Blazing Minds » General

The New Year’s Resolutions You Should Have Made (But still Can)

Danielle — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:04:52 +0000

img source: http://www.lorinbellerblake.com

People around the world make New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, because February is here, it means many of those resolutions are probably kaput. The feeling of a New Year can inspire ambition—which is fantastic. But if the luster of a blank calendar is the only thing making someone proactive, then her/his resolutions will go flat faster than the champagne. One doesn’t need to make big gestures to improve. Follow these suggestions for the New Year’s resolutions that get over looked, but need to be made for the sake of humanity or, ya know, just so we don’t turn into jerks.

Phone Etiquette

Text messaging has completely revolutionized they way we communicate. It’s a wonderful way to send information without interrupting someone or ask a question that isn’t pressing. Texting is perfect for exchanges like “I got home safe,” “I’ll be there around six,” or “What’s the name of that magazine?” The point is that it doesn’t interrupt people’s day. Unfortunately, texting has done the opposite. When you are eating lunch with someone, do not text. When you are at a party, if you need to text, go into a different room. When you reach for your phone, you trigger other people’s desire for texting as well, so now you’ve got a party full of texters. And when you text repeatedly you are telling those around you that you’d rather be somewhere else. If you want to have a conversation with someone call them or better yet, send them a text … and meet in person.

Try Something New

Times are changing and they always will be. Becoming a lifetime learner will strengthen your adaptation muscles. Start trying new things for leisure and the next time someone hands you a brand new gadget or computer program, adjusting will be no sweat. You’ll be able to surf the new wave as opposed to drowning beneath it. Try something new—the farther out of your comfort zone the better. Go to a hot yoga class, explore a new language, learn to make sushi at home, pick-up some woodworking tools and build something. Learning something new can be daunting, but it’s always rewarding.

Eat Breakfast

This is another thing, like hand written letters or direct eye contact, which is sadly slipping from our daily lives. Many people’s eating has shifted into a two-meal-a-day routine. In my opinion, this is also one of the larger proponents of weight gain. When you don’t eat breakfast, you get hungry. When you are actually hungry, you’ll gorge on whatever junk is around you—much less healthy than eating small portions throughout the day. Add some time into your morning and eat breakfast at home. Additionally, eating at home is cheaper than grabbing something out. Picking up your morning meal on the move is costing you big bucks. Eat at home for one week and see if the savings are worth it; they will shock you.

Our society, and your life, can be positively affected by the small decisions. Changing a few simple things as you move through your year could create noticeable improvement. At the very least—it’s certainly worth the risk.

Danielle has been setting and achieving New Year’s resolutions for 17 years. She’s been blogging on behalf of Sears and other trusted brands since the success of her DIY resolution in 2007. Read her work at eatbreatheblog.com

The New Year’s Resolutions You Should Have Made (But still Can) is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Top 10 Christmas Vacations

John — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:00:02 +0000

Christmas is a great time of year, and one that most people really love. It’s a time of festivity, merryment, present giving, seeing the family and generally giving thanks for everything you have. But whilst nearly everyone gathers at a relatives’ house too see the family, there is actually a huge market in Christmas holidays. It may seem like a slightly odd time of the year to take a holiday, but why stress about family issues, cooking etc. when you can have it all done for you? With the global age we live in today there is easy access to holidays all over the world, so it’s quite simple to move your Christmas to a different location, or even abroad!

With more and more people looking into international breaks, skiing holidays and other non-traditional Christmas breaks, where are the most popular places to go? This great infographic from HotelshopUK counts down the top 10 of this year, and there’s still time to go on one yourself! Christmas on Safari in Africa anyone?

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Is It Time To Start Christmas Shopping?

Top 10 Christmas Vacations is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

What Is White Glove Delivery? [INFOGRAPHIC]

John — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:17:56 +0000

If you’ve ever ordered a large new electronic item (or any particularly bulky item for that matter), you may well have been offered ‘white glove delivery’ or ‘2 man delivery‘ during checkout. For many of us, this term is a bit of a mystery, as we’re not entirely sure it refers to – what’s the difference between normal delivery and white glove delivery?

Well now you can avoid all the confusion with this handy infographic from the Panther Group (http://www.panthergroup.co.uk); What Is White Glove Delivery?

If you’d like to reuse this infographic on your own site, feel free just please link back to the Panther Group or Blazing Minds if you do.

