Clipping fido s nails doesn t have to be a dreaded chore

Do you dread clipping your dogs nails? Don't worry you are not alone.. Even though it's not much fun most dog owners will have to make nail clipping part of their regular grooming. To clip your dogs nails you will need some basic equipment that you can pick up at any good pet supply store. Don't try to make do with human clipers. Special dog nail clippers have a different shape and are specially designed to make the clipping as fast and painless as possible. There are other items you can buy to make it easier to trim your dog's nails too - various products that encourage the blood clotting process are very useful in case of messy clipping accidents. There are many variations on the best way to clip your dogs nails. In general you will want to start with prolonged desensitization of your dogs feet. This will allow your dog to get used to having his paws handled regularly and will make it easier to have a calm clipping session. When clipping your dogs nails for the first time its important to ask someone who knows how to do it to show you. You can get many instructions and even some excellent illustrated instructions on how to clip your dogs nails but watching someone else clip your dogs nails will gie you a chance to ask any questions you might have. If your dog has dark nails (as many do) you will want to watch to get an idea of where your dogs "quick" is located. Most veternarians will clip your dogs nails for you and this is obviously the best way to learn. Starting young increases the chances of having a dog who doesn't mind having his nails trimmed. Puppies generally won't need to have their nails clipped but even if you only bring the clippers up to his paws and "play clip then" he will learn that it's just a normal part of life. Don't clip your dogs nails until you are completely sure what you are doing. Not only will your dog pick up on your anxiousness but he will most probably make things difficult for you. Many people find that one of the best ways to ensure a calm and easy nail clipping session is by walking the dog before you start with the clipping. Tire your dog out well and he might not be able to make as much of a fuss as he'd like. Some people resort to using tranquilizers to make nail clipping easier for their dogs nd them. This really shouldn't be necessary with some foresight. Even the simple act of massaging your dogs paws for a few minutes every day to desensitize your dog to being touched there. Of course the most important thing you can do to make nail clipping easier is to use treats liberally.

Why green is good for trucks

Today’s modern SUVs were originally based on trucks and with good reasons. Trucks are versatile machines, transporting soil from Home Depot; towing the yacht to the lake; to hauling family members, their belongings, and even a mid-sized car to use for jaunts to the local restaurant after parking the truck at one’s favorite camping spot. So it’s surprising that truck owners have not embraced hybrid technology. Who wouldn’t want phenomenally better gas mileage? But in some ways the reaction is understandable. The most well-known hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius, is not known for its power to go up mountains or tow even a small cart much less two tons of rocks. Trucks, to fulfill their duties, need power first. But ‘hybrid’ means merger and in this case, a gasoline engine and battery pack with the latter either supplementing or replacing the former depending on driving conditions. This combination can be tuned to emphasize power or fuel economy, many times providing both. The six-cylinder hybrid Honda Accord, for example, gets an additional fifteen ponies compared to its non-hybrid version while providing gas mileage like its four-cylinder Civic siblings. GM’s first full-sized hybrid trucks, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, are estimated to get an additional ten percent increase in their mileage. While this may not sound like much, it adds ‘high mileage’ to the pair’s already impressive list of features. But most importantly, neither truck suffers lost of torque for speed, hauling or pulling power with the hybrid powertrain. The batteries provide other advantages as well. The Silverado and Sierra can use their hybrid batteries to power equipment when on site, for example. Reviewers of the trucks for Automobile magazine found the feature heaven-sent when their computer equipment ran out of juice out in the middle of nowhere. Why haul miniature power plants or extra batteries when you drive one? Finally, some of the most powerful and popular trucks have diesel option which is not allowed in many states due to environmental concerns. Hybrids were developed to be environmentally friendly and hybrid pickups could be used in lieu of their diesel brethren in such states. Hybrids offer far more than just being friendly to one’s environment or better gas mileage. Truck owners, already driving one of the most versatile vehicles around, would have all those advantages magnified by a hybrid powertrain.

