Hinas BT Blog

Italian film director Dino Risi, twice nominated for Oscars for Profumo di Donna (Scent of a Woman), dies aged 91.

This article provides an overview of several business finance factors that commercial borrowers should understand before attempting to obtain a Small Business Administration loan (SBA loan) to buy either commercial real estate or a business opportunity investment. There are many commercial mortgage and business loan misunderstandings involving the use of an SBA loan due to the complex nature of this approach to business financing.

Two of the most difficult business loan and commercial mortgage situations for a business owner involve obtaining a Small Business Administration loan and refinancing an SBA loan. There are practical business finance solutions for both of these common business investment problems.

Are SBA Loan and Business Finance Programs Difficult?

There are usually two schools of thought about getting a Small Business Administration loan to buy a business:

(1) Avoid this kind of commercial loan at all costs.
(2) Use such a business finance loan whenever possible.

These conflicting investment financing viewpoints are due to a commercial mortgage business loan process that is perceived as complex and difficult by many commercial borrowers.

In reality SBA loan programs are more practical than they often appear. It is critical to the success of a Small Business Administration loan program to be working with a business finance advisor and lender that is proficient at this difficult commercial mortgage and commercial loan process. There are many potential commercial financing problems to avoid when attempting to obtain a small business loans, and very few lenders are skilled in this business financing area.

Anticipating Business Investment Problems Before They Occur: Business Loan Refinancing

One of the major investment drawbacks of an SBA loan has historically been the difficulty of refinancing the Small Business Administration business financing later. Current options have revised the situation and it is more feasible to arrange refinancing. It is still accurate to say that refinancing is not routinely available, but more importantly it is much easier to obtain than it was in prior years.

Advance commercial real estate loan and commercial loan planning can avoid some of the SBA loan refinancing problems. First and foremost, if the original business financing is arranged without a small business loan, this will make later business refinancing easier than if a Small Business Administration loan is involved. This means that commercial borrowers should at least consider if the initial business loan requires this form of commercial financing before proceeding.

Finalizing Small Business Financing: Two Common Commercial Loan Misunderstandings

One of the most frequent criticisms of an SBA loan program is the amount of paperwork required to complete the business loan and commercial mortgage process. What many commercial borrowers fail to understand is that any business financing process is likely to involve substantial paperwork and formal documentation requirements. In the end the key is working with a business finance advisor that understands what is required and can facilitate the submission procedures.

Beyond the paperwork concerns, a more critical and real problem is working with an SBA lender that is not very good at successfully completing Small Business Administration loan requirements. Even though there are many commercial lenders that publicize their ability to process these complicated and specialized commercial loans, in reality there are very few lenders nationwide who are consistently successful at completing the complex loan process in a timely manner.

Alternatives to SBA Loan Financing - Conventional Real Estate Investment and Business Opportunity Loan Options

Conventional business finance options should always be considered simultaneously with the possibility of obtaining an SBA loan. As noted above, the feasibility of refinancing a business loan or commercial real estate loan in the future will depend heavily on the choices made by a commercial borrower when obtaining the initial commercial mortgage.

A conventional business loan or commercial mortgage might be more feasible than many borrowers realize. Refinancing is likely to be more successful if an experienced business finance lender and advisor are involved.

Stephen Bush is a

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A group of divers stranded on a remote island had to fight off a Komodo dragon. How dangerous are they?

You feel like buying a rather expensive car this summer. But there is a problem. You are not a wealthy guy. Do not despair. You have a choice of a range of best deals on offer in the automotive market, popularly described as zero percent finance for cars. How does this work and are they really for you?

Scenario

Almost all car dealers who offer a zero percent finance, have a sales plan in place. They will have outlined a profile of the prospective customer. Quite obviously, a major criteria would be that the customer should have a good credit standing. SO, normally such offer will be made to existing customers. New customers would be judged for credit background on several parameters like, income, location of the customer, employment or business status, or even the assets that the customers own. For obvious reasons, credit term is usually shorter than the normal regular interest credit scheme, often below 2 years. It will result in higher EMIs (equated monthly instalments).

Terms

EMIs always change in inverse proportion to duration of the loan - shorter the term of credit, the higher the amounts payable per month and the longer credit period, the smaller amount to be paid per month. Ironically, if you opt for a longer duration you will end up paying more amount simply because interest rate is induced for a long period of time. You will find that you will have paid more than 20 times the retail price. Also, failure to pay the monthly payables of the zero percent credit term will result in higher interest after that as a penalty for not paying on time. In such eventuality, you will actually end up paying higher than the amount paid under zero percent because of the interest and other penalty charges.

