Greenville is a city that is located in Washington County in the state of Mississippi. Greenville is the largest city in northern Mississippi. The population in Greenville is around forty thousand, which makes it more plausible that there are famous or notable people living in this city.

This city was named after an American Revolutionary War hero by the name of Nathaniel Greene. Greenville sits on the eastern bank of Lake Ferguson, which is a lake left from an old channel of the Mississippi River. If you visit this part of Greenville, you will find a floating casino near downtown.

North of Greenville, you will find the Winterville Mounds Historic Site. This site includes a museum and a picnic area. There are also Indian burial mounds located in this area.

Greenville was the home to some very notable people and also the birthplace to some of those notable people. Jim Henson, the famous puppeteer was born in Greenville. His works are still delighting children today. It was also the birthplace of Mary Wilson, who was a singer for The Supremes.

Shelby Foote, a famous author, was also born here. Pro baseball player, Frank White was born in Greenville. Also born in Greenville: archaeologist Theresa Helbach, Chinese American journalist Sam Chu Lin and World War II Medal of Honor recipient Robert T. Henry. As you can see, a colorful array of people have originated from this city. Greenville is also the hometown of the Percy family.

Le Roy Percy is a United States Senator and William Alexander Percy was an author that took charge of the flood recovery in Mississippi in 1927. William Alexander Percy wrote an autobiography on the Mississippi Delta that was far more informative than any other was. Walker Percy, another author, wrote a novel entitled "Love Among the Ruins." An African American bear hunter by the name of Holt Collier is buried in Greenville. Holt Collier was a guide for President T. Roosevelt on a bear hunt at one point in time.

Betty Jo Crisler, also from Greenville, became one of the first women Methodist ministers in the plains of Texas. Leon Whittaker was an African American trombonist that lived in Greenville in the early days of his career. Jerry Rice, who is a famous athlete, resides in Greenville now.

As you can see, Greenville has been very prosperous with famous and notable individuals. Throughout Greenville's history there have been notable figures born and raised there. There were also several notable people that lived some of their days out in this city.

Can we learn life lessons from fairy tales?

I believe we can. We can learn from any good story because a good story is about people. Fairy tales are some of the oldest stories around. Some have existed for hundreds of years, some for thousands! During that time a process of selection occurs. Good, meaningful tales are kept, poor ones dropped.

Let us take the old European folktale of Melusina. Here is my favorite version:

The story starts with the fairy Pressina. Pressina married a King on the condition that he not visit her during her "laying-in". This is the time just before and after a woman gives birth. The King agreed and soon Pressina had three daughters, triplets. When the King was informed he forgot himself and went to see Pressina. Instantly, Pressina screamed and disappeared, taking the children with her.

The children grew to be beautiful young women. When they were 15 one of them, Melusina, asked Pressina why they did not live with their father. After Pressina explained, Melusina was seized with anger. She called her sisters and in secret they planned revenge on their father. They robbed him of all his wealth and imprisoned him.

Then Melusina told her mother what they had done. Pressina punished them for their actions. Melusina was cursed that every Saturday she would become a mermaid. This curse would endure until she found a husband who would marry her under the condition of never seeing her on Saturday. Melusina could not explain to him what happened to her or why.

Melusina left her mother then and went to live in France. She became a fairy queen and ruled the land around a fountain called the Fountain of the Fairies or the Fountain of Thirst.

One day a knight named Raymond came to the fountain to drink. There he saw three women, one of whom was Melusina. He was struck by her beauty and her pleasing manners and soon they were in love. He asked Melusina to marry him and she told him the strange condition: he must never see her on Saturday and he must never ask her why.

Raymond agreed and they were wed. They lived happily together for many years. The only flaw being that all their children where deformed and ugly. This occasioned Raymond some sadness but he never considered giving up his wife. Over time his love for her had only increased.

One Saturday, while Melusina was hidden away, Raymond's cousin came to pay him a visit. They talked and Raymond accidentally dropped a remark about the strange condition of his marriage. His cousin seized on this and insisted that Raymond find out what Melusina was up to on Saturdays. He suggested that the curse that haunted Raymond's children is because Melusina was a demon, or the mistress or some monster.

Raymond broke into his wife's room and found Melusina sitting in a bathtub. In the place of legs she had the long, scaly tail of a mermaid.

This was the end of their marriage. Some versions say that Melusina shrieked and jumped out the window. Others that she berated her husband and even killed him. All agree that they never saw each other again.

One interesting point about this story is that Melusina repeats her mother's situation with similar results. They asked for trust and love and were rewarded with suspicion and betrayal. Is this sort of thing still happening? Yes, though in different forms of course....

In some Latin American countries men do not allow their wives to have keys to their own houses. They do not trust their wives and are afraid of what they may do in private. These people are not from small towns far from civilization but modern city-dwellers. They are often well-educated and from all classes, rich and poor. Sad to say, Raymond and Melusina are alive and well.

When you think of Africa, ancient and modern alike, you probably think of tribes. African tribe culture is characterized by a diverse set of social values and traditions. Some of these traditions center around a set of religious ideals, others are as old as the land itself. Whatever the case, Africa is certainly a complex place which is sometimes hard to understand. Let us help you get to know the area a little more.

African tribe culture includes a wide variety of religious values and ideals. While paganism was essentially the earliest religion of Africa with the focus on ancestor worship and spirituality, many modern religions have made their way into individual tribes over the last couple of thousand years. These religions include Christianity and Judaism. Islam has taken root as well, especially in the country of Egypt. The religions adopted by each area and tribe help define different tribes throughout Africa even today.

African tribe culture has a vast variety of art forms as well. The music of Africa is especially well-known and beautiful and varies from tribe to tribe. In addition to the popular choral singing of Africa, the rhythms adopted by early African tribal life through ceremonial and celebratory music and dance helped to influence modern day samba, blues, jazz, rap, rock and roll, and reggae. As people from other countries have moved into Africa through the years, they have also influenced the highly eclectic art of the continent.

African tribe culture is full of a wide variety of languages as well. In the early days of tribal life, simple, native languages were spoken. Zulu and Swahili are just a couple of the languages that survived into modern times. These languages are still spoken today by many tribes, especially by more isolated tribes. In recent years, however, European, Middle Eastern, and South American languages have become more common in many parts of Africa. In many countries, English has become the most-used language.

We can learn a lot from African tribe culture. The dynamic within each individual tribe is something to be admired. People living together and helping out other members of the tribe made for a more efficient society. One can only wonder what incorporating some of these techniques would mean to our own western culture today. We may not need these methods for survival, but perhaps it would benefit us in a more spiritual way to be connected to and truly invested in the lives of our neighbors.

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." -Albert Einstein

Did you know that simply thinking about love releases endorphin from the hypothalamus of the brain into the bloodstream? Chemical magic happens that makes us feel good. Successful authors who write about love go to great lengths to be original-watch out for those cliches! Don't sound too syrupy or corny! But aren't there times when corny is pleasantly wistful, and cool is often flippant and mean spirited?

Romance
Today romance has a hard time keeping up with gross and violent in competing for ratings in American society. And I'm old enough to remember romance like 'you and the night and the music.' Though romance novels are not my personal preference, you can't argue with the most successful author of the genre alive today, Nora Roberts. The Romance Novel is one of the largest and still flourishing niches for writers like Roberts who create them to the delight of millions. Unlike bodice-rippers, they are love stories with guts, mystery, history and suspense. Publishers pamper these authors. Their fans adore them.

