Cards Cut

So many times, people don’t understand the need for medical coverage on their auto insurance policy. “Why do I need medical coverage?”, they ask. “I have medical insurance.” I’m glad they have medical insurance, but what about their passengers? Do they have medical insurance?

The medical coverage on your auto insurance provides medical coverage for both you, the driver, and each one of your passengers. It is a very cost effective way to pay for that ambulance ride to the hospital and to pay for the doctor exam. Many people don’t realize that their medical insurance probably won’t pay anything until the medical coverage from the car policy is exhausted!

Years back, a celebrated author in his get rich quick book advised us to minimize the medical coverage on our car insurance, or to drop it entirely. I would advise you to maximize it! Many health plans do not cover auto accidents until after the first fifty thousand dollars. My own plan does that, but for a modest extra $15 every month, it will pay after the first five thousand. No thank you! I’ll pay the extra $15 to raise the medical coverage on my auto policy to $50,000, and spend that extra monthly $15 on something I’ll enjoy.

Check it out. Have your insurance agent run the numbers, and I’m sure you’ll be surprised

Douglas T. Zinkevicz has had over a decade of experience servicing the auto,home and life insurance needs of his clients.Let him help you with your insurance questions by visiting http://www.insuranceplus.blogspot.com.

I will love them freely … (Hosea 14:4 NKJV).

Unconditional love! Sounds great, doesn’t it? To love in spite of instead of spite … Unconditional! Who can do this? How can I love this person who has ripped my heart into tiny bits of hate and resentment? Oh yes, I read and reread that lovely passage from 1 Corinthians 13 when I feel the anger and hate welling up. I have even made a poster out of the NIV version of Verse 5: [Love] keeps no record of wrongs to keep me from dredging out the old woe-is-me’s in times of anger.

Imagine my surprise when I finally discovered–with our Good Shepherds prodding and in spite of my plodding–that this is a choice we make. Indeed, we can decide to be pleasant or unpleasant when we wake in the morning. It’s the old as-if principle: I’ll act as if I truly love this person, and before I know it, I do! It sneaks up on us, thank God.

Years ago I read the following: “I love you today, where you are and as you are. You do not have to be anything but what you are for me to love you. I love you now; not sometime when you are worthy, but today when you may need love most. I will not withhold my love, or withdraw it. There are no strings on my love, no price. I will not force it upon you when you are not ready. It is just there, freely offered, with both hands. Take what you want today. The more you take, the more there is. It is good if you can return love; but if you cannot today, that is all right too. Love is its own joy. Bless me by letting me love you today” (Author Unknown). Wonderful!

There it is, unconditional, no strings attached, I love you as Jesus loves you. I love you because God first loved me. He loved me enough to forgive my sins, so how can I do less for you? Forgive me for not loving you! Forgive me for the wasted words and years when I could have held and upheld you and made both our lives easier. Love is so much easier, really. I mean the love that wants what is best for you and will help you with your life.

I quote:
I will love them freely.
God’s promise of forgiveness: We observe God’s acknowledgment or consideration of all the three points embraced in the supplication of the truly penitent. God healeth in four different ways, and each mode embraces all the others.
1. By a gracious pardon.
2. By a spiritual and effectual reformation, by enabling us to walk in newness of life, by making us holy, even as He is holy.
3. By removing judgments which sin brought upon the sufferer, whether nationally or individually.
4. By comforting. This mode of restoring health to the soul is one of Christ’s principal works. The Lord is very minute and distinct in marking every article in the penitent’s prayer. Ephraim not only besought mercy to have all his iniquity taken away, but also that He who took away all sin, should, at the same time, receive good gifts in his behalf. Jehovah, accordingly, does not only promise, “I will heal their backsliding,” but proceeds to say moreover, “I will love them freely.” This is the fundamental principle of Gospel truth. Ephraim gave a reason for his entire dependence, henceforth and for ever, upon the Lord, which was, “For in Thee the fatherless findeth mercy.” We can do nothing on our part to obtain the mercy vouchsafed unto us; for God said, “I will love them freely.” It is out of man’s power to deserve God’s love. Another consideration must be borne in mind, not to incur God’s wrath again. (Moses Margoliouth, B. A.)

