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The simple truth is, kids who laugh are kids who learn. It has been shown that happy children have a much greater chance of success in life than those who are unhappy or are in bleak situation. One of many ways to keep the little ones smiling at home and in the classroom is by implementing a steady regiment of laughter. I tend to do this with silly rhymes and poetry.

Rhyming sequences have a profound effect on people of all ages, not just kids. You
often here rhyming sequences being referred to as “catchy”; that’s how you describe
the feeling of rhythm that is implied in a rhyme. As human beings, we tend to like
order and rhythm; it balances out our life. This is no more true than it is with children.
Songs, poems, and rhymes are a huge part of most classrooms today because they are
such powerful teaching tools. Children will retain facts and knowledge with out even
being aware that they are learning. Grade school kids have even been taught the full
periodic table when put to rhyme or song.

When I write poems for children I try to use the english language in a way that they
may have never heard before, yet will be able to grasp the meaning. What I hope to
achieve is to bring a wider sense of the english language and how it can be used in a
fun way. Speech today is stunted by excessive use of slang, jargon, and buzz words
that have no real meaning in the english language. Kids are making up words to
describe events or emotions, instead of knowing the real dialogue to make their story
interesting.

What I love to do best in writing a poem is encompass a nonsense story or moral within
a framework of tightly woven, yet mentally stimulating rhyming lines that challenge the
child’s awareness of sentence structure. I like to keep them on their toes.

This
combination, I find, amuses children to no end. They smile or laugh, and then read it
again and again until it rolls of their tongues effortlessly, laughing all the while.

Hmm… sounds like learning to me.

Adam Merrifield is an author and photgrapher of all things child-like. He maintains http://www.wigglywumble.com, a poetry site for
kids, and http://www.merrifield-photography.com, a baby photography site.

A poetic comment that just welled up inside my head - why cant we just do something - before many more are dead?

How pious those politicians are,
When up there on T.V.
Saying that, all the things they do,
They do for you and me.

I don’t remember requesting weapons,
Or to send my sons to war.
Just how many tons of food,
Would all that money provide for?

I didn’t ask for that highway,
Or the ‘modern art’ with purple lights.
I would rather all those millions,
Helped with Human Rights.

Did I ask to stockpile food in hangars,
Until the price goes high.
Why can’t we send it, to Africa,
Instead of letting them die.

The cost of clothes, for the ‘P.M’s’ wife,
Or even the President’s daughter.
Would probably give thousands of villages,
Access to clean water.

And if every politician, in the world,
Gave just one tenth of their wages.
It would feed millions of people in Africa,
Help them survive for ages.

If we must invade some countries,
Because of ‘principles’ so high.
How about those, spending money on weapons,
While their people die.

Conglomerates make huge profits,
Feeding those, already obese.
So why can’t they spare some millions,
To help fight this disease?

So Mister Politician, if you are itching to invade,
Let’s all invade Africa, with help and love and aid!

So now it’s over to you, let your voice be heard. Don’t let this sin continue, it really is absurd!

John Roberts is a Freelance Training Consultant in the UK and a Director of JayrConsulting Ltd. http://www.jayrconsulting.co.uk

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In the midst of darkness, there is light.
In the midst of evil, there is virtue.
In the midst of war, there is peace.
In the midst of agony, there is ecstasy.

In the midst of night, there is day.
In the midst of illness, there is health.
In the midst of winter, there is summer.
In the midst of hate, there is love.

In the midst of grief, there is healing
In the midst of hunger, there is Bread of Life
In the midst of thirst, there is Living Water
In midst of loneliness, there is companionship

In the midst of sin, there is redemption
In the midst of catastrophe, there is restoration
In the midst of rain, there is a rainbow
In the midst of adversity, there is privilege

In the midst of decay, there is renewal.
In the midst of hopelessness, there is possibility.
In the midst of poverty, there is wealth.
In the midst of pain, there is joy.

In the midst of tears, there is laughter.
In the midst of anguish, there is pleasure.
In the midst of disappointment, there is satisfaction.
In the midst of futility, there is hope.

In the midst of the bad, there is the good.
In the midst of the ugly, there is the beautiful.
In the midst of the unholy, there is the sacred.
In the midst of the body, there is the soul.

In the midst of suffering, there is mercy.
In the midst of rage, there is calm.
In the midst of failure, there is success.
In the midst of death, there is life.

In the midst of all…. THERE IS GOD.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. http://www.clergyservices4u.org. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, will be available in July.

Emlyn Williams Theatre, Mold, North Wales: 20th February 2003

Clwyd Theatr Cymru commemorated the 50th anniversary of the death of the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) with a superb run of performances by a small but accomplished cast of actors.