Finally, the the car is priced higher than cash down value. For example in a zero percent scenario, the car is offered at say $100,000 on display for 2 years to pay having a monthly payable amount of $4,166. The $100,000 price is actually still higher than the actual value of the car. The car dealers usually know that the car value is only say $70,000 but if offered at zero percent credit, they would price it at $100,000.

Conclusion

From the foregoing you will wonder, and rightly so, what advantage does zero percent finance car give you the as the customer. On the other hand this is certainly a good marketing strategy for auto dealers. And it will definitely help those who can afford the terms because it always better than paying longer credit period. So, the zero percent finance car is a good marketing strategy for the car dealer. It is also beneficial for the customer who can afford it.

Author Laxmi Keshav is a finance professional. He gathers information about

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In a tough job interview even the smoothest candidate can come unstuck. And the interview episode of The Apprentice showcases tactics to test the mettle of prospective employees. How to respond if you find yourself in a job interview from hell?

The freedom of breathing open air and having the soft wind blowing in your hair, it just never looked so good! With the smooth and elegant style of the Chrysler Sebring Convertible sparkles like some cars would in a movie, and the best part of it all is that the car hardly ever blends in with the rest of the scenario. If driving one of these, your car will permanently be the centre of attention and boy, will you have a lot of lifts to give! With the keys to a Chrysler Sebring Convertible in your hand, you won’t be able to say no! You have to understand, with this car you are going to have to enjoy the fact of people staring with gaping mouths and huge smiles….while your hair blows back in the wind and soothing music pumps into your ears.

There’s nothing better than having the option of a retractable hard top while behind the wheel of a Chrysler Sebring Convertible. With the simple click of a button you will be able to adjust the settings on the instrument panel for the hard top. This great feature is even available when you have the top down. You will probably be happy to know that the trunk of this vehicle is larger than many others, allowing you more space for your trips or when you go to the golf course! Even when the top of the roof is down, the trunk is still the same size. The soft top works much like the hard top; it can be controlled by the simple touch of a button. You can use the instrument panel to control this feature or you can use the key fab, which ever works best for you.

You will not find many cars that allow this feature; but with the Chrysler Sebring Convertible you have the option of having the top down and the wind blowing peacefully in your hair, without your hair being all messed up when you get to your destination. What makes this possible is the way the windscreen is designed; it allows the wind to flow over the windscreen and pass over you, and keeps on flowing, without roughly getting your hair into knots. (If you have enough hair to form knots that is!)

Within the interior of the vehicle, the instrument panel allows you to control features from the roof top, right to the cupholder where you can choose whether you want it to warm or cool the cup placed in the holder. Convenience has never been so….convenient!

When it comes to the Chrysler Sebring Convertible and entertainment, well let’s just say you won’t be bored! This car has a multimedia infotainment system with 20gigs of hard drive space, stereo radio system that is CD and DVD compatible, satellite radio, audio system controls for the steering wheel and booming speakers.

You are sure to enjoy this car!

Dennis runs Car Dealer Check which is a independent Car Dealer Review site written by the car dealerships customers and a Car Forum.

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Nasa’s Mars lander Phoenix may be resting on a large patch of ice, scientists believe.

The radios in VW cars (1998 model and onwards) use an amplified aerial for improved radio reception. This amplifier is built into the base of the aerial and is powered by a feed from the stereo. This power feed is sent down the center of the aerial cable.

Therefore, if the factory-fitted stereo is replaced with an aftermarket unit, the aerial will no longer get this power feed and the amplifier in the aerial will not be turned on. This will result in poor radio reception.

To solve this problem you will need a VW aerial adapter. This takes the electric aerial output of an aftermarket stereo and combines it with the aerial socket to supply power to the amplifier in the aerial.

The other difference that post 1998 Volkwagen car radios have is their power connection. . .

Stereos require 2 power feeds. One is a constant feed that is always live whether you have the key in the ignition or not (this keeps the memory settings, clock etc). The other is a switched live which gets a feed when the ignition key is turned.

