Some Residents have told me they worry the Linden Lab Blog is quieter than usual, and that this may reflect a decreased commitment by us to communication. In fact, the opposite is true. We’re making changes to enhance dialogue with you through adding better tools and organization along with fewer constraints.
Limitations of the Current Blog and Forums
The current blog has become unwieldy and messy because there is no way to categorize posts. Tag clouds, categories and search are inadequate tools for finding what youre looking for. And we often hear that it can be frustrating to try and have meaningful exchanges about the original post because of the 150 message cut-off and the difficulty highlighting key comments among all the messages.
Similarly the current forum software is outdated, barely functioning and lacks important features that would enhance conversation between posters.
Coming Improvements
So we have embarked on a significant project to improve the web-based communication tools. In addition to updated software, we will be changing the blog’s organization, integrating the blog and forums for extended conversations, adding content to the log-in page to make it more useful, and integrating tools to highlight communications.
The new blog will have multiple categories to allow topic experts to talk about their areas of expertise and to promote discussion and Resident feedback and ideas. Large topics will integrate with the forums, as weve done recently, to allow for richer and more involved conversation with Linden Lab and Residents than is possible in blog comments.
Forum changes include feedback tools to allow Residents to elevate the most useful posts to the top of the thread. Youll be able to vote on and rate comments so that the ones judged most useful will be highlighted. These helpful answers will be transferred to the Knowledge Base in the Second Life Support Portal.
Forum moderation will also be expanded to ensure focused and reliable exchanges of information, opinions and suggestions. We are contracting with a group to help us keep forum posts on topic and to handle abuse reports. Theyll also skim blog comments for off-topic posts and spam. Its important to keep in mind that the moderators will not be answering blog or forum questions. This group will not be taking the place of Linden Lab employees, but rather will be freeing us up to communicate with forum and blog participants about substantive issues. These moderators, whose experience includes moderation assistance with EBay, are multi-lingual and will also be moderating our German, French, Korean and Japanese forums.
Timing and Transition
We will be introducing the new blog and forum enhancements in October. Until then, the blog will continue to be utilized for announcements, policy updates and introduction of new features. Other information is also being made available in other parts of the website such as the Grid Status page, blog margins and Showcase. Well help you find this information via the log-in message of the day.
In the meantime, weve created a forum thread where we can talk about our blog plans. Ill be out for a short time this evening but will visit the forums in the next few hours to respond to your comments and questions.

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ADOTAS -- Sep 4 -- The online advertising spend forecast has been slashed by JP Morgan Internet analyst Imran Khan due to the gloomy economic environment. He predicts that the online display market will rake in $8.2 billion this year, down from $8.6 billion. For 2009, Khan predicts that display spending will reach $9.4 billion, down from $10 billion.

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Similar posts: life slim

But from that I'll not say no to an other SL client, small light weight. Ajax life for me just don't make it, I get to much logged out, it times out. I would like to have something text based. Running at an other place, that can get passed a firewall. I can used SSH out. I want send IM's and read notecards. Voice, why, I'm in a landscape at work, in skype i only use the part text chat, why I DON'T what my colleges to hear. That gets even more true with my SL friends. For me? I don't think SLim will solve anything, I often reply on IM's using gmail, looks like that still will beat SLim. Getting all my SL friend in the gmail-talk list. That feature I really love.

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/by Claus Uriza
For my first issue in this blog I wanna tell a story about my audio trips in SL.
Back in autumn last year I had finally moved into SL in a very modern apartment complex 600 meters up in the air. Then I started checking out the SLMarketplace for audio equipment and ended up with an iTunes radio fully compatible with the stations I had in my iTunes on my lap. Almost like once in RL my apartment was made into a test room with 3 kinds of TVs and now this radio too. I talked to sim owner and she came deeded it cos I wasnt owner only renter. I started play with iTunes radio and it worked fine. Then at eve I went down to sim and hooked up with friends there. What I found out was suddenly I was playing music in whole sim hehe. Luckily sim owner liked the stations I set up ;).

