My Name is Carol and I am Addicted to Audio Books

My story: I am 32 and addicted to audio books. I have been trying to cut back but I can’t.
I was first introduced to audio books 12 years ago. My parents bought me a Stephen King audio book as a birthday present. It included 10 books on cassettes each 25 minutes. I finished listening to it the first night. Then, I started buying audio books for me and for each of my friend’s birthdays (whether they liked audio books or not).
As times passed I moved to audio books on CDs and later on to downloadable audio books. I have known all the online audio book rental services and buying services. In fact, I had an account in most of them.

My average output was two audio books per week but I remember some weeks where I skipped sleeping and listened to up to five audio books. I purchased almost any new fiction audio book in the market.

I managed to find some free audio books but still paid a lot of money for my audio book collection.

I got addicted to the comfort of having a “miniature” book. I got addicted to the narration, the music and the sound effects.

I got addicted to the ability to listen to audio books anytime and anywhere (I remember listening to it in the bathroom and in work and in other weird places).

And then I decided to make the move. If I can’t beat it, I would join it. I resigned from work and made a profession out of my hobby – I started making money out of my comprehensive knowledge of audio books.
Nowadays, I write reviews about new audio books and serve as a consultant for audio books’ publishers. I am happy listening to free audio books and being paid for it (just finished listening to the last Harry Potter audio book).
Have you tried listening to audio books? Try it.

Guitar Players...Get a Balanced Guitar Practice Diet

Do you have a wide variety of things that you practice. Or do you like to binge? (You know...the type of player who
practices sweep picking for a kazillion hours a day but only know three chords)!

Having a balanced practice routine is essential if you want to become a versatile guitarist. If you just practice one or
two things, sure you'll get great at those things...but you'll be weak in other key areas.

In this lesson you'll learn how to create a practice routine that is well-balanced and will
help you work towards your ultimate vision of how you would like to play.

I generally categorise what I practice into one of seven areas:

Technique.
Repertoire (Covers).
Composition.
Improvisation.
Ear Training.
Theory.
Music Reading.

Everything that you practice will fit into one or more of the above areas. For example,
if you are learning a very challenging cover tune by transcribing it off the CD you are
essentially working on your technique, repertoire and ear training at the same time. If
you also write down the song in standard notation, you will also be developing your
music reading skills.

Now…do you have to practice things in all seven areas? I believe that you don't have
to if your vision doesn't require it. For example, if someone wants to become an
awesome classical guitarist and has no desire to improvise, then I believe that they
don't need to practice things relating to improvisation. We all have limited time
available for practice, so it's a waste of time working on things that don't specifically
help you reach your goals.

Let's go through a few exercises…

Exercise One:

Think about the vision that you have for your playing for a few minutes.How would you like to play
in ten years time. Make it exact!

Once you've done that, brainstorm as many things that you need to practice in order to play like
your vision. What specific things do you need to learn, develop and practice? Write them down now.

Exercise Two:

Next to each of the things written down for Exercise One, write down a category next to it. For
example, if you wrote "I need to be able to play faster" then write technique next to it.
If you feel that something you wrote belongs to more than one category, then write
down all the categories it could belong to.

Exercise Three:

Look at your answers for the previous two exercises. Once you've done that prioritise
the categories shown below. For example, if you feel that technique is the most
important thing you need to work on to reach your vision then put a 1 next to it.

Practice Area Priority Level (1-7) [Note: 1 is the highest priority].

Technique
Repertoire (covers)
Composition
Improvisation
Ear Training
Theory
Music Reading

Now here's the important point. You should spend the most time practising your
number one priority. I know it's pretty obvious, but you'd be amazed at how many
people don't do this! I know a few guitar players who would like to be able to play
incredibly fast, yet they don't do a lot of technical practice. Talk about setting yourself
up to fail!

Exercise Four:

Decide how much time every day you will spend on each category. Write it down below.

Practice Area Time Invested Daily

Technique
Repertoire (covers)
Composition
Improvisation
Ear Training
Theory
Music Reading

All done? Great!

So what’s the next step?

The next step is to decide on a specific activity for each practice area.Make sure to write them down.

Here are a couple of examples of what someone might put down...

Technique: I will invest 10 minutes a day on alternate picking exercise one. I will
start with the metronome at 80 beats per minute (bpm) and increase it by 4 bpm daily
(as long as I can play it perfectly).

Ear Training: I will invest 10 minutes daily a day on A minor pentatonic ear training
exercise one.

Got the idea? You would have one specific activity for every practice area. If you
have a lot of time to practice you could set more than one activity per practice area.

Give this method a try. I'll think you'll be more than happy with the results!

