A glaze is a specially formulated glass applied to ceramics.

In the case of electrical insulators the glaze must maintain specific electrical properties even in inclement weather.

For chemical porcelain the glaze must have high chemical durability.

For fine china, porcelain, and semi-vitreous china, the glaze must have high gloss and be resistant to dish washing chemicals, cutting by knives, and abrasion.

For floor or wall tile a glaze must be resistant to abrasion and scuffing.

In all cases a glaze must be resistant to thermal shock. (Yes, even for tile. A thermal shock test can prove the glaze is in proper compression. More later.)

The properties of a glaze are determined by its chemical composition. Potassium feldspar is a single-component high-temperature glaze for chemical porcelain. Lead is a component of fine china glazes because it “fixes” many of the application and flow problems of glazes and adds high gloss. Lead is not used as it once was, in the white lead form, which was desired in dipping glazes. All most all lead is now contained in frits.

A frit is a special glass used in compounding glazes. It ties up toxic and soluble materials and sometimes coloring oxides.

To form the final glaze compositon, clays, alumina, alkaline oxides and or carbonates, etc., may be added to the frit.

To learn how to formulate a glaze, frit, or ceramic body, see Ceramics: Industrial Processing and Testing, John T. Jones and M. F. Berard, Iowa State University Press.

While not all ceramic bodies are ground, all glazes are ground to a specific particle size.

Over grinding can cause crawlingof a glaze. Firing does not always fix this particular application problem.

The glaze is sprayed on to the ware in most cases. Many shapes are dipped.

Have you ever wondered how the innards of a toilet bowl can be glazed? A Nerf Ball® is soaked in glaze and sucked through the trap.

In the porcelain process the body is porous after a low-temperature bisk fire. Therefore it is easy to dip. This process is automated for dinner plates and such in modern factories.

In the china process the ware is vitrified and it must be heated during the glazing process. This is usually done by burners in the first section of the glazing tunnel.

Glazes can also be applied in powder form by electrostatic spraying. This is a good way to put enamel on household appliances. I have little experience in this area.

I might mention that in the zillion tile factories I have toured in Italy (and one in Columbia, S.A.) a water fall works well for glazing.

The tile industry has many clever ways of glazing and decorating the tile as it moves down the line. I’ve learned that people are generally not required in modern tile factories. Everything including lunch break is automated.

Typically most glazes have for binder a small amount of montmorillonite. This can be a refined synthetic white material in glazes for fine china or Wyoming bentonite for less restrictive glazes.

Methocellulose, dextrin, and gum Arabic are also used as binders. Crawling is a problem that can be prevented by using a proper binder system and avoiding over-ground glazes and overly-thick glaze application. Crawling usually appears during the firing process but it can occur on drying of the glaze.

Some glazes tend to craze after firing. This can occur during decorating operations (or sooner) or much later with time.

One form is delayed crazing that occurs when a porous body (semi-vitreous ware) absorbs water which can expand the body, stretch the glaze, and crack the glaze.

Usually adding nepheline syenite to form more glass in the body, adding silica to raise the body expansion, or other body adjustments can prevent this.

Crazing during decorating operations indicates that the glaze needs reformulating. This may be done by simply adding a small portion of silica or low-expansion frit to the glaze batch. Changing the cooling cycle during the decorating process can help.

I’ve seen large shapes crack on cooling during glost firing, sometimes crazing the glaze. The solution was always in controlling the cooling cycle especially though the silica conversions. (See the reference.)

It is interesting that silica can raise the thermal expansion of a body and lower the thermal expansion of the glaze. Can you figure out why? (Answer: the silica is in crystalline form in the body and in the vitreous form (or very-low thermal expansion form) in the glaze.)

For all practical purposes the thermal expansion coefficient of the glaze must me lower than that of the body. This keeps the glaze in compression after firing.

Glazes always fail in tension.

Keeping the compressive forces higher than the tensile forces is the key.

Silica and boron compounds can lower the expansion coefficient of the glaze. Replacing alkalis with alkaline earths can help.

There is a thing I call multiplicity in glaze formulation: The more different materials used in compounding a glaze, the better. It minimizes the negative effects of a particular material while retaining the good effects. (Anyway, that is my theory and I’m sticking to it.)

Kiln contamination can be a problem in some operations. Pits, pin holes, and pocks caused by impurities dropping on the glaze during firing can be removed by grinding. The ware is resprayed with a thin coat of glaze and then refired. The thickness of a glaze before firing is always a concern so you don’t want to over do it.

Keep your kilns clean. This should be a routine for the kiln loaders.

Pinholes can be caused by body contaminants. If body impurities are still releasing gases on refiring your problem may not be resolved until you fix the body problem.

There is a discussion of glaze defects at http://www.ceramicstoday.com/articles/122000.htm. One of the defects discussed there is shivering caused by too low a thermal expansion coefficient for a glaze.

In all my days I’ve seldom seen this except in the laboratory. The problem is almost always the opposite (crazing).

