Choose What You Want to Believe

By Abiola Alatishe

Whatever you do in life,
Try to remember that nothing is too big to achieve
And nothing is too small to ignore,
Hang in there, even if it's with the last thread
It is well.

You may be on life's path
Not having an idea how and when you'll get there,
The most important thing is that you have a sense of direction,
All you have to do is to take each step one at time,
And you'll get there.

The idea behind life is about meeting people,
The beauty of live is loving people,
The essence of life is about making impacts,
The joy of life is leaving footprints in the sands of time.

Have a wonderful relationship with God,
And know where he wants to place you in life to function,
For without him,
You are nothing.

On your journey through life,
Absorb everything you hear,
But choose what you want to believe.

For a Reason

People always come into your life for a reason, a season and a lifetime.

By Brian A

People always come into your life for a reason, a season and a lifetime. When you find which it is, you know exactly what to do.

When someone is in your life for a ‘reason’, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, or to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or even spiritually. They seem like a godsend to you, and they are. They are there for a reason, you need them to be there. Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they just walk away.

Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand. What we must realise is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a ‘season’, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season. And like Spring turns to Summer and Summer to Fall, the season eventually ends.

‘Lifetime’, relationships teach you a lifetime of lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (anyway), and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas in your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Selfless Friendship

By Baxter Black

Friend is a word that I don’t throw around
Though it’s used and abused, I still like the sound.
I save it for people who’ve done right by me
And I know I can count on, if ever need be.

Some of my friends drive big limousines
Own ranches and banks and visit queens,
And some of my friends are up to their neck
In overdue notes and can’t write a cheque.

They’re singers or ropers or writers of prose
And others, God bless them, can’t blow their own nose!
I guess being friends don’t have nothing to do
With talent or money or knowing who’s who.

It’s a comfortable feeling when you don’t have to care,
About choosing your words or being quite fair.
Cause friends will just listen and let go on by
Those words you don’t mean and not bat an eye.

It makes a friend happy to see your success.
They’re proud of your good side and forgive all the rest.
And that ain’t so easy, all of the time,
Sometimes I get crazy and seem to go blind!

Your friend just might have to take you on home,
Or remind you sometimes, that you’re not alone.
Or ever so gently pull you back to the ground,
When you think you can fly, with no one around.

A hug or a shake, whichever seems right
Is the high of giving, I’ll tell you tonight,
All worldly riches and tributes of men,
Can’t hold a candle to the worth of a friend.

Staying Positive

Happiness can boost your productivity, motivation and ambition

With increasing pressure to achieve results, understaffed teams and uncertainty about the future, happiness at work can be hard to sustain. But there are a number of things that managers can do to stay positive, perform to the best of their ability and deal with new challenges as they make their way up the career ladder.

Avoid the two-year itch

Managers are at their happiest and performing best, during the first two years at an organisation, and after that their performance and positivity tends to drop significantly. Managers can avoid this danger zone by seeking out new challenges and taking on new responsibilities to keep them stimulated and motivated.

Develop skills for the future

Before you reach the two-year mark in your organisation, find out training or qualifications are on offer and talk to your boss about how these may help your career progression.

Develop a vision

To develop a vision, you need to analyse the environment in which you work, forecast how it will develop, and you are to where you want to be.

Find your optimum stress level

While too much stress can have a negative impact, a certain amount is actually a key ingredient for the happy manager and their team. The challenge for managers is to keep stress at the right levels.

Master your workload

Focus on developing the skills you need to break down your tasks and conquer your to-do list. Softer skills, such as goal-setting and delegation, will help you to get things done in an efficient way.

Keep an eye on your team

The happiness of your staff is a reliable indicator of their performance, so be sure to act on any signs of unhappiness amongst your team. — The Guardian

9 Google Search Tricks

Use these cool shortcuts to find things better and faster

Not many users know the little tricks that can be used to get more out of a simple Google search. Following are the top nine Google search tricks:

1. Use the ‘site:’ operator to limit searches to a particular site. It is particularly handy because many sites’ built-in search tools do not return the results users are looking for, and some sites do not even have a search feature. If you are looking for Google related posts from UltraSpectra blog, for example, try this search: Google site:ultraspectra.com.

2. Search within numerical ranges using the ‘..’ operator. Say, for example, you want to look for information about Nepali blogs and their progress 2009 till 2010, you could use this search: ‘Nepali Blogs’ 2009..2010.

3. Use Google to crunch numbers by using its built-in-calculator — try entering a calculation like 110*(654/8+3). Yes, your computer also has a calculator, but if you spend most of your day inside a browser, typing your calculation into the browser’s search box is quicker than firing up your calculator app.

4. Get quick currency conversions through Google, simply by typing in the two currencies. For example: Type 5,000 Pakistani rupees in dollars to get the result. However, it only has the more mainstream currencies.

5. Use Google as a spelling aid. Entering a word into Google is a quick way to see if you have the right spelling. If it is incorrect, Google will suggest the correct spelling instead. Additionally, if you want to get a word’s definition, use the ‘define:’ operator to return definitions from various dictionaries (for example, define: blogging).

