Luxury Cruising At Its Best

It's that time of year again to decide where and what to do for your family vacation or a simple getaway. All previous trips are being considered but do not satisfy the thought. Has luxury cruising ever come to mind?

I cruised many times growing up, but it was when I was a teenager that I really understood the definition of luxury cruising. I have had the opportunity to visit many places, any where from the Caribbean Islands to Scandinavian countries, as well as experience different types of cruise ships. Luxury cruising provides passengers with a more intimate vacation surrounding 500-700 other passengers that allows you to see your family while just passing in the hallway. There aren't huge water slides, inside malls, or any other outrageous activities to keep the "kids busy" that you would find a larger, more commercial cruise ship.

The size of a luxury cruise ship could be compared to a large oversized yacht, in my opinion. There are just enough amenities: spa, salon, gym, pool, and jacuzzi, without being overwhelmed. The use of smaller ships are preferred because more exotic and private destinations can be visited. There may be times that the ship needs to anchor off shore and use water taxis to allow passengers to get on shore.

You can see the world aboard a luxury cruise ship just by deciding on what itinerary to experience and what ship to cruise on. A vast amount of itineraries are usually available to choose from which include, but are not limited to the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, Alaska, Africa, Asia, Australia and many more. Each and every region has beautiful cities to visit and tons of tourist attractions. You can book an organized tour, a private car, bus tours, or merely go off by yourself to explore. Learn about their culture, see how they live, and how different it is from what your use to. There may be the occasional language barrier, but as long as you embrace it with open arms and courtesy towards the natives, you should not have any problems.

The crew to passenger ratio aboard a luxury cruise ship is almost equal. You can expect superior and personal service from crew members as they get to know your name due to how often you will the same crew members. You may even be invited to the Captain's party or have dinner with the Captain, as he's getting to know his passengers. Majority of the time, as your returning to the ship from a long day of shore excursions, a red carpet with champagne, warm hand towels, and a band playing greets you before you board. Now that's great service you would enjoy any day!

A vacation with this much potential will be something to reminisce forever! I still remember the time I visited Nice, France. I was 12 years old, and went parasailing for the first time overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. I also visited an Ice Bar in Stockholm, Sweden, upon entering they provide you with a warm cape and gloves to protect you from freezing temperatures your about to enter into. Everything surrounding you is made of ice, the table and chairs you sit at, the bar, the glasses your drinks are served in, and even the utensils for a full course meal if desired.

A luxury cruise should provide you with an atmosphere of relaxation while vacationing with your family, as well as great service and fabulous destinations. A home away from home, as you vacation for the desired amount of time. When your trip comes to an end, do not automatically get on a flight back home, but stay a couple of days in the city where you disembarked or the city you most enjoyed.

Payroll Software - Salaries Made Simple

Are you an entrepreneur looking for a quick fix solution to managing your business payroll needs? At the same time, are you wary of adding on more accounting staff to a workforce that is already on the larger side?

Well, the good news is that your problem just came to an end!

Payroll software tools can be used to speed up the process of calculating pay accurately, and making payments on time. They save you the burden of understanding complex payroll legislation and payroll systems operation, and thereby reduce administrative costs. Do we see you smiling already? Keep that grin firmly in place.

Trouble free payroll processing is a critical need of any business. Payroll software completes payroll calculations within a fraction of the time it would take to do them manually. It is also very useful for generating reports at the year-end, since both pay-slips and annual reports are archived for retrieval at a later date. So, you can see that payroll software offers a fully automated system which does more than just calculate statutory deductions. It has some solid benefits that will make you want it for your business. Wondering what those could be?