Women in particular want romance in their lives. Equating it with love, when they don't have it they look for it in fiction. And, as medical science confirms, when those endorphin are on the march, they send powerful euphoric messages like shooting stars across the universe. Nevertheless, fiction isn't reality.

Love
Consider the spiritual expression of love like this quote from Lebanese-American poet, Kahlil Gibran: "Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself."

The poet sparked an idea for a short story I wrote about three people in the Sahara Desert. Two are lost in a failed marriage; the third, a young hitchhiker, becomes the catalyst for reawakening their love. Granted, it's a romantic setting, but without spiritual guidance from an unlikely stranger, the misfortunes that befall the couple in an unforgiving environment, would destroy rather than renew them. Each has to discover who they really are on the inside before they can begin to trust and love, and trust love.

The movie, "Endless Love" was endlessly forgettable, but the title is truth itself. Romantic, spiritual or familial-love is endless. Love exists only to express itself. In a crowded room, two people in love are aware only of each other (see South Pacific). When we love our pet we feel the animal's love in return. When we love an infant, we feel that baby's love in return. When we give love we get more than we give. Clearly, something miraculous is happening here. Called the reward pathway by scientists, a neural network in the middle brain reacts immediately to happy feelings like quenching our thirst or having good sex.

According to research anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher at Rutgers University, "love activates a region of the brain rich in dopamine, associated with rewards. Fisher and her colleagues found that "love is a long-term all-consuming and powerful unconscious state, not necessarily cognitive." Here's where Fisher and I part company. How can a research scientist have such limited vision? Margaret Mead must be turning in her grave.

Love is Consciousness
Love with a capital L is more than lust or sex or the physical neural network. Love is absolutely long-term and powerful. But love is not unconscious. Love is consciousness itself. Everything you have just read is an explanation by way of thought forms expressed in written word forms. That's the best we can do in the world of form. But Love is the all consuming, omnipotent consciousness that has no form. Love exists everywhere and in every thing. "Within You and Without You." You have only to stop, get off the roller coaster and look around. If you can't go to the Grand Canyon, feel Love in the stillness of the natural world near you-the tree in the backyard, the leaves fluttering in the wind. Love is absolute.

In the silence of prayer or meditation, when we commune with God, or the higher power, or whatever name or Deity we are comfortable with we are having a deep personal connection with Love. This is pure consciousness. It might be a wisp of a moment, or expansive as the sea. It is what we are absolutely.

The more aware we are of this sacred presence within, which is our essence, the more expansive it becomes. Those who live in this state all the time are the messengers of love and peace in this world, the new earth. Trust.

GOLDEN WEEK IN JAPAN-A time for celebration!

May is a pleasant season to travel in Japan. A celebration of four national holidays within a week in Japan termed as Golden Week of Japan adds more value to tourism there. The Golden Week is famous as one of Japan's three busiest and longest holiday seasons, besides New Year and the Obon week. A number of businesses are generally closed for about a week to 10 days, depending on the calendar.

The country is overcrowded with people from all over the world during the Golden Week. Advance booking for accommodation in the tourist areas is done much before the Golden Week. There are also some other minor festivals in the same month.

The four national holidays combined as the Golden Week are Showa Day (Showa no hi), Constitution Day, Greenery Day (Midori no hi) and Children's Day (Kodomo no hi).

Showa Day on April 29 is the birthday of former Emperor Showa, who died in the year 1989.

Constitution Day on May 3 is the day when the new post war constitution was put into effect in 1947.

Greenery Day on May 4 is celebrated as a day to show appreciation for nature.

Children's Day on May 5th is celebrated as a day to pray for the healthy growth of children. It is also called tangono-sekku. It is Japanese boy's festival and is traditionally the day to celebrate and pray for the health of boys.

This year, the weekends are placed in such a manner so as to create a holiday of five consecutive days. Traveling and heavy traffic is expected to be at its peak from May 2 to May 6.

A law was passed in 1948 declaring nine annual Japanese state holidays. Three out of those nine, that is, Emperor's birthday, Constitution Memorial Day, and the Boy's Festival fell within the same week one after another. These consecutive holidays of leisure activities increased revenue of the country significantly. Because of its positive effect on movie going revenue, the director of a film company dubbed the week as Golden Week of Japan.

Until 1988, 29 April was celebrated as Emperor's Birthday. At that time, the Showa was the emperor. This holiday was renamed Greenery Day soon after the death of Showa. It became a custom for the Japanese citizens to enjoy this day and by visiting gardens and mountains. But on 2007, 29 April, it is again renamed as Showa Day in memory of the emperor. Greenery Day is now moved to 4 May.

On 3 May, the signing of the 1947 Constitution of Japan is widely celebrated as Constitution Memorial Day. It is the only time when the legislative government buildings are open to the public in the entire calendar year. People are supposed to use this day of the Golden Week to show significance and respect to the democratic ideals. Nowadays, a custom is established in Japan for the editorial professionals to print about the government subjects that are controversial. The day emphasizes on banning wars, promote human rights and the sovereignty and unity of the people. The Meiji Constitution was replaced by the new constitution. The new one is based on the British and American constitutions. The Parliament too is open for the public visits and a lot of lectures and speeches are given about the patriotism nationality. The history of the Constitution during last 50 years is also discussed on this day.

May 5 is celebrated as Boys' Day or Children's Day. The day is basically for the children of Japan who show gratitude to their mothers especially on this particular day. For each child, families hang colorful carp-shaped kites and banners. Samurai dolls are given to the boys that symbolize famous legendary heroes. A sweet called Kashiwamoshi is a traditional food on this day. A number of other special foods are cooked and eaten to enhance the wellbeing of the child and pray to God to shower his blessings on him. It is important here to specify girls have their day too, on March 3rd.

In the beginning of May, Hawaii, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle become the center points for the Japanese tourists due to Golden Week. A number of families prefer to remain in Japan, but that too not ideally. During this special week, they travel to traditional inns, called ryokan and seaside resorts.

One of the most significant times to visit Japan is this Golden Week. The nation is in full mood of carnival and it gives the tourist a chance to experience different customs and rituals of Japan. Due to these holidays, the travel pricing increases and the hotels are over crowded. A lot of sightseeing and amusement spots are packed crowded during this week. People must plan their desired destinations a year in advance to visit during these holidays; else there they won't get reservations at those places.

Since Japan is among the most densely populated countries in the world, things can get quite messy and hectic during the Golden Week.

Though a lot of Japanese take paid leaves on the intervening work days during the Golden Week, there are few companies that close down the whole week completely to break the hurdles in the celebration week and let their employees enjoy and have fun to the fullest.

This year, the weekends are placed in such a manner so as to create a holiday of five continuous holidays. It is expected that the traveling will be at its peak between May 2 and May 6. The weekends are set in a manner to arrange the Golden Week consisting of a 5-day weekend (i.e., from May 1 till May 5) in 2010. These holidays can be as long as 10 days in case the weekends come on the right time. Fireworks and mikoshi (special floats) along with the parades are seen everywhere at this time.

