I love a good horror story! Fangs, fur, things that go bump in the night and zombies, especially zombies. Lately it seems as if hordes of these mindless ghouls have invaded pop culture. There are so many movies about these predators and their insatiable appetites for human flesh, but not so many books. Epidemic Victus Cadaver: a Journal by Nicholas Berry fills a void. It's a good zombie tale and it's written with a twist. the author puts his own spin on this horror story by telling it in the form of journal entries.
It's 2007 and a journal is discovered in the charred remains of a residential area. It's a rural area although the location is not disclosed. The journal was kept by a man who barricaded himself in his house while surrounded by the undead. The only sound he hears is a DJ who is still able to broadcast. The effects of his isolation begin to wear on him as the threat to humanity grows. Will he survive or succumb to the living dead?
Berry does a good job providing a quick and entertaining read. His style is realistic and makes the story seem believable. It's not all blood and gore, there's a decent plot and a fair amount of action. The sympathetic protagonist is a survivor, someone you can relate to. He does what he can to stay alive while fear and seclusion take a toll on his sanity. You'll be cheering him on. If you are a fan of the horror genre and psychological thrillers you will probably enjoy this one.
Publisher: (January 15, 2010)
ISBN: 978-0557255252
Paperback: 154 Pages
Price: $10.50
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Keeping a Lower Back Pain Journal
Keeping a journal after incurring a back injury can be quite helpful. Sometimes even necessary. Especially as it relates to an injury that happened while at work or one that is the direct result of a motor vehicle accident.
Without keeping some detailed notes at the ready, we must rely completely on our long term memory for dates, times, places, events, and people we meet. Just to name a few! It can happen that very quickly our lives become confusing and details become blurred...
Immediately after a physician's appointment, spend a few minutes writing down all that you can remember about the encounter. What did he say about your condition? Did he order or want to order any special testing? When is your follow up visit scheduled? Anytime you can document these details about your case, you make it easier to stay on top of your care and remain organized. This will immediately become apparent to you six months after seeing the physician and you are able to better recall you conversation with him/her than they can with you!
Keep with your journal copies of any reports you can get your hands on. This includes physical therapy or chiropractic notes. The results of any MRI, EMG, CAT scans, and x-ray reports. Even go so far as to save appointment cards and receipts for any out of pocket expenses. You may eventually get reimbursed. Make photo copies of physician referrals or prescriptions for medication he/she has prescribed.
Keep a notepad by the phone and record telephone numbers and names of people who call you. Write down as much of the conversation as you can remember. You are not allowed to record another person unless you tell them they are going to be recorded ahead of time and they in turn give you permission. Be sure to check your local or federal laws to be sure!
Bottom line is don't rely on anyone else to remember all the things about you and your lower back condition. This applies to you whether you are building a case or not. You must be your own best advocate when it comes to managing yourself and the things that might ultimately affect you financially.
As you keep detailed records and copies in your journal, it will be less likely that you will end up in a "he said, she said" argument. Most likely they will not be as prepared to pull out a trusty journal like you and produce some hard evidence.
Good Luck,
Tommy Hoffman, P.T. "Permanent Lower Back Pain Relief"
The Power of Gratitude
Gratitude. A simple definition describes it as feeling of thankfulness or appreciation. While that is technically accurate, gratitude is so much more. Being able to understand the power of gratitude is to realize its ability to unlock the door to amazing clear sight, love, joy and healing. It is truly one of the best gifts there is and it is free. With November being the month for Thanksgiving, it is a perfect time to explore or reacquaint yourself with gratitude.
Gratitude changes your outlook from looking through a lens of lack to looking through a lens of possibility. They are two very different places for your spirit to sit. Words are power and it is your choice what words you give life. You can talk yourself into struggle and hopelessness or you can chose words that acknowledge the gifts, talents, experiences and people in your life that edify your soul. Being grateful lays the ground work for changing circumstances.
Gratitude comes in big and small packages and can bring laughter or tears or both. It can catch you at unexpected moments that are so surprising, it leaves you standing in awe or on your knees with your arms stretched open wide and thankful, so thankful. It can come at a quiet time while you are looking at your sleeping son who is now twenty, but you swear for just a second he was two again. It can come while walking out of in a hospital exit with your father who has spent two months in there beating unbelievable odds. It comes when the words your mother said to you years ago that did not make sense then, just clicks in place like a divine puzzle providing the words of wisdom you needed to hear today.