Payroll software can integrate with time sheet systems that record employee attendance or time worked. This way, information about hours worked can be automatically transferred into the payroll system, once the worker logs on. Alternatively, you could feed the data manually into an electronic form. To derive maximum benefit, you can use it to put together data on attendance and hours worked. Doing so can provide you with many reports which will allow you to do an in-depth analysis of staff costs across departments, individual jobs, contracts or the business as a whole. Then there's the facility of "what-if" calculations. This helps in forecasting and planning staff costs and budgets - by entering hypothetical numbers, you can compare the exact total cost of an employee under different compensation scenarios. You can also maintain other employee data, such as records of annual leave, using payroll software.

So, is it right for you?

Every business will not need payroll software. For example, if the number of employees is small, manual payroll calculation can be simple and straightforward. Also, though payroll software saves a lot of time, it can be an expensive investment for a small company. Implementing payroll software usually requires an annual subscription, in addition to the initial purchase cost. The annual renewal is required in order to receive regular updates on taxation laws, National Insurance rates and changing legislation that affect payroll calculations.

Before taking a decision to implement payroll software in your organization, consider the available expertise within your business. For example, who handles payroll when the accountant is absent? It will be easier to train back-up personnel to operate the payroll software than have them carry out manual calculations.

Remember, you also need to ensure business continuity. Therefore, plan for support, data back-up and disaster recovery. In case of an emergency, you can always get back to manual processing, but be aware that usage of payroll software can make people overly computer-dependent. Therefore, insist on periodic refreshing of pen and paper skills.

Customized payroll software for small businesses can be. In order to meet the diversified needs of businesses have developed different kinds of payroll software; pick the one that suits you best.

My Favorite Meditation

Here's a simple but powerful meditation exercise you may enjoy. Teaching you the basics of meditation is beyond the scope of this blog entry (maybe someone can post a comment with a link to a meditation primer for those who've never done it), but if you're already familiar with it, I think you'll find this one interesting and valuable.

I didn't learn this particular meditation from anyone else -- it's just something I made up at one point and have been doing for around 10 years now.

First I get myself totally relaxed and into a peaceful state. Then I imagine a special room in my mind which has two chairs facing each other. I sit in one chair, and in the chair opposite me, I visualize my future self five years from now. He appears as the ideal "me" I'm striving to become. He's physically fit, strong, brave, confident, driven, passionate, enthusiastic, etc. We have a conversation for 5-10 minutes where I ask him questions, and he willingly answers them. He usually looks at me almost with a sense of nostalgia and compassion, since he knows where I am right now as well as the challenges I'm dealing with, challenges he's long since overcome.

Eventually my future self leaves. Then I get up and take his seat, and my past self from five years ago enters the room and takes the first seat. So now I'm the future self (Steve 2005) looking back on my past self (Steve 2000). I take a moment to remember what my life was like exactly five years ago, so I can recall what that past Steve is experiencing. Now he's asking me questions about his future (my present), and I'm providing the answers. I'm often amazed to look back and see just how trivially easy his challenges seem to me today, even though I remember that they appeared much grander when I was in his shoes. I take the time to reassure Steve 2000 that everything turns out well for Steve 2005. I also let him know what things I haven't yet solved that I'm still working on.

Then I do one more step and fast-forward time by five years. So now I'm Steve 2010, and I'm facing Steve 2005. I'm looking back on my present situation from the future -- from a vantage point where I've already solved my biggest challenges. Now I see my Steve 2005 asking the same questions I was previously asking Steve 2010, and I'm able to answer them with confidence and certainty.

Then I imagine all three of us in the room together (Steve 2000, Steve 2005, Steve 2010), and I visualize all three of our bodies becoming translucent. We walk into each other and blend into one being in a flash of light. When this happens I'm often overwhelmed by a release of emotion -- the feeling is somewhat different each time I experience it. We become an integrated whole, a single being who exists outside of time but has been splintered in order to experience the sensation of growth and change.