A popular and colorful tattoo, koi fish tattoo designs come in a wide variety. Have you thought about whether you want a Japanese koi design or a Chinese design? The koi represent overall good luck in general, however the Japanese and Chinese designs differ in both look and specific meaning. We will talk about the differences, as well as point you in the right direction for finding the perfect design for you.

Japanese Koi Tattoo Meaning:
In Japan, the koi is seen as very energetic and lively, and is considered a masculine symbol. Koi, like salmon, must fight strong river currents to get to their spawning and feeding grounds.

The Japanese also make a connection between the koi and the courageous Samurai spirit. This can represent a person's ability to overcome great obstacles in order to achieve success in one's life.

In the west, we have taken the Japanese koi's traits of strength and courage and interpreted it as symbolic of a person's independence. This is more of an American interpretation as the Japanese do not value independence and individuality as much as westerners do.

In Japan, the word Koi translates into "carp" but it also translates into the word "love." In this case, a romantic type of love.

Chinese Koi Tattoo Meaning:
In China, koi are considered "dragon fish" or the king of fishes. Similar to the Japanese, the Chinese koi is also symbolic of attaining great goals and dreams. More so than the Japanese, the Chinese symbolism greatly emphasizes life long wealth, good fortune and abundance.

Again, both the Japanese and Chinese meaning for Koi is overall good luck in general. However, the main difference seems to be that the Japanese symbolism emphasizes strength and power while the Chinese symbolism emphasizes wealth and abundance.

Have you thought about where to find the perfect koi fish tattoo designs? It's best to avoid the generic websites that offer hundreds or even thousands of free designs. Most of these sites have artwork that is very outdated and was never designed to be a tattoo in the first place.

The best bet is to find websites that offer award-winning artwork designed by professional tattoo artists. Professional sites will have a very high standard and only offer designs created by artists that understand the details of this art form. Remember, just because it looks good on paper doesn't mean it will look good on your body. This is especially true with koi fish tattoo designs which are often on the large side.

Choose wisely and you will have a tattoo that has a deep meaning for you as well as looking great on your body.... a work of art that you will proudly display the rest of your life.

The Notebook is one of the most moving and emotionally successful romantic movies released in the last 20 years. It frequently appears as a top contender for most popular movie amongst women. It was directed by Nick Cassavetes and is based on the bestselling novel, of the same name, by Nicholas Sparks. It was produced on a surprisingly low budget of only $30 million.

The structure of the movie adds considerably to the story's successful development as the plot deals basically with the fate of two young, star-crossed lovers along the lines of 'Romeo and Juliet'. In 'The Notebook', 17 year old Allie (Rachel McAdams), the daughter of a wealthy family, falls in love with a local country boy, Noah (Ryan Gosling), while on vacation in the early 1940s.

However, the narrative is told from the perspective of an elderly male patient in a nursing home (James Garner), named Duke, who is reading the story of the two young lovers to a fellow patient (Gena Rowlands). She is suffering from dementia and has lost her memory.

The story of Noah and Allie begins at a carnival on Seabrook Island in North Carolina. After well-meaning friends help them to get better acquainted, their feelings deepen throughout the summer they spend together.

During one scene, they visit an abandoned house called the Windsor Plantation and Noah reveals his intention to one day own and renovate the property.

Allie's parents are less impressed with Noah's prospects as a likely husband for their daughter and forbid her to see Noah, who reluctantly believes her parents to be right and that he is not good enough for her. As a result, they break up and Allie returns to her home.

Noah is devastated by the separation and writes to Allie every day for a year, without receiving a reply. Eventually, he enlists to fight in World War II, while Allie attends Sarah Lawrence College in NY State.

After the war, in 1947, Noah manages to buy the Windsor Plantation and sets about restoring its earlier splendor. In the meantime, has met an injured soldier named Lon, a handsome young lawyer from a well-connected family. He also impresses Allie's parents and the two young people get engaged.

The story of Allie, Noah and Lon is deftly woven and the emotional tension is high throughout the movie as the viewer identifies and sympathizes with the plight and reluctant acceptance of their fate which descends on both Noah and Allie.

The tension is skillfully raised again when Allie reads an article in a newspaper about the work Noah has carried out on Windsor Plantation.

The director handles the feelings of those involved with careful craftsmanship and sensitivity. The focus is strong, without distracting sub plots as the characters' lives unfold. The young actors - as well as the older ones - handle the roles with an ease and grace that the story demands.

The Notebook probably doesn't attract many of the fans who would rather be attending films from the 'Terminator' saga. However, for its intended audience, it is a winner.

The final closing scenes of The Notebook are among the most moving and satisfying to be found on film and deserve the tears and cheers of the viewers.

American Communications Network Inc (ACN) was founded in 1992 by Robert Stevanovski, Greg Provenzano, Tony and Mike Cupisz in Farmington Hills Michigan. They opened for business with twenty distributors. In its first year it achieved revenues of two million dollars. ACN's initial business was as a marketing arm for LCI Communications, who were a long-distance reseller. Five years later Qwest Communications acquired LCI. By 1998, ACN were listed in Inc. Magazine's Top 500 as No. 22 of the fastest growing private companies in America, with an annual revenue of $98.1 million. They currently operate in 20 countries spanning America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

The products

ACN provide a digital phone service, high speed Internet access, a wireless service, local and long distance calls, satellite TV, video phone, and home security services.

The compensation plan

There are two starting levels and three earned levels. You have to pay an entry fee to join one of the starting levels, either $99 or $499. To qualify for the levels, and to be eligible to receive bonuses you have to get and maintain at least 6 "connected" long distance customers or 8 customers using any ACN service. If you get to the earned levels, additional qualifications must be met.

You earn money based on your customer's service, and through the bonuses if you're qualified. You can earn between 2% and 8% on the customers you have acquired, and residuals as follows: 1/4% on levels 1 through 5 inclusive, 1% on level six, and 6% on level 7. You have to meet the qualifications detailed on the Compensation Plan to qualify for this.

Conclusion

The company have longevity, which is an important factor for some people. Like many network marketing companies you will need to come up with lists of friends and family, and attend meetings. Because the telecommunications arena is so competitive, and the margins small, you would have to recruit a lot of people to earn a substantial income. You would need to have an arsenal of marketing tactics and strategies to really get ahead with this opportunity. 

As an action film, "Rogue Assassin" (or as the DVD states in some countries, it's also called "War") doesn't disappoint. It's packed to the hilt with some excellent action sequences, and with two big action stars in Jet Li and Jason Statham delivering them, there's a lot of fun to be had as you watch them do their thing. As a story, this film tries really hard to be a cut above the rest, but director Philip Atwell never rises above the stock standard action template and as a result, the film entertains but with some more finesse and work it could have really knocked you out of the park, especially with its fascinating ending. Jet Li is arguably never better in his role as "Rogue"; Jason Statham is quite cool and tough as FBI agent Crawford, and the supporting cast do a decent, if two-dimensional job with their characters (particularly some of the Asian Triad characters who never really rise above stereotypes). In the end, "Rogue Assassin" plays out like a B-grade action film; good as a DVD rental on a Friday night with the boys but nothing so special that you'd ever miss anything if you don't see it, or have any desire to watch it again once you have.