Opening your heart to gratitude leaves you open to healing that allows forgiveness, unconditional love and the acceptance that we are all imperfect, but still worthy of love in that imperfection. It allows you to look at things and people from new perspectives and see them as the wonderful prisms that they are. Oh, the possibilities.
Keeping a journal is a wonderful way to either begin or end your day in gratitude. I recently heard a story of a young man who created a 'Book of Yeah' that he carried with him. When he noticed someone having a bad day, he asked them to write what they were grateful for in the book. Not only did this change their disposition, he has an invaluable account of human perspective, perseverance and amazing moments. Try that if you dare. Pay it forward.
This year at the Thanksgiving, go around the table and let your guest say what they are thankful for. You may even ask them to write it down in a Thanksgiving journal that you keep from year to year. The answers will set the right tone for the day and may even start a new tradition.
"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle."
- Albert Einstein
Info on the Latest Stats For Internet Radio
Internet radio is audio broadcasting that's transmitted via the internet. There are several internet radio stations that are associated with traditional radio stations or networks, as well as a number of internet-only radio stations.
According to an article in the tech section of the Wall Street Journal in November of 2009, the distinction between online and traditional radio stations is beginning to melt away. This has led to increasing competition in online radio and the emergence of more innovative forms of radio. Furthermore, wireless internet radio devices and smart phone applications are encouraging more people to listen to online radio.
Internet radio is particularly popular with expatriates and those who don't have access to local stations that suit their interests. Internet stations are accessible from just about anywhere in the world, and services offered include a variety of musical genres, sports, news, talk, and any other radio format heard on traditional stations.
According to a 2008 survey, 13% of Americans listen to internet radio, and that percentage continues to increase. Unlike traditional radio stations, radio stations offer more than just a passive listening experience. For example, on crowd-sourced online radio stations, listeners can vote songs up or down to shape play lists.
Advertising Opportunities
Internet radio provides businesses with an abundance of advertising opportunities because it attracts a higher income audience and listeners of various ages from around the world. Furthermore, according to statistics, internet radio listeners are highly loyal. The majority of them visit their favorite online stations at least once a week. In order to make your sales messages stand out in the minds of frequent listeners, it's recommended to hire a professional voice talent who can create convincing, memorable voiceovers that reinforce your company's brand image.
The Importance of Compelling Station Imaging
In order to attract listeners to your online radio station in the first place, it's essential to have radio imaging that makes a lasting impression. The choice between a female radio voice and a male radio voice for your station imaging will largely depend on your target audience and the type of content your station primarily delivers.
Hire a professional voice talent to deliver promotions, station IDs, and other kinds of radio imaging to set your station apart from the competition. Internet radio is saturated, so it will take some innovation, creativity, and exceptional voice over talent to get your station noticed.
A Gratitude Journal – How Expressing Gratitude Can Transform Your Life in Difficult Times
A gratitude journal? What if you feel like times have been tough and you don't have much to be grateful for? What if you feel like you've got every right to wallow in misery? You may have the right, but is that really serving you? Read on to discover how expressing gratitude can help you turn things around.
Tough times make it hard to remember that we do have a lot to be grateful for no matter what. And at no time is it more important to make the effort.
And why? Whether or not you believe in the Law of Attraction, you have to admit that things always seem to come in groups. When good things happen, then they keep on happening. And when bad things happen, they keep going from bad to worse.
So why not believe? It clearly works, and it will help you focus on the things you do want -- so that you can draw more of them into your life.
And that's exactly where a gratitude journal comes in.
By focusing on and writing down all the things we're grateful for, i.e., the good things that have been happening in our lives, we will draw more things that we'll be grateful for.
Writing things down gives them extra power, and it also allows us to reread what we've written. So if we should forget our many blessings, we can always review them at any time.
So go ahead and pick up a notebook or a pretty journal. Make it something special. Keep it by your bedside or somewhere else where you're likely to see (and use) it every day. And start recording your blessings.
And if you're stuck for what to be grateful for, start with the simple things.
Food on the table. A roof over your head. Something to wear (even if it isn't quite what you would like to have). Maybe a job to help you earn a living. Or friends who care about you. Family members who love you.
And don't forget your health, your well-functioning eyes, ears, limbs, etc. Make adjustments for what works in your life.