As I slowly bring myself out of this meditation, I feel very peaceful and calm. But the most important benefit is a feeling of oneness, a sense that I'm more than just a physical being moving forward through time. I feel like an integrated being who exists at all times but is merely focusing his consciousness on a particular time in order to experience it more fully. When I'm in this state of mind, I see the present moment as something contained within my being instead of the more common perception of being a person contained within the reality of the present moment. This has the effect of melting present-moment concerns and replacing them with a feeling of expansiveness and transcendence. My new perception causes my present-reality problems to shrink, which makes them far easier to resolve, sometimes almost trivially easy.

I encourage you to try this meditation at least once to see if you find it as beneficial as I do.

Choosing Digital Blood Pressure Monitors

Ring, Ring Ring! The bell rings and it is all helter skelter, first I have to prepare the kids to go to school then I have to have my husbands' breakfast ready then to prepare myself and finally I am off to work. In the office things aren't any different for I have to arrange meetings for the boss, balance the pending balance sheets, and carry out other many activities before the day ends. Tell me that with all this I wouldn't have a nervous break down and the amazing thing is that I haven't gone for a blood pressure test.

My working counterpart suggested to me that with my very tight schedule I should consider getting a digital blood pressure monitor which might save my life in one of these fine days. I thought about his idea and to my surprise I agreed with him even though we don't seam to agree on anything. So I went hunting for a convenient monitor in the stores that I considered to be appropriate. I discovered that there were a variety of monitors in the stores there are the physically managed and which opens up to expose a U-tube with mercury in it and aneroid is its medical name. There is also another one which requires a certain level of proficiency.

The digital blood pressure monitors come with standard size cuffs which most people use and which guarantees accurate reading. However, some people have very thin or very large arms and a standard size cuff may produce inaccurate readings. Most of these machines come with a standard cuff but one can buy larger or smaller cuffs from suppliers. Digital blood pressure monitor comes with a with a comprehensive instruction leaflet on how to maintain the monitor so as to guarantee that it operates effectively.

The Selfish Gene - 30th Anniversary Edition

Richard Dawkins gracefully talks about the role genetics play in evolution, genes and more in "The Selfish Gene".

In the first few chapters the Selfish Gene is well explained. The mechanism and nature of DNA are the small units that make up our genes that pass through generations of life. The gene is called the 'Selfish Gene' in the title because genes are the genetic unit that deal with their survival only, whilst promoting their own transmission at the cost of its enemies.

Genes are the 'survival machines' because they use our bodies to duplicate, not the other way round. This simple concept is quite revolutionary.

Breaking it all down Richard discusses the tasks of genes, in particular the role they play in parenthood, families, relationships between sexes, altruism, selfishness and many other tasks.

The author also writes about a new kind of replicator - Memes which copy ideas, music, fashion, philosophies in our world.

The last chapter of the selfish gene deals with the theory of the extended phenotype which again is an interesting topic. Biologists have been left baffled as this concept means that chemical reactions (triggered by genes) in a body can affect the chemical reactions (leading to the desired behaviour) in other bodies. In other words, the theory explains that the behavior of a parasite or insect can cause change in the behavior of other animals.

The Selfish Gene is a strikingly beautiful book on evolution from a geneticists point of view. It is thoughtful and insightful whilst being a manageable read, the topics discussed are on the cutting edge of science, excellent.

Online Oxford English Dictionary

The most popular and widely accepted dictionary all over the word is Oxford English dictionary. There were two editions of this earlier and the third one is about to launch. The head of the Oxford university press, Mr Nigel Portwood said that the third edition of the dictionary will only be in electronic form. The online version of the Oxford English Dictionary was a great success and this was the inspiration for them to publish the third edition electronically. The first edition of Oxford English Dictionary was printed in 1928 and in the year 1989 the second edition was printed.

There are many benefits for the online version. The online version is more economic. Usually the printed edition was sold for about nine hundred and ninety-five dollars and the online version is available for two hundred and ninety-five dollars. It is always easy to use your desktop or lap to check the word meaning rather than checking the big book with your hands. The space for keeping the book in your shelf can also be saved if you are subscribing the online version.

