blog 2 life

titleGreat Drum Handling Techniques For The Care Of Your Drumset/titlepDrum handling is the most important step in preserving the life brof your drumset. There is nothing better than having a drum kit brthat is aesthetically pleasing to the eyes as well as deliveringbrgreat tones. It does not matter how old or new the drums maybrbe. An old and tired drumkit can practically look brand new with brsome minor changes. Lets not forget the tonal qualities that can brbe enhanced with a few adjustments./ppGetting that clean look/ppStarting with the drum set, there are things that can be accomplishedbrin getting that clean look. First, depending on how new the drums are,brit may be just a matter of dusting off the drums with a soft cloth. For abrmore thorough cleaning, clean all chrome and drum shells with a mildbrsolution of soapy water and rub until clean. To give them luster, wipebrwith a mild polish for a clean shine available at a local hardware store./ppCymbals can be cleaned with a cymbal polish-cleaner or glass cleaner brand cloth. After cleaning, wipe with a cymbal protector to repel brfingerprints and sweat. Use a mild solution of the soapy water also brfor the drum hardware and cymbal stands. Occasionally lubricatebrthe bass drum and high-hat pedals to alleviate any squeaking noises./ppTonal qualities/ppTo achieve great tonal qualities, check both top and bottom drum brheads or batter heads, for indentations from drum sticks and cracks brfrom over tightening. Check to see if the drum head is right for thebrstyle of music to be played and tuned appropriately. There are many brchoices of heads to choose from./ppStorage and transportation/ppStorage and transportation of drums is probably the most crucialbraspect of protecting the instruments. Exposure to extreme cold orbrheat can damage the drum shell. Drum cases provide great brprotection from these elements. Though drum cases can be brexpensive, depending on the brand and quantity, its worth the brmoney spent. If cost is an issue, covering the drumkit with thickbrand heavy blankets will work well. The drum set can receive brunwanted dents and scratches if not properly handled. Again,brdrum cases provide the best protection./ppCare must be taken with cymbals and cymbal stands. Forbrcymbals, there are choices of hard and soft cases. The hard brcase made of durable plastic material is suited best for brprotection. The soft case is great but has less absorption brto shocks. There are cymbal stand cases available but dobrnot provide much protection from scratches. A way to get braround this, either with a cymbal stand case or duffle/sports brbag, is to separate each piece of cymbal and drum hardware brfrom each other with carpet pieces, blanket, or any lightweight brmaterial that will prevent metal to metal contact./ppTake pride/ppTake pride in the ownership of your drumkit by giving it thebrcare and protection that it needs. Everything from drum sticks brto drum cases, they all must be maintained. These simple brtechniques are what every drummer should know to prolongbrthe life of their drum kit and be able to enjoy many hours ofbrdrumming./ppAbout the author:/ppThaddeus W. Johnson is a writer, professional drummer and drum teacher who enjoys providing tips and valuable information for online shoppers of the best a target=_New href=http://www.megadrumsets.com/index.htmldrum sets/a such as the a target=_New href=http://www.megadrumsets.com/Pearl1.htmlPearl drum set/a. Also, for further interest are related products and topics such as a target=_New href=http://www.megadrumsets.com/Ludwig.htmlwoods for drum sets/a./ppC 2006 Thaddeus W Johnson/pbrbr

titleNFL Owners To Vote On New Hair Rule for NFL Players - Hair Must Be Under Their Helmet/titlepSelf expression is something that us Americans cherish and hold dear because frankly, we are one of the few country in the world that allow you to do what you want, wear what you want and have your hair as long as you damn well please./ppThis whole long hair controversy started last year when Chiefs running back superstar Larry Johnson tackled Pittsburgh Steelers safety Pro Bowler Troy Polamalu (who has probably the most recognizable hair in the NFL) by yanking on his hair and pulling him out of bounds, it was a sight to see and looked pretty damn painful, but you could make the argument that Larry Johnson was doing everything he could to make the tackle. On the other hand, it was pretty brutal and unnecessary in most peoples eyes./ppWell, next week all the NFL owners are getting together to discuss what rules they would like to enforce this season and the hair tackle will be one of them. This rule will not require to any football player like Polamalu to actually cut his hair (God knows how much trouble that would cause), but it will require him and all the other NFL players that have hair that cover the name on the back of their jersey to keep their hair in their helmet in what ever means possible./ppIf this rule does get votes from all or the majority of the NFL owners and get put into affect, you can expect some very mad NFL players like Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Maurice Jones-Drew over in Jacksonville and Robert Gallery with the Oakland Raiders. There will be a lot of unhappy players and may be even protests or some players even sitting out (doubt it, but very possible)./ppGet all the latest a target=_new href=http://www.raidernation4life.blogspot.comOakland Raiders/a news, highlights, rumors and more at my blog a target=_new href=http://www.raidernation4life.blogspot.comRaidernation4Life/a/pbrbr

