Saturday, July 21, 2012

How to Have a Romantic Summer Picnic

Summer is a fun-filled time of year. Fireworks, pool parties, and yes, picnics are all part of the seasonal festivities that traditionally mark the summer solstice. Why not add a spark of love to your activities, and create a romantic summer picnic experience for the two of you? Follow the steps below, and you'll see the sparks flying between you and your lover in no time!

1. Pick a Time and Place

The cooler temperatures of the evening hours make a perfect time to enjoy a romantic sunset picnic with your lover. Pick a place that is insect free if possible. An open park with manicured lawns and cool breezes is a great choice. You could also choose a place, perhaps overlooking a lake or along the seashore, where the two of you can sit and watch the sunset together afterwards.

2. Plan the Menu

There are literally hundreds of fine foods to pick from. Try something you don't normally eat for your evening meal, slightly exotic, but not too crazy. Avoid messy foods like spaghetti and meatballs. Sandwiches or wraps are an excellent choice. Bring along your favorite bottle of sparkling cider and two wine glasses and celebrate your love with a toast.

3. Set the Mood With Music

Do you have a playlist of your favorite tunes? Carry a portable music player with you and play the music softly in the background as you enjoy your picnic together. The key here is softly. You don't want it to be a distraction, just a mood changer.

4. Don't Forget the 'Extras'

What would a picnic be without the plates, cups, plasticware (or silverware), napkins and red and white checked table cloth? Don't forget a bag, box or basket to carry it all in as well. It doesn't have to be fancy; just something practical and large enough to haul the food and 'fixings' to and from your chosen picnic spot.

5. Remember to Slow Down and Be Totally Present

That's right. Be sure to turn off your smart phone and truly enjoy the food and each others' presence. We tend to be constantly distracted, even while in the company of those we love. Turning your electronics off will make this romantic picnic a time where nothing else matters. It's just the two of you, enjoying a meal together away from the fast paced lives we all lead.

And finally, relax and enjoy yourselves! The memories will last a lifetime.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Friday, July 20, 2012

Green Vitality Revolution - Power Saving Gadgets

World as we speak is experiencing vitality revolution. Environmental points are catching up and with the increased emphasis positioned on preserving the surroundings all of us must play our roles in saving energy. By saving power, we will definitely take a positive step in combating the climate change and in preserving non-renewable sources of energy. Let us look at some units and measures that may help us preserve energy and substitute non renewable sources with renewable sources of energy.

Many firms are actually providing buyer-targeted power equipments like Vitality savers, Utility Instruments, Degree Controllers, Management Panels and Course of Control Equipments etc. Varied products that at the second are placed in the cabinets of the store and that assist in energy revolution and conservation are:

• Integrated Clever Home System:
This offers you with home security, management, automation and communication associated features. One can control and monitor their home and workplace safety along with controlling the house appliances and lighting from any telephone, keypad, handheld distant control system, computer or the internet. The merchandise have excellent distant communication features which may allow you to communicate with guests when they're still at workplace doorways, you can send them your messages and can even hear their messages. In case there is alarm notification, you'll have the ability to take heed to different sounds and the activity present in the surroundings.

• Gentle and Air -conditioner Vitality Saver:
These units are normally very easy to install and assist to save energy directly. They can regulate the temperature by robotically realizing the self-movement adjustment. They don't hook up with any circuitry within the AC. They've steady capacities and do not get affected by fluctuations in exterior temperature. Hassle from these energy saver devices do not harm or have an effect on the functioning of your equipment in any way. The units are shock proof and make it simpler to scale back your power requirement by minimum 20%.

• Inexperienced Power Merchandise
At present, you'd find an array of Green products in the market. Green merchandise and home equipment embrace power saving home equipment and gadgets to your office and residential, windows/doors using solar energy and family merchandise constructed out of eco-pleasant materials. Fluorescent gentle bulbs are another mild saving gadgets using minimum amount of electrical energy per watt. All these vitality saver merchandise positively influence the environment and cut back the energy and electrical energy costs. In addition they scale back the emission of pollution within the lengthy-term.

Different merchandise like energy saving remote management made out of plastic are additionally available for saving vitality in your everyday use.