The opening sequence is very well done. Choosing to begin in the aftermath of a shootout rather than the beginning of one, we find Crawford and his partner having a chat, deciding whether or not to take a look at what's going on behind them. In an amusing line, Crawford says, "okay, as long as we just have a look", and then proceeds to pull out a massive pump action shot gun and gets ready for business. After interfering with the triads, Crawford's partner in a later scene gets brutally murdered by "Rogue", assassin sent by the Triads. Crawford is angered (although Statham's acting ability doesn't seem to extend beyond bending over and breathing heavily when he finds out the news - it's also convenient that he puts on a pair of sunglasses to cover his eyes for that scene), and vows vengeance. The action picks up three years later when Rogue re-surfaces, but this time killing members of the organisation he used to work for. Crawford now sees his chance to get even, but in the process, he gets embroiled in a plot of war between the triads, being puppet mastered by someone he never expected. We also learn that Crawford is not who he appears to be either, and perhaps the most interesting part of this whole story is that the motivations and loyalties of these main characters actually twist and shift throughout the film until you're left wondering exactly who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.

You can really tell they were going for a "Usual Suspects" kind of delivery with this story, especially towards the end when it's revealed who Rogue really is. I definitely started to like the film more in the last fifteen minutes when the story actually presented a more fascinating through line than what it was suggesting up until that point. I do think however that something was missing in the second act to truly build up the idea that nothing was as it seems. Unlike "The Usual Suspects" for example which developed its tricky plot line quite successfully resulting in a "wow" conclusion, the twist ending in this film seems more tacked on and arbitrary because there wasn't really anything tricky or mysterious in the story line leading up to it to deliver on that point. That's a shame because the script only needed a little bit more work in order for that to happen. Either that or director Atwell was concentrating more on the action sequences and didn't allow the story to develop properly as he was telling it.

The action is first rate; the film plays out like a combination of an 80's action film where you see blood, bones cracking, big hits and big guns, and a Hong Kong martial arts movie. On this point the film succeeds brilliantly, mixing the two styles very well. In today's cinema where these types of action films aren't as prevalent as they used to be, I just had a feeling of nostalgia of the fun you can have watching a film like this. Sure, violence is bad, but when it's done like a cartoon like this is there's a certain unbelievable fun to it all. Sure, some of the bloodier aspects are a bit over the top, with everything from axes to Samurai swords being used (a rather nasty sequence in the end shows one of the triads sawing in to Jet Li's arm while they fight!). Jet Li is top notch as the martial arts assassin and there are plenty of opportunities on show for him to do some spectacular moves. Jason Statham is also good when he only he has to play the tough guy (one scene where he confronts a corrupt Police Captain is very cool). There's also a nice blend between the American and Asian genres in many departments; a nice touch is having all the titles throughout the film appear in Asian typography and then morphing in to English.

"Rogue Assassin" is a fun, entertaining, if unremarkable action film.

Given that many Generation Xers were latchkey kids whose working parents often got divorced, many of these children were forced to seek a sense of family among their peers; alas they grew up not trusting, not respecting authority figures. You might be a proud card holding member of this demographic. Or maybe you know them in the workplace. If you are a job-hopper in defiance of authority and seeking employment within the Department of State you may be headed for a train wreck.

Foreign Service officer Alan Roecks, an information technology specialist, has served at numerous overseas embassies and is presently completing senior training at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. According to Roecks' disturbing article State's Generation X Work Force in the May 2006 Foreign Service Journal Magazine, the thirty-five-year and younger age group of newly minted State Department specialists are hip, cynical computer whizzes that have no respect for their superiors or the basic work principles inherent in the hierarchal structure of the State Department. Preferring to do things their own way, Roecks says they lack basic people skills and do not integrate well into the workplace.

I can't imagine meeting former Secretary of State Albright and calling her Madeleine! Addressing a woman by her first name instead of "Madame Ambassador" or "Madame Secretary" is an example of what Roecks has encountered in supervising Gen Xers overseas. What might be acceptable in an advertising agency or less formal structured corporate environment is not considered cool in an embassy.

Roecks' laundry list of "Animal House" behavior includes showing up at the office in jeans and T-shirts, refusing to follow the boss's orders unless you know what you get out of it, demanding instant feedback on job performance, demanding written referrals for future private sector jobs, refusing to work overtime, refusing to attend official functions because there are " ... better things to do."

Most people would agree that official functions, even in the private sector, are a pain in the butt. We'd rather kick back and relax, or Google and relax, or do anything but stand around for two hours. Yet more deals are struck between the glass and the lip while standing around than sitting around a stuffy highly polished ebony table.

Boomers will soon be retiring and they will have to be replaced. A graduate with a Masters degree who seeks to represent his or her country abroad in any capacity may possess exceptional technical expertise, but mature adult behavior-those social skills most senior officers learned in high school-trumps brilliance. The Department of State has to maintain global computer and communications networks. While in a less formal corporate world technical ability might take precedence over behavior, resistance to following instructions is at odds with the success and security of a close-knit community such as an embassy. It impedes integration into the workplace and is especially non-productive when the workplace is a war zone, or any number of politically sensitive or geographically difficult assignments.

In his article Alan Roecks offers some suggestions for what he thinks will help resolve the Generation X dilemma within State. Doubtless it exists in other agencies. As an alumnus of State and the Agency For International Development, it saddens me to witness the slow erosion, by this and other means, of what historically has been this country's first line of defense-quiet effective diplomacy.

Americans at home are judged by whom they send abroad. Every American serving abroad in an official capacity is in a sense an ambassador. There isn't much we can do about disrespectful loutish behavior by some people here at home except to avoid them. But young Foreign Service officers should know before raising their right hands to swear allegiance that passing the exam is only the beginning. Mature adult behavior should be a prerequisite to the privilege of representing the United States overseas.

In the 1960s Noel Coward wrote a song for the show "Sail Away" in which Elaine Stritch sang: "Why do the wrong people travel, and the right people always stay home?" Those who disagree have a perfect right to wear their hats backwards and for cryin' out loud stay home.

"Simplicity-Courage-Humor-Soul"®

Across the land the bells are tolling: for marines from Camp Pendleton, California, helicopter pilots from Ft. Rucker Alabama, the 101st Airborne from Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Our National Guard are needed at home. Our armed forces are stretched thin and the bells keep tolling.

But where were the congressmen and congresswomen and senators-democrats and republicans-and White House Administration officials when Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Veterans Administration (VA) medical centers were allowing their facilities to rot into vermin infested rat holes in which severely wounded American veterans are housed? One general said the vets were leaving food in their rooms, which attracted the little critters. Excuse me, but how is a man with no legs, or half his mind blown away, supposed to dispose of his trash? The only reason a few heads are rolling now is because two Pulitzer Prize-worthy Washington Post reporters blew the lid off "a grateful nation's" dirty little secret.

It has been my experience that when the American people are told the truth, they stand up and make their voices heard. The Administration asks a befuddled congress for billions to put more men and women into a nightmare civil war between barbarians whose reasons to fight most Americans do not understand or give a rat's ass. And yet, when it comes to caring for these brave kids who are severely wounded inside and out, maimed and disfigured for the rest of their lives: Show Me The Money!

ABC newsman Bob Woodruff has made a miraculous recovery from his brain injuries suffered in Iraq. Miraculous doesn't describe it. He has said that he received the absolute best treatment anyone could want from day one in Iraq, to Germany, to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Apparently ABC paid for trips for his family to visit, and many other expenses. Concurrently, he has an extremely supportive wife and family. Anyone who has seen Woodruff's amazing documentary has to be deeply affected by it. But Woodruff almost died, or had died briefly. In the documentary he relates that after first being hit, he opened his eyes, there was light and he was looking down on his own body.

