Different kinds of stone are ground into a fine powder, mixed with water resulting in a paste. It is fired in a kiln (an oven) at very high temperatures until the particles of stone melt and fuse together to create a strong substance.

Bone China.

It is shiny and smooth non-porous pottery made with bone ash, china stone and fine kaolin (china clay). Bone china is light weight and thin and fired at a high temperature. Patterns are usually formal. Despite bone china’s delicate appearance, it does not chip easily. It is the finest and most expensive dishware available.

Porcelain.

It is a non-porous pottery made from fine kaolin that is fired above 1250 degrees Celsius. Porcelain is translucent, thin and light weight. Originating in China, this delicate looking dishware is stronger than stoneware. Porcelain is less expensive than bone china and is available in casual and formal patterns.

Stoneware.

A dense kaolin is fired between 1200 ?1450 degrees Celsius to create this porous ceramic. Neither translucent nor heavy, stoneware chips more easily than porcelain or bone china. It has a casual appearance and is generally glazed in muted earth tones. It can have fine detail or be rough and grainy. Stoneware is more affordable than porcelain or bone china.

Earthenware.

It is a coarse porous pottery and fired at a low temperature between 800-1000 degrees Celsius. Earthenware chips quite easily and has a casual appearance. It is often glazed in bright colours and formed by hand.

Care.

You should always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for care. Keep in mind that direct heat sources can cause rapid changes in temperature causing cracking. Never put an antique or any fine ceramic in the dishwasher. Fine gilding wears off easily, so keep this in mind when handling antique pieces. Damage or chips greatly reduce the value of any ceramic.

Martin Swinton owns Take-A-Boo Emporium located in Toronto, Canada. He has appeared on a variety of television programs; does furniture restoration; caning and rushing repairs; appraisals and has taught courses on antiques at the Learning Annex. Martin can be reached at http://www.takeaboo.com

The ABCs of Ceramics Updates

1. The Truth in Lending Act

The customer had to be told the true cost of borrowing, so they could figure out exactly what the charges would be. You must be informed, in writing of the finance charge and the APR before you sign any contract. Also, you need to be informed of the method they are going to use to calculate the balance on which you pay a finance charge.

This Act gives you a chance to change your mind when you use your home as security in a transaction. The first 3 day right of rescission gives you 3 business days to cancel the transaction and the creditor must give you this notice prior to the transaction.

2. The Fair Credit Reporting Act

Check other bonus material for your rights. Basically this act regulates the activities of credit reporting agencies or credit bureaus and gives the FTC responsibility for enforcement.

3. The Fair Credit Billing Act

This law establishes procedures requiring creditors to promptly correct billing errors, and allows the consumer to withhold payment on damage goods, and makes creditors promptly credit your payments.

4. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

This act establishes the guidelines for collectors to follow. They may not contact you at unreasonable times or places. Unless agree, they must not contact you before 8 am or after 9 pm, nor at your place of employment. You must receive a written explanation of your supposed debt and what to do if you feel you do not owe the money.

5. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act

This Law prohibits discrimination in the granting of credit of any form due to sex, marital status, race, religion or age.

6. The Electronic Funds Transfer Act

This act gives protection in all stages of modern banking techniques such ATM, telephone transfers, computer transactions, etc. Its limits for the first time consumers’ liability for lost or unauthorized use of debit or electronic cards are similar to those in place for credit cards.

Notifying the bank within 2 days, your maximum liability is $50. If you miss that timeframe, you could be liable up to $500 in charges. After 60 days, you’ll be liable for the entire amount.

7. The Credit Repair Organization Act

This law states that the credit repair organizations could not make a statement that was misleading. They were prohibited from advising their clients to make a misleading or untrue statement to a credit bureau.

This law gives the consumer 3 day right of cancellation, which needs to be on the contract and must direct you on how to cancel. The document must detail the services that will be provided, guarantees, time frame for service and cost for the consumer.

