Poker Craps And More

Payday loans are sometimes seen as a “last resort” option for borrowing money quickly when you need it most. However, many people would argue that applying for, getting approved for and using payday loans responsibly and appropriately is by no means a last resort, but rather a beneficial and sometimes necessary method of borrowing money.

Truly last-resort options, which are not recommended, include stealing, bankruptcy, maxing out all your credit cards, getting into the negatives with your checking account and borrowing money from all your friends and relatives without paying them back and straining all those relationships.

Payday loans can really get you out of a jam, financial crisis, emergency or unexpected expense. Sometimes people don’t have a savings account, more than $10 in their savings account, a line of credit, any credit cards or their credit cards are maxed out, but they have a steady, full-time job and a checking account. For these individuals in these situations, when an unexpected expense of $500 comes their way, a payday loan is not a last resort but a great option and sometimes the best thing they can do at the time.

A lot of the time, people who call payday loans a “last resort” usually refer to the high interest rates incurred with borrowing money from a cash advance store, whether it’s in person, over the phone or online.

For example, to get a $100 payday loan for a two-week period, a typical cash advance lender could charge a fee of about $15. A $15 finance charge on a $100 loan is equivalent to 391 percent APR. However, the fee is not charged up front. Instead, the person borrowing the money will write a postdated check for the amount borrowed plus the fee (in this case, $115) to come out on the next pay day. At this point, the borrower has the option of “rolling over” the loan for another two weeks, incurring an additional fee of $15. Different states have different restrictions and limitations on rollovers, but theoretically, if a borrower chose to roll the payday loan over a total of five times, the finance charge to borrow $100 could be $90.

Obviously, the interest on payday loans can easily skyrocket, which is why many anti-payday loan advocates warn potential borrowers to either stay away or only use payday loans as a last resort. However, if you are responsible and determine you will pay off the loan amount plus the fee at your next pay dayand at the most roll over your loan only oncethen payday loans can be great solutions for helping you get out of a jam, providing you that emergency money when you need it most.

Payday loans are not for everyone, and are also not for every situation. But for the right, non-risky and responsible borrower, a payday loan may be just what you need to deal with that sudden, unexpected financial crisis quickly, conveniently and discreetly.

Paycheck Cash offers several cash advance loan comparisons, along with referrals to the best place to get an online loan in 24 hours. A quick two minute application and you can have your payday loan tomorrow.

Prospective extraordinary tribunal over the Nazi-oriented Holocaust perpetrated during the course of a regime known as “Democratic Kampuchea” is brainwashing Cambodian citizens as well as the world. The reason behind this tribunal is to bring justice into the reality and calling for a “never again” sense.

However, pursuing the circumnavigating issues surrounding the extraordinary chamber of those commited crime against humanity during the mandate of Democratic Kampuchea, I have found that those concerned express inaccurate number of the Cambodian or other expatriates perished during the mandate of Democratic Kampuchea. Those inaccuracies include: more than one million, nearly two millions, at least one million or other unreliable (individual) source would state the exact numbers.

This article is not to put more pressure or to defense those top leaders accountable for the Holocaust-steered regime, but single-mindedly to contribute to the prospective justice.

I hereby like to suggest those concerned: students, professors, historans, judges and lawyers as well as people in all over the world try to be more and more acculturate in stating the perished toll; this would make the citizens, especially those who are less informed not confused and to better understand the procedure.

The case of the above-addressed extraordinary tribunal is the criminal case and accuracy must be applied.

Lay Vicheka is a translator for the most celebrated translation agency in the Kingdom of Cambodia, Pyramid Translation Co.Ltd.. He is now hoding other two professions: freelance writer for Search Newspaper; focusing on social issues and students’ issues and Media Liaison Officer for Asia’s first free on-line IELTS consultation website. Lay Vicheka is the expert author for ezine and prolific article contributor to other websites around the world such as articlecity, 365articles, spiderden, talesofasia, etc (Just google him). He is also a volunteer Cambodian-newspapers columnist (Rasmey Kampuchea and Kampuchea Thmey). Lay Vicheka has great experience in law and politics, as he used to be legal and English-language assistant to a Cambodian member of parliament, migration experience (home-based business) and in writing. He is also member of a New York-based research company. Posting address: 221H Street 93, Tuol Sangke quarter, Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Tel: 855 11 268 445, vichekalay@yahoo.com

Optimism is the hidden key to your personal and business success. Optimists possess a clear vision of an exciting life, confidently work on goals to achieve their vision, and take elf-responsibility. In contrast, pessimists have no clear vision of a fantastic life, and they love to complain, blame, and moan. How can you become more optimistic?