Although VW car radios use an ISO connection block for their stereo wiring (the same as all aftermarket stereos) you cannot simply plug it straight in. On later Volkswagen car radios, the pin configuration of these two power wires is reversed. If you plug it straight in, the stereo will work fine. However, it will lose all of it’s memory settings once you switch it off.

To solve this problem, you will need a VW wiring adaptor. This will plug into your VW wiring harness at one end and the aftermarket stereo at the other end. In between these two points, the adaptor swaps over the location of the two power wires. This takes care of the problem.

This store specializes in car audio. I give them thumbs up — I work with them daily (so I know their business philosophy — customer satisfaction) . However, if your country is not served by them, you can still get other recommendations at car-audio-products-and-accessories.com

Chimezirim Odimba writes for CarAudioPlus.

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Nasa’s Mars lander Phoenix may be resting on a large patch of ice, scientists believe.

Great link building ideas requires a lot of creativity, original thinking and research and is a time consuming challenge faced by all the online marketers. So long as search engines continue to place a great deal of emphasis on incoming links there is no avoiding link building. Any successful businessman will testify that reaching the top in your field is difficult, while remaining there and maintain top rankings all the time is even tougher. However, for you to deal with this necessary evil here are some strategies that will get you the highest return for your time. Some of the ideas discussed are not new but you will surely find a few ones that you have not tried before.

Creating viral lists
Create unique and fresh content that people want to link to, this will not only increase traffic but will also diversify your traffic channels. The key is to create good quality content and publish it on your site. Syndicating as well as sharing it on networks such as Zimbio is also a good idea. Inviting people to blog about the content, bookmarking, and submitting on sites such as Digg after making suitable variations to avoid duplicate content issues is also worth it. Viral lists topics such as:
Top 100 list relating to your field of business.
Top 10 or 20 myths about your business or industry.
List of experts and opinion leaders in your business or industry
List of resources for the business you are in.
Top 10 pitfalls you can do well avoid in your industry.
Ten easy ways to get the desired outcome in your industry or business.

Ask for links in a straightforward manner and you will be surprised that people are far more receptive than we give them credit for. A few ways you can be straightforward are

Ask the Webmaster for a hyperlink if your name does not appear alongside your business or industry.

Ask visitors to do things and explain how that will be mutually beneficial to both of you.

If you have not been syndicating content then you are missing a great opportunity. As others subscribe and publish your content your links increase dramatically. Publish content at places from where Google gets its news such as AmericanChronical instead of syndicating it haphazardly.

You need to answer two questions. What do people want? And, what is the best way that can we give them what they want? Original thinking and research will enable you to find the best solutions and you will be amazed at the simplicity and ease of executing these strategies.

There are some things you could do well to avoid, such as purchasing text links to increase search engine traffic. In case you buy text links it should be with the sole purpose of getting traffic from the other site.

Also avoid swapping links with non-relevant websites as search engines recognize swaps. Swapping is recommended only if the website is highly relevant to your site. In fact too many link swapping actually hurts page ranking.

Peter Brittain is a director of Slinky Internet Marketing who have been leaders in the - Slinky Directory.

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Israeli fighter planes are scrambled to intercept a jet carrying former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Beat Up a Cookie
by Denise Dietz

Category: Fiction / Mystery
256 pages; ISBN: 0373263406

Do you remember where you were the night the last original episode of M*A*S*H aired? Ellie Bernstein does. She was trying to settle her overweight tuckus on a barstool at Charley Aaronson’s Dew Drop Inn, which was host to a raucous M*A*S*H bash, complete with drunken look-alike Klingers and Hawkeyes bidding their favorite television show farewell with a drink (or five, or ten). Ellie, distraught over her husband’s blatant infidelity, uses the show as her balm, trying to avoid yet another inevitable cheesecake binge. At the time she believes herself the most unfortunate person in the room, but that title eventually goes to a woman dressed as “Hot Lips” Houlihan, found dead in the bar’s parking lot.

Cut to the present, and Ellie, fresh from her amateur sleuthing in Denise Deitz’s Throw Darts at a Cheesecake, is eleven years older, fifty-five pounds lighter, and less one husband. In Beat Up A Cookie, the Weight Winners counselor supports other women in the quest to lose weight while her current paramour, detective Peter Miller, dodges Ellie’s interest in his work (which has replaced her appetite for sweets) and refuses to divulge information on the curious suicide of a medical supplies salesman who bore more than a passing resemblence to a certain M*A*S*H surgeon. The deceased’s name? Frank Burns.