Be grateful for any money that is coming into your life -- even if it's not as much as you'd like. It's a start, and gratitude for it will help you draw in more. You can even express gratitude in anticipation of what you expect to get.
Don't worry. You won't jinx it. To the contrary, you'll increase the chances that it will appear.
Newspapers Can Make Money Online
You can't eat page views for dinner.
American newspapers are finding that out the hard way as their disastrous decision based on the "information should be free" mantra to give their content away on their web sites has led to failure. While this has probably been only a minor factor in the demise recently of the Rocky Mountain News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Tucson Citizen and the comatose financial state of many other papers, it has become a great motivator.
Now, momentum is building the other way ... instead of sitting back and wistfully hoping that a high number of pageviews would generate a demand for advertising, which hasn't happened, publishers are actively looking at a variety of methods to make money online.
"For many years, I have been concerned that so many newspapers tried to charge for access to their brands and content in one medium ... print ... while giving it away in another medium, online," says former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz.
"This had the unintended consequence of signaling to readers that the value was less online. Newspaper publishers hoped that online advertising would be enough to support their digital operations and indeed hoped that it would be the growth engine for the entire news franchise, print and online. Alas, online advertising only grew to the trees, not to the sky.
"Now, with online advertising in cyclical decline, news publishers of all kinds ... newspapers and magazines but also online-only news organizations ... see that it's hard to support a news department with only the advertising revenue stream."
Of the various pay possibilities, the most likely to gain widespread use in the future of journalism is ...
SUBSCRIPTIONS. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which long has been the only sizable metro paper to charge for its web site, makes readers pay $4.95 a month. Since that's about 16 cents a day, we'd say it's far too low. We'd make it a nice round number, easy to remember ... $20 a month. That hopefully would bring in a substantial amount of revenue.
But charge what you need to charge to survive ... in this sense, a newspaper will become more like a newsletter with a narrow scope but an audience willing to support it. Aren't many newsletters profitable?
Subscription has the advantage of being familiar ... just as you subscribe to receive newspapers and magazines, you would subscribe to gain access to online news.
Crovitz ... who is known for turning the Journal around financially and building its pay site to more than one million subscribers, the most successful such effort in the world ... expects the subscription method to work the best: "People want full access to their favorite brands without being challenged continuously to make buying decisions."
In doing so, he had the last laugh over his critics.
"Over the years, there were times when people predicted that readers would never pay to access news online," he says. "By the time the Wall Street Journal Online crossed the one million paying subscriber mark, the critics quieted down."
He makes the important point that while it costs a newspaper money to add a print subscriber, it costs little or nothing to add an online subscriber.
"The profitability of online subscription revenue is very, very attractive. Remember that unlike with print subscriptions, which require buying more newsprint, adding press capacity and using trucks and trains to deliver the newspaper, in the case of digital products the incremental cost is almost $0, making the profitability high."
A very significant event in the move toward a subscription model online occurred with the entry of Steve Brill ... the innovative founder of American Lawyer magazine and CourtTV ... and his launch of a venture called Journalism Online, set to begin this fall.
Brill wants to build a national site in which newspaper, magazine and online publishers would place their content. Readers would buy "annual or monthly subscriptions, day passes and single articles from multiple publications."
His partners include Crovitz and cable executive Leo Hindery, so it's a pretty high-powered effort that may force a breakthrough and create the answer everyone's been waiting for.
Another way being widely discussed is ...
MICROPAYMENTS. Readers would establish a credit account and be charged a token amount, perhaps a few pennies, for each article they click on. That amount would have to be tinkered with to make sure enough revenue comes in. Then there's ...
THE METER. Readers presumably would "park" on the news site and feed the meter to stay on it. The New York Times is considering this one ... readers would get some free time to look at a certain number of word counts or pageviews, then click! the meter would start running and they'd start paying. The NYT also is pondering ...
THE PBS WAY. Maybe there wouldn't be those dreadful pledge drives, but readers could buy various membership levels and instead of a Times tote bag, they'd get certain privileges on the paper's web site. Or maybe they'd get a tote bag, too. And while you're on this or another paper's site, why not play ...
BINGO. That's what the British papers do. Nigel Eccles, co-founder and CEO of a British web site where people trade predictions on current and future news events, says "the majority of UK newspapers now offer online bingo." Readers pay "via debit or credit card" and "most of the games are for small stakes."