I will divulge five little-known “secrets” to help you mmediately feel upbeat, confident, and optimistic.

Research: Why Optimism Is Good for You

Tons of research prove that optimists do vastly better than pessimists in their:

1. Health
2. Wealth
3. Career success

Health.

A growing body of “psychoneuroimmunology” medical research links how a person’s emotions affect his or her health. Some intriguing findings: Optimistic people are less likely to get sick than pessimistic or depressed people. This includes illnesses ranging from common colds to cancer. Optimistic people also get well faster than pessimists.

Wealth.

A fascinating study found that self-made millionaires worry much less than people who earn as much money but have not achieved millionaire status. What is the connection between being optimistic and making yourself into a millionaire? Optimists are much more likely than pessimists to make a goal of achieving millionaire status. They also keep plugging away at being frugal, investing wisely and working hard to turn financial dreams into reality. In contrast, pessimists are less likely to set net-worth goals or consistently take actions to become millionaires.

Career Success.

Many companies use our firm’s Abilities & Behavior Forecaster pre-employment tests when choosing applicants. To start, a company has high-achievers take the test. Also, underachievers may take the test. Then, we identify how the high-achievers score, so the company can prefer hiring applicants who score like its profitable, productive employees. Intriguing finding: One of the Forecaster test’s 18 scales is Optimism. Typically, high-achievers typically score high on the Optimism test scale, while underachievers score moderate or low on Optimism. This repeated finding verifies that optimists achieve greater career success than pessimists.

So, how can you boost your optimism to achieve greater health, wealth, and career success? Here are five immediately useful techniques. Each takes only one minute to do, so you can start fast and get results today.

1st Technique: Straight Posture & Big Steps

Optimistic people use straight posture, walk fast, and take big steps. Pessimistic people slouch, walk slowly, and use small steps. Imagine seeing someone walking with his or her head held high, shoulders back, walking fairly fast with big steps. That person exudes confidence. In contrast, a person whose head and shoulders slouch and walks with slow, small steps reeks a gloomy mood.

Why is a straight posture crucial? Because before you can straighten out your head, you first need to straighten up your body!

2nd Technique: Cheerful Voice

A lightning quick way to feel upbeat is to use a cheerful voice. Think of a time when you felt annoyed. Then, your phone rang. You answered it, and your caller was someone you wanted to impress. I bet you spoke in a cheerful voice so you would impress your caller. Result: You immediately started feeling your mood lift.

Why is a cheerful voice an incredibly powerful optimism tool? Psychological research proved that a person emotionally feels the emotion he or she is acting at the moment. So, if you act cheerful, you feel cheerful. And a cheerful voice is the fastest way to act optimistic.

3rd Technique: Use Upbeat Words

You can use types of words: upsetting and upbeat. Pessimists relish using upsetting words, while optimists excel at using upbeat words.

Examples:

Upsetting Words:

Problem

Tired

Depressed

Upbeat Words:

Opportunity

Recharging

Bumming

For example, a pessimist says, “I have a problem.” In contrast, an optimist would say, “I have an opportunity to do better next time!”

4th Technique: Use Upbeat Attitudes

I find the chief way to become an optimist simply is to focus on solutions – and not focus on problems. Every time a difficulty pops up, immediately create solutions and put them into action. Examples:

Upsetting Attitudes:

Focus on problems

Dwelling on weaknesses

Thinking about financial woes

Upbeat Attitudes:

Focus on solutions

Dwelling on strengths

Thinking about achieving prosperity

Why is a solution-focus ultra-important? Because you can only have one thought in your head at a time. So, if you focus on solutions, you cannot wallow in problems, complaining, blaming, or moaning.