Using Poker Odds Calculators: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Poker players are always looking for ways to improve their game strategies, or small intimations and tips they might be able to use to their ain games to do them more than successful. One thing that tin be very utile is to cognize the true likelihood of the peculiar game you are playing. Knowing your opportunities will sometimes motivate you to do alterations in your game that you ordinarily might not do that could be the difference between winning and losing. Many players set their betting methods as well, so that they can better optimize their winnings.

More experienced poker players can make this by observing the other players and making conjectures as to what their likelihood of winning are against those peculiar players. They change their hands or playing styles according to what they find their likelihood are. Some players are very experienced with calculating their likelihood in this method, but there is a more than exact manner to find your poker odds. Poker likelihood calculating machines can be establish as free downloads and for sale on the internet, and many poker players are starting to utilize these to acquire more than exact odds.

Some poker players choose to utilize manus likelihood calculating machines by entering the player and the board cards, then hitting a cipher button to acquire the likelihood for that peculiar player. The calculating machine will name how often that player will win the game, necktie with other players, or lose altogether. These calculating machines can also be used to compare different hands with each other to assist you find the best poker hands. The lone downside to using these calculating machines is that they don’t factor in the fact that some players will inevitably fold, and that other money will be added to the pot with each unit of ammunition of bets.

Many poker players who play in poker tournaments have got also begun to utilize tournament equity calculators. These calculating machines are used to find the norm amount of award money each participant should win based on the figure of chips each player have during the tournament. The value of these chips will be less as the game comes on and players gain more than chips. Some players will make up one's mind to sit down out a tournament is they make up one's mind the award pool isn’t big adequate for them. The lone bad thing about using this type of calculating machine is that it automatically presumes all players are of equal accomplishment levels, and it doesn’t business relationship for size and place of the blinds in the game, so it isn’t always one hundred percentage accurate.

Odds calculating machines are used by many poker players today, and are increasing in popularity. They can be very helpful in making determinations when it come ups to many facets of game play. It is of import that players who utilize these calculating machines maintain in head that these calculating machines make have got restrictions and that the information they offer should never be the exclusive footing of how you play your game. There are too many variables to be factored in to do any computation be totally accurate, and sometimes you just can’t beat good ole person intuition.

Texas smog: TCEQ v. AG

Mayor Bill White's most recent scheme to seek to make clean up Houston's air is to seek to carry the state's environmental police military unit force to turn a anchor in standing up to polluting corporations.

I state lotsa luck.

The Lone-Star State Committee on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, have shown it have a backbone, all right.

Unfortunately it's using that anchor to take legal action not against polluters, but against Lone-Star State Lawyer General Greg Abbott on a excavation company's behalf.

The TCEQ's commissioners recently voted to overturn a 2005 determination by two administrative law Judges who, after drawn-out hearings, recommended denying a license by excavation company Asarco to reopen a Cu smelting operation in Elevation Paso that have been mothballed since 1992.

Shapleigh smells emissionThe Judges ruled the smeltery would foul the air.

The TCEQ executive manager director have since said Asarco will ran into certain statuses to avoid unacceptable air pollution, but the people of Elevation Paso are not persuaded.

El Paso metropolis authorities is against it, as is the environmental federal agency of neighbour New Mexico.

So is Elevation Paso state Sen. T. S. Eliot Shapleigh. Watching the commissioners take their vote, Shapleigh thought he smelled a disgusting odor. There was some hanky-panky inch the manner the determination came down.

So he filed a Populace Information Act petition for all TCEQ records regarding the Asarco matter, as well as the commissioners' cell telephone records.

Abbott Sues AbbottWhen TCEQ indicated it would throw back some records under "work product" and "attorney-client privilege" exceptions, Shapleigh asked for those written documents under a proviso passed in 1973 giving legislators the right to all state federal agency records for legislative purposes.

None of the exclusions that let authorities functionaries to keep back written documents from the general populace use to legislators. The legislators, however, may be required to subscribe confidentiality understandings to obtain this class of documents.

Austin lawyer Vaulting Horse Wood, who stands for Shapleigh in this matter, states he helped bill of exchange the proviso as a lobbyist for Park Cause in the mid-1970s. He states then-state Treasurer Jesse Jesse James was refusing to disclose, even to legislators, where he kept the state's money.

After receiving statements from lawyers in two divisions of the TCEQ asserting that the law didn't use to them and even was an unconstitutional misdemeanor of separation of powers, the lawyer general's business office ruled last calendar month that they had to turn over the written documents to Shapleigh.

"This chapter makes not allow authorization to keep back information from individual members, agencies, or commissions of the legislative assembly to utilize for legislative purposes," the AG's business office ruled, referring to the statute law Wood had helped draft.

Here's where TCEQ showed some backbone. It's suing the lawyer general, asking the tribunals to turn over his ruling.

And the TCEQ is using the lawyer general's lawyers.

That's right. The lawsuit styled Lone-Star State Committee on Environmental Quality v. The Honest Greg Abbott, Lawyer General of Texas, is submitted by Greg Abbott and signed by two helper lawyers general.