There are frequent updates provided to the online version which will not be available in the printed version. The printed version contains the meaning of the word, its usage in the history, the proper pronunciation and the etymology. About eighty lexicographers are working for the third edition of Oxford English dictionary. The revised entries will be updated to the online edition every three months. The Amazon has reported a great hike in the sales on online books. Therefore it is sure that the online dictionary will be accepted wholeheartedly by the language lovers. But still then there are many people who prefer to buy the printed version still sticking to the traditional way of reading. But during the time of power loss everyone will be thinking of having a printed edition of the books.

Romance Books Rekindle the Romance in You

As we move on in life we realize all that life keeps teaching us. One lesson that everyone for sure has learned in life is that love actually does not happen by gazing into each other's eyes but it happens by looking outward in the same direction. It is said that true love is the highest law that binds two lovers.

Love is the only universal phenomenon from which nobody can stay away. It is the intoxicating fragrance of love that enriches the emotional intimacy of the lovers. Love has been depicted beautifully in books. There is altogether a different genre which is romance books.

It is through reading books that one can get an insight of various love stories and romantic situations. The intimate beautiful moments that you read in your novel can be recreated by you to bring in a new leaf in your relationship or love story. All romance books have generally the same plot, with the hero and heroine deeply in love and the ending is always happy. The scenes that keep the reader hooked on to a romance novel are scenes which have emotions, suspense, action and mystery in them.

The romance books have always had an amazing fan following as the readers enjoy reading the love relationship of others. It is amazing to read love stories where the description of how the lovers meet and how their love stories become immortal build up interest and entice the readers.

There are various kinds of romance novels that are read by many all over the globe.

One of the best things about reading a historical novel is that they take you into the past and recreate everything that happened in that period. These love books of the past are a very good read. There is nothing that can replace historic facts which when mixed with romance will want you to read more and relive the past in the present. The journey through the past will have the capacity to change your present, which in itself is an extraordinary experience.

The historical fiction novels not only vary in the period or the era, but they have style, and research in detail. The historical novels are famous for the mixing of genres like crime, romance, war and even fantasy. These elements have kept so many readers hooked to these historical fictions.

It is while reading the historical romance novels that you get a chance to see the world through the eyes of the author or the characters that were a part of that time period.

It is when you will read these amazing historical romance novels that you will be able to appreciate all the beautiful things that held on to love in those ancient settings.

The experience of reading a historical fiction is always amazing and is a reader's delight. The setting, the story and the situation keeps you hooked to the novel. These historical fictions have been inspirations for many and continue to be so as they are beautiful, intimate stories of love that have been told since time immemorial.

Cichlid Care - Tank Selection

Cichlid Tanks Proper cichlid care is very rewarding. Not only are you creating a wonderful environment for the most beautiful hobby fish, but you are also creating a warm environment for any room. Tank selection plays a vital role in this process. There are many aspects to tank selection that many novice fish enthusiasts are not aware of, but you need this to guarantee cichlid health.

Size Perhaps the most important part of ensuring cichlid health is the size of their tank. Unlike other fish who can live in a small tank with many fish, cichlids need a lot more area per fish. They are aggressive by nature, and if they are forced to share their personal space, territorial fights are inevitable. In short, the fish will fight each other until they kill off enough fish to have their required personal space. I would not recommend using anything less than a 10 gallon tank for any cichlid. Each specific variety of cichlid will require a minimum amount of space, and it is very important that you respect this.

Shape You need to research the type of cichlid you are purchasing as different cichlids thrive in different tank shapes. Some cichlids require more length than height. Others prefer a deep tank and don't need it as wide. As a standard, if they are young fish, a 20-gallon long tank will be your first choice if you are novice and want to start small. Doing so allows you to give the proper cichlid care.

Eye Appeal The pet industry has boomed in the past decade with more people choosing to spend their discretionary income on pets. What this has created is a large selection of tanks for fish owners to choose from. You can tanks that are octagonal in shape, as well as tanks that have beautiful fish tank stands.