titleWhy Arent You Using the Best Skin Care For Wrinkles?/titlepWhats the most effective skin care for wrinkles? Well, theres this new wrinkle cream on the market. Its being advertised everywhere, but it takes the wrong approach./ppFor years, we were told that habitual facial expressions caused wrinkling. So, women would walk around trying to remain expressionless, trying to keep their youthful appearance. Botox injections were developed to paralyze the facial muscles, so that we couldnt make those expressions that make us human./ppWe have been told that skin care for wrinkles should include avoiding the sun or the regular use of sunscreen. Now, a large portion of the elderly suffers from vitamin D deficiencies. We get vitamin D from the sun./ppSo, that highly advertised new wrinkle cream contains ingredients that are supposed to paralyze the facial muscles and block UV radiation from the sun, a two in one approach, so to speak. Its being advertised as a safe alternative to Botox injections, even though the active ingredient has never been fully evaluated for safety./ppAccording to recent reports from dermatology researchers, the cause of wrinkles, as well as the other signs of aging, has little to do with habitual facial expressions. They are caused by free radical damage and the sun is only one factor that encourages radical production./ppTheres another new wrinkle cream that addresses free radical damage by including powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants control free radicals, deactivating them, preventing them from doing any damage, at all./ppIt turns out that older skin cells produce more free radicals and contain fewer antioxidants. So, if you really want effective skin care for wrinkles, you need to supplement./ppWe take vitamin, mineral and other health supplements every day, because we know that the food we eat may provide less than an adequate amount of nutrients. But, until recently, many of us never thought about the needs of our outer body./ppThe best new wrinkle cream on the market includes all of the nutrients that the outermost layers need. It contains the nourishment that allows for new cellular production and new collagen growth./ppThe antioxidants coenzyme Q10 and vitamin E, the protein keratin, the B vitamins, calcium, sodium, iron, potassium, essential fatty acids and moisture are the nutrients necessary to prevent wrinkling and repair the skins cells. Clinical studies have proven that this is effective skin care for wrinkles and nothing could be safer./ppYou wont find the best new wrinkle cream in department or drug stores. They dont advertise it on television. But, its worth the time and effort that it takes to look for it. Research results showed a 160% increase in new skin-cells after only three days of use, up to 40% reduction in wrinkles in less than 30 days and some other interesting results./ppThe creams are so healthy that old scars fade and blemishes disappear. Conditions like dermatitis, eczema and acne improve. Most creams on the market cause more problems than they solve. Finally, we have skin care for wrinkles that really works and a healthy product that anyone can benefit from./ppJoan is a natural health enthusiast and researcher with a keen interest in skin care. She is a regular contributor to a target=_new href=http://www.good-healthy-skin-site.comhttp://www.good-healthy-skin-site.com/a - a site dedicated to natural anti-aging skin care treatments./pbrbr