Described in the programme as “A theatrical journey through the prose writing of Dylan Thomas”, the production was created by Tim Baker, an Associate of the Royal National Theatre, who won the Manchester Evening News Best Visiting Production award in 1992 for the highly acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird.

Although Thomas is best known for his ‘play for voices’, Under Milk Wood, his evocative poems such as Fern Hill and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night are rarely overlooked when anthologies celebrating 20th century poetry are put together. Indeed, this mesmerizing interpretation of Thomas’s short stories could well be described as a rich fusion of prose and poetry. For example, in a scene crossing a river he speaks of, “slipping stepping stones” and early on in the piece he describes his “love” of words thus:

“And these words were, to me, as the notes of bells, the sounds of musical instruments, the noises of wind, sea and rain, the rattle of milk carts, the clopping of hooves on cobbles, the fingering of branches on a window pane, might be to someone deaf from birth, who has miraculously found his hearing.”

The company of five use only stools and orange boxes to set the scenes for Thomas’s vivid recollections of his boyhood in Swansea. The young Dylan is played brilliantly by Russell Gomer, who struts and capers across the hazily lit stage, reliving the poet’s every memory as if it was his own. His fellow actors play a myriad of characters. The slightly built but enormously gifted Zo Davies is adept at playing both male and female roles, from oppressed aunts to inebriated old men. And Morgan Walters, a ginger-haired giant of a man, is memorable for his portrayal of the young poet’s bear-like uncle, as well as Les, Thomas’s friend who invents names for passing strangers, and as a relation who steals livestock to pay for drinking binges. Whilst the cherubic-faced David Rees Talbot puts in a particularly memorable performance as Ray, a young man whose tragic past is briefly forgotten but inevitably revisited when he and Thomas ramble to the seaside to paddle in the surf.

The enigmatic and engaging Thomas lived a short and self-destructive, if literary fruitful life. His father, an English teacher at the local grammar school, began to read Shakespeare to him at the age of four and he started to write poetry in his eighth year. His childhood and adolescence were central to his later work - although he left school without formal qualifications and did not learn the Welsh language. He moved from Swansea to London in 1934, famously remarking, “The land of my fathers My fathers can keep it.”

Thomas’s first two books, 18 Poems and Twenty-five Poems, were published respectively in 1934 and 1936. He married Caitlin Macnamara in 1937 (they had three children during their tempestuous years together) and he made his first radio broadcast with Life and the Modern Poet on the BBC Welsh Services the following year. After the Second World War, his popularity as a poet grew in direct proportion to his reputation as a heavy drinker. However, his positive, rhetorical style won an enthusiastic following and poems such as A Refusal to Mourn the Death by Fire of a Child in London led to lecture tours of the United States. He died in St. Vincent’s Hospital, New York, on 9th November 1953.

This stage adaptation of Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog - so bristling with humour and pathos - will undoubtedly delight parents and teachers endeavouring to introduce young people to Thomas’s work. Adult audiences will also be entranced by its wry, witty narrative and flamboyant presentation. There is little doubt that, in the future, new theatrical companies will revive the production and it will become a fitting tribute to one of the world’s great 20th century poets.

About The Author

Paula has contributed features to numerous guidebooks, magazines and journals on the subjects of literature, travel, culture and history. She is currently the editor of two online guides: All Info About Poetry http://poetry.allinfo-about.com and All Info-About English Culture http://englishculture.allinfoabout.com.

poets@allinfo-about.com

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Largely thawed food that is still cold should be cooked immediately. Once cooked, food can be refrigerated for later or eaten right away.

The food can be refrozen if there are still ice crystals visible on it. If you don’t have a freezer to put it in, make sure to get some dry ice and put it in a cooler. These items will need to be cooked, because your freezer will not offer the same longevity that a normal freezer would offer.

Anything showing signs of freezer burn are also candidates for immediate disposal.

Storms and accidents will always cause power outages; however, you can use preparation to be ready for whatever happens.
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Q: I think I understand the value of networking as well as the next businessman, but
for the life of me, I don’t really see what sites like LinkedIn, Ryze and Ecademy can
do for me. What’s the point of these sites other than just as some sort of digital
popularity contest?