Now excuse me while I go bury the old heart at the foot of the Cross …

Videos are a tremendous tool to promote your company’s products and services. For sure there are many other marketing techniques around from editorial writing to blogging, from public relations to RSS. But nothing says “cool, connection, and creativity” like a professional video.

Each month more and more firms of all sizes are generating online videos about their services. They are not only just posting them on their company sites, but they are putting them to their own blogs. To gain global twenty-four-seven visibility, video commercials are being posted to lots of video-sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video. And why not ? it is economical, easy-to-do, & can have a significant impact, in many cases, on the traffic it sends to your companies website.

There are a lot more reasons why videos are an exceptional way to market your company.

Internet videos enjoy an extensive circulation: Videos by their very nature are easy to “package” which makes them just right to go into a variety of different distribution channels. You can add them on your businesses site or blog, on the other hand you can put them onto your desktop computer and run them over and over at a company show. You can add them to hundreds of Internet video-sharing social sites. You can burn them onto CDs and give them away or sell them. You can even dispatch them by email. For online video publishing solutions that best meet the needs of your business, visit the Vidify website today.

Video commercials are an amazing way to advertise. As our knowledge of technology changes, so do the ways in which organisations like to interact with others. Most individuals are visually oriented meaning that is how they best understand & interact with their world. This makes videos on the Internet the best company strategy to communicate to today’s customers.

These are just a number of the many reasons why short format videos might be a valuable way to advertise your organisation’s products & services. Discover more about this area to see how you might utilise your time, money, and energy to speak with your target consumers in a modern & fascinating way.

While our business prospers we often cannot see ourselves ever lacking money.

Most of us reason that as long as we keep working, making sales, and satisfying customers, our businesses will continue to prosper.

And if our business slows down, or fails, we can always seek 9-5 employment.

But how many of us consider another alternative?

What if we are no longer around?

Would our families be able to enjoy a decent standard of living without the income we generate?

If the answer is no, then we should consider the benefits of having life insurance.

A life insurance policy can provide a decent source of financing for a family that has lost their breadwinner.

While life insurance can be expensive for some, there is another alternative to consider.

Term life insurance does not generally provide a cash build up value, but it can provide coverage at a substantially lower price.

By purchasing term life insurance you can also free up cash flow which you can reinvest in your business. Since term life insurance is substantially cheaper than life insurance, you can use the money you save to continue building up your business.

In essence, term life insurance is an agreement between you and your insurance company. In exchange for monthly payments the life insurance company will guarantee a death benefit to your survivors.

Term life insurance does have a downside, which is the lack of a cash value. But on the other hand, as a business owner, you might be able to obtain a better return on your money from investing your money in your business.

Term life insurance is also highly affordable, with term policies being available for as little as $20 a month, and guaranteeing a death benefit of up to $150,000.

Before making a purchase of any term life policy make sure to research the ratings of the life insurance company.

You want to ensure that the company will be in business 15, 20, and even 30 years from now.

When it comes to term life insurance, the Internet is your best research tool. Many insurance sites will give you instant quotes and let you compare different life insurance companies.

You can read up on term life insurance, and receive a free quote, by visiting http://www.americanlifedirectonline.com

Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business.

There are only seven of them; plus their respective flats, sharps, and octaves…and from so few, can come such abundance.

In many ways we can say more through the notes than we can through speech.

In fact, we convey more through the notes than we could ever express in spoken or written forms of language–the notes transcend our skill with words.

The notes can transport us to another era, or to a moment in our past.

They can inspire us beyond the lesser levels we accept in our verbal world.

They will raise bumps of ecstasy on our flesh, or shiver us with an icy refrain.

They bring forth our other senses; our hidden senses. And we might recall a fragrance, a taste, a pain felt, a sensuous caress.

The notes may be so beautiful, that we will weep with the hearing of them.

There is a pulse to the notes; a meter to each trill; a cadence to each sonorous phrase.

And, the notes can embolden us…to dance.

And there are so many more vehicles for the notes than there are for mere words. So many things to make the music on…to create the notes with.

I wonder how we humans attained the knowledge of music, of the notes?

I imagine we probably communicated through music even when our language skills were at the primal level; when our utterances were little more than grunts and base articulations.

