Tag: 7 reasons

Guest Post: 7 Reasons You Need To Visit Paris

Paris is one of the most frequently trodden cities in the world. It is crawling with tourists, cameras, queues and a whole host of ‘must see’ sights that are famous in every continent. There’s good reason behind this. The place is swimming in formative world history and some of the most influential art man has ever created. There is stunning design on every single corner and, during a rare quiet moment, it could easily be the turn of the twentieth century. Not much in the way of architecture has changed since then.

And yet, if you’ve actually been to Paris you’ll understand just how quickly tourism loses its appeal. It’s less City of Love, more City of Shove because, as with the best things in this life, it has been inundated with culture vultures. Prepare to be shepherded around galleries by a continuous flow of art junkies desperate to catch a glimpse of the (disappointingly small) Mona Lisa. You’ll be harassed, too, by men who hide behind bunches of glittery, plastic Eifel Tower key rings and scatter when the police arrive.

If you’re happy to follow the tourist trail, Paris will provide. However, this city has a very different, sometimes macabre, side to it, one that many people overlook because they’re too busy flicking through a guide book. After generating so much artistic output, Paris is bound to have its hidden curiosities and, if you want to immerse yourself in the crux of things, then delve a little deeper. With that in mind, here is 7 Reasons To Visit Paris:

1. Shakespeare and Company – 37 Rue Bûcherie, 75005 Paris
This bookshop has kept its bohemian ideals, despite the changing face of modern France. It has welcomed some 50,000 writers through its doors, to work and stay, including Henry Miller and Allen Ginsberg. At Shakespeare and Company, a motto remains, ‘Be Not Inhospitable to Strangers, Lest They Be Angels in Disguise.’ Therefore, if you’re new to Paris and want to feel at home, you’re sure of a warm reception here. Perhaps they’ll even dust off the bottle of absinthe for you.

2. L’Ossuaire Municipal (The Catacombs) – 1 Place Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris
The best way to avoid the crowded streets is to get beneath them and hang out with folk who can’t cause a ruckus, the dead. A crypt houses the remains of some 6 million people whilst the rest of the Catacombs compromise of a 180 mile network of underground tunnels that were used by rebels during the French Resistance. These days, they’re home to illegal parties and walking tours, though the atmosphere is still dense with history. The walls are daubed with street art dating back to the eighteenth century and, as an added bonus, you won’t need to check the weather in Paris. Ultimately, if you’re trying to avoid conforming to travelling conventions, you can’t get more underground than this…

3. Place de la Madeleine’s Secret Public Toilet – 75008 (follow the winding stairway leading down from the courtyard to the right of the church)
The oldest and most beautiful loo in the entire city. As strange as it sounds, the Place de la Madeleine public toilet is absolutely worth a visit if you’re into the art nouveau movement, not to mention the fact it’s pretty much a secret. It’s the kind of thing you only know about if you’re a local, so you can feel like a true Parisian as you relieve yourself in style. With thick mahogany doors and intricate mosaic, it’s like an artist’s impression of how toilets should be. After all, doesn’t your derriere deserve the best?

4. Pere Lachaise cemetery – 16 Rue du Repos, 75020 Paris
Continuing the morbid theme, take in the sunny sights at one of the world’s most prolific cemeteries. Here, big name libertines enjoy their final resting place alongside Hollywood actresses and confessional poets. From humble tombstones to grand chapels, Pere Lachaise is marvelled at for the quality of its sculpture above all else. Visit the graves of Sarah Bernhardt, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison – whose memorial is under guard due to copious fan graffiti. If that wasn’t enough, Oscar Wilde’s tomb has been encased in glass because of stone erosion. It has literally been kissed too many times.

5. Musée Fragonard d’Alfort – 7 Avenue Gén de Gaulle, 94700 Maisons-Alfort, Paris
Based in the suburbs of Paris, this museum is definitely worth a visit if you’re the type who enjoys crypts, cemeteries and secret toilets. Housed under its roof is a vast collection of anatomical oddities, from mutated animals to ‘the hall of curiosities.’ Although the website cares to reiterate that it is ‘not a gallery of monsters,’ some of the subjects protected behind the glass can cause the faint hearted to squirm. In essence, however, it’s a fantastic collection detailing the history of scientific research.

