Lee Dobbins asked:


Thinking of going on a trip? Why not try adventure travel? You could be going on a vacation you’ll never forget! Adventure travel is an exciting way to spend your holidays with your family or friends and a great way to expand your horizons, meet new people, experience other cultures and learn new skills or maybe even a new language.

There are dozens of choices for the kind of adventure travel that can fit your interests and that of your family. Choose the adventure that will fit your hobbies and abilities or, if you’re feeling exploratory, try out some new things. Here are a few adventures categorized according to your enthusiasm level:

Relaxing Adventure Trips

1. Nature walks and hiking

2. Bird or animal watching

3. Saltwater and freshwater fishing

4. Cruises, Yachting

5. Culinary, Historical trips

Moderately Active

1. Going on a safari

2. Environmental exploration

3. Dude ranches and horseback riding

4. Digging for archeological artifacts

5. Swimming with marine animals or diving

Very Active

1. Extreme sports (wakeboarding, skydiving, zero-gravity, bungee jumping, wind tunnel, flying)

2. Rock climbing, mountain climbing, ice climbing

3. Dog sledding

4. Touring/Mountain biking

5. Expeditions

There are dozens of adventure companies who specialize in travel adventure. Go to their websites and check out their offerings. Even your travel agent may have a department that offers adventure trips. Ask for a brochure and talk to the sales person to discuss your choices.

Before going on a trip, here are a few reminders to make sure it’s as smooth sailing and hassle-free as it should be: – Talk to the adventure company and make sure you know what is in the adventure package so you know what to expect. Ask the company or call up foreign embassies to inquire about visa requirements. – Bring your own first aid kits, prescription and emergency medication. Most companies will provide first aid and some medical assistance, but it’s best to have a kit handy. And, since you’re going on an adventure, the nearest pharmacy may be a dozen miles away. – Be sure to have photocopies of your important documents – passports, visas, identification, reference numbers, credit cards and the like. Keep a set with you and leave another with somebody you can trust to fax it to you should you need it. Have your documents scanned and save them in your email just in case you lose or misplace them. – Bring extra photos (passport size is good). Some countries require photographs for documentation. – Check your travel insurance. – Get the addresses and contact information of your embassies in the country you’re visiting. – Get medical advice. Ask your medical practitioner what you need to do to protect yourself. You might need to have vaccine shots done a few weeks prior to your trip. Inquire also what medical or health hazards you should watch out for in the particular area or country you are planning to visit. – Make sure that you are physically and emotionally ready for the kind of adventure that you signed up for. If you have a fear of heights, then a hot air balloon will not be a good idea. Sure, it’s an adventure but scaring yourself is really unnecessary. – Read as much as you can about the country you’re visiting – its people, customs and traditions. Remember that when you visit a country, you are a foreigner there and as a sign of good will, why not show respect for certain traditions or customs by being aware of them and avoid offending anyone. – Pack lightly and bring the right kind of clothing. Waterproof, sun-protected clothing with breathable fabrics are good ideas. Pack also some essentials like a flashlight, sewing kit, toiletries, lighter, tape, safety pins, padlocks, all-in-one-knives and even plastic bags for extra containers. – Be sure to bring the right kind of footwear. Some of the best adventure trips have been ruined because of the wrong kind of shoes. Besides, the type of shoes you need or your size may not be readily available in the country you’re visiting. – Be sure to find a safe way to carry around your money and credit cards. On trips, there is always a chance that you will spend more than you planned, so bring extra cash and keep it in a safe place. During the trip, don’t touch it unless absolutely necessary. Make sure too that you have access to banks and ATMs just in case you run short.

Lastly, remember that even the best laid plans can suffer from glitches. Don’t expect too much and be flexible enough to fully enjoy your adventure while you’re there. No vacation is perfect, but with the right attitude and thirst for adventure, each trip will be as uniquely inspiring as it will be unforgettable.

