Need a writer?
Some people don’t really understand what writing is all about. It is about crafting words into a message and usually we are trying to sell an idea. It might be an idea to fire the imagination of the reader so they believe or half believe our story to be true. Sometimes, the message is different, we are selling a product or service or in the case of a résumé; we could be selling a person. At the very least we are selling the belief in that person as a potential employee. So do you need something writing? I might just write it for you for free! (more…)
The Business of Packaging
A Guest Blog by Fairy Dharawat
Packaging is an important part in any business today due to the visual marketing concept which works wonders to any given product. This is the day and age of looking good and selling pretty.
Packaging is the science, art and technology of protecting products for distribution, storage, sale and use. Packaging also refers to the process of design, evaluation, and production of packages. Package labelling can be written, electronic, or a graphics communications on the packaging or on a separate, but associated label. (more…)
Finance | Starting a business
I went to Matalan yesterday and they are surviving the recession well, because people can’t afford the more expensive places. If you go to their website, you’ll see a link to ‘Become an Affiliate Partner’ at the bottom of their web page. I could be a a Matalan affiliate and have a link in the side bar of my blog to their website. If someone then clicks the link and spends money, I get a commission of 5%. I do have one affiliate link in the sidebar to Zopa, but I don’t want more just yet. There are lots of websites that want affiliates and I could also put advertising in the sidebar and at the bottom of the blog. I can also insert links into the blogs like I just did with Zopa. I can even put an advert at the end of each blog. This is one way of starting a money making business. (more…)
How to write fiction
It was a sunny day, I parked my car and opening the back door, I took my camera out of the case and put the strap around my neck. I thought I could take a picture of the gatehouse, trees and maybe the squirrels. The sun was shining and the trees cast shadows as I walked into the park and I could see the Victorian bandstand; but I already had photographs of that. The path is lined with park benches, which is handy, I like to sit down and steady the camera. I get tired walking around these parks too. I approached the bandstand and then I saw her, she was a vision of beauty and sitting on a park bench. She had long flowing hair and was perfectly groomed. Her tight white shirt looked like it was freshly ironed. She looked so cool dressed all in white, like a virtual angel. Her skirt was rather short, revealing long slender legs that seemed to go all the way up to her armpits. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Variations
This photograph of apartments at the side of the canal were turned into a sketch using Fotosketcher and this makes for a pleasing picture. By a coincidence the art gallery is just around the corner. (more…)
Psychology | Coping with anxiety
Over the past hundred years anxiety has become an epidemic and trying to avoid it changes people’s lives. We have all become more selfish and less sociable. We like to think we are more sociable with global communication systems allowing us to have friends far and wide. We never actually get to meet most of them though. They are not there in our everyday lives giving us support and getting truly involved. Facebook friends are a poor substitute for a friend who will come around and cook for us when we are sick and who will visit us in hospital.
Can dreams come true?