6. Les Frigos – 19 Rue des Frigos, 75013, Paris
If you want to get off the beaten path in Paris and taste a bit of the arts, go to a warehouse called Les Frigos. Since the 1980s a huge number of artists have squatted in this large building on the banks of the Seine. Owned by SCNF, France’s railway, the building has become synonymous with art and rebellious spirit. After years of trying to expel its tenants, the mairie of Paris bought the building to insure that the artists could stay and create. You can check out the infamous warehouse for yourself during its open house – jazz music, artists expos, and dancing are all on tap.

7. Les Puces de Saint-Ouen (The Fleas) – Port de Montreuil, Paris
Known as the Fleas, Les Puces dates back over two centuries, when rag-and-bone men scoured through the rubbish of Paris to sell on. They were called ‘crocheteurs’ or ‘pickers’. The enterprising traders set up a flea market with stalls in this area, and today it’s become one of Paris’ well-known flea markets. Take the métro to Porte de Clignancourt on Line 4 and follow the crowds towards the large concrete overpass. If you are looking for antiques, don’t waste too much time looking through the clothing, African objects and household goods on streets along the way. The market and neighborhood is very colourful and you will love the diversity of personalities, stall keepers and products for sale!

May 14, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Go On Safari

Going on safari should certainly give you plenty to write home about! Here are seven other good reasons to think about booking one.

Photo by prise69

1. Because African Wildlife Is So Much More Interesting Than British Wildlife. Since Sir Ewen of Lochiel slayed the last wolf in Britain in 1680 there has been a distinct lack of interesting animals on British shores. With UK farmers expressing reservations about ideas to re-introduce bears, lynx and wolves to Albion’s countryside, intrepid travellers must go abroad to try and catch glimpses of the beautiful but dangerous wild animals which have roamed the earth since the dawn of mankind.

A glance at television wildlife programmes shows the gulf between the variety and quality of British wildlife compared to that found on an African safari. While shows such as Springwatch concentrates on the nesting progress of chaffinches and Blue Tits, Safari Vet School focusses on lions’, elephants’, rhinos’ and giraffes’ glorious fight for survival.

African wildlife or British wildlife: in terms of variety and exoticism there really is no competition.

2. Safaris Keep You Fit. The TV programme Safari Vet School does paint a slightly distorted picture of how physically taxing an African safari break is – you are unlikely to spend all day chasing lions with tranquilised darts in their body as the young vets did in one episode.

However, a typical safari in Africa will involve lots of healthy activities in the fresh air; walking safaris are particularly popular in this fascinating continent.

And if you want to combine long hikes with relaxing on golden sands then bear in mind that countries like Tanzania offer beach-and-bush holidays.

3. To Brush Up Your Photography Skills. Going on holiday shouldn’t be all about collecting holiday photographs which are more interesting that the ones your friends have displayed on Facebook. But let’s face it, it often is.

Your long-lens photo of a lion staring at you in the Masai Mara is sure to trump those blurred photos of the Eiffel Tower your annoying neighbours have just posted.

4. It’s A Good Excuse To Wear Great Fashions. Safari styles never seem to go out of fashion. While it’s considered a fashion faux-pas to wear animal print accessories when checking in at a safari lodge, khaki clothing and belted bush jackets look as good on safari as they do on the catwalk.

5. You’ve Seen The Film, Now See The Place. Films like Out of Africa and African Queen have put safari culture on the map and showcased the beauty of the African continent. African Queen, which starred Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, was filmed in Uganda and the Congo. Out of Africa was shot in Kenya. Any places which are part of Hollywood history must be worth visiting.

6. Because The Royals Love Safaris. The British Royal Family has long been a fan of the safari experience. Queen Elizabeth II was staying in a Kenyan treetop safari lodge when she learned that she was to become Queen and her immediate family have all at one time or another gone on safari to escape the stresses of daily court life. Maybe you’ll see a member of the Royal Household through your binoculars when you’re trying to catch a glimpse of wildlife in Africa.