title10 Full Proof Methods On How To Lower Your Pay-Per-Click Costs Today!/titlepIts hard to advertise with pay-per-click marketing if you dont know what you are doing… But with the tips and tricks Ill share with you in this article will help you increase your ROI, increase your INCOME and easily make more money with Google, Yahoo or MSN! Read on to find out more./ppInteresting Tip #1: Finding the correct market to begin with… This is super essential for you to get going with your marketing. Without a market you cant sell anything and no money will be made, period./ppInteresting Tip #2: Having the correct keywords to target the correct people who are ready to buy your stuff right then and there. These are words like buy, review and things like that. Also if the product name is included, thats an added bonus!/ppInteresting Tip #3: One keyword per adgroup… This is something that most people just doesnt do… They put too many keywords in each adgroup and get slapped.. you dont want to do this! Period!/ppInteresting Tip #4: Keyword in the adtitle… just place the keyword in the adtitle and see what happens. Also if theres space, try to use a (?) after it. so its keyword?… this work really well because they just searched for something and you are kind of asking if they just searched for that by adding the ? at the end./ppInteresting Tip #5: Keep keyword at least once in the adbody and separate a keyword thats 3 words long in different orders, so its like dog training manual use Training Your Dog With This Manual itll still be bolded and not penalized for spamming/ppInteresting Tip #6: Keep clean content on your landing page that is highly relevant to your ad… you mat also want to use dynamic keyword insertion, but thats far too hard to cover in this article… Its a super trick that slices your costs in half, big time./ppInteresting Tip #7: Use the content network.. Yepp. Thats right, once you know how to do this right youll need to turn on the content network in order to make stuff happen and make it happen big. Youll instantly recieve tons and tons of clicks at very, very cheap prices once you do this, because you are now seperating your keywords effectively!/ppInteresting Tip #8: Get even better with content network and use Placement targeting! Knowing how to make money with placement targeting is like printing money on demand… Ive had as high as 68% conversion rates for my Clicks to Leads… and only pay $0.07/lead… Thats crazy right? Get to know the game, let me tell you!/ppInteresting Tip #9: Collect names and e-mails to collect leads like crazy.. This is something you must do in order to make sure you are able to crank out the most from your campaigns. One lead can easily become $15,000 in a matter of days… simply put… the more leads you get the more creative you can become and the more money youll make./ppInteresting Tip #10: Set your adbudget higher than you think youd spend… Do this because youll increase your ads visibility, thus driving more traffic and since you now know how to make these leads super, super targeted youll be able to set your adspend so high off the charts you wouldnt believe it./ppNow you know ten interesting tips you can use to boost sales and conversions, lower your cost/click trememndously and get more bang for your buck 100% guaranteed!/ppa TARGET=_NEW href=http://www.lazymilliondollars.comMake a Million Dollars/a online and learn why marketing with Pay-Per-Click is the best thing youll ever do online… Literally exploit the inside of a lazy millionaires head in order to explode your profits through the roof! Thats -a target=_new href=http://www.lazymilliondollars.comhttp://www.lazymilliondollars.com/a - Go there now or miss it forever– its still free!/pbrbr

Social marketing has the potential to drive huge amounts of highly targeted traffic to your site in a short space of time. However, if you want to make the most of the opportunities provided by social marketing there are certain steps that you must follow. So here are the five more important things to bear in mind when constructing a social marketing campaign.

1. Pimp Your Profile

Most social sites allow you to add a wide range of personal details to your account profile. Now although it may seem like a good idea to add the bare minimum and move on, you should resists this temptation at all costs.

Empty profiles with nothing more than a username and website address suffer from two massive problems. First, they don’t allow other people to decide whether they have anything in common with the owner of the profile and second, they look spammy.

The whole aim of social networking is to build relationships. Within 8 seconds of seeing another person, humans subconsciously decide whether they like that person or not. Subsequently, they focus on looking for clues, such as things that they have in common with the other person, that will justify their initial impression.

The only way to provide other people with these “clues” is to fill your social profiles with as much interesting information as possible. Every piece of information will provide an additional relationship hook and help to paint a more accurate picture of who you are. So spend time making your profile look as good as possible. Add your picture and include details about your interests, favorite music, books, quotes etc.

Let’s face it, how can other people get to know you if you only provide a generic username such as “SuperBob” or “Magicbeans”? People who see an empty profile will move on to look for other people who have taken time to add extra information to their profile.

But don’t turn your profile into a sales pitch. If there is a section that allows you to enter your website address, select one of your sites that is most relevant to the profile that you are creating but don’t go any further. People don’t like to be sold to.

Focus on getting to know people. Build relationships, provide helpful advice and if people are interested in what you have to offer they will find out about it and the sales will follow.

2. Provide Quality Content

One of the main reasons people go online is to find information. So if you provide poor quality, badly written information anyone who sees it will just move on.

You’ll struggle to build relationships, your reputation will suffer and at worst, your input will be regarded as a form of social spam.

So focus on providing top quality information and advice that will provide genuine worth for anyone who reads it. Ideally, your content should be so good that it stands out from the crowd and leave people wanting to read more of your work.