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The Good
I like Biden as VP. Hes smart, insightful, and thoroughly eloquent. Not to mention that his extensive foreign relations experience will silence critics who say Obamas unfit for the presidency because hes inexperienced in that area. Plus the man has a great personal story: he suffered brain aneurysm a couple centuries ago and almost died.
The Bad
Theres one major caveat with Biden as VP and Ill get to that in a minute. But first, I wanted to say that all the msm pundits hammering on Senator Biden for his controversial remarks really need to stop. Have we become so sedated as a society that its now a sin to speak your mind, even if it means occasionally making racist statements about Indians or saying that black people arent usually articulate? Moreso than Bidens talkative nature, the main drawback with his choice is that it exaggerates Obamas weakness in the areas where Biden is strong. Some will argue that the fact that Biden has spent more than half of his life in the U.S. Senate contradicts Obamas message of change. Well, thats only if you were naive enough to believe that Obama was going to change Washington politics by disavowing everybody in Washington.
All said and done, they both look presidential and vice-presidential respectively.

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Similar posts: life slim

Schumacher Homes is one of the top builders around. Insider Pages recently did a review on schumacher homes including ratings and more information. Schumacher Homes provides quality custom homes at a lower price than their competitors. Unlike some other home builders Schumacher Homes focuses on the details and insures your home is built the right way the first time. The extras are amazing and you can finance your new custom built home on site with Schumacher Homes. Please read the review on the Insider Pages web site and visit the Schumacher Homes web site today for more information on floor plans, pricing, contact information, and how to get started building your own luxury custom dream home today.

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Washington, DC - Within weeks of receiving a letter of inquiry from Sen Herb Kohl (D-WI) regarding its partnership with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) for next year's i2 Summit, ACC CEO Dr Jack Lewin says the ACC has provided answers to the questions posed in the letter and is hopeful that the committee's concerns have been allayed.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog earlier this week [1], Kohl sent a letter dated July 22 to ACC president Dr Doug Weaver asking him to provide details of the arrangement between the ACC and CRF to coproduce the interventional meeting held concurrently with the ACC annual scientific sessions every year [2]. Kohl chairs the US Senate Special Committee on Aging.

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As I have mentioned in my previous post on Weight Loss, I am elaborating more on what do I do that enabled me to lose about 3 - 4 Kg and a couple of inches over a period of 3 months. I know that this may not be enough for certain people reading this blog but my primary focus was not on weight loss.
Imagine what effects and results you will have if you will just put your focus to lose weight?
The title of this post is exercise to lose weight and I must admit that this is one of the most important factors to focus on. Regardless if you intend to lose weight or not, you will still have to exercise to strengthen your health and I do not have to stress further the importance of exercise.
What I do regularly is that I engage in power walking once every 1 to 2 days and I walk at a speed of 7.2 km/h because studies has shown that walking at 7.2 km/h can almost double your calories burning as compared to walking at just 0.2 km/h lower at 7 km/h.
Walk for about 30 - 40 minutes will burn about 400 - 500 of calories and at the same time, it strengthens your calf and thigh muscles so that you do not have to use too much of your knee to support you and your walking and indirectly, resulting in lesser knee pain.
So, if you have not started to exercise that will help to lose weight, start now but if you really do not have the time to exercise, then may I suggest to allocate 1 minute in the morning and 1 minute in the evening to do some stretching.
How do you do the stretching?
Find a cross bar that is slightly higher than you and hold on to the cross bar starting from 5 - 10 seconds and build up to about 1 minute. Leave your legs up if you are not above the ground. This stretching exercise is using the gravity force to pull your spine straight and at the same time, build your hand muscles. It is a simple exercise by hanging on to the cross bar for one minute, it is equivalent to having a massage for about 15 minutes.
Start doing something now and be disciplined in doing it because it will always be too late regretting not doing what you have committed to do. Like what Jim Rohn says, the pain of discipline weighs ounces but the pain of regret weighs tons.