7. To Emulate David Attenborough And Wildlife Cameramen. Just how do cameramen capture extraordinary footage of Big Game in the wild? And why do camera operators never shout out a helpful warning to a creature if it’s being stalked by a predator?

You might well have a better understanding of the qualities needed by cameramen if you go on an African safari. Patience and the ability to stay silent are probably two of the main necessary attributes.

If you’ve got these then you’re ideally qualified to get the most from a safari!

Author Bio: James Christie writes for safari specialists Safari Consultants. Contact Safari Consultants to find out more about tailor-made safaris in Africa.

May 13, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons You Will Benefit From Domain Controllers

Domain controllers are servers that perform routine security requests like ensuring the user has access to certain files or logging a user into the network. While domain controllers take some time to install and configure, there are a few advantages to having them installed. Here are seven reasons why you should have domain controllers installed.

1. Faster Authentication. A domain controller is made only for routine security processes. Due to this, it can perform these processes much faster than another server that is busy running programs and processing resources. Using a domain controller makes it easier for a user to access the domain and network, and the time savings are often rather large if this is used across a big network.

2. Resource Authentication. Aside from authenticating users, domain controllers are also used to authenticate resources. For example, before a user opens a certain type of program, the domain controller will authenticate the user’s ability to use those resources. This ensues that users are not allowed to use resources that are above their clearance, and this is faster than forcing another server to do the same thing.

3. Resource Utilization. Handing out resources can require a lot of power and processing. Normally the regular servers are expected to hand out these resources, but that often gets in the way of programs being used. This inevitably ends up creating a digital traffic jam that can take several minutes to clear up.

Domain controllers are able to assist in handing out resources, ensuring that these digital traffic jams are minimized.

4. Better Computer Speeds. Computers often need to perform some server processing on the client side to get the necessary resources for a program to open, or to authenticate a process. This takes away a lot of energy from the computer, which can cause programs to quickly slow down.

A domain controller exists outside of the workstation, and it cuts out all this extra processing. The controller performs the necessary authentication and resource utilization work, so the workstation does not need to waste power on this. This makes the computer function faster.

5. Decreased Network Traffic. Large networks tend to have a lot of traffic going back and forth. Workstations are demanding resources and servers are processing the requests and doing their best to rush resources back to the workstation. This causes a different type of digital traffic jam, but it has the same effect: it causes the entire network to slow down and lose power.

A domain controller can step in and regulate all the network traffic. It can help direct traffic to different servers or workstations, which greatly reduces the chance of any jams occurring.

6. Better Password Management. A lot of digital and mental resources are needed for password management. Users need to remember all their passwords for the various logins they need to perform at work, and servers need to both remember and authenticate these passwords for users. People sometimes forget things, and it can be a massive issue if someone forgets his or her password. It can reduce the amount of work a team can complete in one day. Servers also have to dedicate a good amount of their processing just to passwords.

Domain controllers handle all of this. They can replace the normal servers for password management, which frees up those resources. It is generally easier to make a new password with a domain controller, so a forgetful employee can quickly get back to work.

7. Better Security. A normal sever has a relatively high chance of letting a user through the system without proper authentication. Normally this doesn’t last long and the effects are typically minimal, but this may enable unauthorized access to certain files.

Since a domain controller is made specifically for safety, the chances of unauthorized access are significantly lower.

Conclusion: Installing a domain controller is a great way to make your network move faster and function better. The controller is better with authenticating users and resources, and it can help in many other ways. Most businesses report that they are able to perform more work with a domain controller installed. Try one out and see how much better your business can be with a domain controller.

Author Bio: Tom Demers writes about domain controllers for Bit9 a company dedicated to helping protect clients online.

May 12, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons For Men To Have A Haircut

Photo By David Smith

1. Because Your Mum Tells You To. “If you don’t get a haircut today it’ll be bread and jam for dinner tonight.” Honestly, the way your Mum constantly moans about you having a haircut it would just be easier to shut the old drone up and have it done. No one would know that you’re 37 and left home 20 years ago.