Keep asking yourself, “If I didn’t know any of this, would I want to read it?”. And this advice applies wherever you are adding info to the web. Whether you’re adding info to your site, posts to a forum, comments to a blog or details to a social network, focus on adding value to the internet.

3. Personalize Your Communications

Whenever possible, make sure that your messages are tailored to the people who are receiving them.

So when you send out friend invites to people in the social networks, add a short message. Include their name, show that you have at least looked at their profile. Try to find some common interest that links both of you. Make them feel that you are genuinely interested in them and what they have to offer the social community.

When you reply to forum posts, reply specifically to the points that other people have already made in the thread. The same applies to comments left on other people’s blogs or social network profiles.

When it comes to building rapport, it’s the small details that count. Anything that you can do to show that you are a real person, with real thoughts and feelings will help to build lasting relationships.

4. Remain Consistent

All relationships have to be nurtured and social marketing is no different. There’s no point making a massive effort to build relationships with people in the online community for four days and then disappearing for months. If you want to build a following, develop a reputation as an expert in your subject and maintain your position as a leading member of your online community, it’s vital to spend time using your chosen social networks on a regular basis.

Social marketing is a long term game, where consistent interaction will always be more successful than sporadic bursts of activity.

5. Guide Your Visitors

Once you have developed a reputation and built up a following within a social network, it’s important to move the social marketing process to the next stage.

The ultimate aim is to guide your followers away from the social networks and back to your site where you have more control over the content that you provide and the offer that you make.

There are several ways that you can achieve this transfer without making it look blatant.

If you produce brilliant content, some people will take the trouble to discover who you are and then visit your site.

Another method is to create a two part article. Post the first article on one of the social networks and the second article on your site. At the end of the first article include a link for people to get more information.

Alternatively, some social networking sites allow you to create groups of people based around a specific subject. Once you’ve build up the number of people in your group you can use the communication feature to keep in touch with them and tell them about new content that you’ve added to your website.

Guide people with information and advice, then guide them gently to your site. If you give them top quality info for free, most people won’t object.

Social Marketing Manifesto will break the whole process down to manageable daily chunks of one hour sessions, guiding you by the hand, step by step on how to get your main websites flooded with traffic, prospects and customers. If you want a step by step strategy for your social marketing campaigns then visit http://www.socialtrafficmanifesto.com/blog

Following are some interesting facts about leopards.

1. Leopards are the most successful and cunning among big cats. They put their intelligence to good use in their hunting activities.

2. Like most cats, leopards are solitary creatures that hunt mainly at night. They rest during day usually in trees and come down at night time.

3. Leopards have a very beautiful coat with a tawny background and rosettes, that aids them in camouflage. Their coat is distinct from that of Cheetah and Jaguar.

4. The Snow Leopard is a most remarkable cat that operates in extremely difficult terrain and climate conditions at the top of the world - the Himalayas.

5. The Clouded Leopard has the longest canines amongst cat species.

6. The Amur Leopard is one of the most endangered animals in the world.

7. The Bornean Clouded Leopard is one of the most significant newly discovered mammalian species.

8. Leopards are masters of stealth and extremely difficult to trace and locate in the wild.

9. Pound for pound, leopards are the strongest among big cats.

10. Leopards are the best tree climbers amongst big cats and are capable of taking prey that is twice their body weight, up a tree.

11. Melanistic variants among leopards - black leopards - are known as panthers.

12. Leopards are territorial animals and regularly mark and defend their domain against intruders.

13. Man-eating leopards always operate at night since unlike tigers they never lose their fear of man and only enter human territories in the cover of darkness. This makes them very difficult to counteract.

The author is a blogger about cats and an expert on leopard facts

Science writing is one of the most exciting niches in journalism–science writers get to travel, meet intelligent and interesting people and report on new developments from the dramatic and groundbreaking to the quirky and peculiar. Science writers may specialize in one of the traditional natural and physical sciences–biology, geology, physics, and chemistry–or write about anthropology, archeology, medicine and health, engineering, space and planetary science, mathematics or the environment.