Job opportunities adrift in cyberspace

Those who truly believe they can make a living working on the internet may be right, but finding the right opportunity on the internet will take research and common sense. Most job opportunities listed on the internet are examples of how people make money working online. Convincing others to send money to receive information about how to find work on the internet is one of the biggest opportunities there are. However, since that’s what you were doing when you stumbled across that job prospect, you probably already know how it is done. Common sense is probably the most important thing you have that will save you time, money and disappointment. When reviewing job opportunities take an objective look at the promises and claims being made about the job and consider the possibility of being able to meeting the claims actually being made. For example, many internet positions promise that working only a few hours a day can yield an income equivalent to a year’s salary every month. Think about that for a minute. You are being told that you can sit at your computer, in your pajamas for three or four hours a day and make a six-figure income. Consider the odds of this being a real possibility before sending the sponsor of the ad money for a list of jobs making these claims. One of the biggest so-called job opportunities on the internet today is advertisements for secret shoppers. The ad talks about thousands of companies who use private individuals, “just like you” to go shopping, eat at restaurant and go to the movies and report back to them. Pay is promised to by upwards of $40 an hour for doing things you like to do and you get to keep everything you bought. Who wouldn’t want to become a secret shopper. You realize that you can’t possible do this job eight hours a day, five days a week, but heck at $40 an hour, working only 20 hours a week is a pretty good paycheck, so you fill out the “application” and enclose your fee and wait for the assignments to come rolling in. Usually what happens next is you receive a list of companies that at one point registered to use secret shoppers. However, they all have their own criteria and you will have to apply to each company before they will consider using you in their secret shopper program. That is if they still use them or if the company is still in business. A few applicants actually get hired by a couple of companies as secret shoppers and find out that part time work can be eight to ten hours a month, if not less. Yes, you usually keep what you buy, as the legitimate companies will reimburse you for the purchases, provide you comply with all the procedures they set down for you to follow. Failing that, you have just experienced a shopping trip and it was all on your dime. Always research internet opportunities fully and use your gut instinct to tell you whether it is the real deal or simply marketing hype. If it sounds too good to be true...It probably is. Once you find the right internet opportunity that feels right it will take hard work to get it off the ground. Find an opportunity that has a good step by step roadmap with superb customer support. The beauty of working for yourself is that every dollar you invest in your own business will be worth fifteen dollars a year from now if you persevere. Good Luck and Stay the Course!

The power of youth basketball coaching a personal review

If you really want to make a difference in the lives of youngsters, one must try coaching youth basketball. Well I gave it a shot, and boy am I excited about the whole thing. There are several places that will teach you how to coach youth basketball, from charities to workshops to who knows what else. My experience with youth basketball coaching begins for over a year now, and there has never been a more fulfilling experience in my life thus far. However don’t take my word alone for it, cause you should give youth basketball coaching a try to believe it. The wonderful thing about youth basketball coaching is you can with minimal experience or background in sports, be the one to keep children away from harmful and dangerous influences in their lives. It is a creepy world out there with crime, drugs, and all manner of other temptations which plague our youth nowadays. Why, when I was a kid, we did not even know what drugs were. But nonetheless, using youth basketball coaching especially when working with a good, well organized community center, you can help out kids to say no to crime, drugs, and any other bad or destructive influences in their lives. You have to see it to believe it. The difference it makes is amazing. At times I do not understand why my work with youth basketball coaching has helped so much for kids, but they have recounted all about it themselves. It is a fact. I have a kid – Mikey who signed up about when I started youth basketball coaching. Prior to joining the team, Mikey was bad news. His mother had a drug problem and he was getting drugs himself. Besides his friends was a very bad influence on him. I first decided to sign up for youth basketball coaching especially because of kids like Mikey. I really didn’t understand much about youth basketball coaching when I first got into it. Neither did I have any training. I just watched a couple of youth basketball coaching videos, and hustle to prepare for my first day as a coach. But boy was it worth it. I packed in all of those coaching aids, and soon I was directing the team like a pro. Now that I am an expert at youth basketball coaching, I'll tell you a secret. With youth basketball coaching, it does not matter where you begin, as long as you persist.