Much to Peter’s annoyance, Ellie’s curiosity is fueled when a second “Hot Lips” clone is found dead, and soon she is mingling with a clique of die-hard M*A*S*Hers (including philandering architect Ken Trask, whose home is decorated in patriotic colors, and Fred Remming, a whiny frustrated soul who makes Radar O’Reilly look like Mel Gibson) who ritualize their viewing habits. With her imaginary Sherlock cap, Ellie, quietly speculates as to which one is a serial killer, with crimes possibly stretching back to that fateful night when a young woman in a bar parking lot also bade “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen.” For Ellie, though, the task is not easy: the only common thread among the victims is their resemblences to show characters, and everyone she suspects seems to have motive and opportunity; that is, considering Ellie’s wild imagination and her overactive paranoia when her son mentions casually that Ellie could pass for “Hot Lips” herself! For Ellie, it’s important to find the killer before she, like M*A*S*H, is cancelled.

A witty, quick read, Beat Up A Cookie is packed with the most essential elements of a mystery: a down-to-earth sleuth (Ellie Bernstein is a breath of fresh air in a world of sculpted silicone dolls, proving that over 40 doesn’t mean over the hill), strong, witty dialogue, and more twists and turns than a San Francisco street. You don’t have to a M*A*S*H fan to enjoy Beat Up A Cookie, not as avid as some of the people in this book, anyway.

Kathryn Lively is the publisher of Phaze, advice for authors.

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Scientists investigate whether a former US president’s duelling pistols were really made from a meteorite.

The art world is full of colorful and interesting people who defy the 9-5 corporate lifestyle. We tend to be looked at with curiosity by those who don’t understand the artistic way of life. Being an artist myself, I am more conservative in many ways than many people I knew in art school. One of my best friends had blue tinted hair. Everyone expresses their creativity differently, it’s all a personal choice. There is no right or wrong in the art world. Call it “artistic lisence.”

Not all of us are starving artists, a term that makes many an artist cringe. We have good months and bad months, but how we spend our money determines whether or not we starve. Most of us never learned how to promote ourselves while in art school. It is helpful to have someone to handle the marketing of our art, if possible. If not, then it is the artists’ responsibility to figure out how to market his or her artwork. It takes trial and error, and it helps to ask those who have been successful for tips on improving sales.

Freelancers know that being independent and self-supporting is spoiling but wonderful. We call the shots and have freedom others envy. But doing freelance work isn’t always easy. Sometimes, it takes getting a “seed money” job, to pay bills while we pursue our art careers. Being creative comes in handy when figuring out what side job to have. How does someone like myself, who hates to sit anywhere continuously for forty hours a week, find a job? Nothing grates me more than having a boss in my face, telling me I did something wrong. Being a free spirit, and liking to have some control over my surroundings, my job of choice is being a home agent for a large corporation, taking calls and selling to customers from my home office, with my cat sleeping on my desk. Being different pays off for me, as my art studio runs itself online and my agent handles the original artwork sales. Through much experimentation, my sales rise each year. It took a lot of mistakes to get it to this level, though. My goal is to be able to work less, yet profit more from royalties. It is a puzzle for us all to figure out, in whatever type of medium we use, combined with our individual preferences.

If you are like me and knew from childhood that art is in your blood, never give up on your passion to create. Taking a side job isn’t selling out, just a means to an end. It is your right to do whatever you want without apology. By using that individuality and passion given to you naturally, do your artwork the way you see fit. The world of art is a fascinating, varied place. Reach out to other creatives if you feel misunderstood by those who are more left-brained (analytically minded.) Us right-brainers are visual and frequently intuitive, that uniqueness helps us to be good at what we do. We don’t have to fit into the corporate world if we don’t want to. Dare to be different, and have fun at it. There is room in this world for all of us.

Carolyn McFann is a scientific and nature illustrator, who owns Two Purring Cats Design Studio, which can be seen at: . Educated at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Carolyn is a seasoned, well-traveled artist, writer and photographer. Besides handling numerous assignments in the US, she has lived and worked in Cancun, Mexico. Clients include nature parks, museums, scientists, corporations and private owners. She has been the subject of tv interviews, articles for newspapers and other popular media venues.

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It pays the mortgage and gets you up in the morning, but workers want more from a job - they want meaning. Just don’t go looking for it, says Lucy Kellaway.