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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What Is White Glove Delivery? [INFOGRAPHIC] is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

FourSquare – Love It or Hate It, It Can Save You Some Money!

Karen — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 08:37:33 +0000

FourSquare is one of those sites that people to love or hate and even though some may think it’s a complete waste of time, think again!

I first started using FourSquare when I saw some fellow friends on twitter mentioning where they were, so I stopped by, signed up and didn’t do much about it after that.

Some time later when I got my BlackBerry Curve I started delving in to FourSquare a bit more often and even though the Curve 8520 doesn’t have GPS, FourSquare still tries to find locations via cell towers.

Grabbing A Special Via FourSquare

One thing that I did start noticing after a while were there seemed to be a lot more “specials” appearing at some of the places that I was visiting, some for being the mayor and others for the amount of times you have visited.

As an example, our local cinema, @ApolloCinemas Rhyl, had a refurbish and they listed themselves on FourSquare and as it happened they also set up two specials for those that visit the cinema and “check in” with their mobile phone via an app.

The “Mayorship” gives you a BOGOF offer (Buy One Get One Free) so this has been great for me recently after becoming the Mayor, giving me the chance to get some reviews up here on Blazing Minds of some of the latest movies and saving me a bit of my hard-earned cash.

Another one of their specials is for every third check-in you get free popcorn and a drink, yet another saving for any movie goer

But Wait There’s More!

Another favourite place of mine is Wetherspoon and by becoming mayor of your local Wetherspoon you will get 20% off your meals (excluding drinks), so yet another saving

There are so many places springing up on FourSquare now that there are bound to be some specials near you in your town that you can take advantage of and in the ending saving you a little cash to spend on something else to pamper yourself with

Don’t Become A Nuisance With Your FourSquare Check-Ins!

This is one thing that I guarantee will lose you followers on Twitter when you are using FourSquare, don’t keep telling everyone where you are at every single shop or venue as this will really annoy those that are following you and some may even block you on Twitter.

The best thing to do, is if you are going to be checking in often is to do the following:

When you find the venue etc and click Check-In, un-tick the “Twitter” box or even the “Tell My Friends” box, this will mark you as “off the grid” but you will still be able to earn your mayorship’s etc without overly annoying your followers.

Also remember that it doesn’t matter how many time you check-in to one place in a day, it will not count towards your rewards, only one check-in to a place a day is counted.

Keeping Your Specials

It’s simple really if you visit somewhere often in the week, then check-in and with a little luck you can stay as the mayor, giving you the places special.

If you lose your mayorship to someone else it may take you around a week to get it back, but that’s all the fun of it really

So To Cap It All Off!

Don’t keep telling your followers where you are.

Only Check-in to the same place once a day, checking in several times in one day doesn’t help.

Have fun and don’t take it all too seriously

So there you go, as you can see there is a little more to FourSquare than you first may have thought

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FourSquare – Love It or Hate It, It Can Save You Some Money! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Don’t Hurry Marriage: Later Doesn’t Mean Lesser

Danielle — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:37:53 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

It is well known that some couples are choosing to delay marriage until they are well into their 30s. As society changes, so do its citizens and customs. Waiting to get married is not the worrisome act it was in the 1950s. Slowing down the journey to the altar can certainly offer advantages, such as having the time to focus on a career or being able to establish oneself financially. It is both possible and acceptable for a bevy of brides and grooms to slip on engagement rings after the age of 40. Here’s a look at some benefits of postponing the big day.

Older couples have a better chance at entering relationships and marriage with a level of self-awareness that younger marrieds might not yet possess. Knowing oneself better – needs, wants, goals – helps when it comes to looking at sharing one’s future with a partner. Taking the time to really know oneself will positively affect compatibility and likely lead to a happier union.

Many couples may choose to wait for marriage because they want to focus on furthering their education or cultivating a career. Delaying nuptials until a degree is in hand can give one or both spouses-to-be an even better chance at academic success, as well as removing any potential relationship strain that a busy course schedule or work commitments might cause. Focusing on one life goal at a time will allow for breathing room and afford the chance to give each pursuit the full attention it deserves.

Deferring a marriage ceremony is a good way to save money for an event that can easily get expensive. In a difficult economy, setting aside the necessary funds can be challenging. Putting wedding plans on the back burner temporarily will give couples a chance to build their wedding fund and ideally establish or build upon a nest egg. Riding away from the ceremony in a white stretch limousine, headed for an overseas honeymoon, is possible; it might just take a little extra time to make it possible. On one’s special day, who wouldn’t want to hold out for the best possible outcome?

