked before you get too far along in the form building process.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If your having problems in your attic, find out more at concrete contractor basics and home building ideas.

Water Damage Mold

Monday, August 17, 2009

Thinking on Prosperity and Abundance - Self-Help Lesson - Learn From the Dubai Dilemma

There has probably not been a bigger symbol or abundance and prosperity as Dubai since Roman times. Dubai has become a playground for the World's Super Rich. It's like the equivalent of Disney Land. Where did all that abundance and prosperity come from? Well, fortunately a lot of the World Wealth has come from free-enterprise and those who've built businesses that provide to the world.

In Dubai's case much of the money came from oil profits and loans based on those future profits. Right now oil prices are down and will not go back up for a while, worse banks have stopped lending, construction has stopped, housing is crashing, and it's all falling apart. This should be a lesson to individuals to not borrow more than they know they can pay back in the future.

True prosperity and abundance is not borrowed, it is solid, and its foundation is without question. This is not the case in Dubai and it is a lesson you must learn and learn to live by. Earned abundance, wealth, and prosperity is a sign of strength. Unfortunately, a lot of wealth attained has not come from performance, entrepreneurs, or their superstar heritage; but rather from luck, manipulation, and theft without ever having been earned. This is a problem.

Build abundance in your life; build it on a foundation of integrity, strength of character, and not on borrowed time or future trappings. When you borrow money to buy the illusion of prosperity and abundance you do a disservice to yourself, your family, and you'll never respect those things you have. Don't do it like Dubai, don't pretend and live a lie. Think on this.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow's Bio. More on Lance Winslow; http://concretewashguys.com/wacotexas.shtml

William Walker Atkinson

Positive Living Help

Monday, August 31, 2009

Power To Change

Surviving As A Contractor In California

The Power of Subliminal Suggestion

Home Improvement Tip - Fixing a Squeaky Floor

Non Physical Conscious Awareness

Home Improvement Tip - Fixing a Squeaky Floor

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Satan's Little Kingdom

Removing Interior Walls

Are You a Spiritually Balanced Person?

Need Help Remodeling In Carlsbad

How Do We Interpret Things?

Repairing a Leaking Toilet

Saturday, August 29, 2009

What Are Business Ethics

Installing a 32 Inch Back Door

What Is Stress And What To Do About It

What Does a GFI Do? - Electrical Problems

The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle

When We Choose Misery Over Happiness

Living Life Fully - Self Help Tips

Putting God on Trial

Friday, August 28, 2009

Daily Discipline - Self Help Tips

Need Help Remodeling In Carlsbad

Questioning Your Religion - Movie Video

Inerrancy of the Bible - Are There Mistakes in the Bible

Change, Happiness, Success And Our Core Values

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Checking the Building For Square

Monday, August 17, 2009

Thinking on Prosperity and Abundance - Self-Help Lesson - Learn From the Dubai Dilemma

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