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6. Have more fun with your kids. Your kids, your grand-kids, your friends kids, big kids (like us). Basically, have more fun.
Its tough when you walk in the door of your brothers or sisters house and your 5-year-old niece or nephew runs toward you with outstretched arms, ready to giggle, laugh, and scream with joy. The kid is anticipating youre going to swoop her off the floor and swing her high over your head, up, down, and around.
Big-time fun. But, your back is stiff and tight, youve got a shoulder injury, or something else is not quite right. Bummer. The best you can do is kneel down and hug the kid, giving them a warm smile and maybe tousle their hair a bit. They know you love them, but the fun part is not quite the same.
Regular exercise gives you the flexibility, strength, and overall fitness to play freely, with abandon, the way children like to play.
7. Power up your brain. Recent medical research is showing that regular exercise makes people smarter. Not in the sense of increasing your IQ points, but rather by making more of your brain available for use.
One explanation makes use of the fact that regular exercise improves circulation throughout your body. More blood flowing means more energy-providing glucose is reaching the cells that need it most. And, as your brain is your bodys biggest consumer of glucose, more available glucose means more and better brain activity. You just got smarter!
8. Creativity boost. Its well-known that regular exercise enhances creativity. Its a Zen thing. Your conscious mind is focused on the repetitive actions of your exercise, leaving the creative part of your brain (sometimes called the subconscious) free to do its job.
A few years ago I was finishing work on the third act of a screenplay. This terrific project had gone pretty smoothly, and yet I was a little stuck on how the different plot lines would come together at the end. I wanted the climax to be both surprising and thrilling, and I wasnt sure how to get there.
Finally, I remembered that many of my good ideas have popped into my head while I was running. I put on my New Balance 990s and headed off to Central Park, vowing to clear my mind and let go of everything I had been thinking about.
Toward the end of my 4-mile run, just jogging around the reservoir at the north end of the park, my gaze landed on the unusual superstructure of a Fifth Avenue high-rise. Suddenly, the entire third act climax unfolded in my imagination, stimulated by the shape of the building.
I remember that moment as if it were yesterday. Exercise boosts creativity, allowing you to tap into a vast storehouse of new ideas!
9. More restful sleep. As a society, Americans do not sleep well. In 2005 the number one sleeping aid, Ambien, earned $1.7 billion in annual sales. At the time, Lunesta (number two) earned more than $300 million in its first year on the market.
There are many complex causes for sleeplessness and restless sleep, but regular exercise often provides a simple, cost-free cure. Restful sleep is yet another unexpected and welcome benefit from regular exercise.
As a case study of one, when Im exercising regularly (that is to say, most of the time) I fall asleep right away. I turn out the lights and thats it. Im asleep. If Ive gone for a week without any exercise (truth in advertising - this does happen), I notice I start to have difficulty falling asleep. And, I start to toss-and-turn. Theres a direct correlation. As soon as Im exercising again, I start falling asleep easily.
The explanation is straightforward - youre doing vigorous physical work and your body needs to recover. Sleep allows your body to repair and rebuild, getting stronger in the process. Regardless of ones stresses and worries, vigorous exercise makes a physical demand on your body that will put you right to sleep.
10. Increased sense of well-being from enhanced endorphin production. Endorphins are a natural opiate, produced in your brain in response to vigorous physical activity. The well-known s high has been linked to the endorphin response.
Endorphins cause you to feel good. You feel on top of the world - problems lose their sense of oppression, you begin to see solutions more clearly and easily, and new ideas start to flow. This is all very good news.
The post-exercise endorphin rush literally puts a smile on your face. You experience a renewed sense of being alive and you cant wait to get into action and put your ideas to work.
Thanks to endorphins, regular exercise provides a natural attitude adjustment that doesnt require ingesting artificial substances. This good feeling can last all day long. The immediate and long-term results are totally empowering.