Advantages of using Vitality saving & Clever Products:

• Makes use of 75% to eighty% much less electricity.
• Cost less and work too properly
• Reduce dependence on coal and petroleum
• Help to handle issues of world warming
• Scale back the gasoline and electricity bills
• Scale back the inexperienced home gasoline emission levels

General, decreased vitality usage means that the want to go for building new transmission strains, infrastructure and different associated gadgets might be delayed and prolonged. Hence, one can defer the environmental considerations and issues, if not have complete removal. All the power saving packages and units will reduce the quantity of greenhouse gasoline emissions made by coal utilizing power plants. Emissions up to an average of round 2.1 billion kilos per 12 months will be saved for around 20 years

So, after we are aware of this stuff, why not head on the finest way to conserving power!

Source: EzineArticles.com

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Text Loans – Get easy cash through hassle free

Many salaried people regularly need money from neighbors and friends ahead of next payday to meet ends or to pay off some bills to avoid penalties. For such people, text loans are source of money in the same day, and they do not have to go through lengthy loan procedures every time they need the cash. A one-time registration with the lender ensures borrowing of the money without freshly applying for a new loan amount.

Text Loans have gained a good popularity amongst the borrowers. One of the reasons the people taking out these loans is its simplicity. All you need to do in order to borrow the cash is to send a text message to the lender from your mobile phone. You will get the approved cash within few hours and even in minutes in your bank account for any personal work. What attracts the customers to this loan even more is that they are not required to make a fresh loan application.

Text loans are unsecured personal cash loans that you can have without collateral. You can borrow an amount ranging from £50 to £100 from the lenders, depending on your repayment ability. You can get these short-term loans for two weeks, ahead of your next payday. However, you should be in a job and earning a monthly paycheque to qualify for the loan.

The lender will register your name by verifying your employment and monthly salary and residential address. On registration, the lender will give you a code number that you have to send along with your text message for the loan to the lender. You can borrow the cash as many times as you want without any fresh application once you have paid back the previous loan completely.

Another advantage of text loans is for the people having a bad credit history. Such borrowers are able to borrow the cash without any credit checks once the lender has registered their name for the loan. Hence, past blemishes such as CCJs, late payments, defaults and arrears do not matter in borrowing the cash for urgency.

You should make sure that the lender offers you text loans at competitive rates. While APR on these loans is generally higher, you can find out competitive online lenders whose rates are lower. Ask the lenders for their rate quotes for comparison. Settle for a loan deal that matches with your repayment capability. Repay the loan as soon as you can to avoid falling in debts.

Stewart Isabel is financial adviser of Cash Via Text. Please here to know more about Text Loans, cash loans by text, cash via text loans, instant text loans and Sms Loans.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Easy Weight Loss -- 5 Steps to Lose Weight


Is it easy to lose weight? Yes. Losing weight is easy. I see it everyday. Patients of mine come into the office as happy as can be because they lost 15 pounds on the newest easy weight loss plan.

It's easy but can you keep it off?

My patients may feel great but none of them keep the weight off. Just as quickly as they lost weight, my patients following easy weight loss plans, gain it back...fast!

Gaining weight, specifically re-gaining weight lost while dieting, should be the focus of weight loss programs. Other things, like easy weight loss, are distracting and costly for all of us. Every year thousands of obese and overweight people do not lose weight because of easy weight loss distractions.

Why are fast and easy diet plans so attractive? Well, what could be better than losing weight and looking good fast? How about lasting healthy weight loss?

Why do you think diet plans focus solely on losing weight and say very little about keeping it off? Because it's easy to lose weight and it's next to impossible to prevent weight re-gain.

Diet plans take the easy road and provide dieters a quick short lived solution.

From Atkins to the Zone, weight loss diets have perfected colorful ways to disguise one simple easy weight loss principle. All diets can lead to easy weight loss by following this one easy principle.

Low carbohydrate diets, low fat diets, negative calorie diets, low energy density diets--all apply this one principle. And this one principle leads to easy weight loss. Do you know what it is?

To experience easy weight loss...eat fewer calories.

Holding other things constant, like exercise, simply eat fewer calories and you will lose weight easily. Whether or not you keep the weight off depends on how easily you lost it.