Breaking into the science writing field can be daunting due to the scarcity of mid- to low-range markets, but the field is rewarding. You don’t have to have a science background to be a successful science writer. John McPhee, famous for his lyrical geology articles in The New Yorker (some of which are collected in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Annals of the Former World), studied English, not geology. If you do have a science background, that can help you, but overcoming your training to use technical language may be an obstacle.

Education

While almost every writers’ organization seems to offer travel writing courses, science writing courses are rare. Health and medical writing courses are most commonly taught, but colleges and universities occasionally offer more general science or environmental writing courses. Be sure to look carefully at the instructor’s publications before deciding whether to take the course. Seminars on science, environmental and medical writing are sometimes offered at regional or national conferences. These courses and seminars can be a great introduction to the field or help you polish your skills.

Some science writers, particularly those aiming at a staff position, may find a graduate degree is the way to go. Graduate degrees are expensive, however, so consider your options carefully. Some respected science and medical writing graduate programs are offered at MIT, Columbia, University of California–Santa Cruz and Boston University.

Professional Organizations

Several professional organizations provide networking opportunities and resources for science writers. Many offer discounted student membership, and some resources are available to nonmembers.

• National Association of Science Writers
• American Medical Writers Association
• Society of Environmental Journalism

Joining local and regional organizations can also be a great way to network.

Read All About It

In addition to the basic freelance writing books, these books for science writers provide more specific information about everything from finding stories and markets to tips for conveying complex technical information clearly.

Ideas Into Words: Mastering the Craft of Science Writing, by Elise Hancock (2003)

This slim book leans more towards craft than marketing, and provides a solid and enjoyable introduction to how to write about science.

A Field Guide for Science Writers (1st ed.), eds. Deborah Blum and Mary Knudson (out of print)
A Field Guide for Science Writers (2nd ed.), eds. Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson and Robin Marantz Henig
These two editions have very different content, and both are a mine of information for the aspiring science writer. They cover different markets and types of writing in detail, with contributions from leading science writers.

Finding Markets

Everyone knows about the big general science magazines like Discover and National Geographic, which are prestigious and pay well, but are also hard to break into. Mid-range specialized magazines like Archaeology and Astronomy may be better targets for some, but they don’t have equivalents in all science disciplines.

Fortunately, many magazines accept science stories with the right angle. A forestry magazine might be interested in an article on how a study on bird ecology impacts forest management. Alumni magazines frequently publish articles about science by professors or alumni of the institution. Ecotravel is a booming trend frequently covered by travel magazines.

Don’t discount other ways to make ends meet–writing about science for nonprofit organizations, private labs, and businesses is the bread and butter of many science writers, if less glamorous than being a staff writer for Discover.

Break In!

As with any other writing niche, science writers can break in with good, timely writing and perseverance. So research those markets, start sending queries and don’t give up!

Melissa Barton is a freelance writer and editor, specializing in science and travel writing. She’s written about science and health for magazines like Geotimes, Student Health 101, the Colorado College Alumni Bulletin and for nonprofit and government organizations. Visit her online at Rosetta Stones Freelancing (http://www.rosettastones.net).

Many organizations that promote the interests of individuals with learning disabilities claim that Albert Einstein had a learning disability, and this claim has become widely accepted.

It is interesting to note that a review of biographical sources, however, provides little or no evidence to support this assertion.

According to LD lore Einstein failed to talk until the age of four, the result of a language disability. It is also claimed that Einstein could not read until the age of nine. To strengthen their case LD proponents point to such facts that Einstein failed his first attempt at entrance into college and lost three teaching positions in two years.

While this makes a nice story, this widely believed notion is false, according to Ronald W. Clark’s comprehensive biography of Einstein, and according to “Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein,” a biography by Abraham Pais (Oxford University Press, 1982).

Pais states that although his family had initial apprehensions that he might be backward because of the unusually long time before he began to talk, Einstein was speaking in whole sentences by some point between age two and three years. According to Clark, a far more plausible reason for his relatively late speech development is “the simpler situation suggested by Einstein’s son Hans Albert, who says that his father was withdrawn from the world even as a boy.” Whether one accepts this interpretation, other information helps us to judge Einstein’s language abilities after he began to speak.

Einstein entered school at the age of six, and against popular belief did very well. When he was seven his mother wrote, “Yesterday Albert received his grades, he was again number one, his report card was brilliant.” At the age of twelve Einstein was reading physics books. At thirteen, after reading the “Critique of Pure Reason” and the work of other philosophers, Einstein adopted Kant as his favorite author. About this time he also read Darwin. Pais states, “the widespread belief that he was a poor student is unfounded.”

