How to club exercise and entertainment.

When the new night dress failed to hide my paunch, my heart sank. The depression set in not because of the bulge but the fact that I may be asked to do aerobics didn’t quite agree with my hectic schedule.

Yes, I know that there are machines like treadmill, ellipticals and exercise bikes that are widely used these days by work at home women, but still, I have to allocate time for the workout bothered me.

My husband had a serious talk with me and assured me that he loves me irrespective of my shape. His argument that by using treadmill at our home,

I don’t have to worry about rain or hot sun outside.

He then showed me an innovative treadmill that also entertains while working out. The ProForm Perspective looked to me the most advanced entertainment treadmill I have heard about.

The treadmill comes with a 7" flat-screen television that allows one to watch news or listen to music while keeping your legs and lungs busy.

Hmm... it is alright but…

My husband knew that I was worried about the cost. He then showed me an easy way out that convinced me to buy the treadmill.

Hey, this easy way is available for everyone.

The advantage of having a TV cum PC.

Only when I saw an advertisement in the television in which I came to know that I can order pizza from my television, I contemplated about buying a Direct TV System. My God, I have been living in Stone Age by ignoring the satellite TV entertainment.

Another feature of the Direct TV that my son wanted was Internet accessibility through TV. He explained to me patiently the advantages of having a TV cum PC and that made sense to me.

I gathered several of my old newspapers and magazines and started digging for ads related to offers from Direct TV Service providers. Well, the task of choosing the best direct TV service provider was not difficult really as there was not much of a competition.

Since I wanted only to view family safe channels, my monthly budget is also not very high. With family safe channels and parental controls, I patted myself for a god selection of channel package.

Then I gained some insight on the advantages of satellite TV over cable TV just to impress upon my neighbor that I am not a complete novice about Direct TV.

Smart of me-eh? (Smile)

The scholars of south Madras.

There was a time I used to live with Aristotle. No other author the history has ever known had affected me so much philosophically. I remember his famous quote:
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." I believe this should be the fundamental premise on which every teacher should pursue his/her mission of educating children.

My friend Mr.Kasturirangan, who is working in "The Hindu', the leading daily newspaper in India, gave me a copy of "Scholar', a supplementary edition of "The Hindu".

As an academician, I love to keep myself updated in the field of education. The "Scholar' made me sit up. I have assumed that I know a lot of things about various schools. When I read "The Scholar", it was obvious that I am lagging behind on my knowledge.

For the first time, I came to know about so many extraordinary schools that are functioning in and around Madras, the side of which I know little about.

The magazine has introduced to the parents of Madras, so many well performing schools in the southern suburbs of Madras that include BOAZ public school, Bharathi Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School and Tagore Matriculation School.

Another unique feature of the "Scholar' that caught my attention is the number of special schools that are dedicated to children with myriad disabilities.
* Chrysalis school for children with Autism
* Vatsalaya learning center for children with specific learning difficulties

There are 33 special schools listed in the 'Scholar'-a real noteworthy effort of the team behind 'Scholar' that has also recognized the high performers in the recently concluded school final exams.
I liked a couple of headlines too:

* "Bagful of issues" that addressed the burden of carrying huge bags loaded with books, notes, stationeries, food, water and many other paraphernalia.
*” Work hard but play harder” dealt with students' inability to find time to play.

Generally schools in Tamilnadu tend to be identified with one religion that I am not an advocate of. Photos of religious leaders are used to lure parents that belong to that particular region is still a camouflage. I really don't feel the necessity for such practices.

Oh, well, opinion differs-right?

Overall, the 'Scholar' is a colorful issue loaded with very useful information to the parents; ultimately that alone matters, not the articles and messages of school heads and professional journalists.

People search for information and the Internet is yet to be used to its optimum by schools in India. It is the only the medium of newspapers, students and parents depend on to gain insight.

