Your weekly collection of positive tips, hints, and advice offered with humor, inspiration, and other goodies for anyone and everyone who is inclined to read. Guidance, mentoring, inspiration, English lessons, editing, proofreading services for entrepreneurs and online marketers.
Publisher: Mary Wilkey
Volume 7 - Issue 19 - May 15, 2007
Published every Tuesday
Reminder — We are boycotting to get gasoline prices lowered, so do not buy any gas today.
Can't believe it's 6:30 already, and this issue is still being written, but I do wish to welcome all readers and call your attention to some really good articles in this issue, namely, Fred Black's "Quality Matters" and an anonymous piece, "Dance Like a Kid at a Wedding!"
Happy reading! :-)
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In
Remembrance of
September 11, 2001
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"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts to overcharged with overindulgence and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day comes upon you unawares.
"For as a snare it shall come on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.
"Watch, therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."
—Luke 21:34-36
Contents:
Top Sponsor
Contest
A Healthier You
Feature Article
Test Your Bible Knowledge
Classifieds
Today’s Chuckle
Today's English Lesson
Internet Tips & Hints
Guest Article
Inspiration
Etcetera
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Contest
Results of last issue's contest, when the question was — What is the most expensive nail polish in the world?
The answer — The "I Do" polish, the most expensive in the world, is a collaboration by Allure magazine, platinum supplier Johnson Matthey, P.G.I., and Essie Cosmetics. The polish costs $250 per bottle. However, the first bottle was displayed in special bottle made with a platinum top and base that is valued at $55,000.
For our subscribers only: Be first to submit the correct answer to the following question and receive the next available top sponsor slot, strictly complementary. So answer this:
Who has the longest tongue in the world?
Send to contest@elfexpressionsezine.com and be sure to include your promo copy with your entry, so that I do not have to contact you separately to get it. Several people have missed out having their copy published, because they did not respond before my deadline.
We are always getting ready to live but never living.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Healthier You
6 Things to Know
Before You get Your
Next Rx Filled
We trust them with our health
and our money . . . but should we? The next time you're standing in line at the pharmacy, ready to hand over your hard earned cash for a prescription, remember these six facts:
1 — Most testing in clinical trials for a drug is rigged with the 'placebos' made by the drug manufacturer . . .
2 — Over the last few years, an increasing amount of drugs carry severe side-effects such as liver damage, heart disease and
macular degeneration . . .
3 — Your doctor may be letting drug salesman spy on your private consultations!
4 — The FDA spends taxpayer dollars trying to scare people away from alternative medicine—even when it may work in the patient's best interest . . .
5 — Viruses evolve and become resistant and deadlier - because of prescription antibiotics . . .
6 — . . . And you know it's true because many of these shocking secrets come straight from the mouths of ex-FDA officials who decided to come clean
Intrigued yet? Well don't worry . . . there's more. Lots more. And there's only one place to get the information you need!
[The above courtesy of Jenny Thompson,
Director, Health Sciences Institute]
"If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the
corner after the parade is a mile down the street."
—Ben Nicholas
Feature Article
Let's Make Believe
As a child, we all do a lot of "make" believing. Recently, I've given some thought to that. After all, we are told to "become as little children," right?
One of the things that children do (besides laughing a lot, which we also should do) is to pretend, to make believe that given objects are something that they really are not, e.g., a stick becomes a gun, etc., "making" themselves believe that it really is, at least for as long as they are playing that scene.
Children make believe that they are teachers, doctors, builders, nurses, firemen, et al., and children who so pretend and target one particular profession on a regular basis usually end up with the reality of it as adults.
James 2:20 says "Faith without works is dead." We have to carry "making believe" to its ultimate level.
But be sure of this: Making believe at that level does not deny fact—it changes fact!
The object of your faith is rarely manifested instantaneously, unless you have developed your faith to perfection, and were that to be so, faith would not be required at all. We would be beyond it.
Faith requires tenacity. In most cases, it takes time to build belief into your heart—the kind of belief in which there is no room for doubt to get a foothold.