Maybe the notes were a gift…of magic. Or perhaps we just borrowed them from the birds.

copyright © 2000 by Kathy Pippig Harris

I live in central, sunny California, where I share my life with my husband and our furry family. I work full time for a living, and I write in order to live fully. My works have been featured in 2TheHeart, StoryTime Tapestry, Starfish, Driftwood, CatTails, Petwarmers, uhad2bthere, Heartwarmers, Insight of the Day, Warm Fuzzy Stories, Gwen’s Place Newsletter, Sir Froggie’s Positive News Network, and Eternal Ink. I am also a weekly columnist for the publication “Frank Talk” which is distributed in six counties in Michigan, USA. I have four published novels, 4 fiction and 1 non-fiction, which can be orderd from Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com

In the children’s section of any bookstore, books on the birth of Jesus stand next to Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk. The same parents who describe Santa Claus so convincingly also tell their children of Another who knows if they’ve been “naughty or nice.” No wonder many children cast aside the Father and the Son at about the time they give up their belief in
the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny.

But the Gospel Story is not myth or fairy tale. It is history–as solidly believable as Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus. Look at any calendar. The prefixes Sept-, Oct-, Nov-, and Dec- should designate months 7, 8, 9, and 10, not 9, 10, 11, and 12. Why are they off by two digits? Because in their egotism two powerful men, namely Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus, inserted months to honor themselves, pushing the succeeding months back in the year. The calendar’s misnamed months testify to the two rulers’ historicity.

The same is true with regard to the year on the calendar. Each passing year recalls the blessed moment when “The Word became flesh and pitched a tent among us” (John 1:14). And every stock market report and checkbook entry, every video camera’s electronic brain and every letter’s postmark, whisper in
unison, “He actually lived, truly and literally, in real space and time!”

John cannot be misunderstood: “We heard Him, we saw Him with our eyes, we looked at Him, and our hands touched Him” (1 John 1:1). Paul says Christ was raised and appeared to eyewitnesses, many of whom were still alive to affirm it 25 years later (1 Cor. 15:5-8).

For all of us who follow Him, the story can end, “and they lived happily ever after,” because of this very reason: it does not begin with “Once upon a time,” but “Once, for all time.”

Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles on subjects of interest to Bible students. He has taught Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses Bible college, university, and adult education programs. He has taught seminars and workshops in 11 states and the Caribbean.

Go to his DeeperStudy.com for Bible study resources, no matter what your level of expertise. Explore “The Shallows,” plumb “The Depths,” or use the well-organized “Study Links” for original sources in English translation. Sign up for Steve’s free “DeeperStudy Newsletter.”

Many people may not know whether or not they need to purchase a dental insurance plan. While Hamlet may have procrastinated over the issue, a timely decision on the patient’s part could provide them with much-needed peace of mind since dental treatment can prove to be an expensive issue.

If someone is working for a company that provides dental coverage either as a perk or at a reduced rate, the answer is no, there is no need to buy individual dental insurance plans. Group dental insurance plans will cover most of the patient’s requirements such as fees for visits to a dentist, root canal treatment, fillings, and dentures But on the other hand, if someone is self-employed or an employee of a company that does not provide dental insurance, it is better to buy an individual dental insurance plan. Imagine getting up one morning with a swollen cheek and the doctor diagnosing a root canal treatment. The cost could be as high as 500 dollars.

While buying dental insurance, people should consider whether they need the insurance coverage for themselves or their family. It is better to opt for a plan that includes family members, because chances are that some member may require dental treatment- be it filling, cleaning, or even getting dentures. This is generally because even though dental problems are preventive by nature, people tend to take ailments lightly.

Bleeding of the gums is a common malady, especially while brushing the teeth, but most people do not pay any attention until they reach a stage when the problem can no longer be ignored. A dental plan can then help lower the costs of the treatment.

There are many companies that offer affordable dental insurance plans. People have option of choosing between indemnity plans and managed care plans. Many managed care plans such as the preferred provider organization are slightly restrictive in the sense that the service provider has to be dentist listed in the plan network. Otherwise, people could end up with a higher medical bill. Indemnity plans, on the other hand, are slightly more expensive but they give people the freedom of choice of receiving aid from the dentist they want.

Dental Insurance provides detailed information about dental insurance, dental insurance companies, and more. Dental Insurance is affiliated with Texas Health Insurance Companies.