2. To Re-invent Yourself. It’s time for you to completely re-vamp your image and so, armed with a picture of your favourite star which you’ve cut out from the Radio Times, you troop off down to the barbers. Half an hour later you emerge transformed; like a butterfly emerging from the pupa. Checking your reflection in every shop window, car wing mirror and muddy puddle that you pass, you feel reassured that you now look every inch the young rock-star around the town. If this doesn’t impress your fellow co-workers at the all-night garage then nothing will.

3. So You Can Stop Embarrassing Your Friends. If it’s been a while since you’ve had a decent haircut you might notice tell-tale signs of embarrassment among your friend. Perhaps they’ve started walking six paces behind you. Perhaps they now insist on buying you hats or scissors for your birthday/Christmas present. Or perhaps you’ve noticed that you don’t have any friends any more. If any of these signs manifest themselves it could be time to join the 21st century and sort out your barnet.

4. Because People Are Beginning To Mistake You For A Girl. When short-sighted builders start mistaking you for a lady and whistling at you from the scaffolding you know your hair is getting too long. A few savage cuts of the barber’s scissors and the situation is soon remedied. No more sprinting past the builder’s scaffolding for you.

5. Because You’re Lonely. The comforting candy stripes of the barber’s shop pole acts like a beacon of hope for many lonely folk. And no one will ever take as keen an interest in your holiday plans as the man who cuts your hair every month/week/day.

6. Because You’ve Had A Bad Haircut From Someone Else. You’ve been going to the same barber all your life but then you suddenly started to wonder what it would be like to visit another barber. And so you scratched the itch and now, humiliatingly, you find yourself back in your regular barber’s chair asking him to fix a botched haircut. You’ve betrayed him and learned your lesson. And nothing will ever be the same again.

7. Because You’ve Had A Bad Haircut From Yourself. There’s a recession on so you thought you’d save some money by investing in some electric clippers and cutting your own hair. Let’s face it anyone can cut hair can’t they? But you’ll soon discover that ‘cutting your own hair’ is just another one of those exceptions to that ridiculous phrase ‘if you want a thing done well, do it yourself’.

Author Bio: James Christie writes for UK business directory Thomson Local Business Directory. Use Thomson to find hairdressers near you.

May 11, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons You Should Have Paid More Attention In Art Class

When I was last at school I treated art lessons as a time to let my hair down, muck around and generally play the class fool. I don’t know what the kids must have thought of me – no wonder I didn’t last long as a teacher.

Photo by Blue Monkey

Here are seven good reasons why it really does pay to brush up on your art skills at school.

1. Think Of The Money. There is very good money to be made from art. In 1895, Norwegian artist Edvard Munch knocked up a picture of an alien-type figure holding their head in their hands while screaming on a bridge. He called the picture The Scream and it’s just been sold for $119.9 million (£74 million) at auction.

2. Anyone Can Come Up With A Great Piece Of Art. Looking at The Scream it’s hard to resist the thought that anyone could have drawn it – the figure in the picture is just one step up from a stick man; Munch hasn’t even troubled himself with the task of giving the screaming figure tricky-to-draw details like hair, eyelashes or fingernails. The Scream shows that a very simple, well-executed idea will take you a long way. And makes you lots of dosh too.

3. Making Great Art Can Be Quick. Watching the great children’s TV artists of the 1970s and 1980s go about their work provided a crash-course lesson on how to create great art quickly. Both Rolf Harris and Tony Hart worked at a frightening pace – producing two or three top-notch pieces of work in each half-hour episode. Replicate this work rate over a 9 to 5 working day and you will have lots of interesting art to sell.

4. Art College Is The Modern-Day Fame Academy. Britain has a great tradition of people going to Art College going on to become famous stars. John Lennon of The Beatles, Pete Townshend of The Who and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones were just three of the stars who went to art college to study painting techniques and graphic design. It is worth noting that all of these stars found fame not through painting but through music and that most of the 1960s art colleges have been closed down because of spending cuts but you get the picture.

