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“Am I forgiven?”

“You still have to bring me to the zoo,” demanded the seven-year-old Charlie as he felt the texture of his new ball.

“That will be on Saturday.”

“Dad, my birthday is today.”

“Charlie tomorrow is a working day. Just like today. Daddy needs to work, and you, you need to go to school okay.” He smiled.

“But that comes with a penalty. A family computer.”

“That is too much!”

“Dad, everybody in school has their own already.”

“But that is all.” Charlie nodded, but Charles noticed that he was still a little sad.

“What?”

“I wish mommy is here.”

Charles squatted, “Charlie, I miss mommy too, but there is nothing that we can do about it. She is no longer here, not with us. But I am still here and mommy is happy with that wherever she is.”

“Let’s go home Dad.”

Charlie bounced the ball as he started to go outside of the store ahead of his father. “Charlie, wait for me it is too dark outside.” Charlie went back to his father who was paying the clerk.

“Thank you daddy.” Charles held his son’s shoulder as Charlie continuously bounced the ball on the concrete pavement as they went home, “Someday, I’ll shot like Larry Bird, Daddy.”

“Not Magic?”

“No. Not Magic.”

“That will take a lot of practice. But don’t worry I’m always.”

“Charles!” a man in his thirties was sitting on the Mitsubishi’s hood.

“Hey Alex. How are you? Charlie, don’t go too far.”

“Fine. Greg’s here.” He looked at Greg and lighted a cigarette.

“Hi Greg.”

Greg nodded as Alex offered Charles a cigarette.

“No. My son does not like to see me smoke.”

Charlie looked at the two guys with curiosity then his ball bounced off and rolled into the bushes. He ran to chase it. “Charlie, be careful!” Charles warned him.

Charlie searched the ball behind the bushes with only the light that came from the store was guiding him. “It rolled in here.” He crawled behind the bushes, “Where it is? It should be in here. Ahh!” he saw his ball in a deep hole and it was impossible for him to reach it. “Daddy, I can not…”

BANG!

Charlie nervously got up. Everybody was running and he cannot see his father, “Daddee! Daddee!” he was shaking and crying as he stood while looking for his father. The street became empty in a minute and Charlie saw that his father was bloody and kneeling as he was holding his stomach. Alex was holding a wallet and a watch as he pulled something from Charles’s hand. “Daddee! Daddee!” Charlie ran to his father while Greg was pointing a .357 to Charles.

“Charlie run!”

“Don’t kill my daddee!” Charlie punched Greg, and Greg hit him on the face to throw him away but the kid ran to fight him back.

“Charlie…sstop,” his father cautioned him.

“Don’t kill my daddee!” he was weeping and punching Greg, so Greg held him by his shirt. “Don’t kill my daddee!”

“Please, I am not yet ready. I have a kid,” he was holding his stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. “Please…” he coughed, “I’ll pay…”

Greg pointed his gun to Charlie.

“No!” Charles coughed as he tried to stop Greg. “I’ll pay…” he coughed, “just give me time.”

“Greg! That’s a kid man,” Alex cautioned Greg.

“Why do you always gets weak when it comes to kids!”

“Stop it! The kid has nothing to do with this! It’s the father! It’s the fucking father! Let’s do it man, and the police are in here in any minute.”

“Bullshit! I can kill! Anyone!” he pointed his gun to Alex.

“What are you doing man?”

“Don’t intervene with my fucking business! You understand!”

Alex glared at Greg as he felt his gun in his waist.

“What! Want to draw!” Greg looked Alex in the eye. “What!”

“Don’t kill my daddee,” Charlie bit Greg’s leg that made Greg to jump in pain and threw the kid away. Then Greg shot Charlie but Alex jumped at him to disturb his hand. The bullet hit an electrical post.

“Bullshit! Not the kid! Bullshit!” Alex held Charlie tight so that the kid cannot move even though he was desperately fighting. He heard the siren, “Finish the fucking father!” he drew his gun and pointed it to Greg, “ Let’s get out of here, son of a bitch!”

Greg looked at Alex’s eyes and then to Charles.

“I’ll pay,” Charles cried.

“Sorry kid,” Greg pointed his .357 on Charles, “your daddy owe us something.”

“I’ll pay,” Charles coughed, “I’ll pay. I’ll pay.”

“I believe that that is already too late,” and he squeezed the trigger.

That was fifteen years ago, but Charlie can still see everything very clearly. It happened right there, near “fantasy,” he silently read what is visible as “ant”.

“Hi,” a girl in her teens greets him, “are you looking for some fun?”

“Fun?” The girl wears a skimpy dress and a high heel.

“I can give you anything,” she smiles.

“No. Actually I’m just lost. I’m looking for the house of a friend, Alex. Do you know him? I’m already fifteen minutes late.”

“Come on. Alex? That grump? He can wait.” She tries to hold on to Charlie’s hand but Charlie avoids her. “It is just six thirty. Come on. You’re young. I’m young. Let’s have some fun.”

“Next time,”

“Come on. Look at me,” she gives a sexy pose.

“Next time,” he smiles “Promise, I’ll try to come back.” Charlie starts to walk.

“Alex’s house is the one with a crucifix. Just turn left on the first intersection.”

Charlie turns back, “Thank you.”

“My name’s Liza, in case you need some fun,” she shouted as Charlie disappears on the dimly lighted intersection.

There is a big improvement on Alex’s house, Charlie notice. It is now a two story concrete building with a wide collection of wild flowers, an intercom, and a decorated fence that includes a huge crucifix. He rings the doorbell and a man’s voice came out of the speaker. “Who are you?”

“Rob. Remember? I called. I’m sorry I’m late but I have a hard…”

The gate opens, “Come on in,” and it immediately closes after he steps inside of the lawn. He looks around and a man in his early twenties opens the door of the house. “Come here.” he inspects Charlie then he let Charlie in. Charlie steps inside and the man slam shut the door. There are two more persons inside, one is in his late twenties and the other is already having a gray mustache, maybe late fifties.