Aunt Dimity’s Death
by Nancy Atherton

Category: Fiction / Mystery
241 pages; ISBN: 0140178406

As a child, Lori Shepherd absorbed her mother’s bedtime stories of the incomparable, forthright Aunt Dimity the way many children today devour the Harry Potter tales. The ordinary spinster with the knack for becoming embroiled in extraordinary adventures leaves fond memories for Lori, her only comfort following her mother’s death and a bitter divorce as she ekes out a poverty-stricken living in Boston. The last thing she expects is any help from the outside, especially from Aunt Dimity, a character she had believed to be fiction. An official letter from her estate reveals otherwise.

Like a fairy tale, the anachronistic law firm of Willis and Willis rescues Lori from a lifetime of Beanie-Weenie winners with the news that not only was Dimity Westwood an actual person, but an actual rich person who left Lori in her will. The only stipulation Lori must fulfill to receive her share is to write an introduction to a proposed book of the Aunt Dimity stories…in Dimity’s England cottage…which neighbors believe is haunted. Lori cannot decide which is more uncomfortable: sharing quarters with the ghost of Aunt Dimity or with the younger Willis lawyer, a starry-eyed dreamer who insists on gifting Lori with expensive clothes.

Then there is the other ghost that haunts Lori during this trip — a posthumous letter from her mother imploring her delve into Dimity’s life, in particular her life before World War II and the events that led to Dimity’s bouts of depression and spinsterhood. In finding the answers, Lori believes Dimity may finally be able to rest in peace.

Aunt Dimity’s Death does not begin as a mystery in the traditional sense; yes, there are mysterious elements in the story such as the rigamarole Lori must endure to appease the law firm of her identity and the peculiar behavior of the younger Willis, but these actions make for a good third of the book and one wonders if any cutting could have been done to help progress the story.

This is not to say the first Aunt Dimity novel is not good. It is a well-written book, and Atherton’s style is reminiscent of the English cozy — more talk than action. It is quite clear this book is meant to set up a series, though the “mystery” tag in this novel might be misleading. “Romantic suspense” is a better description of Aunt Dimity’s Death, considering how the attraction between Lori and Willis, Jr. slowly overcomes their discomfort, leaving readers with a story even Aunt Dimity would not mind hearing more than once.

Kathryn Lively is the publisher of Phaze, advice for authors.

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A national laboratory will help the UK’s nuclear sector play a key role in providing reliable, low carbon electricity.

There is very little on the Internet or in libraries as to why a writer writes, at least from a psychological standpoint.

Never one to be called non analytical, I went deep into my own psyche just to find out why it was so important that I write. I wrote when I was in my twenties (now in my fifties). This was before the Internet and I was just getting used to electric typewriters. I knew I would write the next great American novel. How I would do it, or who would see it was another story. I just knew I had to write.

I knew of publishers, I had seen books on writing in the library with names and addresses of agents. At that time, they seemed like alien beings to me. Why would they ever want to see my writing with so many others out there who had a far better handle on the English language. I was dyslexic growing up, still am to a certain degree, and I could barely read in my twenties. In fact (I’m ashamed to say), I read my first book at age twenty-seven.

So why did I feel compelled to write? There are many theories why a person writes and they are not all the same. I wrote, not even considering the fact that I would ever gain fame or fortune from it. It was, and sometimes still is, my escape from the maddening crowd. As an adult, I am humble enough that maybe others I know are writing to escape me and my own madness (who is also escaping them). The ego dwindles as we get older and some bitter-sweet humor manifests. It is not only “they who drive us mad but I who drive them mad as well”. I would have never thought it. Sweet gentle sensitive me.

As the years went by (PI or pre-internet), I discovered that writing was the only thing I could do well and naturally. That was both a blessing and a curse in that institutions of higher learning insist we must have something to fall back on. I looked at my semi-skills in sales as something I had to do, and my writing was what I fell back on. For years I insisted I was a writer, though nothing was published, while others insisted I was not. Occasionally, I would get a “stroke of genius” (as they call it) as so many writers do, and write an essay or article that “blew people away”. But they were few and far between.

