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Muscat Muses in Koh Tao

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Thailand is a country blessed like few others with an abundance of great beaches. There are literally hundreds of islands and maybe thousands of beaches to choose from  in the Kingdom of Thailand. Why is that then that I keep going back to  the one small island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand?

Such is human nature I guess. We find a place that we consider paradise and we are apt to keep going back to the same place. We daren’t risk going to a new place in case it doesn’t live up to the high expectations set by our favorite place. The best I do is to stay on a different beach each time I go to Koh Tao. I’ve stayed at Mae Haad, Sairee, Chalok Baan Kao, Tanote Bay, Mango Bay and Koh Nang Yuan. The latter is composed of three small islands joined by a sand bank. This sand bank is probably my favorite spot in all of Thailand. The sand is immaculate, the water calm and clear and the sky a perfect shade of blue. I love swimming in the sea and spotting the fish.

Koh Tao has the best of both worlds – it has pristine beaches, unspoilt natural scenery as well as some great night life. Most nights of the week there is a party happening on Sairee Beach or at the popular The Castle on the Chalok Baan Kao road. I stay up all night, make friends, drink buckets and stumble happily along the beach back to my bungalow where I blissfully sleep off the alcohol.

And finally, when the mood takes me I book up a dive trip. I try to get to a new dive site each time I go to Koh Tao. Each dive I am rewarded by spotting a new fish or sometimes even a whale shark or turtle.

I really don’t think I’m going to get around to visiting Koh Samui, Phuket or the other countless islands that Thailand has to offer.

Accessing a Polish Bank Account

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I mean how hard can it be, I lived in Poland – Krakow to be specific.  I worked there a few months and needed an account in a Polish bank, which I set up as instructed by my employers.  But then I had to move to a different location – something that happens to people all the time.  So how do I access my account in Poland without travelling there every month – the internet I hear you shout.

Of course that’s what I thought, no problem the bank was well run and professional (like most things in Poland).  So I had no real worries when I signed up to their online banking service.  But then the stupid, annoying geo-location checks kicked in.  It of course sound reasonable and many thousands of web sites do it.  For varying reasons they block access to people who try to access a service based on their IP address.  So the reasoning goes – anyone accessing a Polish banking site should be based in Poland – if they’re not then they wil get blocked.

I can see the logic, it blocks the cyber criminals in Rio De Janerio clearing out your bank account online.  Howver it also stops thousands of legitimate people doing their banking online when travelling abroad.  My problem was paying my outstanding rent on my flat in Krakow but I eventually figured it out.  I found a company that sold a service that provided a Poland proxy site which I could connect to and pay my bills online.  It also allowed me to acces loads of other Polish websites, but to be honest I didn’t bother as I can’t speak Polish.  

My real annoyance is how the internet is being censored and filtered simply to suit corporate needs, this isn’t how it was started.  It’s not how it was meant to be.

Why You Aren’t Allowed to Refill Toner Cartridges

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Well I can answer the question briefly – it’s basically money.  I started to get involved in environmental issues over the last few years and this is one area that really annoys me.  I’m not a hard line eco-warrior,  I like to try and do my bit within reason.  I’m also not going to spend my holidays in a tent down the road to minimize my carbon footprint.  But the business model adopted by the printer companies really annoys me.

Just for clarification let me summarize – the printer companies sell their printers cheaply for one reason.  That is that they will make loads more money on the cartridges than on the initial hardware.  That is the way they maximize profits, sell the hardware cheaply then make lots of money on the toner and paper.

It sounds fair enough until you start seeing them promote themselves as environmentally friendly.  The truth is that by far the most eco friendly option in this scenario is to make your printer refillable without producing additional cartridges – it would be easy to do, but also very bad for profits.

So the printer companies like HP and Epson start a two pronged attack – on one side they promote themselves as eco friendly by starting recycling schemes.  On the other side they spend millions investing in technology to stop people  using the  ’green’ option of refilling ink and toner cartridges.  These allegedly eco friendly companies have teams of people developing computer chips to install on their cartridges stopping people refilling them.

So a quick summary at the end – you can’t refill toner cartridges because it means the printer companies make less money.