“You’re Alex?” he asks the guy in his late twenties.

“No. He is,” he points the guy with a gray mustache.

“Did you bring the money?” asks Alex.

Charlie gives him his knapsack and Alex examines it, then he smiles and closes the backpack without counting the money. “Only the color of the mustache change,” Charlie thought.

“Follow me.”

Alex brings him into a small arsenal. “So, what do you need?”

Charlie scans the place, “I need to kill someone?” The two younger guys are at the door, carefully watching his every move. Both of them have guns in their waist, probably pistols, Charlie notice.

“Who?”

“None of your business.” He look at the two guards, “They’re too heavy to move faster than me,” he thought.

“Okay,” he shrugs his shoulder.

“.45 and an ingram plus ammo,” Charlie said. “That would be just enough,” he thought.

“No problem.” Alex scans the arsenal. Then he picks the ingram and the caliber .45. He lays it on the table and looks at Charlie.

“I’d like to test it.”

Alex inserts a loaded magazine on the guns. “Come here.” He brings Charlie in front of a small firing window. “You have twenty rounds. Ten rounds each.” Charlie fires the pistol once then he picks the ingram and fire it also once, then he holds the pistol with another hand and faces Alex with the barrel loosely facing Alex.

“You have twenty rounds. Go on.”

“No problem,” Charlie squeezes the trigger of the ingram and Alex falls down, his blood is flowing from his stomach and chest. The two guards immediately draw their pistols but Charlie dives on the floor as he shoots the two guards with both guns. The younger guard is hit in the head, and the older guard, near the right shoulder, which forces him to drop his pistol. Charlie gets up as the guard crawls to reach his pistol. Charlie goes directly on top of him as he continues to crawl for his pistol.

Charlie aims at his head. “No, please,” the guard is shaking his head. “No!” Charlie fires the .45 to his head.

Charlie goes back to Alex and Alex can only stare at him with confusion as he catches his breath. Charlie begins to cry, “My name is Charlie Gwinn Jr. Do you remember that name? You killed my father!” Charlie could almost break his teeth as he kneels down and punches Alex’s face. He can barely see Alex because of his tears.

After several minutes, he takes a rest and struggles to get up. “Good!” he smiles as he stares at Alex. Alex’s face is wet with his own blood, his nose is no longer in its proper shape, his eyes are bulging, his mouth is cut, his teeth are no longer complete and his neck is twisted.

“There is still one left.” Charlie sees that blood is everywhere and he smiles.

He inverses his jacket, get the bag that he hide in his knapsack, then, he get some guns, ammunitions, and his money. He looks at Alex and he sees the ring that Alex took from his father, he takes it. Then he searches for the car key and departs from the place using Alex’s Chrysler Jeep.

Charlie arrives at his apartment thirty minutes later. He immediately, cleans the ring and places it beside his priceless collection that includes his triathlon awards, martial arts awards and military academy diploma. Then he goes to the bathroom and submerges himself in the hot tub.

“That was really beautiful,” Charlie thought as he stares blankly on the white ceiling. “Everything was in red, really beautiful red hair, red nose, teeth, mouth, wall, carpet, beautiful red spots on carpet. Ahhh! Beautiful! Beauti…ful.” Charlie keeps wondering.

“You really did it.”

Charlie looks towards the bathroom’s door and sees his best friend John.

“He bought it fifteen years ago,” Charlie says softly, “and I think, I still owe him for the delay.”

“Bullshit!” he stares at Charlie. “Who are you? The Charlie that I know is logical,” he is uneasy then he cries, “What happened to you Charlie?”

“I don’t…know,” he is very calm. “Sometimes…I thought that your friend Charlie already died before you met someone whom you thought was he. That was fifteen years ago.” His tears start to fall. “Yes, that was fifteen years ago when a couple of guys murdered his father. Two shots in the head.” He stares blankly back on the ceiling, “Two shots in the head, for the father of a seven-year-old boy. Can you understand that? Two fuckin’! Shots! Two fuckin’…shots…and the boy…was…dead.”

“You can not eliminate criminals by becoming one, Charlie.”

“And if I did not do it then who will! Fifteen years and those fuckin’ criminals have not breath an air of prison.

I bet every police are even bowing at them every time they meet them. Like they are their fuckin’ gods!”

“And how will you end it? How?”

Charlie is held silent for a moment, “I will figure that out, later. But right now, what I know is, there is still one left.”

John becomes too uneasy but tries to hide his tears, “Sometimes people enters into a room and forgot to look for any exits. And later, when it is already too necessary to get out, they are just shocked to learn that there is no way out. I hope you are not one of them, Charlie.”

“We were brought in here, John. Here, in this world. We are in this world. We were not given a choice about it. And this world that we are living in, is a room with no exits. Even death cannot find us any exit. For everything that we do in here stays in here, forever. And what we do is what we are. Me, I am just one of those who seek justice, not only for me but also for everybody. I am a hunter of the merciless wild animals, John. That is going to be my legacy. For I believe that, abandoning to seek justice is the worst form of advocating injustice. This world already has a load of injustice, John. If we allow too much of it, this world is going to explode in tears.”

John is uneasy, “Good luck Charlie.” John leaves to his car.

“Bullshit!” Charlie gets off the tub when he hears that John’s car leaves then he goes to his room, he gets dressed, takes his guns ready and walks out of his apartment.

“Two guards at the front, one at the back and two dogs, that is all. Nothing had change,” thought Charlie. He surveys the area once again with his night vision goggles. The three guards have joint together near the front and play cards but they let loose the dogs.