As the adage goes, good things come to those who wait. There’s no sense in rushing into what can easily be a lifetime together if waiting a little while makes more sense. Finish that degree, earn that promotion, and let love blossom while waiting to say, “I do.”

Related articles

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Don’t Hurry Marriage: Later Doesn’t Mean Lesser is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

The Top 10 Most Watched Friends Episodes

Steve — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 09:50:04 +0000

Friends is the most popular long-running sitcom series the world has ever seen. The 6 friends were watched and loved from the minute they came onto our screen in September 1994, until the very last episode 10 years later. The ratings were consistent throughout all 10 series, but there were a number of episodes that stood out in terms of the viewership. Here are the top 10 most viewed episodes in history:

The One with Ross’s Wedding: 31.6M
This episode was filmed on location in London and had cameos from Richard Branson and Jennifer Saunders. Ross marries Emily after a short relationship and says the wrong name at the alter leading to a whole wave of problems for the newlyweds, and Rachel who is still in love with Ross.

The One with Ross’s New Girlfriend: 32.1M
This was the first episode in series 2 and featured Julie, who was Ross’s new girlfriend he met in China. The episode shows the mixed feelings Rachel has for Ross and introduces the 2nd series of the franchise in great style.

The One with Russ: 32.2M
Rachel leaves Ross and starts seeing a new boyfriend who is amazingly similar to Ross. She cannot see it, but they are very similar people and both of them even played by Schwimmer. She realises at the end and calls the relationship off. A clever episode featuring in season 2.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The One with the List: 32.9M
This episode leads to another break up of Ross and Rachel. Also featuring in season 2, this episode shows the boys using Chandler’s new laptop to put together a list of things he does and does not like about Rachel. This falls into her hands with disastrous consequences.

The One Where Ross and Rachel…You Know: 32.9M
This is the first proper time that Ross and Rachel get together and are a couple during the series and it’s a welcome watch for all the fans willing them to get together. It sees Ross taking Rachel to a planetarium and romancing her under the stars.

The One with the Prom Video: 33.6M
This episode is also in series 2 and shows the gang watching a video about a Prom they went to when at high school. It’s here when Rachel sees Ross and the love he had for her earlier in life and forgives him for the ‘list’ he made of her. A romantic episode of forgiveness.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The One Where No One Proposes: 34M
This was the first episode in season 9, after Rachel had her baby. There was confusion about who proposed to Rachel and who she said yes to, and then it turned out that no one had asked her to marry her. The episode leads to a temporary fall out between Ross and Joey.

The One Where Rachel Has a Baby: 34.9M
This episode features as the finale of season 8 and shows Rachel giving birth to Ross’s child in the hospital. The labour is intensive and long leading her to have a number of problems with Ross. Janice shows up in the hospital to give birth too, and Rachel mistakes Joey for proposing at the end of the episode.

The Last One: 52.5M
This was the last episode to have ever aired and got a huge audience, but surprisingly not the biggest. It was a sad farewell to the friends who move onto the next chapter in their lives. Ross and Rachel are together with a child, Chandler and Monica are married with 2 adopted twins, and Phoebe is married to Mike. Joey is set to leave New York to pursue his acting career.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The One After The Superbowl: 52.9M
This Superbowl episode clocks up the most views, likely because of its air time straight after the Superbowl, which is watched by millions in the USA. The episode follows Julia Roberts playign a character who went to school with Chandler before subsequently leading him on to get undressed in a restaurant.

Steve is a writer who loves Friends and American comedy. He owns hundreds of box-sets all paid for with his Vanquis Credit Cards.

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The Top 10 Most Watched Friends Episodes is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Adding Too Much Value To Your Property Could Leave It Unsaleable, No Matter What The Market

BigDaddyCash — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:07:16 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Home-owners have been constantly told that if they can’t afford to move then making improvements around the home, renovating the kitchen, redesigning the garden and knocking down the wall separating the lounge from the dining room, as examples, are the way to add value and make the home a better place to live in. But is that true?