I grew up in Mississippi, not far from a struggling attorney named John Grisham. He was not a bad attorney, he simply did not enjoy it, and when someone does not enjoy a job, chances are they will not do their best in it. John loved to write and he wrote well. He did so long before the public ever even heard his name. Unfortunately for John, for many years, he was one of the few who knew he was a great writer. He was virtually starving in his law practice. He stopped it and started a project, a book titled “The Firm”. He had a very hard time getting it published so self-published five hundred copies (I’m told) and sold them out of the trunk of his car. He simply drove around selling The Firm (his new job). He didn’t make much money but he loved it. Of course the rest is history.

About this time I discovered I could write cartoons, conceive the concept, write the captions, but my drawing skills left a lot to be desired. I continued to write them, in fact to date over 6000 of them. Word got out that I could do this and illustrators began asking me if they could render them and if we sold them collect half the fee. It was a perfect match. Londons Times Cartoons was born and eventually became the largest private inventory of cartoons on the Internet with top ratings from Alexa and Netcraft.

I say this not for bragging rights, but for the fact that if a writer does not write, he/she becomes disoriented, not centered. The writer feels most comfortable sitting down writing, whether it be pen and ink or cyber-technology.

In the mid-1990’s I went home to take care of an ailing mother. I developed writer’s block. I was miserable (of course for the fact that I was about to lose my mother), but also that I could not write. My plan was, while caring for her, I would sit at the typewriter (I did not have a computer then), and simply write my feelings, sort of as a purging therapy. For four years not a word was typed. I watched tv. I took Mom to her doctors appointments and to the hospital. I was mentally, physically, and spiritually ill. Oddly enough, I pinpointed the whole feeling to the stress of caring for my mom. And of course a majority of that was it, but not all of it. I became a caretaker and my whole mission was to take care of her needs. That is not even what she wanted or needed. We finally buried my mother which was the saddest day of my life.

A few weeks later I received a call from Newburyport, MA from a friend I’d been to college with. She and her husband were inviting me for a long weekend to relax. I decided to go. They told me I looked like a mess. I knew it, and felt ashamed.

There was a new Jack Nicholson movie out “As Good As It Gets” in which he played a dried up crusty author with writer’s block and when his gay neighbor, Greg Kinnear was mugged, Nicholson was forced to care for his rather effeminate dog (Nicholson was also homophobic in the film). At first he despised the idea. As time went by, he grew to love the dog, as all the dog offered was unconditional love.

Nicholson had been in love with a waitress at his local hangout named Helen Hunt who hated him like everyone else.

As time went by, the dog had its magic effect on Nicholson. He became a good guy. He funded medical attention for Helen Hunt’s son and they fell in love. He dressed better. He began to write. He brought flowers to his better half. It was a wonderful movie and won the Academy Award as I suspected it would.

Then I went home.

I volunteered at the local university Equestrian Center to feed the horses and clean out the barns. I grew to know and love horses. One Saturday, a tornado hovered over our town and the storm was terrible. A pack of three dogs showed up at the barn for shelter. One dog, “Thor” who looked just like Benji, was in terrible shape. He was one big mat of fur and had been beaten by someone or hit by a vehicle. A vet friend of mine nursed him back to health under the condition I would adopt him. I did, but did not want to. I could barely take care of myself.

That was over a decade ago and Thor has been my shadow ever since. Everyone in town knows “Thor” even if they don’t know me. He has brought happiness to so many. The vet believes he is somewhere around 19 years old. This does not surprise me because he is on the b.a.r.f. Diet (Bones And Raw Food); he does not touch dog food.

But the big magic is how my writing skills finally returned and Londons Times Cartoons was born. How it grew as big as it did is beyond me. It just did. The more I cared for Thor the more creative I became. I even opened e-shops and fell in love with a wonderful woman. My businesses do well and I continue to write as I look at my old tired, beautiful mixed breed dog, Thor, who changed my life.

I believe the irony of it all is that when I saw “As Good As It Gets”, I thought to myself “How touching, but anyone who is a writer knows nothing like that could happen in real life”. Little did I know it was a preview of what was about to happen to me…and is still happening.

The moral: Never underestimate the power of unconditional love, especially from a stray animal. All animals are precious but a stray is so grateful to be salvaged he/she will do just about anything for you in return only for food and shelter. That unconditional love changes us and the way we treat people and expect to be treated.

Adopt one today and watch your quality of life change (whether you believe it or not).

Rick London is a cartoonist and netprepreneur. He founded the top Internet offbeat cartoon site Londons Times Cartoons luring millions of visitors per year among others.