Robert asked:


1. Surf around the Web. Look at images at magazines, papers, on-line galleries and you’ll find a wealth of ideas. Try the Gallery at shotaddict.com. Want more – go to flickr.com and look through tones of creative shots. Another useful source is VFXY, it displays recent posts from various photoblogs.

2. Learn the ‘visual language’. Visit Art Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions that have photography shows. Learn art history from Antiquity to the Present and discover how highly creative people developed methods for expressing light and color.

3. Watch Movies. It is another source of inspiration, as they are nothing more than still images shown to you at 29.97 frames a second. Lots of ideas for concepts, lighting, messages, or just plain pretty images.

4. Read photography books to learn new techniques and then try to apply them in your work.

5. Look at things through the eyes of creativity. Pick anything and shoot it just to see what it looks like: things around your house, in the refridgerator, etc. The subject doesn’t really matter all that much, what matters is how you shoot it. Shoot, shoot and still shoot even more. Digital is cheap.

6. Composition is the key. Think about what you are doing. Frame your photo in your mind. Look for interesting angles and light, go high, go low. The key is to shoot the subject in as many different ways, under different lighting, and try to make those images interesting. So, don’t just point and shoot, but consider composition.

7. The twenty step exercise. If you lack inspiration, you can take your camera, go outside and start shooting anything around. Each photographer has their own secret. Some recommends shooting 100 photos in one hour. Others suggest you should try to get 100 shots from within the 10 metre radius of where you are. Others play twenty steps. Go out for a walk, walk twenty steps, stop, look around, take a picture (try and make it interesting, an unusual angle, a closeup, abstract, etc), walk another twenty steps, repeat. The point is to develop your eye, learn to look more indepth at your surroundings, to look in close as well as wide. This exercise forces you to try and see the mundane differently.

8. Plan a trip to a local botanical garden or a zoo. Make sure to visit such places from time to time, – there are lots of things to shoot there.

9. Shoot in different conditions. E.g. iff you shoot in early morning, late in the afternoon or in sunset, the available light will add more depth, create interesting shadows and color changes for your convenience. Try to photograph places in fog – it will hide distracting background elements.

10. Look through postcards. If you want to shoot the city you live in, or you plan a trip to some excited place, you’ll find it useful to look through postcards. Often we walk past something time and time again and never actually notice its potential. Besides, postcards will give you ideas what is the best way to shoot the subject.

11. Learn how to “see” with your camera – another exercise to develop your eye. If your camera has a viewfinder, look through it for some time. Then look at a scene, and imagine how the camera will see it. Then hold again your camera up to your face and find out if you were right. Keep trying until you can tell immediately what the camera will see.

12. Self-criticism Shoot, shoot and shoot! But after you take tons of images, you should sort them ruthlessly. 10% of worthy photos for a day is not bad results.

13. Enter online contests. It’s great inspiration to find interesting stuff to photograph. You have a topic, and it can make it easier to find interesting stuff to shoot. Try Contests at shotaddict.com.

14. Join a photo community and interest groups. It is cheap, informative, and fun. You can post your photos, participate in critique and discussions at forums. Some very good and interesting stuff to be found there!

15. Take a photo a day and see your life in a whole new way. It is a great article from Photojojo. Remember that a camera that you don’t have with you is a camera that’s not going to take any pictures. So try to have your camera on you as often as possible.

Derek Pliers asked:


Sweepstakes are highly regulated in most countries. In the United States, many states have their own rules for sweepstakes, and a national sweepstakes must comply with each state’s laws. In Canada and other countries, Sweepstakes must be at least nominally a game of skill, to avoid being seen as gambling. Canadian sweepstakes will usually require entrants to solve a mathematical puzzle to enter.

On-line contests are put up by many different types of organizations, from mom and pop businesses to multi-national corporations. Many of these sites are on dedicated servers that are professionally managed while others are on free-site systems where thousands of sites are on the same server.

Most sweepstakes can be entered by mailing a postcard with your name and address to the specified location. Some contests require you to hand print your postcard. This is designed to stop automated entries. Other sweepstakes do not care and you can easily enter through various automated means. Other contests allow entry vie their website, which can be even more convenient.