Formula drifting for women

Formula Drifting for Women Formula Drifting is a sport that first rose to popularity in Japan. While it is often termed as racing, there is actually little to no racing involved in the sport. Formula D involves taking a car, one that is ideal for drifting, and using certain driving techniques to cause the car to lose traction and drift. The goal is to keep control of the car and steer it to victory. Victory is, almost always, decided by a panel of judges, who are experienced in the art of drifting. Drifting sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Since it first came to the United States, drifting has rapidly increased in popularity, with all different types of individuals. Unfortunately, drifting is often referred to as a male dominated sport. That is because, in the past and still sometimes today, men where mostly the competitors. The problem with this is that, as previously mentioned, all different individuals enjoy the sport of drifting, including women. In addition to enjoying the sport as a spectator, many women also wish to compete in it. If you are woman who is interested in Formula Drifting, you may be wondering what to do. Despite what you may believe or may have been told, women do not have to stand on the sidelines or be a spectator in the stands. If you are interested in drifting, whether it be on a professional level or an amateur level, you have every right to enjoy the sport. Essentially, this means that if you want to participate in drifting, go right ahead. Not only do you deserve the right to participate in it, but you may even be better at it than you had originally anticipated. Perhaps, the first step in getting started in drifting is to famialrize yourself with the sport, if you haven’t already done so. This familiarization can be done a number of different ways. You may want to think about attending a professional Formula D event. If you are unable to attend a professional event, an amateur drifting event will do. At these events, you are advised to pay close attention. Not only will you be able to determine whether or not drifting is definitely something that you would like to do, you may also be able to learn some new techniques or tips. It may also be a good idea to purchase some printed materials or videos on the art of drifting. In addition to learning about the sport, by watching a live event or reading up on it, you may also want to enroll yourself in an instructional drifting course. Many of these courses, also commonly referred to as classes, are offered all across the United States. In addition to traditional Formula Drifting courses, you may even find drifting courses or programs that are designed just for women. One of those programs is Drifting Pretty. Drifting Pretty, which is based in California, acts as training course, as well as a support network for women that are interested in drifting. If you are serious about drifting, whether you want to become a professional Formula D driver or just drift for fun, you may want to think about taking one of these training courses. Although you may feel more comfortable in a program or training course that is designed just for women, there are co-ed courses and programs that are also available. You should easily be able to find these courses with a standard internet search or with recommendations from fellow drifters. Aside from taking a training course and familiarizing yourself with the sport, you will also want to insert yourself into its following. By actively participating in online discussions, you may be alerted to upcoming drifting events. As popular as drifting is, it is sometimes difficult to be informed of these events without inserting yourself into a social drifting network. In addition to being alerted to upcoming events, you may also find support from other female drifters. In a sport that is mostly dominated by males, female drifters need to be able to unite and stick together. Word Count 677

We only go through life once

Life has its ups and downs. We go through life everyday filled with uncertainty never knowing what lies ahead. We may never know that with just the snap of a finger we may lose our lives. We never know that today may be our last day on this planet. The great thing though about this so called life is that we make it. Everyday counts as we go through the journey of happiness and sadness, of feeling love and getting hurt, of obtaining success or falling hard. Life is indeed very colorful and you put the colors in it. As people say, life is like a wheel there may be times when you are on top, on the peak of your career, on the top of the corporate ladder, on the top of the list as one of the wealthiest. Sometimes, you may be in the middle having an average living, having a typical family. Quite often we may be at our lowest, when we suffer hard, when we feel down. I have to say that life has not been sweet for many of us especially those who suffer everyday may it be suffering in sickness, in lack of finances to buy even a single meal as well as suffering from fear, rejection and loneliness. I do not believe there is but a single person who hasn’t experienced any hardship in life. Life is precious and we should value every minute, every second of it. I always believe that since I will only be given one shot with this, then I should make the most out of it. We can never return to yesterday neither are we given the opportunity to go back through time in our lives to redo whatever it is that we thought we should have done. Always look at the brighter side of things. You may have failed, you may have been hurt and heartbroken, you may have been rejected but life goes on and tomorrow is another opportunity for you to do what you think and feels right for you life. We only go through life once so seize the opportunity of every moment. Savor both the good and the bad. Go through life knowing that you have made every single day count by doing what you want to do. Go through life with no regrets without feelings of wonder on the “what ifs” because you never gave it a shot. Knowing that you have lived everyday, as if it were your last makes waking up everyday more than worthwhile.