The Easy Weight Loss Steps

1. Week One -- Cut calories by 100

2. Week Two -- Cut additional 150 calories (total=250)

3. Week Three -- Cut another 150 calories (total=400)

4. Week Four -- Final cut 100 calories (total=500)

First month weight loss total = 2-4 pounds
500 calories cut = 1-2 pounds/week of weight loss
End of second month weight loss total = 6-12 pounds

The chance of keeping the weight off = 5%

To accelerate weight loss and weight re-gain, just cut more calories...fast. Or you can hold off on the weight loss plan above and learn more about weight re-gain and how to prevent it. Stay tuned for Weight Re-gain Prevention.

Until then, healthy living!

Article Source: Ezine Articles

Best Practices Plan: Dissemination of a Great Idea

Good news spreads quickly

News of the invention of the wheel must have traveled in every direction as quickly as horse or camel could run. Those who learned of its advantages over the litter and the sledge adopted it right away. And no sooner was it adopted than it began to be adapted: made lighter, stronger, faster. Wheels were soon attached to axles, then to axles with pivots.

The idea catches on

Then transportation lost its monopoly on the new technology, and wheels helped to make pottery, lift buckets out of wells, steer ships, grind grain, keep time. Even now, the process of adopting and adapting the wheel continues as new uses are modified, improved, and applied in ingenious ways. The observation is certainly true: "Without the wheel, today's civilization would be impossible." [1]

No wheel, little progress

Meanwhile for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, in islands of the South Pacific, the Americas, and other isolated places, cultures existed without any knowledge of the wheel. Their technology lagged behind because they still faced that first, high hurdle. Human beings have always been better modifiers than inventors. Why reinvent the wheel when someone has already done the hard work?

Best practices needed

Like civilization, your company is on a journey; yours is one of continuous quality improvement. It is "a journey with a definite a beginning but no end, and every one of your employees is a co-traveler. The extent of your progress depends on how well you live your core values values: like company family, commitment to quality, customer focus, embracing technology, integrity and respect, and teamwork. These values overlap, merge, and blend into one another when it comes to the sharing, evaluating, and implementing of best practices.

Definition is important

What are best practices? Unless we have a clear idea of what they look like, we won't recognize them when we see them. According to the American Productivity and Quality Centre, best practices are "those practices that have been shown to produce superior results; selected by a systematic process; and judged as exemplary, good, or successfully demonstrated." [2]

Of course, this definition still leaves quite a bit of room for differences of opinion about what is "best" and what is not. According to C. Ashton in Managing Best Practices, "best" is always contextual, or situation-specific." [3] A more sophisticated, multilevel approach to defining best practices comes from Chevron: [4]

    * Good idea - unproven but makes sense intuitively; could have a positive impact on business performance; worth investigating further.
    * Good practice - technique, methodology, procedure, or process already implemented that has improved business results for an organization in a measurable way.
    * "Proven" best practice - a good practice determined to be the best approach, based on analysis of process performance data.

For more than the past decade, businesses across the country and around the world have been developing, identifying, implementing, and adapting best practices as one means of achieving the excellence of efficiency and superior customer service that would set them apart from their competitors. No doubt your company is engaged in the same quest.

Process of best practices transfer

A recent study identified six steps involved in the transfer of best practices:" [5]

   1. Searching This step involves finding best-in-class solutions from a variety of sources, both internal and external to your company. Your company's SOPs constitute a tremendous resource (hopefully available on your intranet) available to and from employees in all of your sites and regions. Success stories contained in newsletters and award presentations are another internal source. Good sources for external searches can involve newsletters and journals, business contacts, trade shows and workshops, new hires, "boomerang" employees." [6] and outsourcing contacts." [7] If you start looking for best practices, your search will certainly pay off." [8]
   2. Evaluating This is a critical but essential step, though it is heavily dependent on the specific situation and people involved. On the one hand is the tendency to assume "the way we've always done it is the best." On the other hand is the equally questionable assumption, "it must be better because it's new." [9]
   3. Validating Measurements help to eliminate this kind of subjectivity. Does the department already engaged in the practice have higher productivity, less downtime, more rapid customer response, or fewer reworks than the same department at another site that has not adopted it? The evidence should be compelling that the payback of the change will be much greater than its costs. And once a practice is validated as "best" it needs to be publicized. This will encourage others not only to adopt it, but to come forward with best practices of their own.
   4. Implementing The practice has to be documented (usually in an SOP), and usually someone already engaged in the practice should be involved in training others. During the implementation step, team members should be looking to adapt the practice to local needs and varying circumstances, as well as analyzing opportunities for improvements. A note of caution: Although "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," copying someone else's success does not always work. As David Bracken, director of Mercer Delta Consulting, put it, "I have always been skeptical about taking tools designed in one setting and using them in another organization ... more often than not attempts at 'copying' are doomed to failure." [10] Not only might the copied practice suffer from "copy-of-a-copy" degradation, but the people on whom the practice is imposed might very well lack the motivation of the group that developed and implemented the practice in the first place.
   5. Reviewing Once a best practice has been plugged in, it should be reviewed from time to time. All processes--even the best ones--grow stale over time, and what is "best" now may not remain "best" for long. As one study noted, "'best' is a moving target in today's world." [11]
   6. Routinizing Making a best practice into a standard practice is what the transfer process is all about. Successful adoption means that a best practice has become incorporated into the culture of what it means to do business with your company. What was once above the ceiling now becomes the floor upon which we stand to reach even higher.