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Mysterious bands of shadow during an eclipse might be produced by sound pulses, a theory suggests.

Time. It’s a concept that’s both abstract and real, the currency of our days (we talk of how we’ll “spend” our time).

“If only I had more time! Then I’d really write.” If you’re like most writers who need to earn a living doing something other than write, that thought is the thorn on your rose.

The fact is, you might be more productive if you had more time to devote to writing. But you might not. Many writers find that when they have all the time in the world, they get far less writing done than they had hoped (but their closets suddenly get organized and their gardens weeded).

Still, you may not be able to test that. Odds are, you have obligations you can’t push aside when the muse crooks her finger. You can’t tell your young children you’ll catch up with them after high school; you can’t expect your employer to pay you while you take an indefinite “writing sabbatical.” That means you need to apply the creativity and ingenuity and resourcefulness I know you have (you’re writers, after all) to uncover pockets of time for writing.

Ways to shoehorn a writing habit in to your daily life:

~Learn to blend things.

“If you need something done, ask a busy person” is oft-repeated because it’s true. But how do busy people take on so much and follow through so often? By learning how to maximize time and increase efficiency, by combining tasks wherever possible.

For example: Keep a small notebook in your coat pocket. When you’re waiting for your appointment with your accountant or your turn in the dentist’s chair, be open to ideas that might hit you. If none are hitting you, write anything that comes to mind: little details about your surroundings, eavesdropped bits of dialogue, what you’re hoping in that moment, what you hope for next week.

There’s no better way to cultivate an idea than write anything when you think ideas are miles away. Take advantage of all the waiting we need to do by filling up that dead space with words.

~Learn to prioritize.

Learning this valuable skill also means learning to say NO.

Most of us spread ourselves too thin, usually because want to please others and to contribute to the lives going on around us. But we have a finite amount of energy (mental and physical) and a finite amount of time. Don’t let yourself get railroaded into non-mandatory obligations you have no interest in or that don’t coincide with your core values.

Draw a pie chart illustrating how your time is spent now. Then draw one illustrating how you want your time to be divided. Do everything you can (i.e., hiring Merry Maids or a dogwalker) to re-shape your days to approximate the latter chart.

~Learn to simplify.

Set reasonable expectations for yourself. Is it really necessary for the floor under the bed to be as eat-off-it clean as the countertop?

And when you do sit down to write, don’t expect your output to be stunning, breathtaking, or even useable. Declare a victory when you get something on the page. Polishing can come later.

~Learn to enjoy the moment.

Although writing is hard, it can be exhilarating, too. Try to focus on and delight in writing as a pursuit in and of itself, not as something that pulls you away from other tasks. Enjoy what writing does for you now instead of how your efforts might pay off down the road.

~Learn to set deadlines for yourself.

Deadlines keep us “honest” and help us focus on finishing. You may be one of those writers who works best under pressure. The pressure is the deadline, and you might wonder how you’d ever get anything done without a due date, without someone waiting for what you’re producing. If you know that about yourself, manufacture your own deadlines.

However, if you’re like most people (me included), you’ll need other people to help with this. You’re far more likely to take someone else’s deadline seriously than your own, so lean on your friends and family here. Choose the due date, then ask them to mercilessly enforce it.

Much of a successful writing practice is maintaining momentum, and you can only achieve that if you make a commitment to regular writing time.

I don’t mean three hours a day. I don’t mean two. I don’t even mean one. If you’ve got that much time, fantastic. But if all you have is a half hour a day, five days a week, and if you stick to it, it will become habit. You will be amazed at how much — in the long run — you’ll actually accomplish. Even fifteen minutes a day, stretched across hundreds of days, will produce an impressive number of pages.

The research shows that short, consistent writing stints are more productive and build more creative momentum than highly erratic, longer ones. So if you can squeeze out two hours per week for your craft, try to evenly distribute those hours over the course of the whole week rather than taking it in one lump.

As Charles Buxton said, “You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If you want time you must make it.”

To discover more ways make writing a meaningful part of your life, visit and sign up for “Write Through It,” a free, monthly e-newsletter that offers tips on writing more clearly and effectively.

Lucia Zimmitti, a writing coach and independent editor, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Her fiction and poetry have been published in various national literary journals, and she has taught writing at the high school and college levels.

http://www.computethat.co.uk
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