5th Technique: Be a Magnificent Role Model

Remember a time you were a role model for someone. As you helped that person, you also helped yourself. As the proverb goes: “What goes around, comes around.” If you are a delightfully optimistic role model for employees, co-workers, family and friends, then you simultaneously make yourself optimistic.

How do you do this? Make sure people see you using straight posture, taking big steps, speaking in a cheerful voice, using upbeat words and focusing on solutions.

Anyone can become an optimist. When people use these five techniques, they invariably tell me they feel heavy burdens lift off their shoulders. They feel positive, upbeat, and confident. You only need a few minutes to put these tips into action. They can be your key to enhanced health, wealth, and career success.

© Copyright 2005 Maryann Troiani & Michael Mercer, Ph.D.

Maryann Troiani, Psy.D., is a speaker, media personality and consultant with The Mercer Group, Inc., in Barrington, Illinois. She delivers speeches and workshops at meetings and conferences. She co-authored the book, “SPONTANEOUS OPTIMISM: Proven Strategies for Health, Prosperity & Happiness”. Dr. Troiani has tele-coached many people across the country with her ‘optimism and change-your-life” techniques. She had appeared on Oprah
and many other television & radio shows. You can email her at
drmary@mercersystems.com or phone her at (847) 382-0690.

Many people love to experiment with different foods from different cultures and ethnicities. Some people love to go out for dinner and experiment with foods they’ve never had before. Other people like to reproduce their favorite dishes at home. Experimenting with cooking from other regions and cultures can be an exciting and fun process. Many cuisines have subtle differences from region to region. Or sometimes the ethnic cuisines are based strictly on different geographic areas.

Some of the most popular cuisines are Mexican, Italian, French, Greek and Middle Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai cuisines. While many people feel comfortable experimenting with Mexican, Italian, or Chinese, few people feel comfortable experimenting with Indian food. Nor do they understand the subtle differences in Indian regional cuisine. Indian cooking is as complex and diverse as India’s geography, climate, religion, and culture. The variety of dishes is extensive: from warm tandoori dishes with meat of Northern India, to the, saucy Southern mostly vegetarian dals (legume-based dishes), you’ll find incredible diversity and great taste.

Some of the regional differences to Indian cooking are as follows: Northern India: This region of India offers the some of the more familiar mix Indian dishes, including the popular tandoori-style of cooking. This region offers the dishes that are found in most Indian restaurants of the West, such as koftas (spicy meatballs), kormas (meats braised in creamy sauces with yogurts and fruits), and the delicious chewy, leavened bread, naan. The blend of spices used to flavor these dishes is Garam masala, more warming than fiery. You may also add Basmati rice for a regional flare, but breads are the primary starch in this wheat-growing region.Southern India: Some people think of Indian food as extremely spicy. Southern Indian cuisine is probably the cuisine most people think of, the spicy dishes such as vindaloo, a dish that relies legumes, including lentils and chickpeas. For the most part, the dishes from Southern India are primarily vegetarian, but you can certainly adapt the recipe to include meat for celebrations and special occasions. Rice is an essential ingredient in these dishes, especially the fragrant jasmine variety which is used in almost every dish during a meal, even dessert!

Eastern India: The region is most known for Darjeeling tea. In addition to tea, this hot, humid region near the Bay of Bengal cultivates rice, as many as 50 different varieties. Coconuts and bananas are popular ingredients in the cuisine of this area; in fact, coconut milk is often used as a substitute for cow or goat’s milk.Western India: This region of India incorporates a great deal of dairy products in their dishes: including yogurt, buttermilk, cow’s milk, and goat’s milk. Along the coastline of the Arabian Sea, you’ll find a popular dish referred to as “Bombay Duck,” which, despite its name actually refers to a small, transparent fish. Pickles are all an essential part of the meal from this region. India boasts a variety of cuisine that is as complex and unique as the country itself. There’s no reason to be intimidated by Indian food, not all of it need be hot and spicy, and most can be adjusted for personal preferences. Check for recipes on-line at altcooking.om/indiancooking/ and altcooking.com/indiancookingrecipe/ for your favorite Indian region and get cooking.