Well done "Scholar". I thank Zigma marketing India and Sandhya Sridhar Synergies for their combined effort for the excellent content. I have asked a few of my ex-colleagues to read the 'Scholar. I am sure it will be useful to them too.

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I am not a woman.

I hate shopping! I know that if a woman hates shopping, then, she is not a woman. So be it!

When I go abroad on vacation, I go only to enjoy those spectacular views, laze around and sleep a lot at odd times. I remember I shocked quite a few of my fellow travelers when I anchored at Oceanfront Hotel Myrtle Beach and refused to go with them on a shopping tour.

I don’t understand how people can leave the shores of Myrtle Beach in search of odds and bits which they ultimately dump somewhere in their house!

Myrtle Beach in South Carolina is one of the most beautiful places for vacation. The place has spectacular views everywhere. It is difficult to come back to the Myrtle Beach Resort after slowly walking along the beach, drinking in the sheer natural beauty and enjoying the pleasant breeze that always carries the smell of fish and salt.

My son and my husband enjoyed with uninhibited glee the Myrtle Beach Pavilion, an amusement park where one can take a memorable and hair rising roller coaster ride in what they call as the Hurricane Category.

And, when we somehow return to the Resort in Myrtle Beach very reluctantly, we just hit the bed totally exhausted but in a very happy frame of mind.

The Resort in Myrtle Beach is sheer comfort paradise with good food and great service.

Now I must tell where all those other women went for shopping.

The Broadway at the Beach is really huge and it is just impossible to complete a full circle of the shopping city I one day.

Fat burners may be the ultimate solution.

Are there differences between fat burner pills and weight loss pills? Oh, yes, there is one more to be added to the above two. They are called carbon blockers.
These three-are they taken mainly to get slim?

It is very essential to know the exact ingredients of any weight loss supplements before you chose buy.

To my knowledge, fat burners are taken to induce fat loss by increasing the rate of metabolism. But I believe all the three, whatever they are called, act to reduce the excess fat either by stimulating the metabolism or suppressing the appetite.

I prefer the first method of stimulating the metabolism without killing the appetite. There is no fun with a dead appetite-right?

The so called carbon blockers also known as fat blockers in the medical world is a prescription diet pill and is approved by FDA. This helps in blocking the production itself of certain enzymes that are known to digest the fat.

Hmm... This seems better than the other two!

Whatever you decide to go for, be it fat burner pills, diet pills or carbon blockers, make sure to read consumers’ reviews before taking the action.

And whatever works for you, please take time to write your personal review of the weight loss product.

Don't miss these places in New York.

Although I have not yet seen New York city, I think I know more about it than a foreigner who had visited New York several times.

I have visited all the famous hotels including Waldorf, lingered around Park Avenue, slept on the floors of Manhattan Park, walked on numerous cul-de-sac-all virtually with James Hadley Chase, Irwing Wallace, Robert Ludlum and several other authors.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the shopping paradises in New York like Macy's and Bloomingdales.

Though New York city is known for its great museums, I am not a big fan of ancient history and antiques. Well, it seems so with the authors too that I have mentioned; else they would taken me there virtually.

There are still so many fun things to do and see around New York City,

which I plan to go during next summer.

Top rated diet pills-are they for you?

It is perfectly alright to take your friend’s or husband’s recommendation seriously and try out a new fruit cocktail drink that recently got big attention; you can redeem a discount coupon gifted to you and buy a new anti virus software.
But, will you exercise the same freedom that might affect your health? Obviously not! But it is alright to gather data before buying a new gadget or a diet pill. There are dependable diet pills review sites that just don’t publish every other review.
But the final decision is yours only, be it a top rated diet pill or a colon cleanser.
But I believe colon cleanser as a weight loss product is totally replaced by diet pills though a large number of individuals have successfully used colon cleanser.

It is not necessary for me to stress the importance of doing proper research before you buy weight loss pills, should you decide to do so. You should also be aware of the irrefutable fact that diet pills are known to produce varying results.