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If you’re feeling groggy after lunch, what you really want is a stimulant.  And for all the exotic herbs and amino acids sold as energy supplements, one of the most potent stimulants is also the most familiar: caffeine.
Caffeine is a common ingredient in just about any product marketed for energy enhancement.  And while an energy drink might have 25 other ingredients, the one you really feel is likely to be caffeine.  The amount of caffeine just swamps everything else.  So how does caffeine work? “Caffeine and similar compounds do step up the metabolism temporarily,” says Roger Clemens, PhD, spokesman for the Institute of Food Technologists.  “That can make people feel better.”
Shao says that there’s pretty good evidence that caffeine can temporarily improve mental focus and, in athletes, help stave off exhaustion.
While some products are seen as natural alternatives to caffeine, many actually contain caffeine itself or similar chemical substances that have similar effects.  These include kola nut, yerba mate, and guarana.  Green tea also provides a dose of caffeine, as well as the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG.)
Ginseng is not a caffeine derivative, but it may also serve as a mild stimulant.  Will it help boost energy? “There’s a lot of historical use of ginseng as a tonic,” says Coates, but not much scientific evidence. Capsaicin the ingredient that makes chili peppers hot is also sometimes used for its purported stimulant properties.
Bitter orange is another energy supplement unrelated to caffeine.  Though it hasn’t been studied much, some experts are concerned about potential risks.  Its active ingredient – synephrine – is chemically similar to ephedrine, the active ingredient in ephedra, which was pulled off the market in 2004 because of its life-threatening health risks.  Coates says that bitter orange may prove a less harmful successor to ephedra, but more research needs to be done.
Bottom line: Will these supplements boost energy? Yes.  Stimulants like these will probably rev up your metabolism temporarily and give you a lift.  Are their effects superior to or even different from what you’d derive from a cup of coffee? Probably not.
Take a walk through your local supermarket, and you might come to the conclusion that Americans are in the grip of an energy crisis.  There are the countless bottles of energy supplements, the coolers of energy drinks, and the racks of energy bars at the check-out counter. 
“Energy [supplements have] become one of the fastest-growing categories of supplement,” says Andrew Shao, PhD, from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade organization in Washington D.C.  “And that’s because everybody whether you’re a man or a woman, young or old wants more energy.”
Whether it’s true or not, it sure seems like life is more hectic than it once was. For people always on the go, the idea of an energy pill is compelling. 
But do they work? Experts are generally cautious.

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In the yesterday’s article “Beer and Your Health” it was described, how unhealthy drinking beer can be. It can affect the cardiovascular system, the kidneys, it can provide you with a “beer belly”. And although there are many “experts” saying, how beneficial to health beer is, the way it’s prepared nowadays normally makes it lose all the healthy properties. But should you absolutely avoid drinking beer, if you like its taste? Of course, not. But if you drink it correctly, you can avoid health problems, that may be caused by beer. Here are tips, how to drink beer without damaging your health and figure that much.

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I had quite an experience this past weekend that really made me sit up and start taking more notice of crime and safety.
My Fiancé was at the hairdresser on Saturday morning while I was playing a few rounds of golf on my Wii when I received an SMS from her that said the following: I am in an emergency. Please help me.. I started to panic thinking the worst - hijacking, kidnapping, etc. and immediately grabbed my car keys and sped out. Just before that I tried to call the cops - who were more than useless. The guy didnt understand that my Fiancé was in an emergency and that could he get someone to go to the hairdresser in Gordons Bay immediately. I hung up the phone after the guy kept on repeating Ehh, what must I do? What emergency?.
I then jumped in my car and called her phone - which immediately answered. I could hear her in the car, with the radio on, but couldnt hear anything else. I assumed she had sent the SMS somehow and was answering the phone in her pocket. This made me panic even more as I had no idea where she was heading - kidnapped and all. I was in a total panic as I was driving to get to the last place she was in Gordons Bay. Her sisters also got the SMS and were calling me, but I had no more information than they did.
3 minutes later I spotted her car at the robot, and there she was, looking all beautiful after being at the hairdresser. I stopped in the middle of the traffic and asked her where her phone was - and she opened her bag and showed it to me. It was a false alarm. I was totally relieved to see her safe and totally oblivious to what I had just gone through in the last 5 minutes.