Selina Cormin has partnered with Jaynne Nicols to research the Indian Cuisine. Read more at her website Alt Cooking.

Jaynne Nicols has done a lot of research into illness and why we get ill. One of the things she came across is that almost all illness starts in your colon. sign up for her free newsletter Health and Wellness in the 21st Century and learn more in and through her series on health issues.

When you think it’s time to look for the right fibromyaglia treatment you need to do some self study before visiting a doctor. Get on with some books and other information sources on fibromyaglia to find out more and more about it. Once you have a fair idea about the same you can simply go ahead and discuss with your doctor to choose the right treatment. Remember that the idea is to provide relief to your paining muscles and not pain them further with wrong therapy. You might also talk to people who are suffering from the same symptoms.

It is important to locate the trigger points that shoot the pain. Once you can do that it’s time to start massaging with a tool. Your doctor or an efficient physiotherapist can help you with the right tool and the best way to go about massaging. However, it is not necessary that the points where it pains the most will be the trigger points. So after you have located the trigger points, check with the doctor if you have got it right. Otherwise, massaging on the wrong points might put you in more trouble in the future where fibromyaglia treatment as well might help.

Another trick to control the fibromyaglia pain would be to get some shower with warm water for a lot of comfort and relief. You might also use moist heat for recharging the muscles. This is a great fibromyaglia treatment that works wonder for temporary relief with causing further complications. Remember all these are homely remedies that can be used to provide short term relief. If your symptoms are grave and not showing any signs of improvement you need to see the doctor urgently and find out the right course of treatment. A little delay might cause a lot of problems.

Have you ever wondered how police can stop you at a DUI roadblock (aka “sobriety checkpoint”)? Doesn’t the Constitution require them to have “probable cause before stopping you”? Yes and no, explains Lawrence Taylor who heads up a team of California DUI attorneys that specialize in DUI defense.

The Constitution of the United States clearly says that police can’t just stop someone and conduct an investigation unless there are “articulable facts” indicating possible criminal activity. So how can they do exactly that with drunk driving roadblocks? Good question. And it was raised in the case of Michigan v. Sitz, in which the Michigan Supreme Court striking down DUI roadblocks as unconstitutional. In a 6-3 decision, however, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Michigan court, holding that they were constitutionally permissible.

Chief Justice Rehnquist began his majority opinion by admitting that DUI sobriety checkpoints do, in fact, constitute a “seizure” within the language of the Fourth Amendment. In other words, yes, it appears to be a blatant violation of the Constitution. However, he continued, it’s only a little one, and something has to be done about the “carnage” on the highways caused by drunk drivers. The “minimal intrusion on individual liberties”, Rhenquist wrote, must be “weighed” against the need for — and effectiveness of — DUI roadblocks. In other words, the ends justify the means.

The dissenting justices pointed out that the Constitution doesn’t make exceptions: The sole question is whether the police had probable cause to stop the individual driver. As Justice Brennan wrote, “That stopping every car might make it easier to prevent drunken driving…is an insufficient justification for abandoning the requirement of individualized suspicion… The most disturbing aspect of the Court’s decision today is that it appears to give no weight to the citizen’s interest in freedom from suspicionless investigatory seizures”.

Rehnquist’s justification for ignoring the Constitution rested on the assumption that DUI roadblocks were “necessary” and “effective”. Are they? As Justice Stevens wrote in another dissenting opinion, the Michigan court had already reviewed the statistics on DUI sobriety checkpoints/roadblocks: “The findings of the trial court, based on an extensive record and affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals,” he wrote, “indicate that the net effect of sobriety checkpoints on traffic safety is infinitesimal and possibly negative”.

Note: The case was sent back to the Michigan Supreme Court to change its decision accordingly. But the Michigan Supreme Court sidestepped Rehnquist by holding that DUI checkpoints, though now permissible under the U.S. Constitution, were not permissible under the Michigan State Constitution, and ruled again in favor of the defendant — in effect saying to Rehnquist, “If you won’t protect our citizens, we will”. A small number of states have since followed Michigan’s example.

Please visit the Law Offices of Lawrence Taylor at http://www.duicentral.com/ for more information.