Nonetheless, this represents a significant revenue source for the papers: "At a guess I would say between 25 - 50 percent of UK newspaper online revenues comes from non-advertising sources. Of that a big chunk is online gaming."
Bingo is just the beginning. Eccles says other popular and lucrative attractions on British paper web sites are "sports betting and also fantasy football (soccer) and cricket. The Sun has a Bingo site which I believe is a big revenue generator for them. They also have white labels with a sports book and online casino. The Telegraph runs a number of very profitable businesses, including a puzzle center and premium fantasy league. Also the Telegraph's puzzle centre is popular."
Incidentally, white label means a product or service developed by one company that other companies rebrand to make it appear they made it ... as U.S. papers could easily do in reusing these game forms to make some online money.
And what about their effort so far? "It actually surprises me that U.S. newspapers do not offer premium fantasy sports games," Nigel says. "We are currently developing one for the U.S. market (baseball and NFL) and it has surprised me how few of them have an offering."
Another technique would be to use ...
VIDEO ADS. These would stem from video being blended into reporters' content on the web.
"The one small piece of good news out of Internet monetization is that web users consider a 10- or 15-second ad that precedes watching a video to be a fair price to pay for free content," says Paul Conti, instructor in communications at The College of Saint Rose and former news director of NBC affiliate WNYT.
"They ignore most banner ads. They ignore the fly outs on web sites. They click away from 'cover over' ads. They will sit and watch the 10- or 15-second ads that precede video.
"If I were newspaper companies, I'd be looking at ways to hire some of the TV reporters and producers who have been laid off. That's their expertise and many of the victims were very experienced. I realize many newspapers are in no financial condition to do it. Frankly, they should have been moving in this direction three years ago."
Now we come to the most successful online newspaper revenue method ever devised in this country ... it's what the Wall Street Journal does ... put up a wall and make part of the site free and call the other part ...
PREMIUM. The Journal charges to look at the premium side ... you pay a subscription ... and makes it special.
The strategy seems simple enough: Give some popular content away for no charge ... political, arts and opinion pieces, blogs, some breaking news stories ... to build traffic. And then, behind the pay wall, offer niche content not available elsewhere. In the WSJ's case, this is its narrow-focus and extensive business and financial coverage.
Does it work? Well, the Journal makes money off it, and the staffers use the money to buy food so they can have dinner. Those page views aren't very appetizing.
Do You Keep A Food Journal On Medifast?
I recently had someone ask me if you're required or encouraged to keep a food journal while on the Medifast diet. If so, she wanted to know the best way to go about setting one up and what benefit she might get from one. In the following article, I'll tell you if I use such a tool and why I've chosen the path I'm on.
The Value Of A Food Journal. Why Do People Use Them?: The idea behind this process is that if you record everything you eat and when, you will get a very reliable idea of how much you are eating, what you are actually eating, and why. Many people find that they are actually eating more than they thought and are eating much more of the wrong types of foods (fats, sugars, carbs and processed foods,) and not enough of the good kinds of foods (high quality of protein, vegetables and lots of liquids.)
People will also sometimes record the calorie, carb, protein, sugar and salt content of the foods so that at the end of the day, they know how much of each of these they are actually taking in. People often are surprised at how many calories and sugars they are actually consuming and find that they have underestimated their actual intake.
Another thing this tool can tell you is when you are more prone to over eat. Some people will notice that they are eating more when they are bored or upset. I've even had people tell me that they noticed that they were eating because of their schedule but not necessarily because they were hungry.
This whole process is supposed to help you see your patterns, habits, and emotions. By evaluating the information that you record, you should hopefully to be able to see how and when you are making the right and the wrong decisions about food.
Is There Any Value To Using A Food Journal On Medifast?: I have to be honest. I don't use one. This doesn't mean that keeping one wouldn't be valuable. But the reason that I don't is that I very much like the simplicity of this diet. I know that all I have to do is chose and eat five of the prepackaged meals and then make one "lean and green" meal. The directions for this meal are pretty clear so I really don't have to guess or record anything. And at this point in the process, I have a lot of lean and green recipes that I rotate so I don't see the need to make more work for myself by having to keep track of all of this.
This diet is just not that complicated and I don't see a reason to make it harder than it is. Medifast has designed the plan so that the meals pretty much have the same calorie to carb to protein ratio and this is generally true no matter what you chose. So it really doesn't make sense to me to record all of these meals when they are pretty much going to have the same numbers anyway.