Copyright © 2005 ExcellentCreditNow.com – All Rights Reserved

Carmen Shearer is the President and CEO of S&S Financial Solutions. She has worked in the finance arena for over 10 years and holds two engineering degrees and an MBA from a branch of Harvard Business School. S&S Financial Solutions offers you credit repair tools, debt elimintation programs and personal financial information with a 90 days guarantee. For more credit related information go to: http://www.excellentcreditnow.com or for how to eliminate your debt go to http://www.excellentcreditnow.com/NoMoreDebt.com

7 Consumer Credit Laws You Should Know if You are Trying to Repair Your Credit – Information

Jason, now the owner of Ultimate Web Designing (http://www.ultimatewebdesigning.com), said that a particular business owner was willing to buy a single month of advertising to see if it would be cost effective to do a full ad campaign. Jason told him that the consumer needs to be “hit” with the marketing message repeatedly in order for them to take in the message, understand it, and take action.

This also applies to email marketing. A very small percentage of people will respond immediately while others need to see your message a number of times before they even think about responding to your offer.

It has been said that nearly 70% of the market is made up of those people who take their time, shop around, and need to see offers more than a few times before giving them any consideration.

Therefore, your goal is to effectively reach, persuade, and motivate this large segment?which is nearly impossible to do with a single mailing. Repeating your marketing message is essential to attract this all important group.

Statistics have shown that the majority of sales occur in the follow-up process. However, you’ll need to do so in a timely, consistent, and convincing manner.

Repetition helps the consumer comprehend your offer, emphasizes how it would benefit them, and reinforces the urgency. Try revamping your next email marketing campaign into a string of messages and you will likely see a major improvement over individual mailings.

By creating a sense of “NOW” with your email recipients, and reinforcing that urgency in subsequent mailings, you influence and guide your unresponsive prospects into action. Also, try adding an extra incentive with each mailing and your offer will become more valuable and more difficult to pass-up.

Email marketing campaigns can be entirely automated with autoresponders. Your series of pre-written follow-up email messages can be automatically delivered to someone who responds to your offer or requests more information.

Keep in mind that your email marketing campaign is only for your opt-in subscribers. Just as repeating your offer can increase the response rate, unsolicited email (spam) can increase your chances of earning a bad reputation.

Conclusion?In order for any marketing campaign to work, the majority of your market needs to see your offer more than once. When your offer is seen over and over, people will start to remember it and realize the importance of it.

About The Author

Visit JD Burson’s web site to learn how to make money from home (http://makemoney.ultimatewebdesigning.com) and pick up your copy of his e-books on writing email messages (http://email.ultimatewebdesigning.com) and autoresponder messages (http://autoresponder.ultimatewebdesigning.com).

info@ultimatewebdesigning.com

A Single Email Is Never Enough – Updates

For my daughter, it became clear when I demanded that her prom date be an officer in Junior Achievement. I thought it was a good way to ensure that she dated a young man with career aspirations. She saw it differently.

It had been six months since I had read a business plan. And I missed it. I mumbled when the Wall Street Journal driver came down my block? only to skip my house. My wife had a block on our cable television – no more MSNBC, and it was no better on the Internet; I couldn’t access Bloomberg.

Last Tuesday, a power stronger then myself won out. I don’t know how, but I ended up at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton Club. My eyes focused on the booths along the back wall. I immediately saw the signs. A shot of single-malt Scotch, half finished, was being used as a paperweight on a four-color business plan. The reader, a silver-haired executive with monogrammed reading glasses, was analyzing spreadsheets as he simultaneously served volleys of staccato-like questions at the young man across the table.

This young man was obviously new to the game. His dark blue suit looked like he had not worn it since his bar mitzvah, and the tie must have been knotted eight years ago and never unraveled. He had ordered the latest micro-brew, but had not taken even one sip.

I sat at the next booth and listened in. I smiled as I heard the two argue over burn rates, traction projections, alpha/ beta sites, and most stridently about valuations.