Why do we human beings complicate things? Is it that we don’t believe that simple things work. From years of working with leaders at all levels and many different sectors here are the simple yet powerful steps you must take if you want to be a brilliant leader.

* Know your people – not just as cogs in a machine – but also as people. The more you know the more you can do to assist them do even better.

* Keep asking people how things are going – what needs improving – what we can do better?

* Decide today to delegate twice as much as you’re currently doing. You’ll see in this workshop that you DO have people to delegate to even though it may not seem like it.

* Check people’s understanding of your instructions by asking them to tell you what they have to do. Don’t just ask, “Do you understand?” They may say “yes” even if they don’t!

* Always get clear in your own mind what you want from projects, meetings, presentations, and appointments. A leader knows what he/she wants and this keeps everyone focused.

* Make the effort to genuinely praise people privately – and even better – in public.

* Keep people regularly informed – about as much as possible. You’ll see why in more detail during this workshop. Communication can be short and to the point but people want to know.

* Consult as much as possible. Ask people how they’d do things and whether or not they’ve better ideas on how to do what you want.

* Set direction and decide. Make clear what the purpose of the company, department, and project is. Set out some short-term targets and some medium term visions then decide.

* When people are not performing well strive not to insult or belittle. Be hard on the problem not on people. If you have to fire someone do it with as much dignity and respect as possible.

Yes we should read more and attend more workshops to keep improving. But what more do you need? Go and do it now!

You can be an even better leader – all success!

Bill has gained his knowledge from the school of hard knocks and in working with thouirands of managers in his face-to-face workshops. He likes to get to the heart of the matter and give people simple but powerful technqiues that can help them do even better. He has now put all of his fifteen workshops online so people can do them anywhere, anytime.
http://www.brilliantwebworkshops.com

We’ve all heard about it-it seems like all the buzz right now in the search engine marketing industry is RSS. If you’re a website owner, than there are two ways your website can benefit from using RSS on your website-you can provide an RSS feed or, for the not-so-technically-inclined folks like me, you can use an RSS feed to keep your site’s content fresh.

RSS is a way to syndicate website content. According to Wikipedia, “RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by (amongst other things) news websites and weblogs…the RSS formats provide web content or summaries of web content together with links to the full versions of the content, and other meta-data.” Wikipedia goes on to say that “A program known as a feed reader or aggregator can check RSS-enabled web pages on behalf of a user and display any updated articles that it finds. It is now common to find RSS feeds on major web sites, as well as many smaller ones.”

If you’re a website owner, you can use RSS to your advantage in two ways: use someone else’s RSS feed or produce your own RSS feed. 1. Install a script on your website-whenever a web page on your website is loaded the script automatically loads data from an RSS feed. If the RSS feed you choose to use is the latest news, then the latest news will appear on your website. This is fairly easy to set up and is good for search engine optimization purposes. I’ll discuss installing an RSS feed script on your website later on in this article.

2. Provide an RSS feed of your website’s content so others can use it. By providing an RSS feed of your website’s content, you’re essentially allowing people to use the content on their website or through their feed reader. In either case, you’re also providing links back to your website, which is good for search engine optimization purposes-it will also get visitors to visit your website. Providing an RSS feed of your site’s content can be tricky to set up-or it may not be appropriate if you don’t have a lot of content on your website. I’ll discuss your options later on in this article.

If you’re a website owner, then chances are you want to keep your website’s content fresh. By updating the content on a regular basis, the search engine spiders will take notice-they’ll visit your website more often and index the new content and new web pages-which can ultimately bring more visitors to your website. For example, if your website is about real estate, you might consider including the latest real estate news on your website. Users typically search for topics that are related to items in the news, so if those topics and keywords are included on your website you can typically be found in the search engines for those terms. It’s like having your own real estate news staff on hand, 24 hours a day, adding the latest news on your website.