5. People Love Child Artists. Paying attention during primary school art lessons can pay dividends very quickly as the art world is particularly keen to embrace young talent. Nine-year-old Kieron Williamson is a case in point. The Norfolk lad regularly exhibits his oil, watercolour and pastel originals at exhibitions and has been dubbed ‘Mini Monet’ by chin-stroking art experts. “It’s lovely to see a nine-year-old boy keeping traditional landscape painting alive,” Kieron’s mother Michelle recently said. And there’s clearly a market for it – the youngster’s brilliant paintings fetch as much as £150,000 at auction.

6. Art Is Self-Expression. What other professions allow you to choose your own hours, attract muses and keep a messy office without the boss telling you off? Being an artist is all about expressing your inner soul and letting your creative fires burn freely.

7. Art Opens So Many Doors. And if all else fails you can always become an art teacher.

Author Bio: James Christie writes for Yellow Moon craft supplies shop.

May 10, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons You Need To Survey Your Employees

If you own your own business, or you manage a team of people, your days are probably filled with meetings, mountains of paperwork and trying to keep on top of your email inbox. However, if you’re responsible for a team of employees, you have a responsibility to be a good manager. You not only need to demonstrate strong leadership skills, you need to be able to track their progress, set goals and help them develop.

But how can you do that when you’re completely snowed under? Well believe it or not and employee survey is a perfect way of measuring your employees’ happiness and how they view you as their manager.

Not convinced? Well here are seven reasons why you need to regularly survey your employees.

1. You Measure Morale. By surveying your employees the first benefit you get is that you will be measuring their morale. If you have unhappy workers, you have an unproductive workforce – plain and simple. If you can measure their morale and identify the reasons why John from accounts is feeling down, you can put measures in place to improve his morale and boost his productivity.

2. You Measure Passion. On top of measuring morale, an employee survey will measure passion. Every business wants a passionate workforce which cares about its goals and objectives – whether it’s a private company out to make money or a local government organisation providing housing. If you don’t have a workforce committed to your goals you don’t have much to go on.

3. You Measure Sentiment. Employee surveys, if conducted anonymously can reveal a great deal about how your workforce feels about your business itself. Do they think you’re heading in the right direction? Do they feel your goals are realistic? Do they think they are working for a business which cares for them? By asking questions like this you could unearth some hard truths which may be hard to take at first but will be beneficial for you in the long-run

4. You Can Make More Money. This might be fourth on this list, but it’s certainly no less important. Employee surveys can actually help you to make you more money. Why? Because if your employees feel that they are listened to, that their opinions are respected, that you are a manager who cares about them and that they are working for a caring company they will be more motivated to turn up to work and perform. If you’re all about the bottom line it’s proven that more passion = more sales = more turnover.

5. You Can Save Money. Even if you’re not in the business to make money, all employee surveys can help you to save money. How? Well if your employees are asked about their welfare, their aims and their goals and monitored on their performance, they will be more likely to stay at your organisation. If someone feels like they have room to progress through promotion and identified development opportunities they won’t be hunting job websites to look for the first chance to escape. This will save you on recruiting costs and the costs through time of reading CVs and conducting interviews. When it’s put like that you can save quite a bit of money!

6. You Measure Performance. After all the interpersonal and business benefits of employee surveys, another key reason is that you can measure an employee’s performance. Anonymous employee surveys, such as 360 feedback, are a way for organisations to find out how colleagues perceive their workmates without fear of being identified. This gives an accurate reflection of your workforce’s performance, and lets you set individual goals to work on. This will not only help you track their progress it can help identify certain weak areas or parts of their jobs they need to work on

7. You Find Out About Your Management Quality! A final benefit of employee surveys is that, as a manager, you can find out about you. Think about it, if you were to ask your team for what they honestly thought about your management style do you think they’d give you an honest answer to your face? By using 360 feedback you can find out precisely what your team thinks about your leadership and management style. You may not like the results, but if it identifies some areas for you to improve on you’ll benefit your business no end.