I suppose if you are someone who likes the control aspect of recording things, it certainly wouldn't hurt anything to record your lean and green meals just to make sure that you are including lean meats and low carbohydrate vegetables. This might give you more of a clear picture of what you are doing when you make your own meals.
This is only my opinion, but I think if I were going to make a list or keep a journal, I would probably focus on my movement and exercise. This is one thing that I do change up so it would be interesting to see if the week's activities had any relationship to the number of pounds lost.
But because the Medifast meals are all so similar in terms of nutrition and you're pretty much supposed to stick with these foods (except for once per day,) I don't see much value in recording because that would seem repetitive to me. Plus I believe if I was going to keep a record, I'd just put the information on the notes section of my cell phone so I wouldn't have to lug the journal around with me. But, if you think that keeping a food or mood journal would help you while you're on Medifast, I'm all for doing whatever you think will make your experience a better one for you.
3 Steps Towards Accomplishing Your Resolutions
Have you taken the time yet to sit down and reflect upon the past year and what you would like to accomplish in the coming year? It is that time again, when many try to change old self-defeating habits, start new projects, accomplish the "undone" ones of years past, make new friends, change careers, or any of a number of things that you may want to change. Anytime of year is a great to get started, but January seems to be more suited to such pursuits. It is the beginning of another year and a good time to make a fresh start. Most of us live in areas that are colder, with the sun in the sky for a shorter period of time. We tend to stay indoors more with much more time to read, write, study, watch movies, etc. It's a perfect time to reflect.
New Year's Resolutions have such a bad rap. They are the things you come up with to do in the coming year that you invariably know you won't do. What's the use? I don't want to bore you with a list of "to do's," but there are some things that are essential if you want to be successful. If you would just do these three things, you will be far more likely to change unwanted behavior for good, finish that project, or work on your character. Here are 3 steps to accomplishing your New Year's Resolutions.
#1 Get a vision of what you want to accomplish. See yourself doing it, or being it. By asking yourself such questions as what do I want to look like? Where do I want to live? How do I want to behave in certain situations? You will be more likely to see yourself as a success in your mind's eye. Everything that ever was or ever will be was created in someone's mind first. So if you cannot hold the vision of what you want, you probably will not succeed. In this vision you create, see yourself in it as the participator and not as a third party. Be aware of colors, smells, textures, surroundings, and other people. It has to be real for you. Replay your vision often.
#2 Writing your goals down is the second step towards success. Often people who write their goals down don't write accomplishable goals down. They write down ideas or wishes, but not goals. By starting with your vision, you need to state on paper what it is you want first. Recreate the vision on paper if that helps. The best place for this kind of writing is in a personal journal, or in something that you will return to throughout the year. Next, ask yourself what you need to DO in order to get there. This is the important part. You need to break down your goals into manageable realistic steps. If I want to finish reading a 1000 page book, figure out how much time you have to read each month. Divide the book up into 12 sections, and write a goal for each month. Then you can divide that down into weeks and even days. You know you need to read 84 pages a month, about 20 pages a week and around 3 pages a day. Now you know what you need to DO in order to accomplish the goal. Write that down as your short term goal. It is a doable goal, it isn't as daunting as looking at a goal to read this huge 1000 page book. If you get behind, you know how much you need to read in order to catch up. Perhaps you want the book read in 3 months time. You still need to work backwards until you come to the daily or weekly thing you must DO. Moving ahead of the pace you've set is great! If you have more time, go for it!
#3 Don't overload yourself. Another mistake we get into is trying to make too many changes at once. Make your list of goals you want to accomplish, choose 2 -3 that are high priority, and envision those. Because you wrote the others down, don't be surprised if you actually accomplish those too. Writing down goals jumps starts the subconscious which is the real captain of our ship. We will begin doing things to accomplish those goals because our subconscious mind has been charged to do them. It's a great thing. So don't fret about those goals being left behind. Focus on 2-3 high priority goals and continue the process of visualization and writing until you have something concrete to DO. When you have succeeded, get out your other goals and begin the process again with them.
January is a great time to reflect, to appreciate, to resolve, to initiate change. So, take the time. Play the movies of you often. Write your own script, and become the best you can be. Live to your full potential by accomplishing your New Year's Resolutions.