AG spokesman Uncle Tom Kelley states as a state federal agency the TCEQ have the right to be represented by the AG's office, which put up what lawyers name a "Chinese wall" to maintain staff lawyers on one side of the issue from improperly communicating with staff lawyers on the other side.

He said he couldn't notice on the matter of the suit. If he did, I noted, he'd have got to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

Shapleigh is confident he, and one portion of the lawyer general's office, will win. And he believes he will larn very distressing things about how the TCEQ makes business.

"This impacts Houston with its fighting against benzene," he said, referring to Mayor White's campaign against petrochemical polluters. "I believe they'll happen the same thing travels on with their cases. And it effectuates Dallas with TXU's coal-burning plants."

He said he trusts both metropolises will register legal legal briefs in his support as, he expects, the TCEQ loses at the territory tribunal in Capital Of Lone-Star State and entreaties all the manner to the Texas Supreme Court.

You can compose to Crick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, Texas 77210, or e-mail him at

Tips for Playing Better Online Poker

At first you will have got to play just for merriment and with a limited bankroll. You have got to cognize that playing for merriment money won’t acquire you competition. In these poker suite there is hardly any competition at all.

You can see on television different poker tournaments that are transmitted unrecorded and you might be tempted to copy the players there. You must not make that because on television they don’t demo the full game, they only show a couple of hands and the concluding hands. And the thing is that you don’t have got the experience of those professional players.

Beginners do many errors like playing too many hands for example. They wish for a miraculous turning around of the odds, they believe they will acquire lucky at the adjacent manus and have the cards they necessitate and they don’t discontinue on time. If you are ever in doubt, just fold up if your cards aren’t that good and you are not so good with calculating odds. Even if you make a mistake, the probably is low that when you do the exact same moves that error will happen again. At the same time, don’t stick to your 1 brace too much, not any brace of cards can win the game and you must larn to give up before it’s too late. But usage your inherent aptitudes wisely to see if the oppositions are bluffing.

When playing online and especially if you are a beginner, don’t transcend your budget ever! You must be very careful with the games you are entering in. If your bankroll is, let’s say, $500 then make not come in tables with commands over $2.5/$5. Because if you make that, you might stop up loosing all the money in just one drawn-out luckless hand. Experts state it would be a good thought to play from your $500 bankroll $100 a twenty-four hours tops, excluding winnings. If you win and the bankroll turns bigger, then you can widen the limit.

But first of all, before playing, you necessitate to learn. Buy a book, go to some courses online, acquire experts to larn you , learn as much as you can not only about the game itself, but about its schemes too. After you have got the theoretic notions, we must set them at use. Exercise as much as you can. Even 6 hours a twenty-four hours if you desire to go a professional poker player or at least to do serious many. The good line about online poker is the fact you can maintain your theory book stopping point to you even while playing. If ever unsure, bank check the book.

Almost all online poker games suppliers give you the possibility to choose 4 colour deck, so you will see each lawsuit in a different color. This option is utile because after hr of playing it might go on that you have got got a flush and you can’t state it, or you can’t state the others have.

If you really necessitate money or you are in debt, playing poker is not recommended unless you can command your winning desire. There are large opportunities that you will lose and the debt will grow, and so you will have got a bad sentiment about poker and wining, when it is actually your fault. At all times you must remain alert and don’t allow anything upset you: no television, no e-mail authorship and no telephone. Don’t play after you had a drink because alcoholic beverage can change your determinations if too much was used.

MP3 / Music Guide on Downloading Music on the Internet

Downloading music off the cyberspace can be a deadening and usually boring task. This article will demo you how to happen online music faster and more than precisely then ever before.

There are a few different ways of obtaining music over the net, however each One have its ain set of pro’s and con’s.

1) The first manner is to download music off a basic web waiter or website. Not only is this highly illegal, but it sets your computing machine at hazard to any figure of ActiveX exploits, pornography pop-ups, and forced installs. This of course is necessary to see that the webmaster of the illegal site additions a profit, off the disbursal of his surfers.

2) The 2nd highly popular manner to download music is through a peer-to-peer web such as as Kazaa, IMesh, Limewire etc. Nothing is ever free! Theses programmes are all ad-supported and include undercover agent ware and frequent pop-ups that essentially infect your computer. They hijack your start page, hunt page etc, and are designed to be extremely hard to remove.

3) Recently pay-per download sites have got emerged such as as Napster and the celebrated Apple Itunes. These sites unfortunately complaint upwards of $1 a song which quickly adds up to a big terms for an album. There are options to the high profile sites listed above that offering music at a much decreased price. A web review site recently launched have ranked these programmes on a scale of measurement of 1 to 5 and have review article for each site. A free music and mp3 review site providing indifferent comparing information of the Top-Rated Music/MP3 download sites. Free MP3 Reviews