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My wife Connie and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary yesterday. Outside of the decision to trust Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, my marriage to this wonderful woman was the best decision I ever made in my life. Connie has given me three terrific children, and they have given us six spectacular grandchildren. None of our kids has been hooked on drugs or alcohol. They have not been arrested or jailed. (Although, with the way our government is passing laws contrary to the principles of liberty and decency, it is getting increasingly more difficult for any of us to stay out of jail.) They are polite, respectful, and courteous Christians. Our daughters-in-law and son-in-law are absolutely magnificent. We are all as close as any family can possibly be. As far as I am concerned, no matter what else I achieve--or fail to achieve--in this world, the family that God has given me makes my life a success. Anything else pales in comparison.In addition, it seems to me that far too many people in our country overlook the importance of child rearing. Many seem to feel that just about everything else--job, career, money, "success," etc.--occupies a higher priority than raising honest, God-fearing children. However, Connie and I decided years ago that raising our children would be a priority in our lives, and boy, we are glad we did!I'll say it straight out: it does not take a village to raise kids; it takes loving and courageous parents. Parents who are not afraid to discipline their children (yes, Martha, I mean old fashioned spanking: applying the board of education to the seat of knowledge); parents who are willing to spend time teaching their children right from wrong; parents who will take--not send--their children to church; parents who will pray with their children; parents who care more about truth and right than they do about being well-liked or politically correct; parents who will teach their kids to say "Yes, Sir," and "Yes, Ma'am"; parents who are not afraid to say "No" to their children; dads who think it is more important that they be a father to their sons than a"buddy"; and moms who would rather their daughters had pure hearts than popular friends. How is it that when it comes to leadership expectations, most people ignore a man's leadership at home? It is almost as if parental leadership is a complete non-factor in judging a person's fitness for anything. Now, please do not get me wrong: I am not suggesting that bad children cannot come from good homes. Goodness, no! I have seen very vile young people come out of some of the most righteous homes, and likewise, I have seen some of the most wonderful and Godly young people come out of the most wretched homes. I am only saying that real leadership is established and proven in the home first. Yet, it does not appear that too many people give parental leadership a second thought anymore. Perhaps this explains much as to what has gone wrong in our society.Yes, I am aware of the various and sundry political and societal attacks against marriage and parenting. I see the many battles in the "culture war." I see the attempts to redefine the meaning of marriage, to wrestle control and authority of the home away from the parents, and to bombard our children with ideas and philosophies that will ultimately ruin their lives. And, yes, it could come to a point that decent families will be forced to make the same kind of choices that our Pilgrim forebears had to make.That said, however, the power of marriage and parenting is still the greatest force in the world. Good families can stem the tide of humanism, socialism, fascism, globalism, or any other "ism" that seeks to enslave us. Good families can preserve liberty and independence, fight off totalitarianism, resist corporate elitism, and promote faith and virtue. Good families are the backbone of our country's greatness, and the lack of good families will be the cause of our country's fall from greatness.Greedy, power-mad politicians are no match for a generation of strong marriages. Young people with character and courage trump purveyors of pretension any day. One principled champion--trained and equipped by strong, stalwart parents--will put a thousand moral weaklings to flight.
While Pharaoh built his monuments, a humble Hebrew mother taught and nurtured her son, a little boy miraculously drawn forth from the watery reeds. That little boy became the deliverer of his people. It was a Godly mother and father that produced the prophet who would anoint the greatest king of Israel. It was a Spirit-filled mother and father who produced the forerunner of the Messiah. And it was a virtuous, principled mother--not a government agency, educational institution, or commercial enterprise--whom God chose to bring the Savior of mankind into the world. Furthermore, while the potentates and governments of the earth gazed steadfastly upon the might and power of the British Empire, no one noticed the humble homes of Colonial America, where mothers and fathers worked by the light of hearth and candle to discipline, teach, and inspire a generation of patriots unlike the world has ever seen.Strong, committed, principled parenting has done more to change the course of history, depose despots, promote righteousness, protect virtue, and secure liberty than all of the colleges, corporate boardrooms, and presidential palaces combined. And who knows? At this very moment, mothers and fathers across America could be nurturing and training the next generation of patriots who will rise up and restore the principles of liberty and greatness to our land? I will tell you this: if parents do not do it, no one else can.