 

What I’ve Learned About the World Economy

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From living in different parts of the world with radically different customs, courtesies and culture I have discovered one underlying factor that seems to be a boost for different economies:  personal responsibility.  Personal responsibility is at the root of any healthy economy.   Governments can regulate, legislate and magistrate all they want but at the end of the day it’s up to the people to take control of their own personal finances and contribute to a healthy economy.  My finances are healthy and secure as I use an amortization schedule to ensure that I do my part in fiscal responsibility and can actually afford to pay my mortgage loan on a monthly basis.  It’s amazing how this type of responsibility isn’t encouraged in many cultures.  Personal responsibility among citizens is unquestionably what leads a nation to economic success.

All Because of a Craving

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All because of a craving I will have to be in traffic accident claims court in two weeks.  If only I had not seen the commercial for my favorite cheeseburger I could stayed in my pjs and off the road. But no! Off to get a burger and fries I went.

I got my burger and started to head home. I was almost there. Only 7 houses away but instead of arriving to the driveway I hit a park car. Why did I do this? Because out of nowhere the neighbor’s dog came running from towards the side of my vehicle!  I jerked the wheel and that was all it took. BAM!

It was humiliating to knock on the door to my neighbor house to tell them they parked car now had damaged. To make matters even worse the car I hit was owned by their visiting Grandpa Bob! I am sure that was no away he wanted to start his vacation.

Pertaining to Pitchfork and the Term Hipster

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Recently there has been a lot of focus on a new subculture with a recycled name: hipsters. We live in a world where new subcultures are created at a whiplash pace. But this one drives me the craziest, especially when it has something to do with the web site, Pitchfork.com.

Don’t get me wrong: there are definitely people who could be considered indie snobs. Because an artist is mainstream, they immediately hate any output from that particular artist. But I have seen an ungodly amount of hate for anything that would be considered indie, including Pitchfork.com. While I think some of the reviews on Pitchfork’s web site may be quick to either dismiss or praise a certain artist or band, I don’t think that makes them any different from the people who openly dismissed Arcade Fire following their Grammy win.

Plus, with the open musical sea that has become of the Internet, an artist on the indie scene can become mainstream darlings relatively quick. From the Grammy nominations for Bon Iver to the recent SNL bands like The Black Keys, the divide between hipster and mainstream is too blurry to keep up the divides.

Getting Juicy With It

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Fruits – sweet, delicious, juicy and good for you. Is there a better food on the planet? Today I want to introduce you to the joy of muscat grapes. You can eat them fresh, eat them as raisins and you can even juice them. You can find out more about juicing and what sort of machine is best for the job by looking at online juicer reviews websites.

Grapes are really enjoyable to eat and help us when we want to detox our body. This means that a meal can be as many grapes as you can eat! In other words, just keep on eating grapes until you are full.

When it comes to picking the best grapes, this is what Produce Pete has to say:

Look for plump, smooth grapes with good color. They should be firmly attached to a fresh-looking green stem, with no evidence of wrinkling or withering. There should be a dusty bloom on the skin of the grape itself. Like the dusty bloom on blueberries, it’s a naturally occurring substance that helps protect the grapes and is a good indication of freshness. Green or white grapes will have a golden glow when they’re ripe; red grapes will be a soft, rich red, and black grapes will have a deep, blue-black color

The bottom line is that the fresher your grapes, the more nutrients they will contain. Not only that, they will taste the best too. While other fruits will ripen after they are picked, the fact that grapes don’t means that we should pick them ripe and eat them as soon as possible.

Security Guard: How I Made It a Career

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security guard jobsI never thought of landing a security guard job when I was growing up.  Children don’t normally say that they want to be a security guard when they’re asked what they want to be when they grow up.  It’s usually something along the lines of being a policeman, a pilot, a firefighter, or other similarly exciting jobs.

But, sometime during my high school years, I came to see the promise of making a career out of being a security guard.  It’s a relatively uneventful job and quite solitary if you think about it.  But, it is also an interesting job especially if you work in a busy establishment – the night shifts are still kind of a challenge for me.  The fact that I did not have the luxury or time and money to get a four year degree, bolstered my interest in becoming a security guard.  And so, I researched my options and found out how I could start a career as a security guard.