He can see that Greg is in a room of the second floor. He is holding a book, looks like he is reading while sitting on a bed. Greg fixes the bed, stands up, closes the curtains and put off the light of the room. Then, he goes to the adjacent room, put on his robe, sits down at the front of a study table and read a book. He is alone, and the dogs are sitting near the guards. Charlie creeps to the back door.

There were two guys inside, they are watching TV, but their guns are in the center table in front of them. One of them stands up, “I need to pee.” He stops as he sees that the backdoor is half open. “Tony. Did I tell you to lock the backdoor?”

“I did.”

“Bullshit! Lock the fuckin’ door!”

“I did loc…” he stands up and is shock to see that the door is partly open. He readies his gun, and signals to his pal to be ready. Then, he carefully inspects the lock, pushes the door, but the door opens back. He wonders and inspects it again, “It is broken,” he calmly speaks to his friend and put his gun to his waist. “I’ll fix it tomorrow. No problem, Bud. Go pee now before you’ll collect the stones and blame it to me.” He goes back to the TV.

Bud put back his gun in the center table and goes to the toilet through a dimly lighted hallway. He opens the door, switches the light, goes inside and absent-mindedly closes the door. Then, he kneels down, holding his bloody stomach while spitting his blood. Charlie pulls the knife and thrust it back, and Bud falls down to the tiles. Charlie pulls the knife again and gives him another blow to secure that he is completely dead then he goes out.

Tony stands up, “Hey Bud. Hurry up. It is Heather Graham. She is wearing a bikini.” He goes to the toilet, “Bud! It’s Heather Graham. You are going to miss her. Come on, hurry up,” he knocks at the door and the door opens. His breathing stops, eyes widen as he becomes immobile for second, “Bbbud,” he is shaking. Charlie jumps at Tony from outside of the toilet then thrust his knife to Tony’s chest before Tony can make a single move. Tony sits loosely on the toilet bowl, eyes wide open, but unmoving. Charlie pulls the knife and gives Tony another thrust, and then he secures the lock of the toilet and creeps his way to the second floor.

Charlie readies his knife as he knocks at the door. “Who is that?” ask Greg from inside. Charlie knocks again. “I thought you were already asleep.” Greg opens the door and Charlie immediately pushes Greg inside then thrust his knife on Greg’s chest while preventing Greg from speaking. Greg punches Charlie and Charlie is thrown to a table causing some things to be thrown out. Charlie kicks Greg to the wall and jumps at Greg to pierce a second knife at Greg’s chest. Greg crumples to the floor, staring at Charlie. His blood flows from his mouth and his body and he cannot speak.

Charlie begins to cry as he takes out his ingram and pointed it to Greg. “Do you remember me!” Charlie is panting, “Charlie Gwinn Jr!” There is somebody calling and knocking at the door, but Charlie ignores it and steps on the knife to nail it deeper on Greg’s chest. Greg twisted in pain and Charlie smiles as he points his ingram to Greg.

“Perhaps, you already have an idea how it feels. Or do you!” Greg is looking at Charlie like he is begging Charlie to shot him. “Do you!” Charlie squeezes the trigger, emptying the cartridge and Greg’s brain shatters on the floor. Charlie takes the .45 from his waist as the door opens.

A child runs to Greg. “Daddee! Daddee!” the child weeps as he hugs Greg.

Charlie drops down the gun and he is thrown to the wall. He is shaking, “No, not me.” He is staring at the child. The gun is near the child’s feet. He is probably seven years old. Charlie is weeping and shaking, and he drops down to his knees, “Not me. No! No! Noo!” he is panting. “Ohh, God. Jesus. Noo.” There is a commotion going up fast, and the child slowly takes the gun as Charlie stares at him. Charlie stands up. “Jesus, please forgive me,” he murmurs as his tears run on his face. The footsteps are getting nearer and the kid’s hand shakes badly as he points the gun to Charlie while crying. Charlie faces straightforward as the door opens, and a big burst of bullets knocks him face down to the floor.

THE END

NOTE: Kindly send honest comments to vjagunap@yahoo.com

About the Author: Vernan Jagunap, an admirer of fine arts and literature since childhod had been mastering the art of writing fictions since year 2000. He is living in Leganes, Iloilo, Philippines where he is trying to write his first novel.

Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=924&ca=Short+Stories

We all have psychic abilities that we use daily, although most of us don’t even realize that. The full study of this issue would take many books, and years of experience to grasp all the factors. Since we can’t do that here, we can still focus on applying these skills to making informed business decisions. Those of us making constant business choices, effecting staff, ethics , health, and the botton line ,need all the data we can get our hands on. So these tidbits are designed to help you use your natural abitities, and to improve your business situation!

First of all, there are many, many management styles. It is in your best interest to honestly evaluate your personality and your personal approach to making choices and running your business. This gives you a baseline to start from when adding ESP into your operating formula.The ancient Greeks said ” Know Thyself”.

Some of us are very mental in perspective, some emotional, and others more physical. These basic personality factors often don’t change much during our lifetime. We tend to keep processing life from the same angle. When we pick up psychic data from outside this base personality, we tend to ignore it. It’s not comming from our comfort zone.

In the business world, what we ignore can create lost potentials or major problems. What we tune out doesn’t really go away, it just stays out of our awareness. So our business is effected but we never get to know it, it stays in our blind spots.

When working in a group situation this blindness is compensated by others around us, often with different main personality types. They can pick up what we miss. This works fairly well, but……

Frankly, at the executive level you often must make choices by yourself. This leaves you open to your limitations.

Sure you can get data, but still the final choice is usually yours. Remember that both your strong and weak functions tend to stay that way for life. So you will tend to always focus on some things while ignoring others.

Opening your natural ESP abilities can present a personal challange. As you pick up data from your comfort zone, well…no problem. But when you get psychic information from your weaker traits, again you will want to tune it out……you will tend to feel it as a stress.