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and within a split second she broke into her memorable smile and her eyes sparkled. Oh, my God! she cried. We hugged and she led me in to the kitchen to speak with her 90 year old mother who is another marvel of lucidity and humor. She had just finished making her own pizza. In 85 degree heat and humidity. After I told her who I was she instantly remembered me. Like her mother, Dale has a great sense of humor and a hardy infectious laugh. I told her mother that her daughter had mercilessly shot me down and would not give me the time of day. Totally untrue. Dale protested, laughed and blushed. The truth is that I was shy and awkward. Still am, somewhat. The years have been kind to her and she has retained that spark that attracted me to her so long ago. She now has two grown offspring, one a lawyer in Boston and another a daughter looking to enter Skidmore College. I could sense that she is an honestly devoted mother and seems content and grounded in life. She and her husband, a successful cardiologist, summer on Groton Long Point where the homes of the affluent are cheek by jowl. We reminisced and laughed a lot. It was so good to see her and I am glad that I made the stop. I was also pleased to hear that her life has been full and satisfying. Reunions and re-membering. People and things coming back together after events and circumstances have fatefully scattered them. The river flows on carrying it all back together into the sea. Time is a river with no banks, as Chagall painted.
Someday there will be girls and women whose name will no longer mean the mere opposite of the male, but something in itself, something that makes one think not of any complement and limit, but only of life and reality: the female human being.
This advance (at first very much against the will of the outdistanced men) will transform the love experience, which is now filled with error, will change it from the ground up, and reshape it into a relationship that is meant to be between one human being and another, no longer one that flows from man to woman. And this more human love (which will fulfill itself with infinite consideration and gentleness, and kindness and clarity in binding and releasing) will resemble what we are now preparing painfully and with great struggle: the love that consists in this: two solitudes protect and border and greet each other.
And one more thing: Don't think that the great love which was once granted to you, when you were a boy, has been lost; how can you know whether vast and generous wishes didn't ripen in you at that time, and purposes by which you are still living today? I believe that that love remains so strong and intense in your memory because it was your first deep aloneness and the first inner work that you did on your life.