Author Bio: ETS plc provides 360 degree feedback surveys for businesses. For more information about how 360 feedback can help your business, please see the website.

May 6, 2012
Sponsored Post: 7 Reasons It Takes A Watch To Say Sorry

Yeah. You messed up. Big time.

But don’t worry, you’ve found the ultimate relationship advice column from a fat, single American. How do you fix everything? Do what any self-respecting American would do: Buy an expensive imported product for him or her!

Not only do I have a sexy selection of timepieces to choose from, but I’ve got a watch for every specific screw-up. From offending your mother-in-law to skipping out on Sunday dinner with the extended family, there is a watch that will make things all better. So without further ado…

1. Screw-up: You burnt the roast you cooked for his boss coming over for dinner. Solution: The Mondaine Evo Chronograph watch.

OK, so the turkey was slightly drier than Cousin Catherine’s rubberized masterpiece in Christmas Vacation. You know he’ll never retaliate by leaving the burgers on the grill too long with this Swiss chronograph from Mondaine watches.

2. Screw-up: You deleted Project Runway off of your TiVo. Solution: The Wenger Alpine Crystal watch.

Alright, man—she’s not buying that you did it on “accident”, so stop trying to sell it. (We both know it was intentional anyway.) Any fashionista would be proud to sport this blinged-out lavender head-turner on her wrist. Eat your heart out, Heidi.

3. Screw-up: You refused to let him go paintballing for a bachelor party. Solution: The Wenger Standard Issue XL watch.

The only way to make sure he stayed in one piece and could still be the father of your futures kids was to not let him go. Now he refuses to do the yard work to get back at you. Get him this Wenger watch with its steel case and heavy duty strap, and he won’t be able to wait to try out its toughness while cleaning the gutters and re-shingling the roof.

4. Screw-up: You faked an illness to skip the marriage retreat. Then she came home and found you drinking beer, smoking cigars and playing pinochle with your buddies. Solution: The Tense Sandalwood Digital watch.

In your defense, all of the cigar smoke and Guinness did end up making you quite sick. But get her the latest from Tense watches, and she’ll be proud to wrap the all Maple piece around her wrist when you go on the nature hike. At the marriage retreat next weekend.

5. Screw-up: You put his favorite watch through the washing machine and ruined it. Solution: The Casio G-Shock Retro-Vintage watch.

Let’s face it—his old sports watch was grimy and filthy; it needed a good cleaning. How could you possibly be expected to not try and get sparkling again? Get him the brand that everyone who’s anyone in the hip-hop industry is rocking today. This all white G-Shock watch would be fit for the couch or one of Diddy Dirty Money’s white parties.

6. Screw-up: You feel guilty that she just bought you a new white G-Shock. Solution: The Casio Baby-G Multifunction watch.

She gave you such a baller watch that her nasty old leather piece looks awful. So getting her the matching model from Baby-G watches will score you some major points (Just in case you accidentally sell something she loves at your next yard sale).

7. Screw-Up: You accidentally sell something he loves at your next yard sale. Solution: The Fossil Ansel watch.

Hey, it goes both ways. So he’ll never have his old teddy bear, first baseball mitt or birth certificate ever again—he’ll get over it pretty quickly with this classy Fossil watch. It never needs a battery, so it will never stop living—just like your love, even after all of these mishaps.

Author Bio: Post contributed by Barrie on behalf of Watchco.

May 5, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons You Need To Volunteer Abroad

If you are coming to the end of your studies, most of you will soon be busy checking job websites, scanning the local papers and trying to find that perfect first position. However, given the tough economic climate, more and more young people are finding it tough to get a job at all – let alone find the perfect one.

With that in mind, here’s seven reasons why we think now’s the right time to volunteer abroad.

1. You Develop As A Person. By far and away the biggest benefit to you by volunteering abroad is that you yourself will develop as a person. You will meet people from across the world you’re unlikely to have met if you’d stayed at home. You’ll develop skills and nurture friendships that will last a lifetime, and once you return you will have stories to tell. Whatever it is you do, you will develop into a more well-rounded person.