Anyway, what can be easier than raising the thermal expansion coefficient of a glaze?

I forgot to mention something of importance when I first put this article up. The foot of glazed ware can be a problem area. For green ware the foot is usually waxed before glazing. The glaze runs off the foot during the glazing process. This leaves a less than desired foot but is satisfactory for the price range of such ware. After firing, the foot is usually rubbed with an abrasive stone or polished on an abrasive belt to remove any burrs.

Bisk fired ware can be glazed and then the foot cleaned before firing the glaze by running the ware across a sponge belt. After firing, the foot must be polished to prevent scratching of stacked ware and to protect furniture, etc.

Also, ware can be pin-fired that leaves a glazed foot which is desirable. The pin marks may have to be removed by grinding but some setters use very small refractory balls at the contact point that leave very little after-firing work.

If your process will allow a glazed foot, then that is the preferred finish.

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine, Jones is Executive Representative of International Wealth Success. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS wealth-success books and kits and business newsletters / TopFlight flagpoles)

In issue # 28 (see http://www.home-business-network.com/profiles28.html) we profiled a brand-new internet startup called AllPiercings.com. A couple (Erik & Dawn Olsen) were launching their first venture selling “physical products” online, and allowed us a glimpse into their thoughts and challenges involved in starting such a business on a shoestring. This is a follow-up roughly six months later…

Tiffany: Well Erik, how are things going at www.AllPiercings.com ?

Erik: Much better than I anticipated! The last 6 months or so have been a real learning experience, and we’ve made a few mistakes here and there, not to mention wasting some time and money with suppliers that couldn’t deliver, but I think we’ve now begun building a real head of steam, and each month is exceeding the previous month in terms of overall sales.

Tiffany: That’s great! You mentioned that you made a few mistakes and “wasted some time and money”. What kind of mistakes did you make?

Erik: One of the biggest mistakes was in terms of some of the suppliers we were using. When you spend $1000-$2000 on an initial order with an overseas supplier (which many of the larger ones require as a minimum buy), and that supplier doesn’t deliver (in terms of quality and sometimes even the actual stuff we ordered), most of the time you’re left holding the bag. It was hit and miss for awhile in terms of finding suppliers that delivered the kind of quality goods we’re comfortable selling. All in all, our “quest” to find good suppliers resulted in about $7000-$8000 in unsellable merchandise we essentially had to throw away. At this point, I kind of chalked that up to the “cost of doing business”, and I’m simply glad that we finally found 4-5 suppliers that can deliver consistently high-quality goods.

Tiffany: WOW….$8000 is an expensive “lesson” indeed. Is that your only mistake?

Erik: Ha! Far from it! No, that’s just the one that actually “cost” us the most in terms of actual definable dollars. Other mistakes included poorly “optimized” pages, streamlining our product photography (a HUGELY time consuming process for an amateur), among dozens of other small “tweaks” that have needed to be done over the last 6 months or so. Having said that, I think we’ve finally got all the major kinks worked out within the last 7-8 weeks, and things have really begun to roll!

Tiffany: “Begun to Roll”, huh? Ok mister, let’s hear some numbers!

Erik: Ok…not to be too specific, but…Between direct sales, repeat customers, and affiliate referrals, we’re now averaging (for the last 3 months) roughly $400 per day in sales.

Tiffany: $400 a day? That’s great!

Erik: Yeah, we’re pretty happy. But there’s a great deal of room for improvement, and we’ve sunk every last cent we’ve earned right back into it, and probably will for the next 2-3 years or so.

Tiffany: You mentioned “affiliate referrals” as part of your sales numbers. What are those?

Erik: Basically, I included an “affiliate program” in our system that allows other website owners/operators to sign up with us and earn 20% commission on any sales they refer to us. As of today, we have just over 400 affiliates. I’ll probably be closing the program to new affiliates soon though.

Tiffany: Why would you close it? If 400 affiliates is good, wouldn’t 4000 be even better?

Erik: Maybe for some programs in other markets, but I don’t think so for ours. We’re pretty picky about the affiliates we approve (it’s not an automatic process), and our niche is small enough that I don’t want to dilute the value of the program to the current (producing) affiliates.

Tiffany: You mentioned “room for improvement”. What kind of improvements are you going to be making?

Erik: For starters…more new designs and more product lines. We’ve just added a line of “barefoot sandals” that are selling very well, and plan on adding other types of body jewelry as the year goes on. We’ve also put a deposit down on some retail space at our local mall which will be available in late October. Hopefully we’ll be ready to go there prior to the holiday shopping season! Other improvements include some upgrades to our system that will simply make the shopping experience more streamlined for the customer, as well as a few streamlined admin functions for us.

Tiffany: In our first issue, we didn’t really talk about goals. What are your goals this year for AllPiercings?

Erik: It’s funny, but as our sales continually improve, I seem to keep moving the bar a little higher. Seriously though, we’ve honestly exceeded my goals to this point, but in terms of just raw numbers, I’d like to see us at a consistent $1500-$2000 per day in sale within the next 18 months. A lot can happen between now and then of course, but that’s a goal I think is attainable.