The source of mortgage money

Where does mortgage money actually come from? When you get a $500K mortgage, who actually writes the checks? Most people have no idea. Does it come from a bank? Does it come from the government or some large quasi-governmental agency like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? It all seems so confusing and the numbers are so big that they become abstract. But an understanding of where the cash comes from is the first step to understanding how the mortgage industry operates. You can effectively break down the source of money into two broad categories. On the one hand, you have banks that recycle money that’s been deposited into personal and corporate accounts. We all have bank accounts; checking accounts, savings accounts. That money all belongs to us and the bank pays us interest on it. But they, in turn, lend that same money out to people who want to borrow it. These banks then charge their borrowers a higher interest rate than they offer to their savers. That’s how they make their money. They charge what’s called “a spread” between their borrowing interest rates and their deposit interest rates. In fact, banks can even lend out more money than they physically have on deposit, based on ratios federally regulated by certain governmental agencies. But the details of that mechanism are beyond the objectives of this article. The point is that banks get money from our deposits and that’s what they lend out to their borrowing clients. The interest rates charged by these banks are heavily influenced by the decisions of the Federal Reserve. Most of us are familiar with Alan Greenspan who has been the chairman of the Fed since 1992. His term just came to an end on January 31 2006 and he is now being replaced by Ben Bernanke. At the time of this recording, the Fed has raised interest rates 14 consecutive times during the past two years to gradually tighten a highly accommodating monetary policy that’s been in place since 2001. The Fed manipulates interest rates by buying and selling bonds in the bond markets. During challenging economic times, the Fed buys bonds on the open market, and they pay for these bonds with cash. As the Fed continues buying bonds, it floods the market with cash. All of this excess cash makes money more available for people who want to borrow and interest rates naturally come down as different lenders compete for a limited number of borrowers. Think about it. If there’s excess cash out there, the interest rates to borrow that money gets bid down as different lenders compete for the business. Borrowers naturally go for the lowest rate. When the economy starts growing again, consumer confidence starts rising and people start spending money again. They buy cars. They buy stainless steel refrigerators. They buy computers. With rising demand, companies can start charging more for their products. Profits start rising and soon, workers start asking for raises and better benefits. That increases costs for companies and a vicious cycle of inflation begins. Inflation is a complicated phenomenon but suffice it to say, it can send the economy into a tailspin. So, to slow down that cycle, the Fed can start selling bonds on the market. Buyers pay for these bonds with cash and the Fed immediately puts that money away, taking the cash OUT of the economy. With less cash available on the open market, borrowers start bidding up interest rates which dampens the feeding frenzy and keeps the economic growth at a sustainable level. The interest rate directly affected by the Fed is what’s called “the Overnight Rate.” This rate is what the banks charge each other. You may or may not be familiar with the Overnight Rate but most of us are familiar with the Prime Rate. This rate is simply the Overnight Rate plus 3. Right now, for example, the Overnight Rate is 4.5% so the Prime Rate is 7.5%. Every time the Fed makes a change, the Prime Rate changes at the exact same time. There are also a number of indexes that are affected by these policy changes made by the Fed. Some of you have heard of the LIBOR index. If you’re curious, the acronym LIBOR stands for the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate. You may have also heard about the MTA index. It stands for the Monthly Treasury Average and there are others like the Cost of Funds Index and so on. All of these indexes are all heavily influenced by the actions of the Fed. So as you can imagine, they have all gone up significantly during the past two years. In 2003, the Prime Rate was at 4.00%. Today, it’s at 7.5%. In 2003, the LIBOR and MTA indexes were both around 1.00%. Today, they’re at 5.3% and 4.7% respectively. The Prime Rate and all these various indices govern the interest rates of all variable rate loan products. For example, a home equity line of credit is a variable rate product and is generally tied to the Prime Rate. There are also a lot of loan products these days that are fixed for the first few years, but that become variable after that. Once the fixed period expires, they are tied to one of the indices like the LIBOR or the MTA. Anyone who has a variable rate product has seen their payments go up significantly over the past two years. We started this discussion by saying there are two primary sources of mortgage money. The first is from bank deposits. The second comes from a wide variety of “investors” who provide money through Wall Street. But don’t think these are just a bunch of super wealthy individuals. They’re actually Money Managers that are managing our own money. Most of us have investment accounts like Insurance Funds, Pension Funds and various Retirement Funds. Many of the accounts that contain all these funds end up housing huge amounts of cash. You can imagine the Pension Fund