A cell phone rang, and the single-malt Scotch stood and walked a few steps to take the call in private. I jumped up and got into micro-brew’s face. I told him he was under-capitalized. He was giving away his intellectual property. His burn rate was twice as fast as this so-called “angel” investor was revealing. Big Pharma would pay a much higher multiple for the company if he would listen to my suggestions.

He looked bewildered. I said it again, “Don’t make the deal – you’ll lose your company to this chamber of commerce man of the year wanna-be in seven months.”

The conversation on the cell phone ended, and Mister Single Malt Scotch asked, “Do we have a deal? ” Micro-brew looked at him, then me, and said?. “No way!” He reached for his beer and slid into my booth.

I don’t have to tell you what happened next. You all know it too well. We sat for three and a half hours, re-doing spreadsheets on his laptop, and playing out various pro-formas.

I finally stumbled home, embarrassed and yet delirious with joy over the deal I had structured. My wife could see me hiding the business plan under my coat. She demanded to see my cell phone. Quickly she went through the calls I had made in the last four hours. She knew the area codes: New York, Brussels, London, and my newest haunt, New Delhi. I had been lining up angel investors.

What could I say? I had already used up my inventory of “I promise it will never happen again.” She had been going to her own meetings and knew that she needed to go on with her life and not let my addiction manipulate her.

Had I called my sponsor? She had not seen his number in my cell phone’s call list. ” No,” I whispered.

She made me return to Entrepreneurs Anonymous (EA). I had stopped going to my meetings. I had beaten it or so I thought. But the truth is, we never do. I was just like everyone else in EA. I matched the profile perfectly. Eighty percent of members have a relapse within their first six months. I was now another data-point confirming that statistic.

Hesh Reinfeld writes a syndicated business humor column. You can read additional examples of his columns on his website: http://www.heshreinfeld.com Or contact him at hesh1@comcast.net

Rambling Confessions of a Recovering Entrepreneur Updates

I mean let’s look at what is happening here! You have got Ab dolly, Ab rocker, Ab lounge, Abwheel, Ab-this-Ab-that, and I am not saying that they may not give some results but let’s face it if any one of these was a “cure all” why do they have to keep coming out with more??????? And why do people keep buying the latest and greatest thing? Well i will tell you?

SALES AND MARKETING! These infomercials have it down to a science. You will notice all the hard bodies that promote all these gadgets and here you are back home watching from your tv saying that if I buy this i can look like him/her and this will solve all my problems right? Wrong!!! First of all how do you know the people that you are looking at on tv actually got all their results from the product that there promoting? You Don’t.

But psycologically, your saying to yourself, this is the one, this is what finally is going to do it for me. This is what i have been missing out on. They hit all your “Emotional Triggers” and “Hot Buttons”. And you make the purchase and and lo and behold you are no better off then where you started from.

I will give you an example: (6 pack abs). Before they came out with all this inform ation about what to do and not to do regarding situps and crunches, leg raises, etc. people were just doing normal sit-ups on a board, or having somebody hold there feet down, not maybe knowing that maybe they are putting stress on their lower back? A lot of the old time athletes had tremendous ab development and strength. How do you figure that? How could that be? How is this possible? I mean god forbid if i told you some deep breathing exercises could give you some nice ab development. And you didn’t need to invest any of your hard earned money on useless gadgets and gizmos.

Well getting (6 pack abs) is more a “diet” thing then any exercise that you could possibly think of. You can do 1,000s of any exercise you want, and it will strengthen the abdominals.

BUT? If you want to see those “ABS” you have to get rid of the layers of “fat” that are covering them. END OF STORY!!!!!!! And that has to be done for the most part through proper dieting and calorie manipulation. I don’t care what contraption you buy it won’t help if your diet isn’t right.