A new website called airfarewatchdog.com may be the answer to the woes of frequent travelers.

Airfarewatchdog.com lists the lowest airfares on all airlines. Created by travel journalist, George Hobica, the site also allows consumers to avail of special fares that can only be bought through an airline’s website. Their airfare choices help consumers save at least $200. It’s unlike any other travel or airfare site because it regularly updates airfares from airport-to-airport. Airfarewatchdog also gives consumers the chance to avail of special bargain rates for certain destinations.

Nowadays, when prices for almost everything have an expensive price tag, it is necessary to seek out the most practical solutions. Airfarewatchdog.com may not give us free flights, but at least, they offer several options suited to our budget.

In the past months, the airline industry introduced a couple of changes like the checked baggage charge, which obviously added weight to the traveling consumer’s woes. It became top priority therefore, to look for alternative ways to lighten the consumer’s traveling expenses.

Before deciding on where to go or which flight to take, travelers should check out airfarewatchdog.com and avail of the free information they give to consumers regarding the cheapest rates and alternatives.

Another distinguishing feature that traveling consumers can make good use of are the regular alerts/updates on airfare changes and developments, including information on when it is cheapest to travel.

The site’s detailed and constantly updated service is certainly first class!

The Waitt Family Foundation, founded by Ted Waitt, is a charitable organization that makes grants to organizations striving to help us understand our past, improve the present, and prepare for the future.

KKR Head of Global Public Affairs Ken Mehlman talks about how KKR has saved companies $16 million through environmental initiatives.

USA Today has reported on how Ken Mehlman and KKR have helped companies save money while protecting the environment.

When we think beads, we normally think of bracelets, anklets, hair ornaments and necklaces. What about beaded earrings? Well, earrings are mostly made of metal, enamel and precious stones, some of us think. Earrings are fancy and expensive!

Fortunately, earrings don’t have to be fancy, or expensive, or made of just one extravagant material — or a combination thereof. A person can be elegant without spending a lot of money, and a person can be elegant without looking so metallic!

American Indians used to create very elaborate beaded jewelry for different purposes. Among them were dream catchers — ritual items placed on cradles and other sleeping areas in order to drive away bad dreams — and beaded earrings for the women. A common stone involved in the making of bead jewelry is turquoise, which is said to lend strength of conviction and character to the wearer.

Some beads are made of semi-precious stones, and as such make beaded earrings that are comparable to earrings made from other kinds of exotic materials — like hemp. Beads come in virtually every hue of the color spectrum, so it is no problem to find or make beaded earrings to catch one’s fancy.

To achieve the natural, native look, go for beaded earrings. They are certainly unique and attention-catching. Choose from a variety of multicolored or monochromatic designs, mix and match according to your clothing, and existing jewelry. If you already have bead necklaces or bracelets — or even beaded shirts! — why not wear beaded earrings to match?

Celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Marie Osmond and “Law and Order” actress Elisabeth Rohm have all purchased and sported beaded jewelry at one time or another, and it has worked very well for them indeed!

Beaded earrings are easily very colorful and elegant, with a touch of that old world charm. If you want a change from the traditional metal-and-stone ensembles in most jewelry outfits, beaded accessories are the way to go.

Sam Serio is an Internet Marketer, musician and a writer on the subject of jewelry and gemstones. For more information on jewelry and gemstones, we cordially invite you to visit www.morninglightjewelry.com to pick up your FREE copy of “How To Buy Jewelry And Gemstones Without Being Ripped Off.” This concise, informative special report reveals almost everything you ever wanted to know about jewelry and gemstones, but were afraid to ask. Get your FREE report at www.morninglightjewelry.com.

XHTML, the standard, was first released back in 2000. Roughly five years later we begin to see major websites revised to use this standard. Even the favorite whipping boy of standards-compliance punditry, Microsoft, presents their primary homepages, msn.com and microsoft.com in XHTML. Standards compliant XHTML sites are still the minority. The reason is simple. When the W3C released the new standard, the rest of the web running on HTML did not cease to function. Nor will the rest of the web, written in various flavors of HTML, cease to function any time soon. Without any pressing need to conform to the new standard, designers continue to use old, familiar methods. These methods will perform in any modern browser, so why bother switching?