for General Motors or some other Fortune 500 company. Think about Insurance Companies like New York Life or State Farm. These companies manage immense sums of money; money they have accumulated from all their contributors – people like you and me. These huge funds are managed by professional Money Managers. They are always trying to maximize the return they get on this money so they look for good places to invest. For the most part, they end up putting the cash into three main areas. They buy equities; stocks of various companies that trade on the stock exchanges – shares of General Electric or Google or Starbucks Coffee. They also buy corporate and government bonds. That’s the second choice. And they buy what’s called “mortgage-backed securities”. That’s the third choice. Well, those are mortgages! They’re bundled mortgage loans that are bought and sold on Wall Street every day. Essentially, these various Money Managers approach the mortgage business and say, “all right, you can lend out our money as long as you follow these guidelines”. The guidelines they’re referring to are the underwriting guidelines Mortgage Brokers have to follow when helping someone apply for a loan. The interest you pay becomes the return on investment for these Money Managers. So that’s where much of the money comes from. Now, within certain limits, many of these loans are insured by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac as long as they meet their underwriting guidelines. As you can imagine, most investors have guidelines that closely resemble the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac standard underwriting guidelines. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines are the benchmark for the entire industry. Today, there’s so much money out there, money that has accumulated from Baby Boomers putting money aside for their retirement during the past 25 years, that a lot of investors have widened their guidelines beyond the standard Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac requirements. This is happening through the competitive process. There’s a lot of money out there. An economist might say, “there’s excess capital” out there. And what happens when there’s excess capital? Well, you can bet on two major results. First, you can bet that interest rates will get bid down as various investors compete for the business. Second, you’ll start seeing more and more innovative loan programs out there. You have all seen this in your own lives. You’ve seen interest rates get bid down lower and lower with the bottom just behind us, back in 2003. Interest rates are now slowly on the rise again and you can bet they’ll start rising faster when all the Baby Boomers start retiring in a few years and start drawing money out of those huge pools of investment capital. You’ve also seen a flood of innovative loan programs. First came all the different Adjustable Rate Mortgages, or ARMs. Then came the Interest Only options. Now, they have these Negative Amortization loans. You know the ones: the loans that start with an interest rate of just 1%. Interest rates were never that low and they never will be. These loans allow borrower to make payments that are not even enough to pay the interest. So the loan balance actually gets bigger each and every month. We’ve all seen these phenomena play out right in front of our eyes. On the surface, it looks like all these mortgages come from a few large well known players; companies like Countrywide Mortgage, Wells Fargo, Chase or Bank of America. Yes, these guys are huge players in the mortgage business. But that doesn’t mean the money is all theirs. Of course, Wells Fargo and Bank of America have all kinds of regular banking business but their mortgage divisions are generally in the business of packaging and servicing loans. They package the loans and sell them on Wall Street. In many cases, you may not even know because they continue to “service” the loans themselves. That means they do the customer service, they collect your payments and they pass them on to the investor that holds the actual loan, less an administration fee of course. So again, this is all a direct result of excess capital. There’s a lot of money out there and they’re all competing for your business; your mortgage. So they’re all offering different perks to try and get you to pick them. A lower rate. Looser guidelines. Flexible new loan programs. It’s all marketing, trying to get you to borrow their money rather than somebody else’s. Reviewing, there are two sources of mortgage money and both sources come indirectly from you and me. Your bank deposits get recycled and lent back out to the community. Your investment, insurance and retirement funds also get recycled and lent back out. It’s all a big circle from our savings to our debts. Obviously, there are some very wealthy people out there who have huge savings and few debts. Others have huge debts and very little savings. But in the aggregate, it’s the entire community that lends money to itself and it’s the total amount of savings in the community that determines the interest rates within it. If there’s lots of money available, interest rates are low. If there’s a shortage of money, interest rates rise. So the fact that we’ve enjoyed steadily dropping interest rates in recent years is a sign that the economy is healthy and that there’s lots of money available. And the fact that rates are now slowly rising is a sign that the pool of investment capital is slowly shrinking. The soon-to-be retiring Baby Boom generation will definitely shrink that pool of money and we can expect interest rates to continue rising as a result. In the meantime, it’s still a great time to borrow money and we should all take advantage of it while it lasts.