A: My good friend and colleague Liz Ryan, head of the women’s power networking
group WorldWIT, Women in Technology, has a great answer to this sort of question,
an answer that I’m quoting here with permission:

I ask people to join LinkedIn, and often they say “I don’t want the spam.” So I say
“You won’t get any spam.” And they say “But I’m not job-hunting.” And I say “You
don’t have to be job-hunting.” Then we go back and forth for awhile. It’s a bit of a
challenge to get my own friends to see the forest for the trees, sometimes.
When Monster.com was new, the big idea was to post jobs online. As an HR person,
I can tell you, Monster is a pretty awful place to post jobs. You get KILLED with
unwanted resumes from job seekers all over the world. I truly believe that
Monster.com is the reason that HR people no longer respond to online job seekers -
and sometimes offline job seekers - with any kind of response.

Anyway, over time HR people and recruiters figured out that the real value to
Monster is the ability to search the candidate database (for a fee). Maybe some of
the same thing is happening with LinkedIn. What seems like the obvious benefit to
membership may not be the key feature for a lot of users. See what you think about
this LinkedIn primer that I share with my friends. If I’m doing something I shouldn’t
be doing on LinkedIn, I’d love to know that too!

1) Your profile itself is a great value to joining LinkedIn. I get great, useful contacts
from my profile appearing on LI, and of course it’s free.

2) Even if you’re not job-hunting or doing business developing or searching for
contacts yourself, it’s a great thing to be able to be a conduit for your friends. They
really appreciate that service that you can provide for them. Just the reconnect-
with-an-old colleague bit is a godsend: where else can you do that online?

3) LinkedIn is the google for individuals who aren’t high on Google rankings. That
means anyone who’s in a corporation but not senior enough to appear on the About
Us/Management Bios page (although of course, those execs are often on LinkedIn
too); anyone who is a partner in a consulting firm but perhaps not often in the news
or otherwise mentioned online; and zillions of other people whom you’d have
trouble finding if it weren’t for LinkedIn.

4) Let’s say you have a business meeting with the VP of Marketing at a major
corporation next week. If it weren’t for his profile on LinkedIn (say, if you were
having this meeting three years ago), how would you learn where he went to school,
where he worked before his current job, and other details about him? With the help
of his LinkedIn profile, you’re a zillion times better prepared for the meeting.

5) Now let’s say that VP of Marketing is behind the curve and doesn’t have a
LinkedIn profile. No big; you find another connection of yours who works at the VP’s
current company, and ping her for some background. See? LinkedIn to the rescue
again.

6) Want to know who’s working in a particular industry space in a given city?
LinkedIn search. Intelligence gathering, even if you never contact any of the people
you find.

My point is that there’s lots more to LinkedIn than just reaching out to people for
job leads and for business development leads - not that either of those are bad
things. And I agree with other posters that you have to use the tool, rather than just
join up and sit there like a lump. But I’d love to hear stories of some more creative
uses for LinkedIn, from other users…

Thanks for sharing your compelling story with everyone, Liz. When I think about
your point with Monster.com causing recruiters to never list jobs online anymore, I
not only know that it’s true from personal experience, but also find it to be an
interesting example of the law of unintended consequences, in the same way that a
site like LinkedIn helps with market research or background checks.

At the end of the day, in business you’re ultimately constrained only by the skills
you can bring to the table and the network of friends and acquaintances you can call
on for help, advice and assistance. And if you don’t help them when you can, of
course, it doesn’t take long to be ostracized from a group, however informal or far-
flung. But if you are part of a circle of professionals, you will always grow your
career faster, smarter, and more profitably.

Dave Taylor is an internationally recognized expert on business and technical topics
and is the author of 18 different books and thousands of magazine articles. His Q&A
Web site is http://www.askdavetaylor.com/

What is the biggest advantage of forming an alliance?

Everyone has their own definition of an alliance. I had a potential alliance with a person that was starting his own business. He came to my residence with his partner and I brought in a couple of friends and business associates to discuss the possibilities. He gave us a fabulous demonstration of his company offerings. I really liked what he had to offer and was willing to pass leads on to him. He was excited about the possibilities. He next mentioned that he would love to work with our current client base. I asked how he saw the relationship working and his reply was that he would piggyback on our current sales effort. I then asked him how we would be able to capitalize on his client base and how he would help sell our services.

Guess what? He only wanted a one-way relationship: we would make money on sales we did for him! This would certainly take us away from our core business; take us into another area which might fit within our focus in some respects, but not entirely at all. Needless to say, this potential alliance did not get put on paper, even though his offerings were good. You see, an alliance has to be a two-way street. Each member must have a benefit to forming it.

In this example, the business presented would not be a good choice for an alliance. We needed to have a company that provided us with services we could offer in addition to our own services. The allied company would also have the opportunity to sell our services as an add-on. The important thing to remember is that you must carefully choose your alliances.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”. Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com