There are books about ‘em, newspaper columns dedicated to ‘em, and each and every long-lost relative is full of them – Travel Tips.From rolling your packed clothes, to bringing snacks to the airport, these tips – while well-intended – are often so obvious (or so outdated) they’re useless to the savvy traveler.Here’s a few you’ve never heard of – and that will change the way you travel.Be prepared: Take a pen, and wrap a sizeable length of duct tape around the body. You’ll never be stuck when you need to write down a quick note, you’ll be prepared to fix just about anything, and you won’t have taken up any room in your luggage.Budget travelers, forget the sink: Carting around an over-priced “travel laundry” kit stocked with drain stoppers (that leak) and inflatable hangers (that collapse under a tank top)? Forget it. All you need to do laundry is a large ziplock bag, a wee bit of soap, and some water. Insert your clothes, shake it around a bit, and rise. If your room isn’t well supplied with curtain rods or chairs over which to drape your laundry, dental floss is surprisingly durable when strung from door-knob to door-knob.Take the heat: Like spicy foods but hate the burn? When chowing down on a country’s hottest cuisine, get rid of your mouth’s painful burning by rubbing table salt on your lips.Rest easy: When traveling to suspect countries (or as a female traveling alone), the tiny amount of space a rubber door stop takes up in your luggage is well worth your peace of mind. Lodge in against your hotel room and you will you prevent possible intruders.Fake it: If you’re not one to go the money belt route, fool potential pick pockets with a prominent ‘fake’ wallet… and keep your real one buried deep inside your day bag.Lighten your load: If you’re traveling to more than one country – with a guidebook for each – you don’t need all that information. Use an xacto knife to cut out the relevant sections, resecure the booklets with duct tape, and voila! You’ll know have a mini-guidebook for each country, which you can discard as you move from country to country.
Real Estate Agent Courses
Online real estate courses are offered to potential and licensed real estate agents, real estate brokers, real estate appraisers and real estate investors. The online schools offer a wide range of services to their students, which include helping the students pass the licensing exams for each field. Different courses are offered to those who wish to become agents, brokers, appraisers and investors as each has its own specific areas of study.Courses for Real Estate AgentsThe major areas of study that the courses for real estate agents include License Laws, Real Estate Contracts and Law, Escrow, Finance, and the Principles and Practices of Real Estate Math. These courses are often delivered through various software, CDs and virtual tutorials that the online schools offer their students. These courses help the students have access to the most up to date state laws with regard to real estate in the areas where they wish to practice their profession and the most up to date techniques and skills that can help them help their future clients. The students also take exams on these modules as to assess their understanding of the different areas of their study.Review for licensing exams and license renewalIn addition to the modules that these courses offer, one important service that these online schools provide their students are the reviews that the students can take to help them prepare for the State Real Estate Exams that they will take to become accredited agents. These reviews are often given to the students in the form of practice exams and supplementary reading that can help the student prepare for the exam.Apart from offering their services to people who wish to become agents, courses are also offered to licensed real estate agents who need to renew their real estate agent licenses. Online real estate courses for agents provide high-quality, effective, and convenient classes to future realty agents, that not only give them the most up to date information on real estate but also the best preparation for the State Real Estate Exams.
Basic Digital Photography Guide – Easy to Understand
Today is digital era. Digital cameras are now being more produced than analogue cameras. With its easiness and low cost in developing, many people buy digital cameras.Compact cameras are mostly used by traveler. It is fully automatic. Just press the shutter and you have the picture.Well, if you want to start learning photography, it is better to use a camera that is not fully automatic (at least there are P, A(or Av), S(or Tv), M shooting mode).
>A or Av is the Aperture priority mode, here you could set the aperture.
S or Tv is the Shutter Speed priority mode.
In the Manual mode (M), you can adjust both Aperture and Shutter Speed.