There are countless world wide contests that have all kinds of prizes which may be won at some point. The cash sweepstake is a money lottery that may take place in an audience show or a television contest. There are lots of shops, restaurants, fast foods and several department stores that use a cash sweepstake as an evolvement for business. If someone is dining in one of these specific restaurants or fast foods, that certain individual may be put on a list in order to be drawn lots. The Internet is full of different cash sweepstakes, so any individual can make money online by just simply entering the web sites that have the prizes promotions.

Every day, thousands of Americans receive sweepstakes offers, but not all of them are legitimate. How can you tell the difference between a real sweepstakes and a scam?

Legitimate sweepstakes are fun and free. They specify that no purchase is needed to win and buying a product will not increase your chances of winning—you never have to pay to collect a prize. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Postal Service’s Office of Consumer Advocate are sponsoring this consumer-awareness campaign to point out the characteristics of fraudulent promotions and help limit the number of victims of these scams.

Remember, you do not have to pay to enter a sweepstakes or collect a prize. If you’re asked to pay, the sweepstakes is a scam.

Postal Inspectors suggest you ask yourself these questions to prevent being scammed:

Does the promoter ask for your credit card number, checking account number, bank account information, or other personal account information? A legitimate prize company won’t ask for this to declare you a winner.

Do they ask you to wire money or make a payment in an urgent manner? Do you feel pressure to make a payment within a given time deadline to collect your prize? Take a step back and evaluate the offer. Contact a Postal Inspector to verify that you’re dealing with a legitimate sweepstakes offer.

Does the advertising copy clearly state that no purchase is necessary to win and a purchase will not increase your chances of winning? You never have to pay to play or to collect your prize when the sweepstakes is legitimate.

Some of the most popular places that offer sweepstakes contests on the online survey companies. What they do is instead of offering a cash incentive is offer you one entry into their daily sweepstakes. Usually you get one entry per survey that you take. Your chances of winning these types of surveys are very low however. The reason why is because there are dozens of people signed up with these survey companies. Your chances are better here than with some of the other online surveys. If you happen to be a fan of some of the morning or evening talk shows, you will see that on occasion they do offer sweepstakes. Most of these sweepstakes can be filled out online. The entry forms are on their websites. Keep in mind though that for a talk show sweepstakes, there are going to be a lot more people signing up, and your chances of winning will be slim.

The best and legitimate sweepstakes are the free ones. If they need you to pay a fee that probably means that they do not have the funds to reward the sweepstakes winner.

Primoz Borovnik asked:


Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:

Tom, on your website, you wrote:

‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes and marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone.’

“There seems to be a contradiction unless I’m missing something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go through a 12 week ‘transformation’ prior to every event instead of staying ‘lean and mean’ all the time? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they should be staying in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing fat prior to every competitive event, correct?”

There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), don’t remain completely ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are able to get so ripped on the day of a contest…

You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a “peak”, right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a high point surrounded by two lower points isn’t it?

Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is NOT your “peak” condition.

The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then ease off to a maintenance or growth phase.

I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape every year, then dieting it all off every year. What I’m talking about is going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to good shape…. but never getting “out of shape.” Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Here’s an example: I have no intentions whatsoever of walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my website. Off-season, when I’m not competing, my body fat is usually between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body fat.

I don’t stray too far from competition shape, but I don’t maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to “peak” for competition with NO loss of lean body mass…using the same techniques I reveal in my e-book.

It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to competition I’m so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn” in the face, that complete strangers walk up and offer to feed me.

Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just say being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably not even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless you’re a natural “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It’s just not “normal” to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous body fat.

Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into a less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body fat. Some years I’ve stayed leaner – like 6-7%, (which takes effort), especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body fat go over 10%.

This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all sports use periodization to build themselves up to their best shape for competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition in March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form… that’s why they have training camp!!!

There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a “ripped to shreds” physique all year round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of people can’t lose weight and keep it off –they are CHRONIC dieters… always on some type of diet. Know anyone like that?