Thanks to the static housing market then the truism that “if you can’t move, improve” seems to make perfect sense but rushing into home improvements could actually see you wasting your money, not only that, do a bad enough job and you could end up devaluing your property even more than if you had done nothing.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) took a poll of estate agents throughout the UK and found that about half felt that homeowners were considering remodelling rather than moving thanks to the sluggish housing market. Clearly the notion of remodelling rather than relocating was held most firmly in areas where the market was at its worst: 75% of agents in Northern Ireland and 71% of agents in the West Midlands reported that householders were staying put.

The disinclination of building societies and other mortgage lenders to provide means that people are unable to progress up the property ladder whether or not they need more space or to relocate should they need to if they’re lucky enough to land a new job in another area. That’s not to say that those in areas where the housing market is still relatively buoyant, such as London, are able to move whenever they like, you’ll still find that many people are remodelling kitchens and bathrooms rather than moving. The problem where the market is moving is that people lower down the property ladder are being priced out of the market so the go for improvements to add a little more value.

That’s fine in theory but in practice the realities are some-what different. RICS warn that home improvement can enrich your environment when done properly by professionals and would never recommend taking on structural work as a DIYer but it doesn’t always increase the probability of your property to sell. In most areas there is an average house and an average house price; if everyone else on your street has a property worth £250,000 and your home improvements mean that you’re bumping £500,000 you live in a lovely property but it’s not likely to sell in any market. Most areas have a price ceiling, go above it at your peril.

RICS professional groups director David Balby says: “Many properties provide some potential for expansion and improvement, but we would advise people to think about how much they are investing and their key motivator before undertaking major projects.”

RICS observe that the trend is currently to add a new bedroom to the property to increase its value, the addition of a new kitchen or bathroom coming next on the list of improvements that can add value to your home. However, if you’re going to go through the upheaval of getting the builders in it’s important to get the work done to the utmost quality, even then, other factors still affect saleability, things like location and proximity to roads and rail links still hold a great deal of sway.

@DanCash is a feature writer living in the south of England. Investing in new integrated washing machines or integrated fridge freezer might be a better investment for your home than building that extension after all.

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Adding Too Much Value To Your Property Could Leave It Unsaleable, No Matter What The Market is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Woot Woot! It’s Friday Already!

Karen — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:30:36 +0000

Hey there fellow bloggers and readers of Blazing Minds, can you believe that we have got to Friday so quickly, before we all know it it’ll be Friday again, I swear someone puts the clock in overdrive during the week Anyway enough of all this frivolousness banter, it’s Friday, so I’m using today for an excuse to shout out to those on Twitter that have been friendly to Blazing Minds over the last week.

Twitter FollowFriday – Are You Listed!

If you are on Twitter and following me @BlazingMinds you will have already seen my FollowFriday (FF) tweet, if you haven’t then here it is again

#ff @drrus @knitwitshair @commentluv @askkim @famousbloggers @numcrunchingmom @tlb1321 @gingermommy @ditesco @shairbearg (via @ffhelper)
June 17, 2011 3:50 pm via #FollowFriday Helper ReplyRetweetFavorite
@BlazingMinds
Karen

Are you in the FF this week, if you are then it shows that you have ReTweetd and Mentioned @BlazingMinds and the blog posts over the last 7 days, so cheers and the drinks are on me

What’s Been Happening on Blazing Minds

It’s been a great week here on the Blazing Minds, with some fantastic Guest Posts coming in and a mass of traffic coming in a certain subject, can you guess what it is yet? Yes you guessed it, it’s Stargate Universe, with the cancellation of the show, fans have hit the blog for information on the shows cancellation and the possibility of getting the show back on our TV shows. So as you can imagine the search engines such as Google have been kind enough to send some traffic my way

As I mentioned earlier there have been some great Guest Posts on the blog over the last week and the authors have done a good job responding to comments made on the posts, so here are the posts that Guest Bloggers have brought to you since Monday.

Guest Posts On Blazing Minds

How To Keep Safe In The Kitchen – BidDaddyCash

5 Extremely Successful Brands In FaceBook Marketing – Via MyBlogGuest

The Magic Of An 80′s Montage – Andy Monty

The Popular Posts From The Week

Out of the top 10 posts that have been read this week, two out of the ten were from this weeks posts, the other eight were from earlier weeks/months, but the top post from this week were:

Stargate Universe Cancelled And The Fans Are Not Happy! – 1622 views

Save Stargate Universe On FaceBook Gets Hacked! – 263 views

No surprise really as the top searched term was “Stargate Cancelled“.