So, these are the basic: Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO (also known as ASA).1. Basic Digital Photography Guide: ApertureThe aperture or blend opening has the same function as pupil in our eyes. The bigger the opening, the more light you will get.In the front side of the lenses, there are numbers such as f/2.8-f/3.2. This number refers to the blend opening. Small number represents big opening (example: f/2,8 or smaller number) and big number represents small opening (example: f/8 or bigger number).The big opening gives you more light and vice versa. It is very useful to own a lens with big opening especially in low light situation.Beside the light exposure, the aperture also determines the Depth of Field (DOF). Wait a minute… DOF? What is that? Deep of Field determine the sharp area in a photo. The sharp area is in front and back of the focus area.2. Basic Digital Photography Guide: Shutter Speed: Shutter speed determines how long is the light exposure. Logically, the longer the exposure, the more light the sensor will receive.If we want to shoot an object that moving pretty fast, use the high shutter speed, e.g: 1/200 second. Using low shutter speed in such case will not guarantee you to take sharp images of the moving object. The long exposure time normally used to take picture at night or low light condition.A small but fascinating tip: If you shoot streets where many cars passing by at night, you will get a fantastic picture. Try it by yourself.If you want to use the low shutter speed, especially when you take pictures of buildings or steady objects, use a tripod or put the camera on platform that is stable. 3. Basic Digital Photograph Guide: ISO/ASA:ISO is a term which is used for the films (analogue cameras), and today the digital cameras use sensor. But this term “ISO” is also used in digital photography which determines the light sensitivity of the sensor.High ISO speed (e.g: 400 or 800) gives you more possibility to take photos in low-light condition, because the light sensor is more sensitive than the low ISO speed (e.g: 100)In digital camera, the ISO speed can be set manually and automatically.The disadvantage using high ISO speed is noise. It also depends on the size of the camera sensor. The smaller the sensor, the more noise will appear. That is why when you take pictures with DSLR, the pictures seemed to be less noisy than if you use a digital pocket camera.I usually use the low ISO speed (normally 100 or 200), because I want to prevent the noise. In some situation I use ISO 400 or 800.
How to Get the Best Return on Investment for Your Home Improvement Remodeling Projects
A home improvement remodeling project can actually make you money in the long run. Also, there are returns on your investment that have nothing to do with financial gains. The most important thing about remodeling your home is that you should have something in the end that is more valuable to you than it was in the beginning. There are several ways to improve your ROI.
1. Choose the right home improvement remodeling project.
Select a plan that will make a big difference in the value of your home. The two most profitable changes are updating your kitchen and remodeling you bathroom. These are the rooms with the most cabinetry, fixtures, and appliances.
When someone wants to buy your home, they will be impressed by a modern, beautiful kitchen. They will also pay strong attention to a well-designed and nicely-appointed bathroom. Not only will these two home improvement remodeling projects add to your home’s money value, but they will increase its intrinsic value to you as well.
2. Do not make mistakes.
If you spend extra time and money doing the job, you may end up with a huge investment in the project. Your home improvement remodeling job will only improve your situation financially if you spend less doing the project than the value you gain from the results. Sometimes extra costs can run up when you make mistakes in doing the job. You might buy the wrong supplies, break the supplies you get, or install them incorrectly.
However, hiring a home improvement remodeling company will assure that the job gets done right the first time. It may appear that you are getting the job done for less when you plan it out to do it yourself. Yet, if you have many false starts and wasted materials, you will probably profit more from using skilled remodelers in the first place.
3. Make sure you finish.
Many people start home improvement remodeling jobs only to leave them half-completed. Perhaps they do not have the spare time to do the work required. They might not make the financial commitment to getting the job finished. Maybe they just lose interest in the project.
For whatever reasons, there are large numbers of homeowners who have partially done projects making parts of their homes nearly unlivable. If you have started a project and do not see an end in sight, it is probably time to hire a home improvement remodeling company to finish it for you. They can put their full concentration on the job rather than having to think about it after work like you do. There is no shame in seeking help; the only shame is in leaving your home in chaos indefinitely.
Your home will bring more money on the market if your home improvement remodeling projects are completed, and completed meticulously. If you have the skills, ability, time and desire to plan a project, start it and keep it going through to the end, you may be able to make that return on investment a reality. If so, you can make it better, both in the increased price your home is worth and in the value you get from you home while you live there. If not, it is a good idea to think about hiring a home improvement remodeling company to help you out.