FAILING HIS COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMS

True, Einstein did not pass the college exam the first time he took it. However, aside from being only sixteen, two years below the usual age, the plain fact was he did not study for it. His father wanted his son to follow a technical occupation, a decision Einstein found difficult to confront directly. Consequently, as he later admitted, he avoided following the “unbearable” path of a “practical profession” by not preparing himself for the test.

It is also true that, after graduating from the university, Einstein had difficulty finding a post. This was mainly because his independent, intellectually rebellious nature made him, in his own words, “a pariah” in the academic community. One professor told him, “You have one fault; one can’t tell you anything.”

Also true is that Einstein went through three jobs in a short time, but not because of a learning disability. His first job was as a temporary research assistant, the second as temporary replacement for a professor who had to serve a two-month term in the army. Clark remarks that it is “difficult to discover but easy to imagine” why Einstein held his third job, as a teacher in a boarding school, for only a few months: “Einstein’s ideas of minimum routine and minimum discipline were very different from those of his employer.”

In his article “Was Einstein learning disabled? Anatomy of a myth,” (published in 2004 in the “Skeptics Society & Skeptic Magazine,” a revised version of an article that originally appeared in the March/April 2000 issue of the “Journal of Learning Disabilities”) Marlin Thomas concludes: “Given the meager basis for the claim that Einstein was learning disabled, one has to wonder why it has become so accepted. Part of the reason is the encouragement it gives all of us to know that even geniuses have shortcomings. The claim also enhances the prestige of learning disabled individuals. Any marginalized group benefits from having one of its members be a stellar figure in cultural history. These may be salutary, but the consequence of claiming that Einstein was learning disabled without historical evidence is harmful. It distorts the historical record and it questions the credibility of other claims regarding the learning disabilities of prominent persons.”

Visit Susan’s website Audiblox for more information on learning disabilities.

This article can be freely used as long as a link to “Audiblox” (http://www.audibloxinfo.com) is provided.

Reputation is very important on the Internet. Whether you created a Web site for business or personal use, you need to amass a certain amount of popularity in order to achieve your goals. In truth, many individuals today, especially businessmen, who are looking for ways to increase their coverage on the Internet, must maintain an interesting profile to catch the masses’ attention.

Rather than concentrating too much in propagating your links on the Web or filling up your site with keywords to make it search engine compatible, you might want to look into the possibility of using social networking sites on the Internet to be successful in this project.

Why Social Networking?

If you want to increase your popularity on the Web, then you need to let the online masses know of your presence on the Internet. Since your aim is to let every single one of these individuals know about your site, you might want to directly communicate with them to achieve this objective.

Social networking is one of the services being offered on the Net that will let you do just that. You can join an online community composed of millions of members that you can directly interact with without looking up their email address to send them your best regards.

These sites require no extra cost on your end to join. You can use search engines to look for assorted social networking sites that you can use to increase your online reputation. Once registered, fill up your personal profile and give your own page a whole new look to make it interesting to the rest of the community.

Increase Your Contacts On The Web

One benefit of this service is the ability to add people to your contact list to increase your network. You can look them up one-by-one by using the search function found in the site for members who have the same interest, or business, as you.

You can add them to your group to increase your reputation, since the contacts of those you added can also access your site when they see your name on their contact’s list. The more people you add to your profile, the bigger your online coverage would be.

Come Up With An Interesting Profile

Since other members in the community can also add you in the same manner, you need to ensure that your own profile is interesting enough to catch their attention.

Come up with a design that best reflects your personality and site content. You can integrate audio and video streaming functions directly onto your page to attract more people to your little cubbyhole on the Internet.

You might want to set up a complete profile so that other people will be able to determine whether you are worthy enough to be on their list or not. In most cases, people in social networking communities will invite other members that coincide with their own personal interests into the group.

http://conbuzz.com — Social Networking

Vanessa A. Doctor from Jump2Top - SEO Company

For the most part, I think that spells can be a valuable way to “act” out your anger, resentment, bitterness or jealousy. The very act of doing a spell can make a person who feels powerless or victimized, feel at least briefly, for at time that they are somehow in control of the situation again. I have found the following “freezer” spells to be quite satisfying to do, if you find yourself somehow dumped, oppressed or just plain wishing for some kind of psychological torture to stop. I am not completely sure if these spells or not, but when someone does me wrong, the first thing that pops into mind is the frosty insides of my refrigerator.