Commentators That Love To Talk

There have been some new comers to the blog recently and I would like to say a big thanks to you for stopping by, of course the regular commentators are still turning up and showing that they know what to say and when to say it, by leaving some brilliant comments and even replying to other comments on post.

What no top commentators for the week! Nope, I’m keeping the commentators back for the end of the month, those that have stopped by will be some tasty link love in special post

CommentLuv Back On Blazing Minds

Now some of you may have seen the issue with the CommentLuv plugin recently and the problem with the new plugin not grabbing feeds, thanks to Andy @CommentLuv I was able to sort the issue out and after tweaking the blog I’ve got CommentLuv up and running again. You can find out a little more on my post on the CommentLuv blog titled “Keep An Eye On Those WordPress Plugins”

Ok folks that’s your lot, I’ll be back soon with more posts and hopefully some great Guest Posts coming your way and keep your eyes peeled for a special announcement from myself and @JML_Direct

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Woot Woot! It’s Friday Already! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Tweaks And Plugins For Current And Future Guest Posters

Karen — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:43:15 +0000

Since opening up Blazing Minds to Guest Bloggers, I’ve had some amazing guest posts coming in and these have been extremely popular on the blog as can be seen by the rise in the Alexa rank and the comments that have been left on the various posts.

Now the only problem with opening your blog up to Guest Bloggers is those that will take advantage of this and just register to try to SPAM your blog with awful posts, now for me, I’ve always had some guidance for my guest bloggers to follow and luckily everyone has followed these to produce some great article.

Registering to be a Guest Blogger

I’ve made some updates for those wishing to Guest Post on Blazing Minds, first of all is the blog now has some new options when registering to guest post, future guests will now have to agree to the blogs policy as well as respond to a verification email before even being considered for any Guest Blogging, also if the register has no Gravatar then they certainly won’t be to submit any articles.

All this is done to allow those that are series about guest blogging on Blazing Minds to show that they are willing to follow some simple rules.

Top Authors

The other thing that I have done is add a small WordPress Plugin that will display the Top Authors, this section on the sidebar is updated daily and takes in to consideration the guest posts by an author that have been posted over a month, as you may see already from the widget in the sidebar there are some Authors that love to write Guest Articles here on the blog

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Tweaks And Plugins For Current And Future Guest Posters is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Cut The Costs Of Luxury Breaks; Fly BA and Leave The Kids At Home!

BigDaddyCash — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:56:56 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

If you’re thinking of getting away this summer then you might have another reason given to you by British Airways as they cut their fares by up to 30% on their business class routes and up to 60% in their first class cabins if you can find a destination you want and can book before June 21, 2011.

British Airways will be slashing the prices on tickets to over 80 destinations, the offer on discounted tickets includes tickets booked before the end of the month for travel before New Year’s Eve. Business flights to Caribbean destinations including Grenada and Jamaica are attracting discounts of 24 to 29%. As well as the flights, BA are also offering holiday packages, offers include stays at resorts like the 4 ½ star Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa located in Montego Bay. It recently received a Five Diamond AAA standard. They’re also offering holiday deals in Dubai, booking now could put you in poll position when the F1 Grand Prix arrives later on this year; the BA offer includes stays at the Ritz-Carlton anmd hotels further into the desert such as the Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa.

Fly to Buenos Aires and you can get up to 25% off the book price for your ticket, take a trip over to Hong Kong and you can cut up to 20% off of the price. 29% is the amount you can save taking a business seat over to the States.

If you have family and taking the kids on this kind of a holiday sounds like it would bore them to death, why not make it a real ‘family’ holiday, ie, taking a holiday from your family? I know, I know, you want your little poppets beside you at all times as you go to spas which don’t often let under 16s through the door or eat out at restaurants that don’t have a child-friendly menu or go to a club to try and recapture your youth while having to find a nanny who will come to your hotel.

You could do that or you could just leave them at home, trust me, they’ll get just as much out of it as you do, more even. Thompson have found that 40% of parents don’t even like holidaying with their own kids so don’t deny it any longer, a real holiday would indeed include time off as a parent.

Now, leaving your children to fend for themselves for two weeks while you’re in the Bahamas might attract the attention of the local constabulary when you get home but there are actually people who like children, even other people’s so think about sending them to summer camp or perhaps relatives; it’s what grandmas were invented for. All it costs is crossing your heart and promising to put them in a better class of care-home when the time comes.