Lots of people recall these types of phenomena, termed near death experiences (NDE). Whatever they are, I like to think that Mr. Woodruff lived for good reason. He has something very important to do and he is one who can do it. He has been chosen, with his wife Lee, to bring to the attention of as many Americans as possible, the dismal neglect of our wounded veterans. There are hundreds of thousands of these veterans, from World War II to the present that are languishing in VA hospitals around the country, or desperately trying to find their way through the labyrinth of indifference within the greatest bureaucracy ever created-the American Military.

Woodruff is very careful to point out, as are countless others who have been under direct military care, that we have the finest and the bravest doctors and nurses in the world. In fact, as an embassy civilian in Vietnam, I was in a military hospital for a while and I can attest to that. But once these wounded soldiers leave their doctors and therapists, and enter a military or VA medical facility in the United States, there is a breakdown between patient and patient care. The Administration is contracting out for employees to care for patients. What a disgrace. These "employees" are cheaper to hire and sub-standard. I would not hire them to sweep my driveway.

In the 1990s I wrote a series of stories on veterans from the Vietnam era for VFW Magazine. One story was about women veterans that suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I visited VA facilities around the country to see how these women were coping in their recoveries. Because women typically made themselves invisible by blending in to private life, marrying and having families, I called the story "America's Invisible Veterans." Conditioned to being the caregivers, to recognizing the needs of others and ignoring their own, these women tended to bury their nightmares in a trunk in the basement.

Dr. Jessica Wolfe, then assistant professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, had first worked with returning Vietnam male veterans with symptoms of PTSD. I worked closely with Dr. Wolfe who had just started a new program at the Boston VA Medical Center to treat former women officers that had served in Vietnam as nurses. I interviewed some of these nurses; they had witnessed the most horrific battles and treated the most horrendous casualties. Afflicted with marked anxiety and elements of panic disorder, the women asked to meet on the first floor to avoid elevators where they might encounter patients in wheelchairs.

Like war photographers, some nurses were able to distance themselves from the blood and gore of the battlefield through the lens of a camera. One former nurse had stored her slides in trunk, away from her children, and not looked at them in 25 years. After considerable group therapy with Dr. Wolfe she was able to look at the color slides dispassionately, and admit it was a part of her life that was over. My purpose in relating this is to emphasize what is possible for our recovering veterans. We have excellent medical practitioners in this country. If anybody is entitled to them, it's our veterans. That the Veterans Administration has suffered a loss in funding over the years is no secret. It's just that nobody talks about it. That present facilities are unacceptable and a bloated bureaucracy is indifferent is disgraceful. And the bells keep tolling.

Food and clothes are my all time favorites. I remember dressing up as a kid and throwing fancy dinner parties for my dolls, inviting friends for brunch, making a shopping break with my mom to get hot chocolate and a piece of pie. The two have become so intertwined for me that to this day I hardly ever go shopping without stopping for a snack or go out to eat without dressing appropriately. I also made sure to involve my friends in the dress and dine extravaganza that is my life.

My book club meets once a month and it's a potluck kind of gathering where each of us brings something to the party. The only condition is that the food has to be somehow connected to the book. If we're reading a book taking place in Italy, of course Italian food is on the menu; a book about travel means snacks that do well on the road; a life story of a diabetic involves no sweets and pita bread certified for diabetics; geisha and samurai stories are not discussed without sushi, and so on. This sort of correlation between books and food makes for great book club meetings.

That's not the only way we connect art and eating. We try to go to museums and galleries, theater and free performances, opera and ballet. It's not something we can do on a regular basis because of time restrictions, but whenever we get a chance, we go the whole nine yards. For a night at the opera house we all wear couture dresses and afterward go to some exclusive restaurant for dinner; museum trips mean pretending we're tourists, so we dress up in suburban mom clothes, talk loud and end up in the most crowded restaurants for lunch; alternative art shows have us wearing black and go for drinks only so not to disturb out aura with calories.

Of course to be able to go places and do things like this we need to have clothes, and for that we have to do some serious shopping. Any trip to the mall I just have to get a soft pretzel and a glass of juice to keep my strength up, and I usually stop somewhere for a meal on the way home. When I'm with my friends, we pick a restaurant based on the clothes we get. For example, if we end up with jeans and t-shirts, it's all-American burgers; lots of florals begs for fresh salads; designer shoes need designer interior of a posh restaurant; and good sales always mean fast food, so we can hit some more stores after we eat.

We all need food and clothes, but a lot of people treat them as just another necessary thing in their busy life. And it's enough to just have some fun with one or the other to make one's day more colorful and interesting. So if you've had enough of bland style and food, try dressing according to what your dinner plans are, for example a colorful poncho to a Mexican restaurant, a simple silk dress to a Japanese one, or eat something that resembles your clothes, like blueberry muffin when you're wearing purple blouse or a chocolate chip cookie when you've got a pair of brown slacks and a chocolate top on. Just looking for an interesting item to wear to an Indian restaurant or finding something to eat when you're wearing powder blue is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Getting the facts straight
 

Recently, I was checking the sales ranking for my book on Amazon.com, when I noticed I have finally received a customer review on Amazon. After reading the review, I found myself humbled and dumb founded. The customer who reviewed my book on military knife and hand to hand combat was obviously a practicing martial artist.

He appeared to be one of the "Know it all" types as well. Although much of his review on the layout of my book may be spot on; I was amazed at his blatant ignorance in not knowing the difference between combative training and martial arts. In his own words,"Though the author may know what he is doing in this book, you may already as well. If you took some sort of M.A. class for any period of time that was worth anything, then you would have learned most if not half of these techniques for knife fighting. " I must agree with him on this.

If you take some sort of  martial arts class for any period of time; that is worth anything; eventually you may learn half of the techniques in the book. Although I clearly state in the book that my attempt is not to teach specific techniques, but use techniques as a vehicle to drive home principles; and  I admit that there are countless numbers of techniques one can learn, not simply limited to my book. This guy  "Cliff" is the example of how many can not distinguish the difference between martial art and combative training.

Distinguishing the difference  

Before one can truly distinguish between a martial art or combative training, they must reflect upon the origin of today's practiced martial arts. The term "martial art", refers to a war like art; with martial referring to war. It is true that ages ago during the conception of today's martial arts, the countless numbers of systems and styles were born from military drills and close quarters battle of the time. During the ancient times without the aid of today's modern weaponry and fire power, soldiers were forced to engage in battle with clubs, swords, daggers, spears and often hand to hand. Warriors of those times began to develop tried and true systems of both armed and unarmed combat, much like today. They understood that military units must gain muscle memory in their tactics of choice and saw the need for regimented systems of combat. The methods and techniques of their day required ways to dismount riders off horse back and break or penetrate wooden armor. It is quite obvious that in today's combat environment those techniques would be obsolete. Through out generations and over the centuries the ancient arts have been passed from master to student and master to student. The once effective and powerful combative training of the ancients has become an antiquity.

Today the ancient techniques of Samurai and  the fighting monks of China can be seen being practiced through training hall windows all over the world. The ancient forms and techniques that were once practical battle tactics have been manipulated by popular media and business ideology. Many practice the ancient martial arts for a plethora of reasons. Some of their reasons are for the very same reasons that the training was developed. People practice for fitness, protection and hobby. Others train simply to preserve the art. 