These sentiments are similar to ones I experienced. A kind of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality sets in. Whether HTML was “broken” or not is a different argument. To the casual Internet user, their standards are fairly direct. If a site displays without noticeable error and functions to their satisfaction, these standards are met. Whatever additional steps the browser took to make such display possible is irrelevant to most users. This kind of mentality is difficult to overcome in designers accustomed to their old methods.

Technical obstacles to adopting XHTML may be quite steep as well, especially as regards large, existing websites with complex scripting. Yet the time may eventually come where yesterday’s “tried and true” HTML is little more than an ancient language, unable to be interpreted by modern electronic devices. Whether one agrees with the direction the W3C takes in the development of HTML is irrelevant, you are just along for the ride. With some perseverance, getting the hang of XHTML is possible. In form, it is not as different from HTML as Japanese is from English. Knowing HTML grants a basic knowledge of the language, it simply becomes a matter of learning a particular dialect. Even an original nay-sayer such as myself managed to do it.

Benefits of XHTML
There are 2 primary benefits to using XHTML. First is the strict nature of valid XHTML documents. “Valid” documents contain no errors. Documents with no errors can be parsed more easily by a browser. Though the time saved is, admittedly, negligible from the human user’s point of view, there is a greater efficiency to the browser’s performance. Most modern browsers will function well in what’s usually referred to as “quirks” mode, where, in the absence of any on-page information about the kind of HTML they are reading, present a “best guess” rendering of a page. The quirks mode will also forgive many errors in the HTML. Modern browsers installed on your home computer have the luxury of size and power to deal with these errors. When browser technology makes the leap to other appliances it may not have the size and power to be so forgiving. This is where the strict, valid documents demanded by the XHTML standard become important.

The second benefit is in the code itself, which is cleaner and more compact than common, “table” based layout in HTML. Though XHTML retains table functionality, the standard makes clear tables are not to be used for page layout or anything other than displaying data in a tabular format. This is generally the primary obstacle most designers have with moving to XHTML. The manner in which many designers have come to rely on to layout and organize their pages is now taboo. Simple visual inspection of XHTML code reveals how light and efficient it is in comparison to a table based HTML layout. XTHML makes use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which, when called externally, remove virtually all styling information from the XHTML document itself. This creates a document focused solely on content.

XHTML makes use of “div” tags to define content areas. How these “divisions” are displayed is controlled by CSS. This is known as CSS-P, or CSS Positioning. Trading in “table” tags for “divs” can be tough. Learning a new way of accomplishing an already familiar task is generally difficult. Like learning to use a different design program or image editor, frustration can be constant. Looking at “divs” as a kind of table cell might be helpful, though they are not entirely equivalent. As required by the XHTML standard, always make sure there is a DOCTYPE definition at the top of the document. This is not only required by the standard, but it will force Internet Explorer 6, currently the most common browser, to enter its “standards compliance” mode. IE6 and Firefox, both operating in standards compliance mode will display XHTML in much the same way. Not identical, but far better than IE6 operating in quirks mode. Learning how to iron out the final differences between displays is the final obstacle and can require a bit of tweaking in the CSS.

Clean code has multiple benefits. It creates a smaller page size which, over time, can save costs associated with transfer usage. Though the size difference may appear small, for someone running a highly trafficked site, even saving a few kilobytes of size can make a big difference. Further, some believe search engines may look more kindly on standards complaint pages. This is only a theory, though. In a general sense, any page modification that makes the content easier to reach and higher in the code is considered wise. Search engines, so it is believed, prefer to reach content quickly, and give greater weight to the first content they encounter. Using XHTML and “div” layout allows designers to accomplish this task more easily.

Conclusions
XHTML is the current standard set by the W3C. The W3C continues development of XHTML, and XHTML 2.0 will replace the current standard in the future. Learning and using XHTML today will help designers prepare for tomorrow. Valid XTHML produces no errors that might slow down a browser, and the code produced is clean and efficient. This saves in file size and helps designers better accomplish their search engine optimization goals. Learning XHTML is primarily about learning a new way to lay out pages. Though frustrating at first, the long term benefits far outweigh any initial inconvenience.

Eric Lester worked in the IT industry for 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, website design, before serving for 4 years as the webmaster for Apollo Hosting, www.apollohosting.com. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.