So, if you want to include data from a broad range of psychic information..even beyond your comfort zone, there are many techniques you can use……

Realize that stress can be a sign that you are aware of something that you would rather ignore.Then use stress busters to help you handle that. Try to meditate each day, in a quiet place… and see what happens. If stress kicks up try to breathe through it, so you can stay focused on what you are processing.

It takes great courage to trust your whole self, and all your awareness. Don’t push yourself beyond your limits, but try to broaden your scope, little by little.

The real test is to see if you are willing to apply your ESP gained data into your daily business planning.

Good Luck!

About the Author: Jerry is a professional shaman. He publishes a free online magazine and newsletter dealing with shamanism and holism as they apply to life and business. You can reach the publication at this address: http://www.jeremiahhuck.workzsites.com

Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=907&ca=Leadership

Part Two of Creating Well-Defined Processes
Series

Part One: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/02-08-05_Process_Improvement.html?src=ART83

Next Week: Implementation

Last week, we raised the question: how do you know where to begin? How can you identify a gap in one of your company’s core processes?

The answer: follow the money trail…

But how do you follow the money trail, and what will that mean for your business? To answer this, let’s look at five steps to identify your core processes and any needs for change.

Step 1: Define Your Business Model

The following question might sound very basic, but you should first ask yourself: what business am I in? You’ll ask this because you want to follow the money trail: to identify how exactly you earn revenue and from where that revenue comes. And this also defines your business model, which sets how you make money. By examining your business model (including mission and vision statements), you see not only how you can make money but also how you should make money. In other words, what should be happening in your business to increase revenue – but isn’t and why?

Step 2: Create a Process Map

Once you’ve looked at your business model, continue to follow the money trail and identify your company’s core processes in the cash to cash cycle. By doing this you can see which processes are most critical to the overall success of your business.

Next, connect the core processes in a process map. Link suppliers, inputs, outputs and customers together to see the overall cash conversion cycle. Let’s examine a high level process map.

Here we have the complete business cycle of a typical company using the SIPOC method, which connects Suppliers to Inputs to Processes to Outputs to Customers. To illustrate, a typical process map flows like the following from left to right: a Supplier connects the input purchasing with the Process of inventory and to the Output sales, which is then connected to the Customer. From there, the cycle also flows back from right to left: the Customer connects the Output accounts receivable to the Process of manufacturing to the Input accounts payable and finally to the Supplier.

With this you can see the departments through which cash flows. And once you identify and break down your company’s core processes, you are closer to answering the question: which process do I start to improve?

Step 3: Examine Financial Statements

Now continue along the money trail by looking at your financial statements, including the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Your financial statements indicate where your money is piling up, sort of like a snap shot of what your velocity is currently.

For example, in a manufacturing company, you can determine if there are long wait times between sales or long delivery times – both of which are evident in inventory. And inventory (as seen in your financial statements) also show the effects of time – and whether your process velocity (i.e. a slow process in the conversion cycle that causes long lead and wait times) is causing a pile up in your financial statements. Ask yourself: “are my processes fast enough to make my customers happy?”

Step 4: Set Velocity

Velocity is the speed at which your system is operating currently e.g. goods delivered on time and responsiveness to orders. To design an effective process, you will need to know the set velocity that the organization needs to maintain good customer satisfaction. If your inventory process has a long cycle time, beginning with raw materials and ending with the customer, then this could be an indication of a low velocity. Customers set the pace, and they will tell you if the velocity of product turnaround is sufficient. And so companies need to calculate what that pace is to make customers happy.

Step 5: Determine Leverage

The last element in following the money trail is to review leverage – which process improvement will create the strongest return on investment (ROI)? Keep in mind both time and money, and determine what process inefficiency is consuming all of your cash. Why is that process eating away your money, and should it be? But keep in mind, too, the element of risk: what will happen if I make a change, and what will happen if I make no change?

For gauging your ROI needs, examine the five parts we’ve discussed so far: your business model, process map, your financial statements, velocity and the leverage to make your customers happy.

Answer these five questions, and you should know where to start.

Let’s look at an example in play…

Review a Case Study of Core Business Processes

A manufacturing company interested in ISO 9001 quality was experiencing poor customer service and very low inventory turns, and needed help. The company’s perceived problem was not that they carried too much inventory but, instead, that they had poor customer service and employee performance in processing and fulfilling orders in a timely manner. Because of this, they wanted us to focus on those areas. But with such a pile up of inventory we saw a red flag. And we asked the company: where is the root cause of the problem?

As we took a further look, we immediately saw a connection between poor customer sales service and a large stock of inventory. The company’s manufacturing cycle efficiency was so low that it created a perceived need for higher inventory. And customers weren’t happy because of long wait times to receive the products that they ordered. In other words, customers weren’t getting the velocity that they had expected and wanted.

The company insisted that it needs more inventory to keep customers happy. But this is just another bandage to fix the symptom of the problem and not the root cause.

Inventory is a result of the purchasing, manufacturing and sales cycles. And so we examined the financials, business model and system velocity of the company. From there we created a process map of these three core processes, as well as defined the company’s leverage points that would ensure a healthy ROI for any process changes made. We calculated an improvement of five times in velocity. By removing the inefficiencies out of the system, inventory decreased significantly, turns increased greatly, and customers were happy. We helped reduce the total amount of inventory. And we also helped increase the speed of the inventory cycle by focusing on purchasing, manufacturing and sales.

Create a Gap Analysis

And so with this example, we can now answer our original question: where do you start? As we’ve discussed, follow the money trail through the five key steps: define your business model, create a process map, examine financial statements, set velocity and determine leverage. But what pulls it all together?

We pull all of this together with a Gap Analysis. An operations assessment (also called an audit) results in a Gap Analysis and this report of gaps, or inefficiencies, found in the system shows you where to start to achieve your target. A Gap Analysis helps you identify your core processes and performance metrics in order for you to achieve your objectives.