2. You See The World. By volunteering abroad you can choose the country which you’ve always dreamed of visiting. You could go to Africa and work in an orphanage, visit India and deliver life-saving medication to slum dwellers or work on a conservation project saving turtles in South America. Whatever you do or wherever you go, seeing majestic mountains or crystal clear seas is by far and away more appealing than a rainy Redditch.

3. You Change Lives. One of the major benefits of volunteering abroad is to change lives. By volunteering abroad the time and effort you give on your project will make a difference to peoples’ lives. For example, if you help dig a well for a water pipe, it could keep a village stocked with clean drinking water for years. Even if your volunteering work is just looking after children, the time you spend volunteering will help – it all adds up.

4. You View A Culture From The Inside. By spending time in a country different from the one you grew up in, you will be given a unique learning experience by interacting with a new culture. You may learn a new language, try new foods, have to dress differently. Wherever it is you go you will view a culture from the inside – helping to challenge proposed “norms” and making you a more well-rounded person.

5. You Meet New People. You will not be alone when you volunteer abroad. For years you have probably surrounded yourself with the same friends and same family members, without branching out and meeting new people. What could be better than jetting off abroad and interacting with people from all four corners of the world? People who work abroad make friends for life – and, with the advent of Facebook, keeping in touch with them and reminiscing about the time you spent together is easier than ever.

6. You Can Influence Your Future Career. You might have spent years studying accountancy. You may know everything there is to know about English Literature. But two weeks spent abroad helping orphans afflicted by AIDS can put it all into perspective. You may come back and decide you don’t want to photocopy spreadsheets or write email marketing newsletters for a company which sells lawnmowers. Volunteering abroad really can influence your future career.

7. You Boost Your CV. But finally, the biggest benefit for volunteering abroad is that it will boost your CV. Jobs nowadays are few and far between. Spend a few weeks abroad making a difference to people’s lives, meeting new people, trying new things and having new experiences and you will have something to put on your CV which stands out. You will not only stand out from the competition when you go for an interview, you’ll be showing prospective employers you’re motivated, you’ve got guts and interpersonal skills far and above your peers.

Author Bio: Original Volunteers is a provider of voluntary work opportunities across the world. For information on how you can work abroad please visit the website.

May 3, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Try Hypnotherapy

‘Celebrity Hypnotists’ and their peddling of hypnosis as a form of entertainment have a lot to answer for. The lack of trust in hypnotherapy as a bona-fide method to treat conditions from depression to weight loss or mothers in child-birth to bed-wetting in those resulting children, is unnecessarily wide-spread and much of this could be put down to too many slap-stick programs and internet clips of people flapping like a birdy, declaring their love for a doggy or regressing to babyhood, sucking on a dummy, dribbling – and worse. Hypnotherapy, founded in the ‘mesmerism’ of the 1800’s and now used as a method for curing conditions that stem from emotional and psychological issues, has also influenced the development of the widely recognised cognitive behavioural therapy, and which employs clinical hypnosis.

Among the many reasons to think about hypnotherapy in a positive less ‘look into my eyes, not around the eyes’way;

1. Spiders Are Cool. They eat the flies which might land on your food after eating poo. You don’t have to be scared of spiders and chase them from your home – spiders are your friends. Hypnotherapy can help with irrational fears and phobias of all kinds in both adults and children.

2. Stuttering Wastes A Lot Of Time. It’s even difficult for a stutterer to say ‘stutter’, which just can’t be fair. Hypnotherapy can help the afflicted find a way around the stuttering and thereby improving confidence which perpetuates a further improvement of the condition.

3. The Extra Weight Is Hard To Lug About Isn’t It? Now be honest, there is a much healthier, thin person under all the blubber who craves far less and who could be uncovered with the help of weight loss hypnotherapy to change eating behaviours . Approaching food and it’s consumption in a different way is better than crash dieting, which doesn’t work anyway; better than gastric bands, which can be painful and lead to digestive problems.