My first hurdle was to get certified in a 2-year associate degree program in line with criminal justice or security management studies.  I heard that some establishments do not really require formal education to hire a security guard.  But since I was serious in making it a career and I wanted to get into the top security firms, I opted to gain the necessary education and training to be able to get accepted into the best security guard jobs.

Just like in any other college course, my security guard course involved basic skills as oral and written communication, math, problem solving, and decision making.  Additional competencies such as those with regard to security legislation, standard operating procedures, weaponry, surveillance, first aid, and detection among others were also tackled during the course of my schooling.

After completing my associate’s degree, I then had to undergo licensing which meant that I had to take a written examination, a back ground check, and a drug test.  By the time I was 20, I was ready to be employed as a security guard.  In the California hotel where I am now working, I have to continue to attend eight hours of additional training every year to retain my license and to be able to continue growing in the career.

Back In England After Living In Muscat

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As a qualified Civil Engineer I have had the opportunity to work in some wonderful countries around the world but the lure of England and its green and pleasant land is never far away. To be honest, the wife missing her family is probably the main reason we always return back home but I like to have a change every now and again too. The old adage of ‘variety is the spice of life’ is certainly very true.

My most recent assignment was in Muscat in Oman and I loved every minute of it. The people were friendly, the food was great, there was a lot of history to see and learn about, and the weather was absolutely wonderful. Getting back to a dreary Birmingham in January has been quite a shock I can tell you!

Luckily for my wife and I, my father in law has been busy renovating a lovely farmhouse for us whilst we were away. We had come home to see the family and go house hunting and found this wonderful building. The problem was it was just a shell so it needed everything sorting out – wiring, new central heating system, full interior decor – the works. Luckily my father in law is a builder and he has been a bit short of work in the recent poor economic climate so it was a great project for him to sink his teeth into.

To his credit, when my wife and I finally got home and moved in we were amazed at what a wonderful job he had done for us. It really did help to make our move back from the middle east a really smooth transition.

Why I’m Thinking of Treating Myself to a Dolce Gusto Picccolo

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The Dolce Gusto Piccolo, created by Nestle, comes in various styles and colours and can be bought either over the internet or at a local store, mall or supermarket. This particular coffee maker has both good points and bad points, although it does get mostly four to five star review ratings on the internet. It is not a perfect coffee maker by any means, but it is well made and does provide near instant coffee in a convenient manner. Individuals who have a fast-paced life are sure to appreciate using this coffee maker, as it is quick, easy to maintain and provides decent coffee. The Piccolo has gotten very good internet review ratings, which shows that it is a popular machine with many users.

My Freelance Job: Web Designer an Awesome Online Career

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It has been 3 years now since I’ve decided to quit my office work job and focus more on my online work as a freelance web designer. I don’t feel any regrets of choosing a career that I dearly love to do—web designing. But, before I came to this decision of being a full-time online web designer, took a great deal of planning, studying and learning the skills required to become a competent web designer. The good thing about any online job is you can avail online trainings as well as acquire software tools to enhance your skills either as a web designer, programmer or writer. You just have to prioritize which among the various online trainings you should take first. I, myself being an artistic individual who had been very passionate in creating artistic designs, availed most educational learning dealing in web design. I even availed the Photoshop free download for my first attempt to master the web designing skills and creativity. Although, this skill cannot be learned overnight, with determination I was able to finish the entire training course with flying colors.

If you are already tempted to try an online career, then consider this web designing job. Not only it will allow you to earn more money, but will also give you the chance to bring your creative ideas into actual use with the creation website designs.

For your information, an online web designer key role is to create a truly unique and artistic website for your prospective employer. The work itself can be demanding because you have to put all your best effort and creative ideas for your work to be approved and be published finally for your client’s website.

If you have the passion in designing websites,  the capacity to work well even for remote employers and continually meet their specific standards, then, this online work can be a rewarding career for you where compensation is big.

If this online career had worked out for my benefit and interest, you too can achieve this. Just believe in your potentials and learn to fully utilize your skills. Online works offer you more freedom to work anywhere, anytime and at the comforts of your home unlike traditional jobs where you need to go to a working place for your work.