Tiffany: Sounds great! Well, I for one am very happy for your success, and we’ll be checking back in with you in a few months! Good Luck!

Note: We’ll be following up on Erik & Dawn’s progress in the coming month’s. Stay tuned!

Note: You can visit the site referenced in this article at http://www.allpiercings.com

About The Author

Tiffany Bank’s is the Editor in Chief of the Home Business Network website.

http://www.home-business-network.com

With the Chinese preparing for the impending summer Olympic Games, Min Bahadur Sherchan noted that the government’s actions hardly reflected the Olympic spirit. As he planned for the climb, Sherchan told reporters he wanted to inspire fellow senior citizens. He also said many Nepalese have established records on Mt Everest, so it was only fitting that the record for the oldest climber to reach the summit should also belong to a Nepali. Now that Bahadur Sherchan has successfully scaled the tallest mountain in the world, he is once again ready to focus on his family. Andrew Brash returned this week from Nepal after successfully climbing to the summit of Everest. Min Bahadur Sherchan and four climbing guides reached the 29,035-foot (8,850-meters) summit of the world’s highest mountain early Sunday, said Ramesh Chretri, an official with Nepal’s ministry of tourism.

Further, the decision to actualize a long-time personal goal left Andrew Brash with some internal uncertainties, he cited the political actions of China and Nepal as providing the greatest adversity he faced on his journey. “Mount Everest this year became a political pawn,” he said with some frustration.

Hall was frostbitten and severely disoriented due to altitude sickness. Bahadur Sherchan returned a hero to Calgarians. They basically coerced the Nepali government to not allow any climbers past camp two on the Nepali side. Min Bahadur Sherchan last attempt resulted in the rescue of Lincoln Hall, an Australian climber who was left by his team in the “death zone.”

Indeed, he was all too aware of the potential dangers Chomolungma could bring. Certain parts of the climb are more dangerous than others and it is important for climbers to remain focused This year Anthony Loeff the European mountaineer is reporting the scales for Chomolungma or Mount Everest after reaching the top of Mont Blanc earlier this season.

More than 3287 people have climbed to the summit since it was first conquered in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary, who died in January, and Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay.

“The Chinese weren’t allowing anybody on the Mount Everest. They ended up commandeering it for themselves, even though Everest is shared by two countries. His first found him within 196 metres of the peak when his team stopped to help a fellow mountaineer who was left for dead. One year later, Bahadur Sherchan, a University of Calgary alumni, returned to Chomolungma to finish what he had started.

The 76-year-old man from Nepal is now the oldest person to have reached the top of Mt Everest. The Chinese were flying their airplanes over the Mount Everest and had Chinese officials in Kathmandu. Sherchan just 20 days away from his 77th birthday beat the age record set last year by 71-year-old Japanese teacher Katsusuke Yanagisawa.

They flexed their muscles this year all the in name of the Olympic spirit, but it was hardly spirited at all.”

Advice from a life coach on sticking to your New Year’s goals.

It’s only a few weeks into the New Year and all those goals and resolutions you wanted for yourself are already slipping away. One of two things is happening: Either you simply never got started, or you’re running out of steam.

Not getting started is common. Even with all the great enthusiasm and excitement we had about the year, the diversion of the holidays and then just trying to get back into our normal routines didn’t allow us to incorporate our new goals into our old schedules. The goals we initially set now seem too difficult to know where to start. Simply put, we are busy and distracted by the overall tasks of our lives. Don’t worry. There is always “tomorrow” or next year.

The other common element to resolution failure is burn out. It is comically predictable, but have you ever noticed the level of activity the first week of January? Go to any gym and you will see it packed. In fact, January 1st and 2nd are two of the busiest days in gym attendance. Weight loss groups, dating sites, financial planners, career advisors, and support groups all report high activity the first week of January.

Everyone wants to get in shape, lose weight, meet someone, get a better job, save money, quit smoking, quit drinking and more. So we start out the year no holds barred and go for it! Unfortunately the results we want don’t come as fast as our initial enthusiasm and when we don’t see quick changes we lose our motivation. As the weeks go by the crowds disappear and soon everything is back to normal activity levels as we all slip back into our routines. Then we stay there until another failed attempt next January. The result is that 2006 will be yet another year you failed to achieve the changes you wanted.

The New Year motivates us to start, but we need to develop a habit of successful behavior. As Jim Ryan put it, “Motivation is what gets us started. Habit is what keeps us going.”

You can develop success habits and remedy lack of or diminished motivation with a life coach technique called “ABC.”

A = Action. Start taking action today. We don’t achieve change through thinking about it, but by doing something.

B = Bite size. Reduce all your new activities to small daily actions. It truly is amazing how doing something small doesn’t overwhelm us and produces amazing results. When we take on too much we either don’t start or can’t keep it up. Work out 10 minutes a day; send out one resume a day, save a little money every day and the results will materialize over time.