I love these spells because they fall under the category of corny spells, trailer trash wiccanary and because they originate from such an emotional, passionate and old style of witchcraft. Yet at the same time they are very modern because they make use of the fridge. Technically too, they fall under the category of black magic because they are revenge spells, and represent the desire to control another person.

Being somewhat of a collector and connoisseur of corny spells, trailer trash wiccanary and any ritual that allows you to “act out your feelings” without necessarily hurting anyone, I thought I’d share them with you because they are a few of my favourites. Some of them have been sourced from Lexa Rosean, author of the Supermarket Sorceress who is a master of Kitchen Witchery. Still I think the important thing about a freezer spell is to start with the basics and then make it your own. I know one natural witch, (a famous Canadian singer in fact) who knows nothing about freezer spells, yet every time she gets mad at someone, she writes their name on a little piece of paper, twists it up and throws it in the freezer to “make it stop!” I discovered this one day when I was groping through her freezer for some ice cream and a flutter of little pieces of paper fell out to the floor. When I asked her about it, she told me her intuition had told her to put the people “on ice.”

The essence of a freezer spell is about time. The idea is to stop something in its tracks. Freezer spells also fall into the category of binding spells, as often their purpose is to paralyse an offender. They are used for protection, but mainly for REVENGE! Here are a few of my favourites.

THE BASIC ICE CUBE TRAY SPELL: This is all-purpose and what I like about it is that you can use magical ingredients to sweeten or sour the mix before you chuck it in the freezer. Basically, you take twelve small pieces of paper and write down the names twelve people or situations who have not been very nice to you or who have irked you or done you wrong. Think of twelve people who have been hostile to you, or who have a bad attitude towards you or who have behaved as obstacles to what you want in your life or career. Now stick these twelve pieces of paper in the ice cube tray compartments and add a little sugar, or honey to sweeten up their attitude towards you.

You could also add a few other things as well if you wanted - a little dill or parsley powder for improved communication, orange water for joy or rose water to increase loving vibrations. Then you fill the rest of the tray with water and stick in the freezer. I like this spell because it is relatively innocent and is persuading others to think of you kindly and not to harm you. A more vengeful version of this spell would be to add substances like vinegar (to sour their experiences) cigarette ashes (to cause depression) or horseradish (to cause arguments.)

If your resentment is directed towards a particular individual, perhaps a male who has dumped you for some one else you might consider doing this IMPOTENCE spell. While shopping for the cucumber at your local vegetable store, try and find one that resembles your ex-partner’s actual member when it is erect. At the very least this will get you giggling. Then carve his name and his birth-date into the flesh of the cucumber and throw it into the freezer. It will start to go soft and wither after a few weeks, and while this happens, imagine him and the sweet young thing that he betrayed you having conversations like “I swear this has never happened to me before.” “It’s ok. I understand.”

The ultimate freezer spell however, in terms of sheer nastiness, is this BREAK THEM UP freezer spell in which you write the offending couple’s names on a piece of paper (if you don’t know the name of the person coming between you write “unknown rival”) You put the pieces of paper in a Tupperware container along with a piece of rotten fish, fill it with water and freeze it. Fish are symbols of fertility and happiness, so the ultimate purpose of this ritual is to have the two lovers become turned off from each other. One person, who tried this spell, told me she laughed her head off, when her boyfriend came back to her and complained that his new lover had terrible B.O. I haven’t tried this one myself, but she says it worked. Lexa Rosean also boasts success with this one.

I can’t guarantee these spells work, but if you are too chicken to enact some real revenge (like turn the person into the I.R.S.) these little rituals at least satisfy a desire for “petty revenge”.

Samantha Steven’s articles have been published in many high-standing newspapers and she has published several books. If you wish to buy Samantha’s books about metaphysics click herehttp://www.insomniacpress.com/author.php?id=110You can meet Samantha Stevens at http://www.psychicrealm.com where she works as a professional psychic. You can also read more of her articles at http://www.newagenotebook.com