Beyond best practices

Identifying, evaluating, adopting or adapting, implementing, reviewing, and routinizing best practices can lead to marked improvements in the way you do business. This strategy can help you to be more efficient, improve your profitability, eliminate mistakes, and most importantly, raise the level of your service to the external customer even higher.

There is a proviso, however. Peter Skarzynski and Peter Williamson of Strategos warn that all of this adopting of best practices can lead to what they call "strategic convergence," a phenomenon in which each competitor within an industry moves its practices and procedures closer and closer to those of its rivals. Their survey of more than 500 CEOs indicates that such convergence is actually taking place in many industries. Its eventual result would be the elimination of virtually everything that distinguishes one competitor from another. [12]

Their solution? Innovation! The company that devotes itself to innovation will always be able to differentiate itself from its competition. They offer ten rules on how to innovate successfully in their article, "Innovation as Revolution." [13]

Another important caveat is that sharing best practices is not the only tool you have to achieve excellence. Of even greater importance are your people. You must continue to hire people with great attitudes and then provide them with the training they need to be experts at their job. Then you need to re-recruit them so that they will stay with the company. This re-recruiting process involves making your company the "employer of choice" by having great managers, a great working environment, and great benefits. [14] The best people--your employees--will drive your best practices, speeding you ahead in your Quality Journey. Your company's search for best practices Your company should be pro-active in its search for best practices. The main points of the program should include:

    * Internal search - Researching best practices should start with what is already being done internally, concentrating on improving perceived weaknesses.
    * Sharing of information - News about best practices should be disseminated throughout your company by department managers' meetings and senior managers' meetings, the publishing of SOPs on your intranet, employee newsletter and e-mail announcements, employee meetings, and as many other methods as you can devise.
    * Corporate and management support - The capture and transfer of best practices should be supported by your board of directors and senior managers by promoting the development of SOPs throughout the company, encouraging alignments, and proactively supporting all quality initiatives. Corporate support must also be strong to make improvements through identifying and implementing best practices.

An ongoing quest

Your search for best practices must be continual, as you strive to strengthen what is weak, make what is good even better, and plug in what is best. You should also seek ways to adapt practices regarded as "best-in-class" to new situations and circumstances. The overall direction of your improvement journey is away from isolation toward interconnectedness, away from the static toward the dynamic, and away from top-down management toward the empowerment of all employees. You should make measurable progress in all three of these aspects; enlisting the cooperation of all employees will ensure that such progress accelerates.