4. Bed-Wetting Is, Like, Soooo First Decade. Actually, you should have stopped this before even reaching your first half-decade. If you have not by then, your parents should be sick of changing wet sheets, as you must have had enough of the crackle of the plastic sheet, so ask them to check out something like The Therapy Lounge hypnotherapy where therapists are used to dealing with wee ones (sorry).

5. Anger Management Is Only Funny In A Film With A Shouty, Sweary American Comedian. Otherwise get a lid on it, keep your cool. Learn techniques through hypnotherapy to control and reroute your anger into more positive feelings.

6. Compulsive Shopping Can Ruin Relationships. Particularly if you have a stingy other half who doesn’t like you spending your own money either. You can’t buy happiness so you can’t keep shopping to find it that way. Hypnotherapy can help you change your behaviour so that you can resist the shops and the internet which has made it all too easy to flex the plastic and spend online.

7. Gloria Gaynor Might Not Be Enough To Make You Believe You Will Survive. Divorce is a very tough process and has a prolonged recovery time. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Neuro Linguistic Programming, as well as traditional hypnotherapy, could help you overcome the negative emotions that could be overwhelming you, and eventually have you humming along to Gloria with a spring in your step.

April 29, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Get Your Sofa Fixed

There are few things more necessary in your home than a good sofa. Somewhere to socialise, somewhere to relax, somewhere for extra guests to sleep, somewhere for you to sleep yourself when you have fallen asleep in the middle of Newsnight – again, somewhere for you and a loved one to snuggle, somewhere for your visiting nephews to jump all over and smear Easter eggs into.

Here are just seven of the many reasons for you to get your sofa fixed and fit for purpose.

1. You Are Not A Student Any Longer. It might be acceptable, when you are living on beans and super noodles, to have somewhere you don’t care about the spills and stickiness. To have a place where you don’t care that your best mate – the one with his aversion to baths and who’s Mum hasn’t been up to collect the laundry for some time – falls asleep on for the fifth time that week. That time is long gone. Wake up and smell the sofa. Replace the cushions, give it a good clean and put the missing wheel back on.

2. Your Mum Will Moan At You And Think You Can’t Look After Yourself. This is a good thing when it means shepherd’s pie deliveries and the odd bit of dusting and vacuuming. When she is griping over and again about the state of your furniture, it’s boring and avoidable. Get your cushion foam replaced and a new cover and she will sit and chat with you and ask when you are going to let her meet your girlfriend and when you’ll make her a granny. Actually, perhaps it’s better if she just moans about the sofa.

3. It’s Uncomfortable To Idle On A Lumpy Sofa. Idling is important. It’s time to reflect on your life, time to relax and ponder on the universe and all its beings. You can’t do that unless you are sitting pretty or, even better, horizontal on some luxuriously fat cushions.

4. You Need To Have Somewhere For Your Mates To Sit And Watch Football. You can’t have them putting their backside’s through the seat when they flop back down after contesting that all-important penalty or the little celebratory run around the living room. Fix those slats.

5. Springs Through The Bum Ain’t No Fun! Vintage sofa’s may look cool, but springs poking out of old horsehair and straw is a bit of a pain in the arse. Search the internet for reliable upholstery firms or companies like Cutfoam offering foam cut to size that you can cover up those springs and bare bots that leave you bruised.

6. You Can’t Make A Den With Flat, Floppy Cushions. Those visiting nephews will take a lot more intensive looking after and effort on your part if you don’t have some solid kit – and that includes some good stiff sofa cushions that can be propped up against the back to make a den/battle ship/castle. When they’ve finished playing, you can sit them down on the very same sofa to watch a bit of kid’s tv. Trust me, you will want to delay this as long as possible. Fix the cushions.

7. No Woman Will Snuggle With You On A Crappy Sofa. You need a sofa that smells good, that is sif enough to schlompf into, and that is wide enough for you both to fit, but not wide enough that you aren’t pretty close together. Removable back cushions help with creating enough space to lie down for a good old nuzzle.

Enjoy!

April 28, 2012