So, if you got what it takes to become a web designer, give this fantastic online job a try. Who knows you can be the best web designer in town. Now is the right time to venture to this online work. If I made it big, you too have a fair chance of winning a high paying job as web designer.

The Good Stuff That We Ate As We Were Growing Up

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I always tell people that they haven’t tasted real grapes unless they have had real muscat. When I was growing up we used to have muscat on our property and that thing is delicious on at any time of harvest. Even birds used to go nuts about it and for that reason we preferred to gather muscat a little earlier before the birds got to it. The grape has a really strong flavor to it and there is no way you can mistake it for something else, once you taste it you know it’s muscat!

We had a lot of great fruits on our property, good flavors, unlike the stuff you get in supermarkets that taste like nothing. We used to have a lot of great nutritious fruits and vegetables in our diet when we were kids, unfortunately at the same time we used to eat way too much meat, I mean really really way too much, and I bet many problems us, our parents and our grandparents experienced with their health were associated with this. We knew little to nothing about eating healthy, nobody really got checked for any medical conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol people do today on a regular basis. If you had some kind of pain you just waited for it to pass, only in extreme cases would people go to see doctors. I assume if my grand parents where to check their cholesterol levels their cholesterol ratio would be unacceptable for todays’ norms, which keeps me wondering how much of today’s obsession with decreasing cholesterol has actually benefited our lives, because come to think of it most of my grandparents passed away in their 80s, I sure don’t expect myself to live that long. I think it’s also possible that most of today’s food is growing in condition that keeps their nutritious value really low, almost any product that I remember as a child tasted better than they taste now. For instance we used to make eggplants on fire, the eggplants used to be thin & firm and after having them on fire most of the vegetable inside would still be in great shape. Today’s eggplants are enormously huge, however once you put them on fire you find out there’s nothing left inside, it’s like an empty shell and they taste kind of weird as well. So there you go, I’m starting to sound like my grandpa lol …the end.

Showcasing Middle Eastern Fashion In Muscat

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When you think of fashion no doubt images of designer shoes by Christian Louboutin, bags by Louis Vuitton and dresses by Alexander Mcqueen come to mind. So when I was told about Muscat fashion week I really was unsure what to expect.

The show is held over three days and showcases Arab designers from Lebanon, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Oman and Bahrain to name a few. The designers get a chance to show collections on the catwalks before opening up an exhibitors area to allow buyers to discuss the potential of stocking their brands instore.

The first 2011 show was opened to rave reviews from all over the world and it has to be said some of the designs on show and the fabrics used were beautiful. The Middle East is definitely an area to look to for up and coming design talent and a will be following this years show very closely.

Why we hired an SEO consultant

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Browsing through the internet, it occurred to me that nowadays, establishing and maintaining a good as well as strong online presence will go a long way for a business. As the competition gets fiercer and more cutthroat for various companies in different industries, the need to have an edge over the competitors also gets higher.

And since you are reading this blog, I believe you are also interesting in finding the many ways on how a business can have an edge over its competitors. For that, here is what I think you should try: try internet marketing.

Basically, an seo agency will help you boost your sales and establish as well as maintain a strong online presence for your business or company. So in essence, they will market or sell your business, products or services by using the internet as a tool.

Actually, these internet marketing companies offer a lot of different types of services. One of the most popular of such services is the search engine optimization.

If this concept is relatively new to you, here is a short explanation of it I can give you. Essentially, search engine optimization is an internet marketing strategy which aims and works to rank your website higher in search results page of various search engines. The key here is actually the use of the proper keywords in the right amounts. As a matter of fact, search engine optimization actually works like a domino effect.

As you may already know, ranking higher in search results page is very important to generate more traffic into your website. And when more traffic is driven to your website, you will have a higher chance of getting your products or services sold.

Why I Love My New Firewood Rack (Really)

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My new firewood rack may not be the most exciting thing I have purchased in the last year but it has certainly turned out to be one of the most useful. You see it is not until you actually buy a firewood rack that you realize just what a difference they can make.