You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body adapts to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a little more (healthy food, not “pigging out”), your metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally reach the point that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a level that is healthy and realistic – as well as visually appealing.

Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that’s so effective, it puts them in complete control of their body composition. They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will never have to worry about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall off the wagon like all humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back into shape fast.

Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and then at a whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat for the purpose of competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the power and control to slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!

What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then get super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your vacation to the Caribbean, or when your wedding date was coming up? Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your body like that? Isn’t that the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more practical, real-world level?

So even if you have no competitive aspirations whatsoever, don’t you agree that there’s something of value everyone could learn from physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd of losers who gobble diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets like automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth – natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors…

These physique athletes get as ripped as they want to be, exactly when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a cyclical fashion between pre-contest “cutting” programs and off season “maintenance” or “muscle growth” programs. Even if you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal “peaking” approach yourself and you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for elite bodybuilders.

If you’re interested in learning even more secrets of bodybuilders and fitness models, visit the Burn The Fat website at:Learn here

Andy Crestodina asked:


This month marks the start of my 8th year planning Web sites. (Believe it or not, that first site is still live. And no, I won’t tell which one it is.)

In that time, our Web design & development firm has launched hundreds of sites, and we’re looking forward to many more successful projects. But this anniversary, I’m taking some time to reflect on what I’ve learned about our clients and their primary needs.

Far and away, the three most popular Web services we provide are:

1. Search-engine friendliness: get your site to rank high

2. Flash animation: make sure it looks good

3. Content management: make free updates forever

In other words, people want sites that are easy to find, easy to update, and easy on the eyes. About 90% of the Web sites we build have these elements, so let’s break each down a bit and talk about why they’re so popular.

Search-Engine Optimization

If you build it, they will come. Well, not quite.

According to some studies, 50% of first-time visits come from search engines, so of course companies want to rank well. But when a project begins, most clients don’t understand what this entails.

Very briefly, the 3 key steps:

1. Pick the right phrases to target

2. Build pages that are relevant for those phrases

3. Promote your site by encouraging incoming links

In other words, research, write, and reach out.

There is a lot more we can tell you about these three critical tactics, but we’ll save the rest for a future article.

For now, here’s the key point: if no one sees your site, it isn’t helping your business.

Flash Animation

Good Flash exists for a great reason: if it communicates quickly and clearly-and drives visitors’ eyes to the most important message-then animation can be very useful. But Flash for its own sake will do more harm than good.

Many visitors stay on a Web site for only a short time. Think of your own behavior online: you’ve probably visited thousands of sites for less than 10 seconds.

Now consider your site: How can you convey your message in such a short time? With Flash animation, you can direct your visitors’ attention and share information using simple text and imagery.

Of course, Flash does more than communicate quickly; it can also help your site look more current. Animation increases the shelf life of your Web design.

The key is to keep it clear and concise. Communicating with Flash is like introducing yourself to a 12-year-old on an elevator: attention spans are short and time is limited. Once you have visitors’ attention, use Flash to guide them deeper into your site by providing a Learn More button.

But use caution: visitors tend to dislike intro animations-even when a skip button is available. It’s best to put Flash right on your home page.

Content Management

The good news: The Internet is not a static medium, which means that you can keep your visitors up-to-date on your business’s latest news and developments-and keep your clients coming back for more.

The bad news: the Internet is not a static medium, which means that you have to keep updating your site to ensure its value.

A content-management system is an interface between you and the techy computer coding that makes your Web site work. It enables you to make fast and easy changes to your own site.

Since most content-managers exist online, it’s easy to make updates from anywhere, at anytime. Best of all, you’ll save yourself the ongoing hassle and expense of contracting with an outside firm for every tweak.

Of course, some changes (like a new animation or feature) still require the help of a Web-design team. But content-management systems allow you unparalleled control over the content of your site: use this application to edit copy, add pages, upload photos, and more.

Change is the one inevitability of your Web presence; how you prepare for that change is up to you.

Here, we’ve offered you three great and easy ways to stay on the cutting edge.

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