Atkins diet plans-alternate solution to weight loss?

This yummy dish-does it look like a weight loss diet?

No?

But it is a weight loss diet sir. Have you heard about "Atkins Diet Plans"?

Atkins diet has again started appearing in newspapers as an ideal diet for people looking to shed their weight.

Atkins Diet System is projected as an ideal alternative to diet pills that is said to suppress the appetite and thus you eat less.

Atkins Diet recipes seemed to catching the fancy of the weight conscious people because of its less carbohydrates and more protein. I reckon the calorie must be also be low-an essential aspect for weight loss.

For just $1.99, you can buy an ebook of Atkins diet recipes

Beautifully designed mail boxes.

After nearly 4 years, I went to my home town. It was a pleasant experience recalling the places I used to linger around, meeting old friends and all that.

On a windy afternoon, I happen to pass by the local post office. I noticed several mail boxes painted in different colors, each for a specific purpose like local mails, interstate mails and national mails and so on.

I have never seen such arrangement before. The idea is to help easily sort the mails. I thought how nice it will be to install such mail boxes in the township I live in.

I am sure the concept of replacing the drab residential mail boxes with attractive and innovative mail boxes will be welcome by all the residents. We can think of installing various colored mail boxes for each block or different types of mail boxes.

There are about 25 blocks in my community and we have several commercial establishments too like supermarkets, bank, book shop etc. I am sure I can recommend to them some lovely looking commercial mail boxes.

I foresee I am going to be a sort of celebrity among my community.

Please pray for Billy.

Billy's story is heart breaking. The world is praying for Billy. Will you join?

Here is the story behind Billy:
>Billy has been in the hospital since January 6th, 2008! That is more than 17 months!

Do you know that Billy has been to 5 different hospitals over the last 17 months? No, he is not left alone. His angel wife Nikki is always by his side.

The tragedy is Billy is is still undiagnosed by doctors around the world. But they have named the disease finally. They call it "Billy's Disease".

If you are interested in Billy's medical history, click here!
Here is Billy's Facebook Support Group.

If you have a safe home.

On a rather leisurely mid morning, I was lazily reading about the 7 uncommon uses of Twitter when I accidentally clicked on a link related to Home Security System. I for got the actual words of the link but I remember the product ADT Security Systems, rated as number one in home security products in America.

We all tend to experiment on new products such as a new breakfast cereal, a new diet pill, an exotic fruit or a sauce made of SriLankan herbs.

But we won’t take risk when it comes to protecting our home. There are so many flyers in the mail that speak about fancy home security gadgets. I never get tempted to try one. Millions of Americans have relied only on ADT Security and they never transferred their allegiance to another home security product.

ADT (Advanced Direct Security) Security has been top class security systems since 1874. Millions of satisfied customer will vouch for the ADT because they are at peace having installed ADT’s security system in their home.

Don’t you remember the famous quote from Bernard Shaw?

“A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.”

Hmmm... Very safe-eh?

















Image Courtesy: Google Images

How to pay less in online auction sites?

Once upon a time (yes, it was so long ago), people visited auction houses to buy and sell antiques only. I believe when online auction sites were launched, sellers placed used goods only that they thought were valuable just because they are old.

When these online auction sites allowed people to sell new goods, the transformation of online auction sites was very quick and suddenly people thronged them.

The next major change introduced in online auction sites was sellers can fix up a price for their goods and buyers can pay up without bidding. But the sellers always have to pay a listing fee.

Now, that is no more an issue with the advent of free online auctions where the listing expenditure was taken care of by the advertisers on free online auction websites.

This paved way for lesser prices for the same items that was put up for sale in other auction sites where the sellers have to add the listing fee also in their goods’ price.

I used to visit webstore.com which is a free online auction house, because of the range of goods is plenty there in every category. Try them once and you will return to them again.

Image courtesy:Google Images.