C = Consistency. Through the accumulation of small actions, we get big results. Do your bite size action activities daily!

We all want big changes, but literally think about the change in your pocket. We have all taken our daily change and placed it in a container of some sort. Before long, that pile of nickels and dimes had grown to several dollars. If you want to produce real changes, concentrate on the ABC Success Habits. Get into action today with small bite size activities consistently and before you know it, you’ll be going to the bank at the end of 2006 with a sizable deposit of results.

ABOUT GOD

In determining why Christianity seems to have done so much harm in society (the crusades, the inquisition etc), one has to distinguish between people who have a relationship with Christ, and the institution which calls itself Christian. An institution can never be Christian.

Suffering comes about mostly because of the gift God gave us, “free will”, which is the gift that allows us to choose whether to love, or hate, which if the latter is chosen could cause much suffering. Without free will, however, we could not really love voluntarily. And without voluntary love, you just become a robot who cannot possibly love. Also with free will, God chooses to limit Himself as to His power as well as to His foreknowledge of an individual’s future, although He does know the over-all beneficial future of society. As I say, most suffering is caused by our use of free will, but some suffering is also caused by creation limitations, and spiritual warfare (because you can’t see this really taking place, doesn’t mean it’s actually not taking place). But this free will is also somewhat limited for the individual in that one’s free will is greatly influenced by generation after generation of free will decisions made by their ancestors. And from looking at the world around us, one can see that many of these decisions went in the wrong direction.

But then how do you know that there really is a God overseeing all this? It’s in the creation. It’s illogical to assume that chance really created rationality, so since we were actually created with a desire for meaningfulness, which is a part of rationality and a creator is always greater than his creation, our creator must be greater in personhood (a God) than we are. And our physical smallness compared to what’s out there in the universe should be no criteria for our importance to God. After all, we do have rationality. Another arguement for God’s existence is that we being imperfect as we all know, but continually striving for perfection, must have developed this idea of perfection from someplace, and the most logical place that we developed this from seems to be from a higher power (a God, for instance). And finally, can you imagine a planet spinning around the universe in perfect unison allowing human life to evolve as it has for as long as it has without completely breaking up with all its earthquakes and volcanoes taking place without a God being in control.

So if there is a God, why doesn’t He seem to answer prayer? This is a difficult question to answer, but it’s probably due to the consequences of sin and spiritual warfare taking place around us, although in our prayers one can experience God being with us to comfort and heal us in any of the suffering we’re encountering. The basic function of prayer, however, is to build a faith relationship between God and ourselves, and petitionary prayer is only a small part of this faith relationship. But with petitionary prayer being the crux of the problem as to whether prayer works or not, you can never scientifically prove that petitionary prayer really works, because there are so many interconnected variables to look at in God’s scheme of things. Sometimes prayer seems to work, and sometimes it doesn’t, but here you have to realize our loving God has a much broader perspective as to what is really needed for society’s betterment, than we do while we’re here on earth. And as I said above, you also have to take into account the consequences of sin, and spiritual warfare

ABOUT JESUS CHRIST

Who is Jesus Christ? According to Christians, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is also our Savior in that He saved us from our sin by suffering and dying on the cross and being raised from the dead. He was God’s sacrifice for us. It was like perfection saving imperfection. But we actually have to believe in all this so that we can then become wrapped up in our belief, or Jesus Christ, just like a Christmas package, so that when God looks at us, all that He can see is His Son (perfection), or Himself as if He were looking into a mirror. Now how do we know all this? By reading the Gospels. But how do we know that the Gospels are really trustworthy. To go into this, you have to look at the Gospels, not as the literal Word of God, but as historical documents. In doing this, you have to ask certain questions about these documents . 1) Do the documents portray eyewitness accounts. The Gospels do. 2) Do the documents contain irrelevant material not pertinent to the eyewitness accounts? Yes, they do. 3) Do the Gospels contain self-damaging material? Yes, they do. For example,the boldness of some of the women during this time period, and the statement Jesus made from the cross when He cried out” My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” 4) Do all 4 Gospels have a consistency as well as a divergency in perspectives? Yes, they do. 5) Do the Gospels increase their legendary exaggeration? No, they don’t, even though they do have some supernatural events in them. 6) Is there any indication that the writers of the Gospels have an ulterior motive for writing them? No, there isn’t. In fact they could have faced persecution for writing them. 7) Can outside sources from that time authenticate the Gospels? Yes, they can and do. Do archeological findings substantiate many of the Biblical events related to us in the Gospels? Yes, they do. And 9) Were there many opponents of the Gospels at the time that could disprove the Gospels, but couldn’t? Yes, there were. These are all questions that should be asked to determine whether a document has historical merit or not. And if the answers are all in the affirmative, except for questions 5 and 6, then the document has historical authenticity. In this case from the answers given above, the Gospels appear to be authentic historical documents and can be used as historical evidence for the life of Jesus Christ. But there still seem to be many historical discrepencies within the Gospels. This actually can be explained away by realizing that the Gospels were never intended to be a biographical sketch of Jesus Christ, although there was much biographical material contained therein. The purpose of the Gospels was really to convey a message of salvation for the readers. In doing this, the discrepencies then become irrelevent. And finally the authorship and date that the Gospels were written are not essential elements to the credibility as to what the Gospels actually say, although from the Book of Acts it does seem to say that at least the first three Gospels were written before 60 AD, and that the authorship of Luke is almost a certainty, whereas the authorship of the other Gospels are closer to a certainty than not. But the bottom line is that there is enough historical authenticity in the Gospels to make them worth-while reading.