Copyright ©2005 Steve Singleton, All rights reserved.
Notes

   1. World Book, s.v. "Wheel."
   2. Yasar F. Jarrar and Mohamed Zairi, "Best practice transfer for future competitiveness: a study of best practices," Total Quality Management 11, 4-6 (July 2000):S734ff.
   3. Ashton, Managing Best Practices (London: Business Intelligence, 1998), cited in Jarrar and Zairi.
   4. As cited in Jarrar and Zairi.
   5. "Identifying and transferring internal best practices," published by American Productivity and Quality Centre in 1997. This white paper is summarized in Jarrar and Zairi.
   6. A "boomerang" employee is one who leaves to work for another company and then returns. The returning employee may prove to be a valuable resource for best practices from their previous company, since they were able to compare the practices they learned at the other company from the perspective of those they knew at your compoany. Karen Lee, "Tales of 'boomerang' employees on the rise," Employee Benefit News 14, 6 (May 2000): 63; Tiffany Kjos, "Boomerang employees on the rise in tight market," Inside Tucson Business 9, 52 (March 20, 2000):14.
   7. For outsourcing as a source of best practices, see Peter Bendor-Samuel, "Leverage Best Practices," Executive Excellence 18, 2 (February 2000):17. For a case study of an excellent external search for best practices, see Michelle M. Rodier, "A quest for best practices," IIE Solutions 32, 2 (February 2000):36.
   8. Some organizations formalize this search process by demanding managers provide a timely decision for each proffered best practice: to investigate it; to adopt or adapt it and say when; or to reject it and explain why. They then track which departments are most active in adopting best practices and which are resisting change. Thomas A. Stewart, "Knowledge worth $1.25 billion," Fortune 142, 13 (November 27, 2000):302.
   9. According to Ed Yager, a consultant and trainer on best practices implementation, we should evaluate the validity of so-called best practices according to three categories: 1) The known knowns - what we are aware that we know or think we know; 2) the known unknowns - our awareness of what we don't know but wish we did; and 3) the unknown unknowns - what we are unaware of, but could really use if we knew it. "Adopting best practices," Enterprise/Salt Lake City 30, 28 (January 15, 2001):11. Those most resistant to best practices tend to absolutize category 1, thinking their knowledge is broad and deep; minimize category 2, assuming what they don't know is insignificant or irrelevant; and deny even the possibility of the existence of category 3.
  10. David Bracken, "Linkage Inc.'s Best Practices in Leadership Development Handbook [Book Review]," Personnel Psychology 53, 4 (Winter 2000):1026.
  11. Jarrar and Zairi.
  12. As cited by Daniel Jennings, "Benchmarking best practices may not be the best practice for your company," EBN 1254 (March 19, 2001):47.
  13. Their ten rules are: 1) Seek innovation at the level of the business model; 2) Listen to new voices; 3) Work from the future back; 4) Diverge, then converge; 5) Use multiple lenses to generate new learning and opportunities; 6) Create a portfolio of options on the future; 7) Evaluate new opportunities using different criteria; 8) Embed innovation through practice; 9) Instill a passion for creating the future; and 10) Break the rules. Peter Skarzynski and Dr. Peter Williamson, "Innovation as Revolution," Economic Bulletin (April 2000).
  14. Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg, "Best Practices," Business Credit 102, 3 (March 2000):52.


Article Source: Ezine Articles

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Payday text loans – Get immediate text loans

Do not panic if you need some cash urgently to get rid of electricity bills, phone bills or want to have money in hands for family expenses but earn a smaller payday. You can opt for Payday Text Loans that provide you the cash in the same day while give you the option of repaying any day. At these finances we can further help you locate the competitive offers from the lenders so that your overall cost of borrowing of the cash remains manageable. In this process of money lending, there is no requirement from your side of filing and faxing of documents that would not even be needed.

Before the existence of these funds, money was generally borrowed from traditional sources where people had to make agreement and also keep collateral for borrowing. To make it easier for every individual in receiving finances, we do not require nay collateral for it. There are some pre requisites which can make eligible for procuring it which includes you should have a citizenship of country from which you apply, you should be also above of age of 18 years, you must be employed in an organization for more that 6 months the job you posses should be also source of regular income for you.

This will not only provide you money you require but also a confidence and a sense of happiness. But we understand the needs of every category of people. Now they will not face such situations as we do not make any credit checks. No paper work is either involved in it. You can arrange your finances according to your payday. The day you have the requirement you will be getting the cash on the same day. You can be next one to be satisfied. The good thing about it is that your adverse credit scores will not be a barrier any more to meet your unfulfilled needs and desires.

On the due date of repayment the money get automatically transferred to the lenders account from the borrowers account by which helps the borrower at the time when they forgot about the repayment. Besides, we also arrange loans like quick cash loans. Payday text loans will find you a deal with lower interest rate. Your monthly repayment amount will be affordable and you can repay the amount without any hassle. Mostly people are using it to repay their small financial requirements. Hence in order to get the facility of it you should posses a mobile number and the bank account which helps you to get money.