Dan Cash is a feature writer who’s looking at the financial possibilities of taking a luxury yoga spa holiday. He might have to sell a kidney but that’s fine, he might just make it a detox holiday instead.

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Related posts:

Food Tastes Better From A Kitchen That Costs More Than An Average Home

Can’t Choose Between A Luxury Honeymoon Or Adventure? Why Not Have Both!

Adding Too Much Value To Your Property Could Leave It Unsaleable, No Matter What The Market

Cut The Costs Of Luxury Breaks; Fly BA and Leave The Kids At Home! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Can’t Choose Between A Luxury Honeymoon Or Adventure? Why Not Have Both!

BigDaddyCash — Sun, 08 May 2011 07:56:42 +0000

Spring is upon us and that can only mean one thing, it’s the Wedding Season! Whether you’re going to travel abroad for your wedding or you’re just going to get wed here and then travel abroad for your honeymoon you’ll want to stay somewhere which offers a great deal of luxury.

It used to be that a girl dreamed of a church wedding in a big white dress, these days though it’s becoming ever more popular to tie the knot by the sea on a beach somewhere tropical, white sand in place of confetti and palm trees instead of chapel bells. Even if you are getting married at home the glitz and glamour of the marriage of Prince William to the now Princess Kate has encouraged every bride and groom-to-be to up their game when it comes to the lavishness of their luxury holiday.

For many prospective spouses booking a flight over to the Bahamas with your whole family in tow is something which will have to remain a pipe dream, so what are your options if you have champagne tastes but a lemonade budget?

Laterooms.com has published the results of a survey that they carried out recently which found that eighty two percent of the British who are getting married this year are feeling the pinch and won’t be able to afford to pay for the honeymoon they want and seventy six percent said they are intending to make shorter breaks. Most people normally want to take a long honeymoon, however, twelve percent say they would be happy to make do with a break away for seven days or fewer, forty five percent would take a ten day holiday. So, while the ideal would be to spend 14 nights on a Caribbean island drinking rum punches the reality is more likely to be a week somewhere closer to home in Europe, at least it will be for fifty four percent of people planning to make a honeymoon this year.

The money issue isn’t the only aspect which is keeping people from taking a fortnight or more away from home, the fact that many people can’t be away from their work for such a long time is a huge consideration as well. Fifty four percent of the people responding to the survey say that they just aren’t able to get that kind of time off work for such frivolous things like luxury honeymoons.

Lynda Matthews who is an offline marketing and advertising executive with Laterooms.com said that the days of going on a tropical honeymoon “to the Caribbean are behind us with many Brits opting for better value breaks to celebrate their honeymoon period.”

But people still dream, Jane Anderson who used to edit You And Your Wedding magazine says that many newlyweds are looking for honeymoons which offer adventure and a ‘wow factor’ as well as romance and luxury. Anderson maintains that the popularity of a honeymoon on the beach is on the wane. She noted that honeymooners were becoming more thrill-seeking when it came to their expectations, they want to relax and enjoy themselves but equally want to do something exciting.

Honeymoons these days, Anderson says, are incorporating anything from trekking to SCUBA diving but always with an element of luxury thrown in. As an example she sites a luxury train journey through India. She puts this down to holiday makers being more travel-savvy and generally wanting more from any time they spend away from home than just sitting by a pool for two weeks.

Speaking specifically about the wedding and honeymoon market Anderson said that places like South Africa and Mauritius offered great beach/diving and safari options while destinations such as New York and Caribbean islands offered the chance to relax one day and look for adventure the next.

Dan Cash is a feature writer who dreams of luxury holidays and vacations. He’s not getting married any time soon but is still interested in river cruises this summer.

Related articles

Willam and Kate mull over honeymoon destination (travelnews.britishairways.com)

3 Great Honeymoon Destinations (pacificadventures.wordpress.com)

Lucky couple win Royal honeymoon (thesun.co.uk)

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Can’t Choose Between A Luxury Honeymoon Or Adventure? Why Not Have Both! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

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Stargate Universe Cancelled And The Fans Are Not Happy!

Karen — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:53:47 +0000

I’ve been a fan of Stargate and its many spin-offs since I first sat in the cinema and watched the amazing Stargate movie all those years ago and subsequently over the years I’ve watch and thoroughly enjoyed the spin-offs: Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis and most recently Stargate Universe (SGU).

And as with the majority of TV shows that you are just getting in to and starting to enjoy, somebody in their idiotic wisdom decides to axe the show and after only two seasons, with uproar from fans of the Stargate franchise and calls for the show to be returned even maybe just for another season.