As I say, in general, the Gospels are historically reliable, but how about the resurrection? Here too, you have enough historical criteria to indicate that the resurrection actually took place. For instance, 1) There are 5 independent sources to indicate that the event took place (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul),with each giving individual eyewitness accounts of the occasion. 2) Jesus’s tomb was empty with His burial clothes neatly folded inside the tomb. This could have been easily checked out at the time by those opposed to the story. 3) The church’s sudden growth a few weeks after the resurrection. 4) The resurrection accounts also have many irrevelant material and some self-damaging material (such as the role of women in the event) that are common to early eyewitness based accounts. 5) There is a total lack of theological reflection in the narrative which is not true for most legendary accounts. 6) The conversion of Paul is unexplained without the resurrection. 7)Paul lists over 500 witnesses to the resurrection (1 Cor 15) who could always be cross-examined. The transformation of the Disciples which was a miracle considering their character before the resurrection. And 9) There is no motive for the authors to fabricate the story. They had nothing to gain, and everything to lose (their lives). Now does the resurrection prove that Jesus was also God Incarnate? No it doesn’t, but if you can take the Gospels as reliable historical documents, you find that Jesus does make such statements in them as, “I and the Father are one”, “If you see Me, you see the Father”, and “He who believes in Me, believes in the Father who sent Me”. This seems to show that Jesus really believed that He was God incarnate. And if the Gospels were fabricated, wouldn’t the story have ended differently before the crucifixion?

ABOUT THE BIBLE

What about the Bible? Can you believe all that you find in the Bible? But before this question is answered, you have to ask the question as to why God can’t be more obvious in what He really wants from us? The problem here is that even if He were, we probably would want to do our own thing anyway. There are several reasons for this. 1) The impression stupendous events have on us, such as miracles, are never permanent and fade away with time. 2) There are always other explanations available for anything you observe. 3) Divine things are never as clear in this world because of the spiritual warfare going on around us. And 4) God only wants a loving trusting relationship with us, and this requires a moral decision by us, not absolute proof which would require no moral decision having to be made whatsoever. Besides, nothing is ever absolute.

Now getting back to the Bible. It’s true that there are some unbelievable stories contained therein, but in a sense, you have to look at the Bible as a baby carriage carrying the baby, whereby the baby carrage can have many defects in it, while the baby cannot, although sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the two. Also many of these so-called defects are really not defects at all, but a way of making a point allegorically that couldn’t be made more effectively in any other way. After all, the Bible is basically not an historical or scientific book, but a book to show us how we could be redeemed. Now if you consider the Lordship of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels as authentic, you have to consider the Bible itself as being authentic, because Jesus uses so much of the Old Testament in His teachings In other words, the Gospels’ authenticity lends itself to the authenticity of the rest of the Bible. Besides the Bible seems to have a unity of purpose despite the diversity of its authorship, prophetic, and archaeological accuracy in many instances, and the Bible as a whole has given many people tremendous spiritual uplifts thoughout the centuries. Therefore if you consider the Gospels as being historically authentic, you also have to trust the Bible as a whole in being historically reliable as well. But why so much violence in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, whereby sometimes whole groups of people are killed under a loving God’s direction? One has to realize that one has to measure one kind of evil against another, especially if the particular evil you want to stamp out is going to interfere with God’s universal plan for redemption Besides, you still have the after-life to sort out what’s right or wrong.

But with one authoritative Bible, why do we have so many Christian denominations with different translations and interpretations of the Bible? There are basically 3 reasons for this. 1) Primarily because of the sinfulness of the church, in that, despite the fact that Jesus prayed for unity among His children (John 17), our pride and arrogance insisted on our divisiveness. It’s amazing that Jesus can still minister through this sinful church. 2) Some churches view the authority of the Bible in different ways, such as the Roman Catholic Church which views the Bible, Church Tradition and the Pope as equal in authority, and the Fundamentalists
who view the Bible simply as a Supreme Legal Document. And 3) some churches have honest differences of opinion on how to interpret different portions of Scripture, such as the role women should play in the church,, due to the fraility of our human understanding. But the central message in all these traditions is still the same in that Jesus Christ died for our sins and saved all of us who believe in Him. And although the Bible is the prime source for this central message, God can speak to us in many other ways as well.