We have to fill our cups full of belief with the positive speech of prayer, and then there is no room in there for doubt to stick even a toe in the door.
Jesus got instantaneous results, because there was no doubt in his heart from the git-go. That should be our objective. But we cannot get the doubt out without denying it room to grow.
We have to fill our minds and hearts with graphic visions of the objects of our faith to see its fruition.
When a farmer plants his seeds, he has the vision of seeing rows and rows of that crop growing and flourishing in his fields, profusely yielding many times over the small number of seeds that he actually sowed.
But he also knows that he isn't going to see the fruition of that vision the day after he plants the seeds. He realizes that there is going to be a long period of time when he needs to fertilize and nurture the crop along from Day 1.
Eventually, the seeds sprout, and the farmer is encouraged by the growth he sees daily. And do you know what? If that farmer will speak positive growth encouragement over his crop, he will realize a more bountiful harvest than if he doesn't?
Yes, it has been proven that plants, being living things, respond to kind, loving words directed their way! Isn't that awesome to realize?
If the farmer has the vision, he can speak encouragement to those plants and tell them that he sees them bursting forth with lush, healthy foliage and luscious yields of fruit or vegetables.
This is the earth and the world the Lord has made . . . and isn't it a glorious thing to behold and experience and experiment with?
"To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right."
—Confucius
Classifieds
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and Yourself, with Your Newly Discovered PC Skills,
and Start Handling Your PC and the Internet with
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"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity,
and higher education positively fortifies it.
—Stephen Vizinczey
Today's Chuckle
Moses and the Red Sea
Nine-year-old Joey, was asked by his mother what he had
learned in Sunday school. "Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
"When he got to the Red Sea, he had his army build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then, he radioed headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers to blow up the bridge, and all the Israelites were saved."
"Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher
taught you?" his mother asked.
"Well, no, Mom. But, if I told it the way the teacher did, you wouldn't believe it!"
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
—Samuel Johnson
Today's English Lesson
Seeing the same elementary mistakes over and over again has prompted this publisher to write an English lesson each issue. Look for some of these lessons to be repeated, because the mistakes are!
This one was suggested by Patricia in Spain. It concerns
we/they was or he/she were. In the case of the "were" usage, it would appear that the subjunctive use of "Were she to go, he would drive her," etc. confuses some speakers into thinking that the "he/she were" usage is correct.
Get this down, folks. "Were she to go" refers to a possibility—an "if" situation. But when used simply as a statement, the plural subject always takes a plural verb, and a singular subject takes a singular verb.
Reminder: We have a reasonably priced editing/proofreading service for articles or even entire ezines. Just email: service@elfexpressionsezine.com
The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer,
narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic—in short,
the closest thing to a genuine panacea—known to medical science is work.
—Thomas Szasz, M.D.
Internet Hints & Tips
Top 10 Viral Marketing Mistakes
by Dan Swanson
Are you making these 10 mistakes in your viral marketing campaigns? What to avoid and how to correct these mistakes will boost your viral marketing results.
1 — Failing to understand how to make a marketing piece "viral" . . . you can read the rest of Dan's article at http://tinyurl.com/wrnqs
Liberal Democrats are inexorably opposed to tax
cuts, because tax cuts give people more power and
take away from the role of government.
—Rush Limbaugh
Guest Article
Quality Matters
by Fred Black
In the computer programming industry, there's a saying:
garbage in equals garbage out. The inverse is also true:
quality in equals quality out.
The other day I was reading an article by a master
copywriter outlining the sequence of steps he goes through
when writing copy for a client. As I was reading his
article, I started thinking about quality, craftsmanship,
and professionalism vs. mass-production.
As an example, my
brother-in-law is a cabinet maker. He makes beautiful, high
quality cabinetry and furniture. Watching him make
something and work with wood is like taking a trip in a
time machine back to a time when everyone made the effort
to do their best at whatever they did. Yes he has modern
tools, but what I'm talking about is that he cares about
what he's building and making the best cabinet or piece of
furniture that can be made is important to him. Is it easy?