Here in the UK we are coming to the end of season two and I’m hoping that something can be done to keep the show going.

What about the fans!

At the time of me writing this blog the Save Stargate Universe Facebook page has 26,549 fans wanting the show to be saved from the vaults of TV history. I urge you to get on over there and show your support.

There are indeed fans that are really serious about this and have some really brilliant blog posts with regards to the situation of the show being cancelled by the Syfy channel for example you must read the post Save Stargate Universe Facebook Campaign Recruits Over 22,000 Fans…Will Syfy Listen? by Neal Jansons, where he has far more information about the cancelling of the show and CAN THEY SAVE “STARGATE UNIVERSE”? so I recommend you stop by there.

Goodbye Syfy & Comcast! Save SGU!

Click here to view the embedded video.

So now it’s down to the fans to keep the show alive, it’s been done before with other shows, so if the following and demand is big enough, then something can be done, so join the cause and help keep Stargate Universe alive!

Don’t forget to stop by The Plan: Save Stargate Universe to do your part

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Stargate Universe Cancelled And The Fans Are Not Happy! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

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Ways Of Curbing Your Bad Language!

Karen — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:00:04 +0000

I’m telling you all now that I’m not going to say any swear words in this post, except for the ones that I use, well sort of!

In this day and age swearing has become a part of every day life, but there are easy ways to curb swearing by replacing it with some well chosen alternatives and I thought I would bring you some of my favourites and been a bit of a sci-fi fan, you can probably imagine where this is going, they are from some of my favourite sci-fi shows and films

For starters a lot of people use the F-Word, you know the one I mean, but I use a replacement when needed and my favourites are FRAK which is widely used in Battlestar Galactica and FRELL which was used in the superb Farscape, which I have to admit I do use to describe some of the idiots on the road these days “Frellwit”

But I also use other sci-fi term such as PooDoo from Star Wars which is translates as Bantha Sh**, see told you I was going to keep it clean

Gorram is another one which is from Firefly and is a working of Goddamn and when I was younger I used the wonderful Shazbat from Mork and Mindy, amazing what you can say in front of your parents when they haven’t a clue what you’re on about

Another one is just replacing words like Sh** with sugar or Shitake, oh did I swear there, well only for the first four letters

So as you can see we can have some fun with swearing even when we don’t swear, so what do you do to alter a swear word, do you change a few letters or even create a new word, I’d love to know, but please, if you are going to add the original swear word in your comment, then at least asterisk(*) it, let’s keep it clean for the kids sake

Related articles

Study claims swearing can help relieve pain (mikesflyingpigs.wordpress.com)

Swearing can help you to beat pain (dailymail.co.uk)

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Ways Of Curbing Your Bad Language! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

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What Will You Be Doing With Your Long Easter Weekends This Year?

BigDaddyCash — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:24:32 +0000

The travel industry is looking forward to the April glut of Bank Holidays and so are the rest of us!

A number of other factors, not least the royal wedding have encouraged British holiday makers to take holidays abroad this spring. The government said ”Here, have a day off for the royal wedding” and, with clever use of accrued holiday, taking thee days off will give you a break of almost a fortnight. While the government was hoping The Great British Public would stick around and spend Spend SPEND on bunting, Union Flags and cake, many people demonstrated their overarching ambivalence toward the nuptials and booked holidays in other, foreign destinations instead.

When a survey was taken earlier this year of 3,000 travellers 28% said that they would be using the wedding augmented Easter break to go somewhere that they had never been to before. Luke Nathan from Travelsoon, who conducted the survey said: “The news that British travellers are becoming braver in their holiday choices is really a very positive one.” He goes on to point out that many travel companies are sending back figures which show that some destinations are up 180% compared to this time last year.

47% of the holidaymakers said that yes, the state of the economy was a contributing factor in their holiday plans and that they were being careful, looking for cheap deals on online rather than going through traditional high street travel agents. Only 18% of the travellers said that they had booked through the high street retailers, 55% said that they would look for the best deals and discounts by searching online.

While the news might not be great for the traditional travel agents it does indeed spell bargains for the canny shopper. If you don’t have a particular place in mind that you’re especially drawn to then it’s a great idea to find deals on places that you’ve never been to before. Taking advantage of the long weekends and low cost holidays means that the traveller wins all round.