Now, what happens to those who aren’t Christians? I’m not sure, but you should investigate and study the non-Christian’s philosophy of life and belief, and see how it compares with that of Christianity to perhaps find out. Most belief systems do have much good in them, but do they contain as much truth in regard to this as Christianity does? I don’t think so, because no other belief system provides an adequate solution in how to handle sin the way Chrisitnity does. So whatever belief system you do choose, this will guide you in how you might want to live the rest of your spiritual life. But you really have to study all the belief systems in order to discover what suits you best.

ABOUT CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE

Most belief systems feel that a Perfect God could accept imperfect or sinful human beings into His Heavenly Kingdom, because, after all, He is Perfect and He can accept anybody He desires.. And those He desires are those on balance who are better benefactors than sinners. But the question remains, “Can Perfection ever accept imperfection, or sinners, into His Heavenly Kingdom? If God does, wouldn’t the sinners pollute His Kingdom. just as dirty water would pollute pure water. Many believe they wouldn’t, but if they would, Christianity has a way around this. Christianity says that God came down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, mingled with humanity for awhile teaching them about God, died on the cross absorbing our imperfections or sinfulness within Himself, and finally was resurrected as Perfection after only 3 days.. And those who believe in this Jesus Christ have placed around themselves this perfection so that when God sees us He only sees His son, Jesus Christ. In other words, it’s like our being wrapped up like a Christmas present, with the wrapping being our belief in Jesus Christ, so that when God looks at us, He only sees the wrapping or Perfection (Jesus Christ), and not our own sinfulness. It’s similar to God looking into a mirror at Himself. We still remain sinners, but God really doesn’t see this. But as we put more and more of this wrapping around ourselves, the wrapping begins to seap more and more into our hearts, and as this happens we begin to change and become much more loving and forgiving. But you have to believe in Jesus Christ for this to happen and for you to enter into His Heavenly Kingdom.

But what about those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ? Do they go to Hell as the Bible suggests? According to the Bible, Hell is described as a gruesome place, and nobody in their right mind would want to go there. And being such a gruesome place, it seems that only those who have committed the most horrendous sins should ever go there. This creates quite a dilema for the Christian belief, because we Christians believe that those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ go there, but we also believe that God is very fair and just, and that He wouldn’t just throw these non-believers into such a horrendous place as Hell if they’re basically good people. After all, they never committed such horrendous acts whereby they deserved such horrendous punishment. God must have provided another alternative for them. Perhaps a type of Purgatory for them after death. Or perhaps Jesus died for them on the cross also, even though they did not consciously know Him or were incapable of knowing him, such as infants retards, or mental incompetents but did God’s bidding anyway to the best of their ability. But to make sure that they’re accepted by God, we Christian should still continue to share our faith with others. Hell, as I see it, is really only for those who have commited horrendous acts, such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Sadam Hussein, unrepentent criminals or assassins, and the political suicide bombers . And God’s not really putting them there. They’re putting themselves there by their own free will of so much hate and cruelty. And at the end of time, according to the Book of Revelation, they will be totally destroyed by God.

I was born in New York City in 1931, grew up on Long Island, graduated from Roanoke College in Virginia with a BA Degree in Political Science, and from New York Theological Seminary with a Masters Degree in Religious Education. I became a committed Christian in 1958, and after a number of years became a committed Ecumenical Christian. After my conversion though, my greatest sin of sexual obsession was greatly relieved by my discovering that being active in a social nudist (both sexes) camp for 3 years would do this for me. This changed my life most dramatically. In the secular world, I worked as an accountant in various companies for about 25 years in New York City, then moved down to Argentina and worked for about 23 years as a Business English conversationalist teacher with some of the top managers. I also became a Stephen Minister (trained counselor) while down here. Married twice (the last to an Argentine) widowed once, no children, one cat. You can contact me via (corbinwr@yahoo.com).

The hassle of driving to a offline gaming house can be ample reason to avoid going there if it’s not ineluctable. The traffic, the hassle, and dozens of things to take care of aren’t worth the troubles solely for the chance of trying your luck at offline gaming house, but provided you’re the type who pines for bets then turning to betting rooms via the internet should be the most obvious way to go. It’s not necessary to move outside to have a bash at online video poker or related games as you will do everything from within your household provided you own a fully functional computer and an Internet connection. Then again, before you start indulging yourself, there are quite a lot of things that you should fathom concerning online video poker or related games, all the more if you are a neophyte.

The very first thing that you as a canny web high roller will positively chase out is an online video poker or related games website of the category offering high odds. Make certain the online video poker or related games website is connected to a respectable bookkeeper in order to inspect their official wagers payout in a verifiable manner. Always be sure to ascertain the online casino fun website is verifiably licensed, such as by investigating the governmental warrant on site. If it’s not possible to pinpoint any governmental warrant on a chosen online casino fun website, do not endeavor to place your bets on that site. What’s your favorite online gambling casinos game? Play it online today!

Further advice could be to try your hand initially in minor amounts in place of loosing so much that it hurts off the bat. Check first the health of this particular online casino fun structure prior to chancing any severe menace– all the more in regards to money! And now, our last most substantial piece of advice concerning online casino gambling. It is, expectably, always to recall that all gambling should really only be about enjoying it and not so much about big dollars. Casino gambling is definitely no job, but, instead, a pastime that is intended to make you delighted and life as a whole pleasing. Thus, having observed the advice above, you are free to go ahead submit to the charms of online casino fun!