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When business people need a crystal ball, they turn to consultant Laura Day.
When Seagate Technology, the $11 billion-a-year maker of hard drives for the Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox, went searching for a consultant to run one of its management workshops in the fall of 2006, it bypassed the usual list of Silicon Valley gurus. Instead, Seagates executive director of software engineering, Gabriel Lawson, invited Laura Day—a stylish New Yorker with no tech experience—to train his Colorado-based team. She was amazing, Lawson tells NEWSWEEK, recalling Days quick insights into the poor coordination between the companys research and marketing teams. Anybody who can afford her will get 100 times their moneys worth. What exactly is Days expertise? While she likes to downplay it as mere her clients prefer another explanation: shes a psychic.
Days feel for the unknown has become a hot commodity among certain high-profile business people, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the 49-year-old mother in the process. The William Morris talent agency has used Day to help it decide whom to represent and how to help the company grow. s like looking over at your opponents cards in a poker game, says Jennifer Walsh, executive vice president of William Morriss literary department, which reps Day. A big Hollywood producer says Day advised him in 2006 to pass on a cant-miss animated film, predicting it would bomb at the box office. It did. (The producer didnt want to be named for fear of public ridicule.)
A Manhattan attorney who serves as special counsel to several white-shoe law firms has used Days insights to help her select juries and anticipate the opposing teams arguments. Day saves me thousands of minutes on my cell phone working a case, says the attorney, who also didnt want to be publicly identified.
Its impossible to objectively judge psychic powers. Are psychics just good listeners who pick up enough clues from their clients to provide seemingly insightful answers? Are they making lucky guesses? s kind of a dirty secret, Day says of business people who use psychics like herself. She declines to identify most of her clients, and almost all who spoke to NEWSWEEK also requested anonymity out of concern for their reputations.
Day is one of a small but expanding cadre of corporate psychic consultants—the professionalized face of an occupation better known for hokey headscarves and crystal balls. Rebranded as or —terms more palatable to mainstream America—psychic advisers in recent years have been crossing over into the world of legitimate business, where they are used by decision makers in law, finance and entertainment looking for anedge in a down economy. I specialize in nonbelievers, says Day, referring to her roster of red-meat-eating, Barneys-shopping, Type A personalities.
For a flat rate of $10,000 a month, Days insight is available for rent. She has about five monthly clients at a time, offering them unlimited 24-hour access. She works from her airy Tribeca apartment, fielding calls while juggling domestic life as the mother of a 16-year-old boy, whose friends are often over in packs. The commotion is helpful, she says, allowing her to keep her rational mind busy while she picks up on things from left field. (Though she admits her teenager can be psychically distracting as well: I dont want to see what he did with that girl until 2 a.m., she says. But I can.) In a typical call early last year, a prominent Wall Street money manager asked whether he should pull out of a risky, multimillion-dollar energy deal or let his money ride. My gut, Day recalls saying, is that youre not going to get your return.

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Good Morning!!!

It's Monday and I'm so happy to be alive and breathing. I had the best weekend. Nothing too interesting happened. But it was a really peaceful weekend. Friday, the madness continued with the wig. I'll never wear that wig again. I'm leaving work. I come to a red light. This black Lexus rides by me and then all of a sudden I see it reversing. This guy stops next to me. I'm thinking that he wants to turn into McDonald's because I was blocking the entrance. He mouths something. So, I point to McDonald's. He then rolls down his window. Oh Lord.

"Has anyone told you that you look awe- awe-awesome today?"
"No, but thank you."
"Yes girl, you got it going on!"
I then smile, trying not to laugh in his face.
"And look at them pretty bright teeth!"
God, why?
"What's your name?"
"T"
"My name is Willie. But they call me Winky."
I'm disturbed at this point. And why hasn't the light turned green???
"They call me Winky cuz I wink a lot."
He then proceeds to wink both eyes, one at a time, left-right-left-right. And while he is winking like an idiot, I notice the wedding ring on his finger. Thank God, the light turns green. I roll up my window and drive off. As I said before, men never cease to amaze me.

I'm riding along in my car. I'm a sucker for good music. So, I'm flipping stations and I come across this voice. It kinda sounds like Usher, but the music has this neo-soul, Musiq soulchild, Dwele type feel to it. So, I'm listening to him sing and I am blown away because it is so beautiful! I immediately pull out my Blackberry and start typing the words to the song in my phone as he sings them. This way, I can go back and look it up later. So, I'm sitting at a red light wrecking my brain trying to figure out who this guy is. He sounds like Usher. But this is better than Usher. Who is this??? So, the song plays. I'm falling even more in love with it. My thought process is that it can't be Usher because he is all about catching AIDS in the club. And this song is about being in love with his blessing from God. It is absolutely beautiful. The music is arranged well. It just can't be Usher. The song goes off and the DJ says, "that was Usher with 'Here I Stand' off of his new album." WHAT?!? Wow. I still don't like him anymore. But I'll go and by the song off of Itunes for $.99.