Installing an RSS Feed on Your Website

Installing an RSS feed on your website is not as difficult as it sounds. You simply install a script one time-and then anywhere you want the RSS feed to appear you simply pick a feed and copy and paste some code on your page. The first thing you need to do is figure out which script to use. If your website is using an Unix server and has PHP installed, the the easiest PHP script I’ve found is called CaRP. You will first want to visit the CaRP download page and download the file. CaRP has a free version that you can use on your website. They request that you link back to their website if you use it. Unzip the zip file and upload the files to your website using an FTP program. Then, run the setup file in your web browser, chmod the appropriate files, and continue with the directions given to you in the web browser. Once it’s installed, the script will give you code to copy and paste wherever your want the RSS feed to be displayed on your website. You can even change the font, size, and color of the feed by specifying those attributes before the code.

There are other RSS parser scripts available, but CaRP is the one that I’m more familiar with because its ease of use and ease of installation. To find other RSS parsers, you can search Google for “rss parser script”. CaRP is typically used if you have PHP installed on your website, and RSS parser scripts are available if you’re running a website on a Windows server. If you’re using the PHP version of CaRP then you’ll want to use PHP pages on your website-or you will need to parse your html pages as PHP pages.

Finding an RSS Feed

Once you’ve installed the parser script, you’ll want to find the appropriate RSS feed to use on your website. Keep in mind that a lot of RSS feeds are provided for “non-commercial use only”, so if your website is a for-profit website you’ll need to check the terms of using the RSS feed before you use it.

The best way to find an RSS feed is to search for it. Following my real estate example above, searching for “rss real estate” (without the quotes) finds several feeds. Topix.net provides a real estate rss feed. By copying that URL and pasting it into the CaRP code provided by CaRP, you can add that code to any web page on your website and the latest Real Estate News from Topix will automatically appear. Another way to find a feed is to look for a blog on your site’s topic. Most blog software includes an RSS feed, so searching Google for “keyword blog rss” might also help you find a feed you can use.

Adding an RSS feed on your web page won’t get you high rankings in the search engines. A while back I tested this theory a while back by making three nearly identical web pages-one static page, one with RSS feed content on it, and another with a live RSS feed on it. It turned out that after all three pages were indexed and ranked, the page with the live RSS feed actually ranks third-the static page without the RSS content on it always ranks the best. Search Google for “silly burlywood revenue” and you’ll see what I mean.

Although adding an RSS feed won’t get your page top rankings in Google, there are other benefits. For example, updating your web page’s content on a regular basis gets the page crawled more often-and more active crawling can contribute to other benefits, such as ranking for terms that appear in the feed on your site as well as causing new web pages on your site to get indexed faster than they were before.

Providing an RSS Feed of Your Content

Depending on your website’s content, providing an RSS feed of your content might be appropriate. If your website provides news or contains a blog, then publishing an RSS feed might work well. Most blog software automatically publishes an RSS feed of your blog, so you might want to find its URL and start promoting it. If you sell a lot of products on your website, you might consider making an RSS feed available-perhaps one that includes your top selling products along with their prices. Other websites might be interested in publishing that data for their users, and you would receive more visitors and links back to your website, something that will help your site’s search engine rankings.

Publishing an RSS feed is a little more complicated, perhaps to lengthy a discussion for this article. However, there are many good tutorials out there, including Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Watch article about it, as well as the RSS tutorial at mnot.net.

Whether you use RSS to publish your own feed or you use someone else’s feed on your website, both provide great benefits to website owners-and definitely will continue in the future to be used more and more.

Bill Hartzer is a successful writer and search engine marketing expert who has personally created hundreds of websites over the years.
Extended bio info:

Bill created his first website back in 1996 to help promote his former database software business. It was then when he learned about the power of the search engines and web search, which helped potential customers find his business online.

Bill Hartzer has over 15 years of professional writing experience. He has survived stints as a writer for television, as well as a technical writer for several computer software companies in Florida and in Texas. Mr. Hartzer combines his writing and online skills to create compelling and useful websites for corporations worldwide. Mr. Hartzer focuses on the optimization in the business to business arena, but applies these optimization skills to business to consumer websites, as well.

I managed to keep a straight face while replying, No, there are a few colors in between. The naivet© amused me. Yet in fairness, this group of 25 newly-minted yellow belts had been promoted in record timejust six weeks. It had been a special summer program for kids just out of juvenile hall, or expelled from district schools. An experiment.