Look Ahead

Next time, we will look at a process map more in-depth. We’ve identified where to start, but we will learn how to create a process map - one of the most important documents you need for your organization’s success.

About the Author: Chris Anderson is the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance. To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: http://www.bizmanualz.com?src=ART84

Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=898&ca=Business+Management

Link development can be an absolute nightmare. It takes up most of a marketer’s time and the yield isn’t always what we originally hoped. Worrying about PR, one way inbound links, triangle linking, where to find quality sites to exchange with, it’s all just a huge headache. To be honest, there’s no real way to wash your hands of it, unless you have a huge budget for purchasing text links or to hire someone to do your linking for you. So here are 13 ways to increase your linking luck. They require a little bit of effort, but executed properly, these steps will only bring your site success.

1. Create a page or series of pages on which you will post the links you are reciprocating. It is important to make sure these pages are a valuable resource to anyone who actually visits them. Try to avoid the use of the word “link” or phrase “link exchange” in your body text, title or file names. Use “resource” instead. Allow visitors to these pages to suggest additions without using link exchange language like “submit site”.

2. Keep your outgoing links relevant, but don’t be too specific. For example, http://www.realestatelicense.com - this is a real estate license school, so we would list resources for real estate, real estate training, post secondaries, trade schools, education, careers, mortgages, architecture, interior design, contractors, etc. It is important to keep your entire web site’s keyword density to a decent level and this includes not just the keywords you are targeting, but keywords that relate to the theme of your site. keeping your site’s keyword density to a good level is the reason why you should only list related web sites. Dedicating a page on http://www.realestatelicense.com to baking will bring down that site’s keyword density.

3. Keep an eye on your link to text ratio. Write paragraphs for each link page explaining what types of sites visitors will find on this page, how you hope this will help your visitors and that they can suggest additions if they know of any. You can also add comments to each link you have on the site. Too many links and not enough text will tell search engines that this page is a link page and is only there for search engine optimization purposes. Search engines like real resource pages, that are there for the use of your site’s visitors.

4. Don’t worry too much about PR - search trends are beginning to show that PR is less and less important. As I’ve said in previous articles, just like the saying “no publicity is bad publicity”, no inbound link is a bad one, the more links you have, the more your site will be seen, plain and simple. Relevancy is the new PR. Keep your outbounds relevant and useful, regardless of PR, and you’ll do fine.

5. Submit your site to directories, including industry and geographically specific. This is a universally known tactic, but most people just do it once.

You’ve got to search every once in a while to find new directories, search engines and other people’s resource pages. They pop up daily, keeping on top of it will be the most beneficial thing you can do for your site.

6. Join link exchange networks. There are a few out there that are quite valuable and well done, like http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/ and even some of the less valuable ones will send you a decent link opportunity every now and again.

7. Talk to the people in your geographic area. If your store is in a mall, ask the other stores in your mall to exchange links. If you’re in an office building, ask all the other businesses in the building. Look through your chamber of commerce web site, or local business directory. Remember, relevancy includes geography. http://www.realestatelicense.com can exchange with sites related to the keywords I listed in step 1 as well as sites in and around their area of California.

8. Ask any clients with businesses to link to your site. Offer them a discount on further purchases for the duration of time they keep your link up. Not only does this produce a one-way incoming link to your site, but it also promotes repeat business.

9. Ask every site you come across that you like or find useful for a link exchange.

10. Participate in forums, such as http://scamcops.abalone.ca/forums/ and use your signature to link to your site.

11.Triangle linking, though hard work, can be very beneficial. Triangle linking is the process of creating one way links between three sites. Eg. Site 1 agrees to link to site 2 if site 2 links to site 3 and site 3 links back to site 1.

12. Write articles and submit them to places such as articlecity.com and goarticles.com. Make them valuable articles that people will actually read, and they’ll get picked up by more places. Make sure your Author’s bio has a link to your web site.

13. Create a “Link to Us” page and allow visitors who find your site a great resource to link to you on their own. Avoid banner links or button links and stick to text links. Relevant anchor text is as important as the link itself.

And finally, be patient. Obtaining a lot of incoming links all at once can raise some flags in search engine algorithms. A well conducted link development campaign takes time but is well worth it. The pay-off can turn your new business into a massive success and can mean the difference between flipping burgers for operating capital, or sipping Mai-Tais in Bora Bora while all your worker bees back home keep things going. Trust me, Tahiti’s worth the wait.

About the Author: Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, a search engine optimization company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney’s articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/

Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=874&ca=Internet

Silent songs through the night.
Musical rhythm that echoes your mind.
Beauty and kindness at your sight
Could this be LOVE?

Different emotions clogged your heart.
Only thy face runs through your mind.
Awaiting for her lovely voice.
Could this be LOVE?

Moments like time flies,
Heartfelt tickles your senses.
Taken by the arrow of Eros

I wonder how this could be Love.
For mere feelings
like thief in the night.
This must be LOVE.

About the Author: I am a graduate of Angelicum College.

I am fond of Harry Potter books and Lord of the Rings.

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Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=852&ca=Poetry

Can the Internet foster intelligent conversation and help to form new ideas and moral beliefs?

A weird thing happened yesterday as I walked through my university campus. A young man approached me from a political organization that obviously was canvassing for new members. This is nothing new as there are always people attacking me for one cause or another. I am very interested in the ways in which life and human society works especially in the realm of spirituality and morality. However, I have to admit that I’ve never really gotten much out of politics, or economics which politics seems to be mainly focused on. For some reason I got into a conversation with this fellow and the resulting experience affected me profoundly.