Getting Back To Basics: In my opinion a “Boxer” is one of the best conditioned atletes out there. Especially if you look back at the old timers going (15-3min rounds). And going back to John L. Sullivan days maybe more than that. Think about the monetary investment? A jump rope $10? no money, run in place. Start throwing your hands out like you are sparring, keep moving around, side to side, back and forth, go down to the floor do some sit-ups. some leg raises, jumping jacks, jog around the block, sprint from telephone pole-telephone pole. How much money have you invested?

How did they do this? a Jump rope, combat boots for running, some calisthenics, and a makeshift heavy bag. What no hi-tech equipment? No fancy gadgets? And these guys were in great shape? No way!!!! Oh yes they were, and you can too.

The point of all this is before you spend your money on all the things outside yourself, “think” how did people before me get into tip top shape, you already have what you need. The latest and greatest fad is not going to do it for you.

I have a set of stairs about 12 of them from the first to second floor of my house, I make it a point to run up walk down about 20 sets everyday. I challenge you to do this and then tell me you need to go out and buy a treadmill, gazeelle, cross-trainer, or whatever else you can think of? No set of stairs? Go down to a local football field and run up and down bleachers, you will get my point.

Look I am not against new technology, I am just more into common sense and “GETTING BACK TO BASICS”

Who else wants to get in shape fast!? I need your advice! “FREE REPORT” by visiting: http://AskYourFitnessQuestion.com

Want To Get In Shape? Watch Another Infomercial! – Information

Spinfishing is illegal on most spring creeks, but you can use a variety of flyfishing methods such as sight casting to “rooters” burrowing in aquatic plants for scuds, nymphs and sow bugs. You can slap out chunky streamers to tease big fish from deep, dark pools. You can fish terrestrials during no-hatch periods, or you can wait patiently for mayfly emergences, when trout rise furiously all around you.

Delicate presentations are important, so keep your tackle light. Use an eight to nine foot rod taking a No. 4 to 6 weight-forward or double-taper floating line, plus an eight to 14 foot knotless leader tapering to a 4X to 7X tippet is perfect.

Keep in mind that your casting positions can be critical in determining whether your fly is snatched up boldly or ignored on spring creeks. Try different deliveries from several different locations to find which is best. Try quartering upstream across a downstream casts until you get just eh right float to fool a particularly difficult trout.

Know what stage of insect the trout are consuming. This can vary from fish to fish and from minute to minute as the hatch progresses. When the first mayflies appear, most trout feed on the emerging insects drifting in the surface film as they struggle to free themselves from their nymphal skins. Always carry a good supply of emerger imitations when fishing a spring creek hatch.

Copyright 2005 EveningSecret Fishing

Frank Faldo Long-Time Fisherman and President of EveningSecretFishing (http://www.eveningsecretfishing.com)

Feel free to use this article on your website or anywhere else – but all links and bio information must remain in tact.

How to Fish Spring Trout Streams Information

At least for me, it is so tempting to hit the sale rack when I begin my search for new shoes. It kills me to spend anymore than I absolutely have to, but with running shoes, I have found, it is one thing to not spare any expense. Finding a great pair of running shoes is sure to save most people money with comfort and safety. Finding a pair for $49 does not do a lot of good if you hurt your knee the next day!

There are so many brands and styles of shoes that it’s hard to know where to start when you walk into a retailer. If you’re not sure where to start in the process, note the techniques listed below for finding the perfect shoe for your needs.

Find Your Foot Type:

Figure out how you run (outside of your foot, outside to inside, or straight down the middle). The easiest way to determine how you run is to look at an old pair of running shoes. If the shoe is worn on the outside of the heel and rolls inward excessively, you have a pronated foot type ? the majority of the population (60%) fits into this category. You’re more likely to have this foot type if you are flat footed.

If you have high arches, your foot is rigid and doesn’t pronate (roll inward) so there is not an effective shock absorber. Roughly 30% of the population has high-arched or supinated foot types.

If you land on the outside of your heel and roll inward slightly to absorb shock, you are of normal weight, you are considered the most sound (biomechanically) runner. Only about 10% of the population has neutral/ideal feet.