I have known people who make a living as ‘visionaries’ and claim to be able to dream about the future. We do seem to dream about the past, present and future. There must be a reason for these dreams. Can we dream about the future or are they, as some psychologists suggest, dreams that are our subconscious guesses of what the future might bring. It all sounds very spooky to me. (more…)
How Visual Merchandising Can Boost Your Sales
A guest blog by Fairy Dharawat
So you have finally opened your dream store. Everything is in place. The finance part, the advertising part and every little minute detail you needed for incepting your store is complete. You advertised in your own way in the local newspaper and on the radio station or the old and traditionally famous word of mouth concept is working its magic. You place every item you wanted in place. Now you are waiting for customers to come in to your store. You think now all you have to hear is your cash box registering. (more…)
It’s enough to drive you nuts…
You’re driving along and a woman’s voice is nag, nag, nag… Turn left at the next junction, take the third exit at the roundabout. Like I don’t know where I’m going! You can turn the sound off on the SAT NAV, but that gives you one more thing you have to keep an eye on. I need to have eyes everywhere on the roads around here. Regular readers will know I live in the heart of England; in the Black Country… (more…)
Finance Friday
It seems as always that food prices are going up and so we have to try to save a little by shopping around. I have been saving the trays my chicken comes in to ‘recycle’ into seed trays. I’ve bought seed to grow beans and lettuce and I want to grow a few herbs and do a herb garden this year. Even if you don’t have a garden you can grow herbs in a window box or on the window sill; fresh herbs in soup or stew really makes a difference. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Sketch Art
I’ve gone really artistic this week with a picture of a pub. It looks old but if you look carefully there are television aerials on the roofs of the houses! Look really carefully and you can see a satellite dish. What did it look like before it was edited? (more…)
Psychology | Anxiety
At the beginning of the last century Britain was a Christian country and people believed in God. Religions gave the masses rules to live their lives by and if they didn’t follow them, they could go to hell; literally. It seems Britain lost some of it’s belief in God at the time of the first world war and who can blame people for losing their faith in the face of such horror. The second world war with such inhumanity as concentration camps and gas chambers was further evidence that either God doesn’t exist or that God exists, but he has given up on the human race. So, we are alone, insecure and anxious… (more…)
Frugal | Cheap meals
I think it was Mrs Beeton who said the cheapest meal was a piece of toast between two pieces of bread that were spread with butter. I don’t see the point, just have a couple of rounds of toast, spread with whatever.
If you’re really desperate crumble a Bovril cube into a soup bowl and fill up with boiling water then dip your toast into that. You can also grow herbs on a windowsill, then chop herbs like basil into your saucepan, add a Bovril cube and simmer for 5 minutes to make a soup to dip your toast in. If you have a onion lurking in the fridge, chop it as small as possible, fry it in a little oil, add herbs, salt, your Bovril cube and water, then after the onion is soft, simmer for 30 minutes for a nourishing soup. (more…)
How to write just about anything
I have written a novel, I write blogs and just about anything else I need to. I have written letters, emails and CV’s and attach the same importance to all of them. Even when I write an email, it can be showcasing my work to someone. I add hypertext links quite often to my blogs and internet profiles. This is my second blog this morning, the last one didn’t go well because the HTML was messed up for some reason. I need to know HTML, social networking, WordPress and much more besides to write these days! (more…)
Easter Sunday 2012
I’ve been checking the statistics on my WordPress blog and the most popular category is rambling; when I do no research and just write off the top of my head! So that is what I’m doing! I’m also installing an anti-virus that just asked me for a 25 character product key. Why so long? I’m also cooking lunch. I often write a Sunday blog while cooking lunch. People always want to know what I am cooking and this week it’s a little special being Easter. I have turkey and oven chips in the oven. I’m cooking broccoli to go with that. It seems like a strange combination, but I like chips! This afternoon as usual on a Sunday, I’ll be off out to take a few photographs. (more…)
Digital Easter 2012
I’m planning on taking photographs again this weekend, the roads will be quiet on Sunday. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago in Wednesbury (England) where I live. I find lots to take photos of, both man made structures like buildings and of nature. I suppose we are lucky to have so much variety, but many people don’t appreciate what we have. I think wherever you live in the world, there must be something to photograph. It is so easy to share photographs now on Photo bucket, Facebook or Pinterest too. There is no real need to print them out.
Neodigital Art | Atmosphere
I took this photo on Sunday of the ‘Sanna’ in Moorcroft Wood. Woodland is quite atmospheric anyway, but the water is draining out of this pool and the woodland looks bare at the end of the winter. The picture might make a good book cover! (more…)
Halve your car’s fuel consumption?
Cambridge
News this morning is of an amazing new invention. It’s the brainchild of Professor Tarquin Topheeapple of Cambridge University who claims that his new device can halve fuel consumption on vehicles that run on unleaded petrol (gasoline). This news has excited motorists throughout the UK and brought alarm and panic to oil producing countries. It’s feared the oil price will plummet when markets open on Monday. Motoring organisations have pledged to back the professor ‘all the way’. (more…)