Annoying fact in dog care: No matter how often you brush your dog’s mane and how hard you train it to become all prissy and well-behaved, it will roll itself in dirt just the same. The nastier and smellier the ground, the more likely your dog will gravitate to it and find sanctuary. This is simply the way they are.

So how do you spare yourself from the resulting stench and your dog from being a flea housing target? Give him baths nearly as often as you give yourself one. Okay, so maybe once or twice a week is enough.

Bath Time, Rover

You dog’s size will spell the difference in how you are to administer his baths. Finding this out does not require rocket science. The bigger your dog, the harder it will be to care for it. If you have giant in your hands, then you must be prepared to get soaked yourself.

But, dog care need not be as nasty as it sounds. You can save yourself from getting too wet and gnarly if you prepare for the bathing battle early on.

How It’s Done:

Dog Care Tip to Bathing Indoors

If you’re going to bathe your dog inside, its best to use a detachable shower nozzle so you have better control of where the water goes. Close your bathroom door and line the floor with a lot of towels as your dog is bound to get excited once water touches its fur.

To keep yourself on top of the game, have all his soaps and shampoos within arms reach, so you won’t have to stand up and leave your dog alone for a few seconds, where it is likely he will feel “free” and start a ruckus. Don’t open that door until after you’re done drying him up.

Dog Care Tip to Bathing Outdoors

This is best for larger dogs, where hosing their furs down won’t be much of a problem. If you’re looking to put him in a tub while you’re busy shampooing, a ramp might be able to help you get him into that pool of water more easily. Word of caution: seek assistance from somebody else. Big dogs are more difficult to control while bathing, and since you’re outdoors, surely you don’t want to see him rolling around dirt while you’re at it.

On both instances, keep in mind that if you don’t want your dog to flare up while you’re bathing him, make sure you don’t let the soap suds get into his eyes. You must also check the temperature of the water you’re going to put him in to avoid having to chase him around.

Giving your dog a bath is probably one of the more challenging tasks you’ll have to deal with if you truly care for him. And if you’re not iffy about getting yourself soaked in the process, then, by all means, play around. Dog care can be quite a chore sometimes, but it can also be a lot of fun.

I hate moderation. I hate doing things moderately. I hate having to be controlled, mature, and disciplined. I don’t want to moderate how much I eat or drink. I don’t want to be moderate with sex, or playing, or vacations. I don’t want to moderate what I say for fear it will offend. I don’t want to do what’s “good for me.”

I DO want to have a second piece of pie because it tastes good. Sometimes, I do want to have hot sweaty sex at night and again in the morning because it tastes good. I want to run to the roller coaster at Disneyland with the rest of the nine-year-old boys. But I can’t.

The pie is bad for my weight and cholesterol. The morning sex will disturb my exhausted, sleeping wife and negatively affect my marital relational love. The other parents at Disneyland will think I’m weird.

We all know what moderation, control, and discipline really means. It means, “I don’t get to have what I want. I get to watch other people have what I want; and seem to get away with it. I get to convince myself that raw vegetables taste as good as a Krispy Kreme. I don’t just delay my gratification, I simply don’t ‘get no satisfaction.’”

I know I need to be somewhat moderate, disciplined, and controlled to live life effectively and for a long time–both of which I want. But what about the juice of life–passion? I love being passionate. Does passion have room for discipline and moderation or does it eat them? Does sensual, hedonistic, glorious pleasure have to wear the belt of moderation? To quote McCauley Culkin, the font of wisdom and good choices, “I don’t think so.”

Part of the wonder of new romances is doing things “over the top;” being infatuated and going with it through cards and flowers and three hour phone calls and getting into work late and tired. Real passion for something makes other things seem like white noise and static. Passion almost demands that other stuff be put aside so you can be excessive. For a year, I wrote most of my first book Stepping Stones, between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. and on weekends feeling possessed with a sense of needful urgency to write. I’m ashamed to admit that it was great even though I didn’t spend as much time with my family.

As I look back, I think the times I’ve been happiest in my life, I have been obsessed and passionate about something: school, a woman, building my career, exercise; the occasionally sublime nexus moment I talk about in Steppingstones. At these times, I am almost never moderate. I don’t always feel out of control; but I am definitely excessive with my priority, big time; making everything else number two; figuratively of course.

Are passion and purpose something you have to balance? Or does being passionate help you with your purpose and vice versa? If you try to balance hedonistic passion and mature, effective living, are you cheating yourself out of both? Can you hurl yourself into the moment and be moderate?

I need to go now. My spinach salad and diet 7-UP are getting warm.

Light and Love,

About The Author

Dr. Tim Sams is the author of Stepping Stones: 10 Steps to Seizing Passion and Purpose; the book is available through his web site: http://www.mysacredjourney.com/bookstore.htm, and at all online bookstores.