I don’t know if his political group is relevant to this article but I will mention it is based around a U.S. Democrat named Lyndon Larouche. The guy was telling me in detail about how the present world economy based around George Bush’s American system is destined for failure and causing much trouble in the world. This I agreed with wholeheartedly as I can’t condone or imagine spending huge amounts of energy on killing people in a war as being a positive act.

He also mentioned one of my favorite human rights activists: Martin Luther King Jr. The guy was saying that under current conditions the ruling fascist ‘Empire’ is suppressing individual thought and creativity and that the masses of the world had become mindless cattle. He said that the key to evolving a new morally upstanding world society we will need individuals to once again think for themselves and change the current economic structures that control life on earth. He used a lot of big economic-type terminology so some of what he said went over my head, but I generally took the guy to be a nice, intelligent person who believed passionately about what he did. He gave the impression that people like King are the great transformers of beliefs in society, and that only truly awakened souls will be happy when they die.

I try not to take myself or life on Earth too seriously as this has caused many problems for me in the past. However, I do think that life and love are very important ideas to focus on when one is growing spiritually. I decided to sign the group’s list and get a little bit more information so as to really make up my opinion about these matters that I know so little about (economics and politics). Here is where the story goes strange. I wrote down my name and my email address and the fellow asked if I’d put down my phone number as well. I said that as I am a writer I don’t like being interrupted by the phone ringing and that I’d rather communicate via the Internet.

This is when the trouble began.

The man was visibly upset and said that the Internet was not a good place for people to exchange ideas and have conversations. I laughed and replied that the Internet is very young and how could he judge it so harshly in such a black and white manner? He ironically sounded a little like the fascists that he disliked so much when he retorted that no great ideas had ever come from people on the Internet, and for that matter, a ‘real’ conversation between people had to be conducted face to face. Well, I could have mentioned that on the telephone you cannot ’see’ anyone’s face, but I thought I’d try to explain my position on the matter a bit more positively.

I told him that the Internet was just a simple tool of communication that was bringing individuals closer together. You can see someone across the world with a web cam whilst hearing his or her voice perfectly. I then mentioned that the Internet was doing exactly what he felt was necessary for society to flourish in the future; it is giving voice to individuals’ ideas like never before in human history. The guy was then really starting to lose his cool and was getting quite upset. I then thought I’d mention the idea that the Web was dissolving the concept of national borders as anyone could talk to anybody else freely with the simple realization that all people are the same. People are no longer forced to think of other nationalities as separate ‘types’ of people that one should steer away from.

By this time the guy had become very irate and said vehemently that there is nothing wrong with having separate nations. He then contradicted himself and agreed with me by saying that the ‘Empire’ only wanted to ‘divide and conquer’ and split countries into even smaller entities that could then be taken over. I replied softly that that process inevitably produced more unnecessary borders between fellow humans.

The main point that stuck with me after the conversation ended was the fact that it was the mentioning of the Internet as a positive medium for communication and enlightenment that so severely upset the guy. I guess no matter how knowledgeable about the world and sure of yourself that you are, if there are things that you are still unaware of, or in this case close-minded to because of some irrational fear; like a link that snaps in a chain, so will your peace and calm will be shattered by ignorance and anger.

Spirituality and morality can be discussed on many different mediums…Politics and economics must be the same.

About the Author: Jesse S. Somer, M6.Net (http://www.m6.net), Jesse S. Somer is an individual soul who may not know a lot, but knows that the Internet could be a great factor in the process of bringing humanity together into one big family here on Earth.

Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=827&ca=Internet

KEI - Keyword Effectiveness Index. The value of a keyword or keyword phrase that helps a web site reach the #1 position in search engines by comparing how often the keyword or keyword phrase is used and comparing it to how many web sites are using that keyword or keyword phrase to market their site.

In part one of this article I discussed how you can thoroughly research and pick the right keywords for your web site. You can read part one of this web design SEO advice here. (http://www.theinternetpresence.com/business-article-26.htm) Part two of this article will show you how to take your list of keywords created from part one and narrow it down to the most effective keywords to use. Let’s start with the KEI rating of the keywords.

You can find many free KEI tools on the internet. I personally use one that was part of a $500 software package, but you can find many tools on the internet for free. My advice for this is to try a few of them out and stick with the tools that show generally the same results and toss the ones that don’t. Even with the software package I bought I still use wordtracker and overture to compare my results.

List your keywords in the first column of a table. (I use Microsoft Excel, but you can use anything that works.) In the second, third or more columns list the number of times that keyword was used per day or month. (I use one column for wordtracker, one column for overture, and one column for my software package.) Be suspicious of the keywords that don’t show the same results on all three and consider tossing them out. For example if one column says it searched 300 times per day, but the other two do not even show it being searched at all I would toss that keyword out. In the next column type in the KEI rating of that keyword. And in the next column, if you have a tool that allows it, enter how often the competition uses that keyword in a ‘competition’ column. Enter in the numbers for this data for all of the keywords listed in your table. Now we can start to narrow down the list.

Look at your keyword KEI ratings and compare them to each other. Toss out the keywords that have a low KEI rating. Next look over the list of keywords again and think to yourself, “Will someone that types that in want to visit my site?”. If not, toss out the keywords. Ask yourself, “Will someone who types in that keyword be likely to be profitable for me?”. If not, toss out those keywords as well. Look at how often your competition uses a keyword in your ‘competition’ column. If it has a good KEI rating and over 17,000,000 web sites are using it then it will be hard to get to #1. Consider tossing these keywords out also.

For example I concentrated on the search term, (web development contractor) which had a great KEI rating and was hardly used by competition. I tweaked my site for this keyword and now if you type in web development contractor into MSN you’ll find out that I hold the number one position. And have held it for over a month now. In addition if you type in (business presence on the web), or (Internet Presence) you’ll see me floating around the top 5 along with some other search terms.