Sunday was Father's Day. I don't even know why I bother buying my parents anything. They never like it. And my mom has yet to use the gift certificate that I got her to Red Door Spa Salon. A waste of good money.... Church was great. After church, a friend had an NBA fellowship (fellowship-that's church talk) at his crib. He and his sister made the BEST baked beans, fried chicken, meat balls, mac-n-cheese, shrimp scampi, fried shrimp, dirty rice, and fish. My goodness!!! Before the game, we watched Martin and the Boondocks. Wow. I've never watched that before. That show is something else. And it was weird because, to my knowledge, we're all saved and trying to live our lives Holy and acceptable in God's eyes. But I promise you, by 10pm, the facade fell. And we all just had a good time. Nothing vulgar or nasty. But we just enjoyed each other. We were all ourselves. And it's nice to get to know the real you.

I didn't get home until a little after 1. I'm tired. But it was well worth it. And I can't wait to do it again.

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Just sniffing that first hot cup of coffee in the morning may help ease some stresses you might be feeling, a South Korean trial indicates.  When rats inhaled the aroma of roasted coffee beans, a number of genes were activated, including some that produce proteins with healthful antioxidant activity, the researchers reported.  The meaning of it is not totally clear yet, said Dr. Peter R. Martin, director of the Institute of Coffee Studies at Vanderbilt University. What it does show is that coffee smells do change the brain to some degree, and it behooves us to understand why that is happening. The findings, from a team led by Han-Seok Seo at Seoul National University in South Korea, were expected to be published in the June 25 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.  The experiment was done with laboratory rats, some of whom were stressed by being deprived of sleep. The researchers did detailed genetic studies that showed the activity of 11 genes was increased and the activity of two genes was decreased in the rats that smelled the coffee, compared to those who did not. In effect, the aroma of the coffee beans helped ease the stress of the sleep-deprived rodents.  The experiment provides for the first time, clues to the potential antioxidant or stress-relaxation activities of the coffee bean aroma, the researchers wrote.  And they added, These results indirectly explain why so many people use coffee for staying up all night, although the volatile compounds of coffee beans are not fully consistent with those of the coffee extracts. In other words, the stress caused by sleep loss via caffeine may be alleviated through smelling the coffee aroma.  They used the latest in technology to see how brain expression of RNA changed, Martin said. RNA is the molecule that carries out the instructions encoded in genes. This is just the beginning of a very interesting line of investigation, he added.  The aromatic compounds responsible for coffees odor may be antioxidants, but they are not the same as the major antioxidants that are in the drink, said Joe A. Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.  Chemically, the antioxidants in liquid coffee are polyphenols, Vinson said. Those in the aroma are heterocycle compounds containing sulfur or nitrogen atoms.  There are two ways to get things into your system, and the quickest way is to smell them, Vinson said. Caffeine gets into the brain via the blood stream. Here, aromatic molecules get into the brain through the olfactory system. The levels in the air are parts per million, so obviously these are minor components in the air. But they are doing something.  Previous studies have shown that coffee consumption can reduce depression and suicide risk, as well as relieve stress, effects generally attributed to the caffeine in coffee, the researchers noted. But while some 900 compounds that float away from the bean have been identified, this is the first study to assay their possible effects, they added. Its too early to recommend that people feeling stress sniff coffee to ease their way, Martin said. But, he added, people who dont even drink coffee are fascinated by the odor of it. Ever since my little boy was two years old, he has loved the odor of coffee. I have always thought that coffee has some mystic quality, and there is some deep historical basis for it.

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Cool huh? Also check out the other GPP street team members as they are finding all kinds of awesome stuff to use in their art! I havent had time to paint on these so they are not yet but I think they can also be used as they are, right? Yummy yummy papers of mine. Have you made yours yet? You know you need them! Maybe I could try the keyboard on my laptop next? Or I might be on the lookout for texture on my next flea market excursion hehe, its addictive to paint!
PS: I did try the wood railing outside with a brown crayon and it looks like a piece of wood with all its year rings and twig marks.

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