That it had a wonderful real wood burning fireplace was one of the reasons that we bought the home we currently live in in the first place. When we did buy the place the previous owner left behind a stack of firewood, all laid out rather neatly on the ground behind the house. Because that set up was already in place it never occurred to us to change anything. When we had used up all of that firewood we simply had more delivered and had it stacked on the floor in its place.

As nice as the fireplace was we found we did not use it that often. Fires were hard to start because the wood was often a bit damp and pulling a few logs out of the pile was a bit of a chore, especially since if you pulled out the wrong one the whole pile would come crashing down. The fact that the occasional mouse could be seen scurrying out of the wood pile did not help either.

Not so long ago though a neighbor pointed out that if I purchased a firewood holder most of these issues would no longer be a problem. And how right they were. Now our firewood is stacked neatly in the fire wood rack and the lid keeps the rain and moisture out so the wood is nice and dry and ready to burn. Individual logs are easier to get to without fear of injury as well! Best of all perhaps though is the fact that the firewood rack keeps the mice, and other assorted creatures, out of wood pile, meaning that unpleasant encounters with wood pile squatters are a thing of the past as well.

My Recent Hair Loss Crisis…

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The thought of losing my hair terrifies me.  My dad is 70 and still has a head full of thick hair, so I have always expected to enjoy the same luxury.  Up until a year ago, my hair was growing just fine and showed no signs of slowing down.  Unfortunately, I started having problems with a red, itchy scalp at the front of my hair near the hair line.  At first it was just annoying, but then my worst nightmare started happening: my hair started falling out.

At first it was just a piece or two, but then it started to fall out in larger chunks, day after day.  I panicked.  Was I going to have to get Rogaine?  A hair piece?  How bad could it get?

Then, one day, I remembered that my girlfriend had been raving about a hair growth oil she’s been using called mira hair oil.  It’s filled with a lot of hair growth herbs and it’s been a big help for her thin hair.  In desperation, I started to use it.  Amazingly, my scalp started to heal up the very next day and the hair started to grow back over the next few months, although it was a slow process.

The whole experience made me appreciate my hair even more.  I’m glad I was able to solve the problem without medical intervention and hope I never have to deal with it again.  If so, I’ll just have to hit up my girlfriend for another bottle of hair oil.  (For the record, I believe it may have been some sort of weird rash that irritated my scalp and caused the hair follicles to loosen.)

Getting A Start In The Stock Market

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A lot of people never get around to investing in the stock market because they are too scared. Scared of everything that they don’t understand and along with the fear that they will never be able to learn it all. It is a shame that this is the case because these people never have the chance to take control of their financial futures like they should.

First of all if you are new to investing in stocks, you should go to your local book mart and pick up a copy of “Stock Market For Dummies” which is an inexpensive paperback book that will really help. In it you will learn most of the terminology you need to understand the basics of the market. Once you have some basic knowledge you will find it a lot easier to get started with things like opening a stock account and getting it funded.

Stocks are tricky because with the opportunity for a good return comes the risk of losing. Investing in the stock market is not something anyone can learn short term. You have to go into it with patience and the understanding that learning the ropes takes time and investing for retirement should be a lifelong endeavor.

A Simple Technique Cured My Sleep Apnea Problem

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I had a rather mild case of sleep apnea, but I use mild lightly because the condition was still a problem for me and my wife.  We both were not getting much sleep.  Luckily the only real change I had to make to stop the sleep apnea was the position in which I sleep.  My whole life I was used to sleeping on my back, this caused my tongue to collapse into my throat when I fell asleep; the restriction of airflow is what caused the snoring.  After learning how to sleep on my side I no longer snore.  I consider myself among the lucky, seeing I didn’t have to go to a doctor and get one of the traditional sleep apnea treatments.

My Personal Debt Horror Story

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During the great recession I was one of the millions who ended up losing my job.  After losing my job I needed to use my credit cards to survive until I found another job, which took quite a while.  At that point I was sinking and doing so very fast, I could no longer keep up with the monthly minimums and as a result all my interest rates went sky high.  I was stuck, and was very depressed about the situation.  Then one day I manned up and started looking for some debt relief options and stumbled across debt settlement.  Fast forward two years later and I am completely out of debt and making more money at my job than I was before the recession began.  The moral of the story is never to give up, even when things seem at their lowest.

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