After World War II, the west was introduced to the Asian martial art craze. Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen were exposed to the Asian fighting arts of the Japanese and Philippines and wanted to learn. Many of the indigenous instructors or gurus realized the opportunity to make a buck from the naive westerners and began teaching watered down versions of the fighting arts. Often masters would draw out the training and add flashy, intricate and complicated techniques to the curriculum. It was the flash that would sell to the new western market. Soon even Hollywood would make movies with actors such as Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris demonstrating their athleticism and prowess on screen.

Belt ranking systems were added to help new students feel as if they were progressing and not quit. The once effective techniques for ancient combat were reduced to nothing more than acrobatics with some self protection value. Many of the hidden techniques which were the pride of warriors of old were lost through the simple process of supply and demand. Modern technology and weapons only aided in losing the practical fighting techniques and turning the martial arts into a lucrative but provocative industry. Today there are martial art companies that place their clients on programs known as "black belt plans."

People are forced into contracts that they can not afford to breach for a certain amount of time until they receive their black belts. During the early 20th century the "black belt" rank was respected by many for holding fighting prowess. Today that rank has lost much of that respect. All too often we hear about the black belt who got beat up by a boxer or street fighter. All too often a white belt student can completely annihilate their "black belt" Karate  or Kung Fu master during sparring in the training hall. Today the sport of Mixed Martial Arts has proven that the martial arts of old are obsolete to even today's modern training methods. The MMA athletes of today , that hold no belt in any martial art would dominate over more than half of the practitioners of traditional martial arts.

Traditional martial artists often rely on archaic training methods and spiritual philosophies of a much more primitive time. Where MMA athletes rely on the most up to date drilling and scientific training ideologies. Much more is known today by the general populous on the matters of psychology, physiology, anatomy, physics and the economy of motion. It is the lack of the most up to date sciences that make much of the traditional fighting arts obsolete and inefficient. In essence it is the tradition itself that makes many martial arts training methods in effective and inefficient. Now that we have identified the martial arts, we should compare it to today's modern combatives.

The combative training of today is a product of the military machine. Today's military is more efficient and productive than any in history. The philosophy of doing the most with the least drives the war machine. In World War II Colonels Eric Anthony Sykes and William Fairbairn began to develop a new type of training for soldiers  based from their experience in Shanghai and the trenches of World War I. Close Quarter Battle (CQB) or Hand to Hand Combat was the norm in trench warfare and the soldiers fighting it needed to be able to quickly and efficiently kill and immobilize their adversaries. The two men realized that they needed to develop a system for training or ideology of training that would enable masses of troops with no prior experience in martial arts to learn hand to hand combat quickly in a matter of days, not the years often required by martial arts training. This training had to not only be learned quickly, but retained and trained quickly as well. Soldiers on the front and behind the lines needed to be able to react without thinking, relying on muscle memory. In combat the heart rate exceeds 180  beats per minute and all fine motor skills go out the window.

Sykes and Fairbairn realized that many of the extravagant "pressure points" used in traditional martial arts  would not be effective. They realized that pressure points were not effective for two reasons. One, the enemy may not feel it under the influence of adrenaline and two; the soldier will more than likely not have the ability of fine motor skills needed in order to strike the target. Therefore the modern combative training was simple easy to retain and concentrated on gross motor skill movement. Because in combat soldiers are all too often sleep deprived and under nourished the techniques taught needed to not rely on physical strength or athletic prowess. Today's combatives are often known for the dirty fighting aspect, not found in traditional martial arts. The warrior codes from long ago no longer apply today, chivalry is dead. Because the combative techniques are taught to such a variety of fighting men who's bodies are not conditioned to desensitizing training; the trainees are taught to strike with only the most structurally stable weapons of the body. A soldier can not afford  broken hands and feet on the battle field. It is for many of these reasons that combative training stands far apart from traditional martial arts.

In summary  
 
The traditional martial arts, practiced today  was actually the combative training for the military of it's time. Just as time changes, so did the training. Societies became more educated; moral values and codes have been altered. The world is not as spiritually guided or involved with mysticism as it was during the time traditional martial arts were conceived. The once effective combative techniques of their time, have evolved into an art form surrounded in mystique and the legends of old; enhanced by modern media. Today's combative training is based completely on modern science and need for efficiency. It is of the utmost importance for combative training to adhere to these rules.

 - Simple general Principles  must be taught

 - Must not rely on power or athleticism

 - The focus is on destroying whatever the principal comes into contact with

 - Efficiency and economy of motion

 - Be able to be learned and applied in a very limited amount of time (Days or weeks)

In conclusion
 

 Combatives training today most definitely contains many of the techniques that one will learn in the traditional martial arts if they attend classes for any period of time. One might think of the two types of training as steak. One is chuck full of fat that is unnecessary and could clog your arteries, the other is a lean hybrid, that contains only the necessary nutrients to keep you going. After reading the review from this guy "Cliff" I immediately went to his profile to learn more about his point of view, so I could see where hes coming from. I wanted to know if his bashing of my book came from arrogance or ignorance. Where he was asked to type a blurb about his interests, contained one phrase.This was his interest"Wing Chun and the variety of ways it is spelled." I immediately realized by this and the number of books with titles like "Kung Fu of Caine" Referring to the Caine from the TV series (Kung Fu), that this fellow was not completely familiar with the differences between martial arts and combative training. Therefore I wanted to write this article, with my best effort to demonstrate that when comparing martial arts training to combative training; it is like comparing apples to oranges.

The noontime peace on our townhouse patio was suddenly shattered by the raucous bellow of a leaf blower. A South American gardener's helper and his blower machine inexorably advanced toward my patio and my waiting lunch. The dust swirled in the sun as he swept the patios clean.

I frantically looked around for a non existing cover for my lunch. Knowing that he spoke no English, I semaphored for him to cut off his blaster, alternating my signals between chopping at my neck with stiffened hand and pointing to my mouth and my food. A blank stare confirmed my suspicion that I wasn't coming across.

Finally, the young man looked up with what seemed like comprehension and turned off his machine. I pointed to my lunch (which consisted of a bowl of hot mushroom soup, a piece of Russian rye toast, a cup of coffee and a slice of pound cake for dessert.

I thanked him for the silence, prepared to enjoy my lunch. He suddenly broke out in a big grin, pulled out the chair and started eating! Dumbstruck, I watched him dig in. Bemused, I allowed myself two brownie points, one for not saying anything and one for doing my good deed of the day.

In Japan, Saigo Takamori is known as the "last samurai"--his final quixotic rebellion against the modernizing Meiji imperial government that he had been instrumental in establishing is the basis of the Tom Cruise movie of that name.

At six feet and 200 pounds, he was much more physically imposing than the actor Ken Watanabe, who portrays him in the Hollywood film; he was a monster of a man in 19th century Japan. Along with his imposing size, he had intense eyes and a forthright, piercing gaze that reflected his character and philosophy as an uncompromising man of action.

Saigo was born on February 7, 1827, the eldest son of a samurai of respectable rank but limited wealth, in what was then Satsuma Han, a feudal domain of the Tokugawa Shogun. He died, as legend would have it, by his own hand on September 24, 1877, while making a final stand against soldiers of the Meiji imperial government he had played a major part in establishing.