No. It requires a lot of work.
How does that relate to the article? Because most people
are not going to go through all the steps, trouble, and
work that either of these two people put into their craft.
Most people will take the mass production route and just
slap something together. And therefore, most people will
not get the results in terms of conversion ratio and sales
as the master copywriter does or heirloom quality furniture
as the cabinet maker does.
I'm a songwriter, programmer, and Internet business
entrepreneur. I've read a great quote—and I don't remember who
said it—that songwriting can be divided between songs the
songwriter should play on his guitar in his bedroom, and
songs that should be played on the stereo in the bedroom.
What that means is that some songs may be therapeutic to
the songwriter, or have special meaning to their loved
ones, but they don't have the commercial appeal that's
required to be released as a recording. They've not been
polished enough.
Consistent and quality songwriting
requires a lot of the steps that quality copywriting does.
Songwriting is usually sparked by some emotional feeling or
event and when it happens, you rush to get those first
thoughts down on paper before they fizzle away.
Then the
work begins . . . editing, rewriting, recording and listening,
more editing, etc. But if you love it, it's not work, it's
who you are, and a part of you goes into, and is shared in,
each song.
The moral to this story is that you should strive to do
something you love, because you'll put more into it and get
more out of it.
About the author: Fred Black is an experienced programmer, web site developer, Internet business operator, systems integrator, father, husband, musician, and songwriter.
Visit his Internet business web site,
http://www.pqInternet.com regularly for information and
tools to help build a successful Internet business.
To see things in the seed, that is genius.
—Lao-Tzu
Answer to Bible trivia:
Answer: 3) grief, sorrow
See Ecclesiastes 1:18
Inspiration
Dance Like a Kid at a Wedding!
Anonymous
"The true test of character is how we behave when we don't know what to do." —John Holt
"It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded." —Anne Morrow Lindbergh
"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." —Abraham Lincoln
"Daddy, I want to be a dinosaur doctor that dances and live on a farm with lots of animals, because I like to do all these things." —Carolyn Carrithers, 4-year-old
A few weeks ago we returned from a fun trip to New York. Carolyn, Hannah (her 2-year-old sister), Kristy and I went to a wedding. It was such fun to watch the girls really enjoy themselves at the wedding (their first). They were all dressed up (yes in matching outfits), they took it all in.
What really made me stop and think was when they were out on the dance floor dancing. They had such an intensity about their movements, their twirling, their speed. They were focused and lost to the world around them. They never took notice of the 300 other people, watching, laughing and enjoying watching them dance.
They just danced because they loved to dance. A big dance floor, a live band and pretty dresses that made it even more fun to twirl. (Hey, an idea for parents, we should rent a hall and get a live band and have a sock hop for 2- to 7-year-olds, great baby sitting concept?)
I thought to myself, "Isn't that great. Such ease of fun, such enjoyment in the doing. No care to what others think. No fear of right or wrong. No self doubt of should I, could I, can I. Just the joy of doing, of trying, of living the moment." Their 2 1/2 hours of dancing brought so much happiness to themselves and to those watching, almost as if we—the big people—wished we could dance with such joy and abandonment.
The next day we went into New York City to the Museum Of Natural History (everyone needs to go there with their kids) to see the world's largest dinosaur exhibit. After the day trip into the city, I asked Carolyn, "So what do you want to be when you grow up?" And in simple and direct terms she made the above statement.
It made me realize that when a child is asked what they want to do they respond with what they like to do. They imagine a world where they get to do what they like, what is fun, what interests them. Somewhere between four and twenty years we shift from this great thinking to one of worry, fear, salary, position, title, limitations . . .
So a simple thought for you: Think like a kid, feel like a kid, experience things like a kid—without fear, focussed on the fun and the experience! Make life a dance, wear a pretty dress, and go with the beat.
BusinessHive is a St. Louis based consulting service business focused on developing people, products, and distribution channels.
This article courtesy of http://www.myforlife.com/inspiration/inspire.htm.
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