Cost of a Cichlid Tank The cost of a cichlid tank varies greatly. They really have an aquarium for every budget. The best part is, there are always people who are interested in selling their tank. This means if you are a beginner and unsure of making a large investment, you can simply read your local classifieds and find one. If you are very frugal, you may even find one for free if you are not in a hurry to get started.

Conclusion Cichlid health can be determined by the tank they inhabit. Without respecting their basic requirements, you are ignoring proper cichlid care and they will not thrive. Take your time to make sure you purchasing the correct tank for your cichlids needs.

Tooth Decay and Diabetes Are the Same Disease

How can you possibly say this?

At first glance, this sounds ridiculous. Diabetes has to do with a glandular organ called the pancreas which is situated behind and slightly under the stomach and tooth decay is a rotting process which occurs in hard tissues of the teeth. The teeth are in the mouth and the pancreas in the peritoneum. They are very far from each other in the body space.

Have they anything in common?

Both teeth and pancreas are organs of digestion. The teeth are at the very beginning of the process, cutting up the food and mashing it in saliva into a suitable form to swallow into the stomach. When the stomach has done its job of further breakdown by acid, the food is pushed on into the first part of the small intestine, called the duodenum.

The pancreas

It is here that the pancreas secretes its contents to bring about further breakdown by enzymes and begin the process of absorption. This process harvests the building blocks of the body's biology from the food and takes it into the bloodstream to supply the cells of all the organs. One of these building blocks is carbohydrate (sugar), a major source of energy for the cells. The pancreas also produces a hormone called insulin which it secretes into the blood. It is this hormone, insulin which carries carbohydrate into the cells (insulin transport mechanism) where it can be burned as fuel to produce energy.

Diabetes

When the amount of carbohydrate that we bring into our bodies is excessive, the workload of the pancreas is greatly increased and this could be termed an overload. There are many consequences of this overload, one of which is cells becoming resistant to the insulin. One of the effects of this is the build up of carbohydrate (sugar) in the bloodstream (called hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar) which is the hallmark of the condition known as diabetes. There are many other effects on and consequences for the pancreas in the short and long term as well as many other effects and consequences for other organs and the body in general. Yet it boils down to carbohydrate (sugar) and the ability of the pancreas to deal with it. We could say therefore, that diabetes is the effect of diet-related 'carbohydrate overload' on the pancreas.

Tooth decay

The major factor in tooth decay is what they call 'sugar frequency'. This could equally be called 'carbohydrate frequency'. This is the number of times per day that we put sugar (sweet things) into the mouth. Each time we use or bring carbohydrate into the body via the mouth, it (the carbohydrate) is broken down into an acid by the bacteria in the mouth. The acid environment thus produced tends to demineralise the enamel (or dentine) of the tooth in the 'at risk' stagnation sites. These are sites on the tooth that are difficult to access by the common methods of hygiene. By repeatedly and or constantly producing the acid trauma at these sites , defects are created in the barrier of the tooth surface. These defects are populated by bacteria which thrive in the acid conditions and the cavity (decaying defect) is produced. The process continues and the cavity gets bigger. We could say therefore, that tooth decay is the effect of diet-related 'carbohydrate overload' on the teeth.

So the picture emerges...

The diseases of tooth decay and diabetes represent the effects of diet-related 'carbohydrate overload' on the two different tissues. Diet-related 'carbohydrate overload' is simply the reflection of our tendency to use sweet taste as a means of comfort or reward. It is thus a method we use to comfort ourselves in stress (feelings of discomfort or upset). It is no more than a 'sweet' habit, - an addiction to sweet things.

Diabetes and tooth decay speak of our discomfort with ourselves and the circumstances of our lives and the negative feelings that we do our best to sweeten.

Tooth decay and diabetes are the same disease with the same origin, but reflected in two different organs of digestive function.