Tips for Your Trip to the Shoe Store:

• Examine your old shoes for tread wear.
• Socks are important. Wear your running socks when you try on.
• If your feet are different sizes, buy for the larger one.
• Shoes with better breathability will help curb sweating.
• Grooves in the sole offer more flexibility.
• Flat feet need support rather than flexibility.
• If you tend to overpronate, look for shoes that will lace higher up so you can better customize the fit of the shoe.
• Shoe should feel comfortable right way ? they don’t need to be broken in.

When to Buy New Running Shoes:

• Look at the soles. If they are worn out or very unevenly worn it is time for a new pair.
• If you’ve traveled roughly 400-500 miles on your treadmill or it’s been six months, it is time for a new pair. Remember, if you are wearing your shoes for other activities, those miles count too!

What questions should the salespeople ask?

• How long have you been running?
• How much mileage are you doing per week?
• Are you training for a particular event?
• Where do you do most of your running?
• How much do you weigh?
• Are you aware of any foot problems?

Make sure that your shoes fit properly, below are some tips to help:

• Check for adequate room at the toebox by pressing your thumb onto the shoe just above the longest toe. Thumb should fit between the end of the toe and the top of the shoe.
• There should be adequate room in the widest part of foot. The shoe shouldn’t be tight and your foot shouldn’t slide around.
• You heel should fit snugly against back of shoe without sliding up and down when running.
• Run around in the store ? try on a hard surface, not just on the carpet to get a true feeling on how the shoe will react outside.

Simple solutions will get your running. The more you know about your feet and what activities you will be partaking in, the more prepared you will be to find the right pair of shoes. Shoes are important for the health of your feet, but for the rest of your bones and joints as well.

Robb Ksiazek is an author and web publisher writing about mind, body, and soul for Body-Mass-Index-4U.com. He believes that our bodies have the power to heal themselves, we just need to allow them.

How to Pick the Right Pair of Running Shoes

1. Be realistic. I have heard the statment said, “If you want to be President of the United States, just put your mind to it and you will be.” Well, that sounds nice. However, it is an unrealistic goal for most people. Sure, someone will become president, but not everyone has the capacity, fortitude, desire, or willpower to see to it. Plus, presidents are elected and this particular goal depends on the will [read votes] of the people. Instead, if you want to be president, have a fall back plan that includes a lifetime of public service. Once in public service, you may end up refining those plans to something more manageable but just as an important. An example of this would be your managing a charitable organization. No, you wouldn’t be the president of the U.S., but you would still have the opportunity to impact people for the greater good. A laudable goal at that!

2. Be ready to refine. Life is not a straight line from Point A to Point B to Point C and beyond. There are so many curves, twists, turns, roadblocks, and other obstacles out there. The key is to size each change up to see how it measures against your goals. Whether you are religious or not, it could be that a “still small voice” is attempting to guide you in your pursuits. You may not need to abandon a goal, rather you may need to slow down or come to a temporary stop. Time will test the strength and reasonableness of a goal and — if it is to be — time will win out.

3. Be prepared for opposition. Great people of the ages have pressed on with their goals by having a relentless, unending desire to see the goal reached. Abe Lincoln became president after losing several political battles earlier in his life. Martin Luther King, Jr. spearheaded the civil rights movement which overturned a culture of separation of the races. Sally Ride broke through barriers by becoming the first American woman in space. Each person had something in common: they persevered, often over the strong objections of naysayers. While naysayers can seem to be your enemy, look at them as your friend: use their objections as a catalyst to press forward.

4. Be ready to claim victory. Yes, at some point you will have met your goals. Once achieved, acknowledge the long, difficult road you took, take a look back, and be prepared to start on your next goal!

Matt Keegan is a web designer and marketer who is in the process of working toward several goals including managing a successful business. Matt manages a popular business niche community for flight attendants at http://www.corporateflyer.net.