So, I could see how they might think the whole process would be collapsed. On the other hand, I’d worked them two solid hours a day, four days a week, hour-for-hour at least the equivalent of a traditional program’s three one-hour classes a week for 3-6 months. There was no gimme to it. This kid had conveniently forgotten all the hard work they’d done, although some of the kids around himstill sore, stiff, and blisteredburst into laughter at his question.

Yet I sensed a dark side to this mirthful moment as we stood in the afterglow of our hard-won achievement. Sure, on the surface this student’s comment appeared to be merely a neophyte’s inexperience. But 16 years of working with street-savvy kids kept me from dismissing the pall which had fallen. What was it?

The unsettling feeling lasted a day or two before I could articulate it. And it was this: there was a dangerous assumption underlying the kid’s basic outlook on life. Too often adolescents who have been cut off for long periods from traditional routes to success begin to look for shortcuts. They may feel like failures in one or more areas of their lives: school, socially, sports, dating, or maybe shame over their family or home situation. As I thought it over, the conviction grew that this boy may have actually believed there was an available shortcut. And that was worrisome. Because I’ve found that the more kids find themselves feeling on the outs from success, the more such shortcuts will seem acceptable, even normal.

So what might I take from this episode to make me better at working with and helping kids? I believe this street-wizened teen learned that he would have to work for his martial arts achievementsand maybe others as wellbut also that he could be successful by doing so. He didn’t need a shortcut. He was capable. And as simple as this sounds, there are many, many teens out there who don’t believe they are capable. They may appear normal to adults, or even peers, but many teens feel a sense of deep failure in one or more area of life. What a great challengeand opportunityfor those of us who work with them, whether in the martial arts studio, the classroom, a church or civic setting, or across the dinner table.

Mark Kennedy, M.Ed., twice teacher of the year and nationally-certified black belt instructor, is the author of two books for teachers and parents: Lessons from the Hawk (how to ensure learning for all) and Dance of the Dolphin (creating a learning rich environment). To learn more about your own approach to life and learning, take a free survey at https://great-ideas.org/DolphinMaterials.htm (adults use the LSOS, teacher versionteens can take the LSOS). Or for free articles, surefire ideas for reaching all kids, and helpful links visit www.harmoniouswarrior.com or contact mark@harmoniouswarrior.com.

The simple fact of life today is that in many situations credit cards are vital. It is extremely difficult to rent a car for instance if you do not have access to a credit card in your own name. Also, shopping on line is not very easy at all if you do not have a credit card. While many websites will accept debit cards, if you are trying to book a hotel abroad or buy from any website based abroad, it can be next to impossible to find a payment method other than credit card. This is why more and more people are seeking to get credit cards, even when they have poor credit histories.

Guaranteed Acceptance Credit Cards

There are now a number of credit cards available that do not rely on a good credit history. The lenders are willing to provide these cards to absolutely everyone no matter what their credit rating may show. This is very good news for people who have bad credit ratings but still need access to a credit card. There are some important differences between these credit cards and regular cards however, so it is a good idea to be aware of the features that are different.

What’s the Catch?

The most obvious feature that people come across, and one that can surprise customers the most, is the existence of a subscription or set up fee for the card. This may be just as little as five pounds a month but can be substantially higher. There are also cards that charge an annual fee and these may prove to be better value if you plan on keeping the card for more than a few months. While customers have become accustomed to not having to pay for their credit cards, these fees are in many situations more than worth the expense given the convenience that the card will bring.

Don’t Abuse These Cards!

Another feature of these cards is that the interest rates and penalty charges for late payment are often very high. Interest rates can easily be as much as twenty five or even thirty per cent so you probably do not want to rack up too much debt on these cards. Also, if you miss payments there may be provisions for very high penalty fees and even for your interest rate to be increased. So if you are planning on getting a credit card targeted for those with bad credit, then make sure it is not something that is going to get out of hand and that you will be able to control your expenditure on it. Also, you should probably only take one out if it is for a specific necessary purpose, and not simply for occasional shopping.

Joseph Kenny writes http://www.CardGuide.co.uk, which offers some of the best credit cards in the UK.