(Perhaps I should rename this article How I reached #1 in MSN) The search term (web design) had a good KEI rating, but the competition was over 17,000,000 web sites using that search term. Perhaps I’ll feel lucky and try for that one next.

I keep narrowing down my list until I have five of the best keywords to use for my web site. I take those 5 keywords and type them into the top 3 search engines and list the top 10 sites that show up with each keyword. So you will have a list of 50 sites per each search engine you used. To get a good general ranking in all of the search engines, I combine the 3 lists of 50 sites into one big list of 150 web sites for comparison. Alphabetize the list. Did you notice something? Some sites are listed three or more times! Toss out the sites that only show up once and this will narrow down your list of 150 considerably. Take the top five web sites that show up with the keyword you want and list them in another page. It is now time to pick apart there sites and discover why they are there!

Research the five sites using your keyword and compare them to each other. You have to research the site’s page that landed on the search engine for these factors:

Is the keyword in the

What if your sales increased from $100,000 to $110,000 per day and your profit increased from $10,000 to $11,000 – did you improve by 10%? The answer might shock you…

You have permission to publish this article free of charge, as long as the resource box is included with the article. If you do run my article, a courtesy reply to sean@bizmanualz.com would be greatly appreciated. This article is 895 words long including the resource box. Thanks for your interest.

Part One of Creating Well-Defined Processes Series

What if your sales increased from $100,000 to $110,000 per day and your profit increased from $10,000 to $11,000 – did you improve by 10%? The answer might shock you…

Because the answer is no. No improvement occurred. In fact, your process deteriorated. Sure, revenue increased, but is this really an improvement? Let’s take a look at the problem in this table.

Let’s examine the before and the after scenario. Say, in the before picture, you have sales of $100,000, fixed costs of $20,000 and variable costs of $70,000. Total expenses amount to $90,000, giving you a gross profit of $10,000. In the after picture, sales increase to $110,000, while variable costs rise to $77,000 in addition to $2,000 in Extra Expenses – which give you total expenses of $99,000 and a gross profit of $11,000. In the after picture, remember though, fixed costs are fixed, and do not change with additional revenue. So you should get more than 10% (11.8% to be exact) profit from 10% growth.

Extra Expenses Prevent Process Improvement

Here we have the before and the after scenario. You can see that fixed costs are fixed, and do not change with additional revenue. So you should get more than 10% (11.8% to be exact) profit from 10% growth.

And notice that in order to maintain a 10% profit we have to spend $2,000 in Extra Expenses. These Extra Expenses represent your process inefficiencies. These expenses could be sales discounts, travel, overtime, or something else. The names don’t really matter. What does matter is that we are not improving.

Process Evolution Enables Improvement

Improvement results from process evolution, not from an increase in scale. What’s the difference? Scale increases when we hire another person, increase expenses, or purchase more assets in order to acquire or service more business. Process evolution occurs when we change the process and as a result can release hidden capacity and service more business without adding any costs - and this is a form of efficiency. You can measure efficiency with the formula:

Efficiency = Output / Costs

But process evolution is about more than just changing costs. It is about changing time, increasing process velocity, and getting more output from the costs you already have. Cutting costs, by itself, does not evolve a process. In fact, reducing costs, without properly understanding how those costs relate to the process, can actually decrease process evolution (devolution). Let’s review an example…

A Cost Reduction and Procedures Training Case Study

A company decreases costs by switching suppliers and using cheaper materials for their manufacturing process. Now the purchasing department is happy they are saving money. The bottom line is starting to look better as profits initially increase.

And so this improved the process, right? Well…

But then complaints start rolling in from the field. Products are breaking down faster. Technical support costs rise, and customers start reducing their orders. Not only do profits evaporate, but customer goodwill does too. To offset this, your first reaction might be to switch back to the old supplier. This is much easier and it fixes the immediate problem, but it won’t recapture the lost sales, customers and damage to the company’s reputation.

But, again, you need to focus on the most important issue. There is a limit to the amount of costs one can reduce in any process – zero. You can’t reduce costs below zero. On the other hand, there is no limit to the process potential we can achieve. Process evolution concerns the numerator (the output), not the denominator (the costs) in the efficiency equation above.

Change in Process Evolution = New Output / Old Output
(Assuming costs are held constant)

By focusing on process evolution instead of costs we can continue to increase our output forever. We just have to make sure that the output increases faster than the costs. Then what we have is incremental improvement. But what procedure can use to achieve this?

Process Training

It’s all about collecting feedback to set the right priorities for your change process. You need feedback to drive the change process. The more feedback you get the better you will be able to evolve your process. So let’s take a look at what your change process needs to include.

1.Feedback Records with Deficiency Notations
2.Trend Analysis
3.Corrective Action Process and Criteria for action
4.Audit Process
5.Management Review Process

And then ask yourself the following questions about your change process:

•Are process feedback records created?
•Have the feedback records been analyzed for process deficiencies?
•Are the deficiencies analyzed for statistical significance?
•Are the deficiencies of statistical significance written up for corrective action?
•Is corrective/preventive action implemented?
•Is there an objective review of all processes to ensure the change process is working?
•Does management review all findings to ensure the change process is working — and that processes are evolving to meet or exceed organizational requirements?

Next Week: Business Modeling

With these thoughts in mind, you can see how important it is to first define continuous improvement and note how it can actually affect your business. But you can’t gather feedback from all processes at once. If you did, that would generate a process overload. So where do you start?

Next time we will show you show how when we discuss business modeling. Business modeling prioritizes which core processes you should improve. It tells you which processes are most important to not only achieve your company goals - but also to survive as a profitable business.

About the Author: Chris Anderson is the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance. To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: http://www.bizmanualz.com?src=ART83

Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=791&ca=Business+Management

Do you have irregular periods, abdominal pain, excess facial hair, acne, and excess weight? Then better go and check, you might have polycystic ovarian syndrome.