It’s not all sandy beaches and clear blue skies though, in a different survey conducted by Badenoch & Clark staff said that they were unsure about the leave that they were getting on the Royal Wedding Weekend. A quarter of office workers report that they still don’t know yet if they are indeed getting the Friday off. Although the government said it would be a bank holiday, many people say that they haven’t heard anything concrete from their employers on the matter.

The survey found that, because of the lack of communication, that the uncertainty could lead to anger and disgruntlement between employers and employees. In London the survey found that a third of people are still wondering what’s going on as they have yet to be told definitively what their company’s position is on the wedding.

Lynne Hardman from Badenoch & Clark said “Employers have a duty to communicate clearly and effectively to their workers. This includes decisions on holiday allowance,” and that “employers may find workers react badly to what appears to be a last-minute decision – leading to low morale amongst employees.”

She went on to say that managers needed to give a clear direction on holiday allowance, employers aren’t obliged to give their staff public, traditional and bank holidays off as additional leave and the government’s announcement of a bank holiday doesn’t increase a worker’s entitlement to time off under Working Time regulations.

Dan Cash has volunteered to work on the day of the wedding. This work will mostly involve sitting on a beach drinking wine and eating cheese but he’ll be writing about luxury holidays and river cruises as he does it, and that’s work, right?

Related articles

Workers still ‘unsure on royal wedding leave’ (independent.co.uk)

One in four workers STILL not told if they will get Royal Wedding ‘bank holiday’ off (dailymail.co.uk)

Wills and Kate spark beach holiday boom (travelnews.britishairways.com)

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What Will You Be Doing With Your Long Easter Weekends This Year? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

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Putting A Stop To Cyber-Bullying

BigDaddyCash — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:51:51 +0000

Father of four, Paddy Clarke has developed what is thought to be the first online anti-bullying alert system which can be used on Facebook to protect young users from abuse that they might receive from their peers. It works by detecting known words and phrases and then highlighting abusive behaviour.

The software scans the messages left on profile walls and in message boxes for terms which are offensive and then alerts parents when they appear. He developed the software after reading about the many stories that have been in the news recently about children and young adults being distressed and even ultimately killing themselves in some cases over the abuse they have received from other children in their peer groups.

Clarke said his programme, named Know Diss will protect children from online bullies, he said “Bullying has now gone from the playground into children’s homes. Kids feel safe sending an abusive message in their rooms. It is pretty awful.”

He went on that he found it hard to believe that the programme which he developed in partnership with a friend, Alan Saul, was the only one which scanned text posted on sites to protect children.

The product costs £12 per year and works in conjunction with both the parent’s and child’s Facebook pages meaning that they have to sign up together. As part of their research Saul and Clarke had to spend hours watching TV shows like Skins and In Betweeners to learn the slang being used by youth today as well as reading thousands of entries on contemporary language websites like Urban Dictionary, a website which allows users to add or even invent slang terms which they then describe using their own definitions. The site is intended to be both informative and humorous but it does contain many terms which can be used for abuse. Clarke and Saul took these and added them to their own database which is used when Know Diss is examining your child’s Facebook messages.

The program continuously observes all the text on all the Facebook profiles which are registered with Know Diss and includes searches of wall, messages and comments as well as comments left against photos. It identifies trigger words in a variety of spellings. When a phrase is identified it is forwarded to the parent’s account alerting them that this phrase has been used in a message sent to their child. The parent or ‘Facebook Guardian’ can then look at it in context and decide if any actions should be taken over it.

Clarke says that the service might appear from the outset to be intrusive but it’s not, it only highlights the specific terms that have been used in the mail to the parent who then has the opportunity to discuss the content of the message with the child who received it. The database contains thousands of individual words and phrases with alternate spellings where applicable. The service also attempts to stop the abuse before it starts by putting a badge on the profile page which alerts would be bullies that they are signed up to the scheme and that any message they post will be scrutinised for abuse.

Research done by various groups has found that up to half of children who have profiles on social media platforms have experienced cyberbullying in the past year, half of those who have been victims of online abuse choose not to tell an adult about it.

Dan Cash used to be more concerned about luxury holidays and tailor made travel until he found that a quarter of all children suffer from cyberbullying in silence.

Related articles

All About Cyberbullies: Who They Are and What They Do (education.com)

President Obama Fights Bullying on Facebook (mashable.com)

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Putting A Stop To Cyber-Bullying is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

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