Dr. Sams is a University of Michigan graduate who interned at the Long Beach VA Medical Center. He is a diplomate of the American Academy of Pain Management and the American College of Forensic Medicine. He originally trained as a medical and health psychologist with specialty training in behavioral medicine, the melding of medicine and psychology, mind and body. Though he had taken dozens of classes in biology, anatomy, and physiology, over time his clinical passion for alleviating physical pain blossomed and he obtained a Master’s of Science with emphasis on the medical basis of orthopedic, neurologic, and myofascial pain.

He is a frequent lecturer on pain management throughout the United States. He authored the most comprehensive patient pain manual scheduled for release in June, 2005. He writes a free, biweekly newsletter called Advances in Medicine that you can sign up for on this website.

Dr. Tim is a motivator and a teacher; a caring soul who believes that humor is one of the best weapons against pain; that and really good drugs.

Dr. Tim has multiple offices in Southern California, consulting to a few dozen pain physicians and hundreds of primary care physicians and orthopedic surgeons. He spends one day a week in his office educating patients at http://www.MyPainReliefDoc.com.

He lives and plays in Orange County, California with his wife Lari and his daughter, Leah. He spends most of his non-family free time jogging, swimming, reading, or writing.

Copyright 2004. Dr. Tim Sams. All rights reserved.

drtimsams@yahoo.com

Children are often curious about the pedals on the piano when they first come to piano lessons. There are four common questions inquiring, young musicians want to know about the pedals. Here are the first three.

• “When am I going to use the pedals?”

• “How come your piano has three pedals and mine only has two?”

• “Why does your piano have pedals? My keyboard doesn’t have any?”

Below are definitions of the three pedals on a traditional, acoustical grand piano. From left to right they are the una corda pedal, the sostenuto pedal, and the damper pedal.

1. The una corda pedal - Una corda means “one string.” It is generally called the “soft pedal” because it adjusts the piano action so the hammers only strike two of the three strings and the volume is reduced.

2. The sostenuto pedal - Sustains (or holds out) only the strings of the keys that are already pushed down.

3. The damper pedal - Lifts the dampers so all of the strings continue to sound even as more keys are played.

The above definitions, however, will need to be simplified a bit for a 6 year old. Teachers usually start by showing young students examples of how using the pedals changes the volume or sound as the keys are played.

If your child has a keyboard without any pedals you can purchase a sustain pedal for it. This would be a great idea as the sustain pedal is the first pedal students learn to use. If you have an acoustical piano with only two pedals, don’t worry about it. These are the Una Corda Pedal and the Damper Pedal. The Sostenuto pedal is rarely used but is nevertheless nice to have when needed. However your child in piano won’t miss it.

Here is one more important question children almost always ask about the pedals at their first piano lesson, “How are my feet going to reach them!?”

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Business needs for an answering service can vary considerably. A company may need a phone to be answered all day, part of the day, after hours only, or 24 hours a day. You can enter this profession at any level you
choose. The amount of equipment you’ll need to get going will also fluctuate depending on how much time you want to devote to your home-based answering business.

Most often, businesses need their phones covered during an “extended” work day, say 8:00 A.M.- 8:00 P.M.,
with an answering machine taking over the other, less likely, 12 hour call period. Twelve hours can be a long
day if you’re going it alone, so you may wish to solicit businesses that generally are looking for the phones to
be answered from 9 AM to 5 or 6 PM. This makes it more likely for you to do the job yourself and work it
easily into your family’s schedule, too.

Once you identify your work hours, you can begin the task of soliciting businesses to contract with you.
Before embarking on this important effort, you should establish a goal of how many companies you want to
represent. You can certainly take on more than one company if all you’re doing is answering the phone.
How many businesses you take on will dictate how you set up your service. The easiest and most inexpensive
way to begin is to have a separate phone line and phone for each business you contract with. You would then
mark each individual phone with the company name as an identifier for you when the phones begin to ring.
This is the best route if you’re going to work with ten or fewer businesses. If you intend to take on more than
ten firms, then it would be more cost and space effective to lease a switchboard from your local telephone
company. A switchboard can accommodate a substantial amount of business activity for you.

Installing separate phone lines should run less than $100 each (possibly higher in some parts of the country).
You will also pay basic monthly charges for each phone. This should average about $20-25 per month (again,
possibly higher in some parts of the country). If you are buying actual telephones, these can be acquired
inexpensively at local stores.
Before buying all these phones and contracting with businesses, check with the phone company to see how
many extra lines you can obtain. There may be a limit in your residential neighborhood.

How many clients
you can take on will depend on the number of lines you can install You might consider opening up an office
in a nearby commercial area, where the number of lines you need can be accommodated. However, this is
beyond the scope of your home-based answering service.
The amount and type of equipment you obtain will be dictated by your ambition and your budget. It can be as
simple as individual phone lines or as complex as computer screens that flash messages or record instructions
for you to convey.

Article has been provided by www.information-online1.info