What is intriguing about his story is that he is held up as an archetype of the samurai spirit--the last true samurai--even though he lost, not just the battle, but the whole war. He strived to preserve the samurai as a class and slow the newly established Meiji government on its path to modernization, only to be completely vanquished. Not just his army, but also his ideas and his very cause were soundly defeated. Japan is the paragon of modernity it is today partly because he was defeated.

The mystery begins to clear when one realizes that Saigo Takamori is one of the most famous examples of a Japanese tragic hero. In Japan, a tragic hero must show his sincerity by making the ultimate sacrifice, often for a lost cause. This is not the same idea as the character Jefferson Smith had in the movie Mr. Smith Goes To Hollywood when he said, "Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for." As Ivan Morris writes in his classic book, The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan:

"There is another type of hero in the complex Japanese tradition...Faced with defeat, the hero will typically take his own life in order to avoid the indignity of capture (or surrender) vindicate his honor (or his nation's honor) and make a final assertion of his sincerity."

In a letter he wrote to Ivan Morris just before committing seppuku, the novelist Yukio Mishima said this:

"...You may be one of the few people who can understand my conclusion. Influenced by Wang Yang-ming philosophy, I have believed that knowing without acting is not sufficiently knowing and the action itself does not require any effectiveness."

Saigo Takamori was steeped in the neo-Confucianism of the Chinese philosopher Wang Yang-ming, whose conception of knowledge and action as an indivisible unity had, along with Zen Buddhism, an enormous impact on Bushido. He exhibited all of the traditional samurai qualities: valor; respect; rectitude; honor; frugality; loyalty; and benevolence toward underlings. At the same time, he had an unassuming manner, friendly smile, and hearty laugh that won him legions of friends and followers. (See links below for more on Wang Yang-ming and Bushido)

During the Boshin War, (which was the final struggle that vanquished the Shogun and ensconced the Meiji Emperor as the sole symbolic and political leader of a new Japan that would set its sights on catching up with the West, in order to defend itself from colonization) Saigo Takamori led the victorious imperial forces north and east throughout Japan. He eventually surrounded Edo in May 1868, leading to its unconditional surrender. This meant the end of 268 years of the Tokugawa Shogunate's control of Japan, and the beginning of the Meiji era. On October 26, Edo was renamed Tokyo, and the Meiji period officially started.

But it is not for his heroic victories that he is remembered. He is remembered for his heroic and catastrophic final defeat, nine years later.

Saigo returned to his home domain of Satsuma in 1873, after resigning from his post as supreme commander of the new Meiji Imperial Military. Many of Japan's former samurai were disaffected as their privileges were revoked one by one as the new government's modernization efforts progressed. The wearing of swords in public was banned in March of 1876. For many samurai, this was the last straw. A samurai's sword was said to be his very soul, and his right to proudly bear two swords was a sacred custom and a reflection of the greatness of their class and of Japan.

The grumbling of the samurai and calls for revolt made the central government nervous, particularly in Satsuma Domain as it had the highest ratio of samurai to overall population--samurai accounted for nearly one quarter of Satsuma's population--and they had the reputation of being the fiercest samurai in Japan.

Saigo Takamori was called upon by the Satsuma rebels to lead their revolt, which call he--by all accounts, reluctantly--took up. He soon found himself as the leader in a civil war against the government he had not long before fought to establish. The war, known as the Satsuma Rebellion, entailed seven months of constant fighting of a scale and intensity far greater than had been seen during the struggle to defeat the Shogun and restore the Emperor to power.

Saigo was able to raise a force of 20,000 samurai warriors, but they were outnumbered by the imperial forces, and after some initial success, were outfought in battle after battle, until only Saigo and 500 men remained.

They made their last stand on top of Shiroyama, a 107 meter high hill in the center of the capital of Satsuma Domain, Kagoshima City, near Kagoshima harbor. They were surrounded by 30,000 imperial troops, which meant they were outnumbered by a ratio of 60 to 1. The Imperial Navy also had five warships positioned in the harbor, from where they pounded Shiroyama with a total of 7,000 shells.

General Aritomo Yamagata, the leader of the imperial forces, had a letter delivered to Saigo, in which he asked for the fifty-year-old samurai's surrender. Saigo refused the offer and spent his last night, apparently in good spirits, drinking sake in a fox hole with some of his men.

At 3:00 a.m. on the night of September 24th, 1877, imperial soldiers stormed Shiroyama mountain. Three hours later, only 40 rebels were left alive. Saigo was wounded in the thigh and stomach. To avoid an ignominious death, Saigo had one of his most loyal men, Shinsuke Beppu cut off his head, the traditional coup de grace of the act of seppuku, or ritual suicide. Also following samurai tradition, Saigo's head was hidden, to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Finally, the remaining samurai warriors drew their swords and charged down the hill toward the imperial soldiers until every last one of them had been killed.

So ended the battle of Shiroyama, so ended the Satsuma Rebellion, and so ended an era. The great Saigo Takamori and his samurai warriors had been defeated by a modern conscript army of peasant soldiers. This was the first triumph of a modern Japanese military that just 27 years after defeating Saigo, would be the first Asian force in the modern era to defeat a Western nation on equal terms, when Japan decisively bested Russia--devastating the Russian navy in the process--in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905.

Click on the links for more about Wang Yang-Ming and Bushido on Wikipedia.

It also hosts many major US trade shows and is often referred to as the business capital of the country. A large number of people visit the city every year for various purposes. However, they all love to spend an evening filled with fun and laughter after a tiring day working or sightseeing.

New York is among the most spectacular cities in the world. Every year, it welcomes large number of tourists from all over the world. New York is the most important center of commerce and trade in the world. It has amazing restaurants, bars, lounges and clubs. There is something for every genre, be it the sports clubs, romantic restaurants, concert halls, theatres and comedy clubs. People visit New York for various purposes, but all like spending an evening filled with excitement, fun and laughter. Comedy is a discourse meant to amuse people especially in films, televisions and standup comedy. Comedy is a genre which is popular throughout the world. Many movies, television series and plays are being made which explores this genre.

There are various comedy clubs throughout New York that have the status of excellence and provides the best of entertainment to its audiences. Some of the best comedians in the world perform at these comedy clubs. The comedy clubs in New York City is also the training ground for the budding comedians of the future. It is a great place to forget all your worries and spend the time filled with excitement and laughter. Just go there and enjoy.

The comedy clubs in New York differ in sizes, from small to well illuminated and highly decorated big clubs. A comedy club is typically a venue where people can watch the performances of stand-up comedians, magicians, improvisational comedians, ventriloquists, impersonators and other comedy performances. The phrase comedy club refers to place which features standup comedy, in comparison to improv theatres which are places that host sketch comedy or improv and musical acts at the variety clubs.

Some of most popular comedy clubs in New York include: Caroline's Comedy Club, Ha Comedy Club, Comedy Cellar, Comic Strip Inc, Comix, Laugh Lounge NYC, Broadway Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club and Laugh Factory @ Times Square.

Caroline's Comedy Club: located in Times Square, New York City, Caroline is a site for stand up comedy. It is among the most established, well known, recognized and famous stand up comedy clubs in USA. Some of the best comedians in the United States like Gilbert Gottfried, Paul Reubens, Jerry Seinfeld, Andrew Dice Clay, Andy Borowitz, Jay Leno, Joy Behar and Michael Richards have performed at Caroline's Comedy Club.