I learned that I have PCOS last year, and since then I thought my life stopped. I am still in my early twenties, but I have high cholesterol, high levels of triglycerides and high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and I gained 30 lbs. I had a lot of unanswered questions then 3 doctors and 7 months later I found the right doctor and I found a good website which helped me and gave me more information about this syndrome. It is a total body endocrine disease. It is unfortunate and confusing that the word “ovary” appears on the name, the abnormalities in the ovary are really more the result of the problem rather than a cause. These days with modern technology and research there are many studies and development so we need not to be afraid if we have this syndrome.

Newer research indicates that the cause of this is an inherited genetic abnormality in which it affects the production of insulin in our body.

Another common feature of PCOS is obesity, most women with this syndrome are significantly overweight. There is no permanent cure for this but there is always treatment. The right exercise, diet and a change of lifestyle can make your life better.

I have now lost a few pounds and with that my BP is starting to be normal and my cholesterol and triglyceride levels have significantly dropped. I am writing this hoping that I will be able to inform and educate women about this syndrome because the earlier you’ll know the lesser complications there will be.

So if you have all the symptoms that I mentioned in the first paragraph then better see an endocrinologist and an OBGYNE.

About the Author: Stormy rain is a certified soul cyster. You can email her if you have more questions or would like to share your experiences regarding PCOS.

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Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=776&ca=Womens+Interest

I heard that the Arroyo administration expects at least P 124.7 B in incremental revenues from tax measures and other tariff adjustments this year. This means that this will give an additional of P 161.3 B to our revenue. And for me, it will help in our budget to be used by department of the administration. We need a tight budget and development on our economic problems.

Another P 5 B will be added to the year budget from lifting of the tariff from oil and lateral attrition law. The country’s revenues amount 4.7% of GDP compared to 6.7% of Thailand and 7.1% of Vietnam. The proportion is higher than Indonesia w/c collects about 4.1% of GDP.

It was further announced by President Gloria Macapagal – Arroyo that the fiscal crisis was already finished and w can anticipate a competitive economy. This year, 2005, we have been all witness to the great fight of peso against dollar. The last exchange rate that I heard was P55.68= $1. A reason for this, I must say was the dollar remittances that our brothers abroad (OFW) are sending to their family here in the Philippines. It really helps a lot to make some small relief to economic problems. It is not hidden to us that an additional 2% on tax will be implemented sometimes this year, and a high equivalent of peso comparing to other monetary units will limit the inflation of goods and other staple things on the market. Others are already contented, because finally they can buy imported things. But the families of the OFW are sad, because the equivalent of their dollars in hands turn into an amount of dollars 2 years hence. (The latest peso – dollar exchange rate is the highest since October, 2003). I am really pretty sure that the peso will have more competitive if the people will not hide their dollars, and will not wait until the peso deflates again. I must say that they will just blame their selves if the peso continues to follow the strength of dollar.

I am just thinking a situation on which our economy can really be more competitive. And that is by investing. We all know that many of the investors in the country are foreigners. They are helping on our economy, but the truth is that they are earning because of the Filipino. Our countrymen really work for them. And if the OFW, after returning to their motherland will invest on their own money, he/she with the Filipino can gain money for their own. Widely speaking, Filipino will earn money in their own land. And years after, they do not need to work abroad and be slaves. A lot of people in the whole world think that Filipino are really good and dedicated on their work. An example is in Bangladesh, on which only few are rich and educated. Filipino are being respected because they are the one who run the economy of the Bangladeshis. They are really professionals but are decided to work not for their own country because of the low payment. The government must think, as it is still early, on how they can give jobs for everybody, especially to all graduates. Graduated nurses are going to the United States, Canada and Taiwan because of the dollars they earn, but look on our hospitals, and you can just count the good nurses in hands.

We are exporting the expert doctors and nurses, and the remaining were the second-rated.

The different figures showing Philippine economy strength is not just the basis to say that we are free from poverty. Every student must be educated. The latest survey states that out of 45 countries, the Philippines is one of the least, as 43rd on examinations in terms of education. Only 5% of hundred thousand students pass the Preliminary Tests for High schools. And less and less can speak English. On the squatter areas, you can see the people starving on food. Only one of the 10 on the family has job and in just in part-time. So, how can you say that our economy is fighting? I am in favor of imposing that 2% additional tax on goods, so that a little bit will be added to our revenue. But that is unfair, because there is still an exemption. I have read that the BIG 3 (Shell, Caltex, Petron) are exempted to pay the tax, because they cannot control the inflation of prices in the World Market. They just always say that they are “lugi” and do only small profit on their business. I do not believe on them. How many cars and buses do we have in the Philippines? The government should not exempt these shrewd companies who just think for their own sake.

I must congratulate the Arroyo administration for imposing the tax on cigarettes & on liquors (including the beer and gin) because that gives only “bisyo” to our fathers and kuyas. And instead of treating their money on such nonsense things, why not buy foods for their families. I have also watched on the news that they will again impose another tax, and the latest who will be affected are the texters. It is being reviewed by Senator Dick Gordon and want to use the earning revenue to tighten the education sector. For me, it’s just fine. You think, that for our every text, we can help to a young student and ensure his education. But I must also add, that a higher tax must be implemented to those who uses the MMS cell phones who do nothing but to pass pictures and videos. Only rich people can do that. Am I right? You know, they just pass unwanted pictures of actors and actresses that are naked. And videos who are showing somebody who is in the intercourse of sex. If tax will be imposed, pornography on hand phones will be limited.

About the Author: Frederick Alday is a Communication Student of Batanghas State University, Batangas City. He is a 17-year old and a first year student. You can visit his website @ www.frederickalday.cjb.netFor comments and suggestions asbout this essay, you can email him @ aldayiyan@yahoo.com

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Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=751&ca=Politics