Do Not Let Anyone Dissuade You From Reaching Your Goals! – News

The places you will find most traditional bargain hunters looking for pieces related to interior design are places such as second hand furniture stores, seconds depots, and discount stores. If you shop around in these stores, you are likely to run across great purchases for interior design for bargain hunters. These purchases might include items such as furniture, linens, accessories, and the like. You can even occasionally find bargains on household electronics such as wide screen televisions and stereo systems. Be sure when buying items such as these that they are in useable condition and the fact that they are broken is not the reason they are for sale so cheap.

Another potential place to purchase items for interior design for bargain hunters would be homemade sales such as yard sales, flea markets, auctions, and estate sales. These places are no longer areas where you will find the occasional bargain hunter and enormous amounts of obsolete, valuable items that no one will find but you. Rather, these places have been commercialized as being places to find great deals and even the most common shopper has his or her eyes open for that ‘dream’ deal. This being said, these places are still great resources for the bargain hunter who is looking to buy well-conditioned, useable items for a better cost then one would find in a department store.

An aspect of interior design for bargain hunters that many people do not ever even consider is the labor involved with creating the designs. This can include services such as painting, moving, carpet cleaning, ect. Labor prices are the end of interior design that often are the most costly (with the exception of furniture and flooring). Bargain hunting for labor is a bit different then bargain hunting for actual physical items. You might think that perhaps you can afford to hire someone for less actual dollars an hour that possess perhaps less skill then another more expensive worker. This is a tricky aspect of interior design for bargain hunters.

Keep in mind that many times workers who have more experience or are better skilled at a certain task will complete the work at a faster pace then the unskilled worker, thus actually evening out the hourly price, and also there is not as much of a possibility of costly mistakes. So, honestly, depending on the skill level of the worker involved, you might be better off with the more expensive yet more efficient laborer.

Whatever the market or product you are searching for, be a smart, price-savvy comparison shopper and exercise control over spending amounts. Establishing pre-set spending amounts is a form of self-discipline and should be exercised throughout the interior design process. Bargain hunting for interior design can be as simple as taking this principle to heart and applying it to all of your decorating activities.

Finally, hard work and attention to detail can enormously decrease project costs so if you have the time and the understanding to see an aspect of the designing through yourself, this alone can turn a large budgeted project into a small one. After all, that elbow grease is worth a little something!

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Rosemary Leake is an Independent Consultant with Southern Living at Home. Inspired by Southern Living magazine, our exclusive home décor line brings warmth and style to every room of your home! Visit Rosemary’s Interior Design website for more articles and resources – http://www.newsletterjournal.com. Also get your FREE Mini-Report: “A Complete Guide To Interior Design.”
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Interior Design For Bargain Hunters Information

• Using your scenarios make just three key points about what you’ve been asked. Make them relevant and the right ‘weight’. Not too long or too short.
• After that, leave space for them to ask more – that’s what they are listening for.
• Say ‘I’ a lot – they want to know what your personal involvement and experience was, not ‘the team’ or ‘they’.
• Have fun – whilst not contrived, smile and make some simple jokes, if you feel comfortable with that – they want to employ happy as well as capable people.
• Can’t answer? That’s fine. Make sure that you reflect on your shortcomings by saying things like, ‘It’s one of the first things I want to develop in my next job – if you did your stuff on your scenarios and your competencies well enough, you will have covered 90% of the bases well and you’ll be forgiven for not being ‘perfect’. If you are really stumped – say so!
• Ask questions – relevant, about their culture, focus on developing you, opportunities – the positive ‘peopley’ things (remember it’s your chance to see if you want to work with them!).
• Also ask about current issues they may be facing – you did do your homework on them, didn’t you?

Remember that competencies are there to help you and they provide a guide-map for your competency based interview success!

© 2005 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com. (Note to editors. Feel free to use this article, wherever you think it might be of value – it would be good if you could include a live link)

…helping you, to help your people, to help your business grow…

Competency Based Interviews – 6 Steps to Success! Updates