HA Comedy Club: HA was started in 2001 after Sweet Caroline's changed from nightclubs to the all comedy format. This one story space has 2 rooms, one with the seating capacity of 100 while at other it is 200. The setting is perfect for a comedy club with dark room, brick walls and small stages. The 2 item least lets the audiences choose from beer, soda, mixed drinks and martinis.

ACN is a home based multi-level network marketing company located in Detroit,Michigan. ACN markets and sells technological products such as home phone service, digital phone service, wireless service, Direct TV, VOIP, internet services and the video phone. They give you the option between dial-up, high speed or DSL. A partnership was created between 2 of the top wireless companies to ensure high quality service. As a result, customers are pleased with the crystal clear quality they have experienced while using their digital phone service. ACN is always looking for distributors to promote their products. However, to start making serious income you have to pay a onetime investment of $499.

ACN offers a multi-level compensation plan that pays- out several ways, personal residual income,overriding residual income and bonuses. The personal residual income is acquired from the customers that you recruit. Although you can receive about 10% of the total billing of your customer base,however to achieve that level your total bill has to be about $10,000. Obviously, personal residual income is a few pennies and is useless to new distributors.

On the other hand,overriding residual income comes from the customer base of the representatives who have joined ACN and are apart of your team. For example, when you enroll representatives a percentage of the customer billing they create is considered your overriding residual income. An ACN's most important source of income is team customer acquisition such as bonuses. Bonuses are generally received as your organization grows. Monthly bonuses are determined by the number of representatives you are someone on your team sign up. Put simply, you get paid when you recruit someone or acquire customers into your business. Obviously, because the market is saturated with technology companies competing,the profit margin is extremely low. Overall, most people struggle with the compensation plan ACN offers. Clearly, based on the averages in the industry the compensation plan rates below average.

Of course, there will always be skeptics asking questions like is ACN just another pyramid scheme or is ACN a legitimate business opportunity. Not all businesses are credible. However, ACN has been in business for 15 years, operates in 20 different countries and is endorsed by Donald Trump. Although you can't be guaranteed to earn a substantial amount of money,there are clearly people who have. Keep in mind that the failure rate in multi-level marketing -MLMis 97%.

You may have realized by now the traditional methods they teach you to promote your business do not work. Representatives learn quickly that their warm market is extremely limited. The only way to succeed in a MLM like ACN you need to learn how to generate high quality leads on auto-pilot. The sooner you learn to accept the value and the power of the internet and attraction marketing the sooner you will become one of the top earners in ACN.

Remember the top earners in this industry go the extra mile It's a numbers game and you must learn how to play it.

Sometimes it seems like we're a nation split in two. There is a red half and a blue half, each feeling very strongly that they right and the other side is wrong. Before elections, candidates' signs litter our highways, streets and yards. Our mailboxes are stuffed with pamphlets, and negative campaign commercials and infomercials take over our TVs. Everyone has an opinion, but, truth be told, it often looks like we're a nation of sheep, blindly following a party or a candidate, and unable to think for ourselves. Well, fortunately not everyone has lost their independence and sense of humor, and what better way to gently poke fun at things or express a different opinion than with T-shirts?

Politics, of course, are important. We all have our views and opinions as to how the world should be and how it should be run. And some of us have the urge to express ourselves with clever imagery and wordplay. If you feel like we the people are really sheep in this whole political process, hey, maybe that makes us sheepol (rhymes with people and has "politics" thrown in) in this demockrasee of ours (yes, we do a bit of mocking here). And maybe we want to use sympols of our independence. And if you think I am making up words, I am not; the urban dictionary defines "sympol" as a simple political symbol representing a rhetorical metaphor. And sheeple as folks unable to think for themselves. Mix in "politics" and you have sheepol. Throw it all together and you have demockrasee T-shirts.

There are those who believe that miscommunication is the major problem in American politics today. Politicians say what people want to hear and what doesn't offend anyone. Or they build a platform of issues that gives candidates a way of pontificating without really saying anything at all, or committing to anything. As punsters, we'd advise to keep things as sympol as possible, and we consider clever political T-shirts as sympols of our independence. As long as we're all sheepols, why not a T-shirt that humorously shows that we at least consider ourselves as sheep that flock, or floc, differently? Or as long as the political parties view us as commodities, why not mock them a bit with clever commodatees Tshirts or younitee shirts?

There's just plenty of ways to poke fun at the ultra-serious, angry and often sleazy tone of political debate. I've seen political T-shirts with red or blue barcodes that cleverly oppose the concept that we're political party commodities with a human serial number. Or clever use of signs and symbols to do anything from gently opposing a concept of idea all the way to letting the world know how you really feel. Hey, if there are green T-shirts, environmental T-shirts, and a trillion T-shirts with commercial messages or stupid slogans (I'll never understand why that's considered cool), why not a brainteaser floc differently T-shirt, a protest commodatees T-shirt, or something else that gets the message across? That's the least you can do as an independent member of the voting block, or floc. Life's political and we live in a political culture, but no one says you have to be one of the sheep.

We live in a health-crazed society yet statistics show that Americans are getting fatter all the time. This can only lead one to believe that most diets don't actually work, with one exception....The Amish diet.

That's right. I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch Country where there are a lot of Amish people and I don't ever remember seeing a fat Amish person. So, from that I can make the scientific deduction that it is electricity that makes people fat. It has to be, they don't use it and everyone else does. They aren't fat and the majority of people using electricity are. Then just mix that electricity with a little bit of colorful clothing from a place like The Gap and you got a whole bunch of fat people.

The next time a guy gets the urge to sue somebody because they are fat they may just want to sue the electric company. Or a clothing store (and if you don't think it's fair to sue The Gap because you're fat sue them because they've made really stupid TV commercials in the recent past.)

If Jenny Craig was Amish and I was trying to lose weight I'd consider buying her stuff. Also, if Richard Simmons was Amish I'd consider buying his exercise tapes. Not because I thought it would get me in shape. It would just be funny to see a gay Amish guy jumping around wearing one of those big black Amish hats and making a fool of himself.

The federal government recently released the new "improved" version of the food pyramid, which should probably be ignored. I don't know why but when I think of the government I think of fat, as in fat budgets, fat "pork" projects being pushed through Congress and, of course, the "fat heads" who run it.

I guess I shouldn't be calling people fat because it's not politically correct. The correct term would be overweight or, better yet, corpulently challenged. How about a compromise and say, "the fat, corpulent guy." No, that would be redundant so that wouldn't work either. Hmm...the only thing that makes sense to me is to call them non-Amish.

There is more and more talk recently about children being overweight or, sorry, non-Amish. But you can't blame the kids. They are just following the example of their parents. From my extensive research into the subject (meaning, I happened to read an article in the newspaper since it was, conveniently, located next to the comic section) one third of all adults are non-Amish and another third are severely non-Amish. Interpreted another way, there are an awful lot of people keeping those Girl Scout cookie drives alive.

While you can get as complex as you want about losing weight it really just boils down to two things, as the experts will tell you, eating less and exercising more. But, since I am now an "Expert" on the subject too, since I've now written an article on it, I'd like to add two more pieces of advice, stay away from electricity and The Gap.