6. Use the ‘or’ operator. This can be useful when you are researching a topic but are unsure which keywords will return the information you need. It can be particularly handy in conjunction with the ‘site:’ operator. For example, Google Or ‘Google X’ site:ultraspectra.com.

7. Find out what time it is anywhere in the world. This one is really handy if you want to make sure that you are not phoning someone in the middle of the night. Just search for ‘time’ and then the name of the city. For example, try: time Islamabad.

8. Exclude specific terms with the ‘-’operator. You can narrow your searches using this operator. For example, if you are looking for information about UltraSpectra but do not want any discussion related to Google, you could try: ‘ultraspectra.com’ – google.

9. Search for specific document types. Google can search the web for specific types of files using the ‘filetype:’ operator. If you are looking for PPT files about blogging, for example, you could try: ‘blogging’ filetype:ppt.

Some Interesting Google Tricks

If you search "Who's the cutest" using Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky," it will say "YOU ARE"

— Milan Aryal (@MilanAryal) October 20, 2013

If you type "Google gravity" and then hit "I'm feeling lucky" on Google the entire page will lose it's gravity and you can play with it.

— Milan Aryal (@MilanAryal) October 16, 2013

You can use Google as a timer by typing "Set timer (x) minutes" into the search bar.

— Milan Aryal (@MilanAryal) October 11, 2013

If you search "askew" in Google search, the page will tilt slightly clockwise. Try it now.

— Milan Aryal (@MilanAryal) October 10, 2013

If you type in any flight number into Google you can see exactly where the plane is.

— Milan Aryal (@MilanAryal) October 8, 2013

When you search for 'Tilt' on Google, it will make the search results page tilt slightly to the right.

— Milan Aryal (@MilanAryal) May 14, 2014

Post by Milan Aryal.

Right Now is Okay for Happiness

The truth is, there’s no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when?

We convince ourselves life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the children aren't old enough and we’ll be more content when they are.

After that, we’re frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. The truth is, there’s no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when?

Your life will always be filled with challenges. It’s best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. One of my favourite quotes come from Alfred D Souse. He said, “For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin — real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life”.

This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time... and remember that time waits for no one.

So, stop waiting as it is time to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So as Randall G Leighton says, “Work like you don’t need money, love like you’ve never been hurt and dance like no one is watching.”

Candy Crush Life Lessons

There are so many lessons for our lives in random candies falling in a game.

By Marianne

If you have a smartphone, tablet or Facebook, you’ve probably played the game Candy Crush Saga. I fell prey to it about a month ago using it to relax at the end of a long work day. It’s fun, it’s relatively easy (or it was), it’s often frustrating and it has hidden rewards when you least expect it. That’s if you play it mindlessly. Once you begin to understand the game, everything changes. As I was playing the game, it reminded me that life is the same way. It’s fun at times, often frustrating and has hidden rewards when you least expect it. Once you understand the game of life, the strategies that help you design your life the way you want it, everything changes.

There are so many lessons for our lives in random candies falling in a game. Here’s what I learnt —

• Just like the candy falling, events good or pad, people happy or otherwise, fall into our lives right from the start. We can’t control what or who shows up. We just have to keep playing the game of life. What we can control is how we react to them. We can get frustrated and give up, or figure things out and keep playing.

• As we start to play (grow), we learn. Three of a kind forms a row and it drops out. If we want to win the game, we must be looking to eliminate those things that stand in the way of success, whatever that means to us.

• Jelly means stuck! For many levels of the game, the goal is to remove the jelly. In life, we need to come up strategies to help us get unstuck too. We just need to gather the ones that work for us.

• As we go through levels (grow up), life gets tougher. The good news is we get smarter — if we practice. If we keep noticing what works, if we learn. Learning is the key. It always has been. If we stay mindless we can still play the game and occasionally win, but we don’t get as far as we could and it can be a very stressful journey.

• Those special rewards can be repeated over and over once we figure out how to make them happen. Some give you great power in the game hust as in life. They’re like great strategies. You come into life without knowing the best ones for dealing with stress, relationships, health and money. You can stumble on great ones every now and then and feel lucky. Or you can learn them from books, TV shows, from someone who’s figured them out and use them in your life so that you take charge of how to make your life easier and more successful.

• You can ask for help. After you’re played a certain amount of time, the game has beed designed to stop you. Now their goal is to have you so hooked, you’ll pay to go to the next level. Or you can ask friend, usually on Facebook. I love that. I’ve never paid. I can wait till it lets me play again. I choose to be patient. In fact, I’m grateful that it stops me so I don’t spend too long playing games no matter how much fun or additive they are. I have a business to run and while I can justify a few minutes distraction, I certainly can’t let it use up too much time. I haven’t asked a Facebook friend for help yet but I like knowing I could. People would help me — at first. As long as I helped them when they needed it and didn’t constantly pester them with requests. Same as life. Help a friend when you can, but don’t take advantage of that friendship.

• Don’t forget the goal. In the game you’re looking for three of a kind, for special candies but if you forget the goal of the game, you lose. And you lose quickly. Whether it’s to remove all the jelly the candies are stuck in or to bring all the fruit home, you’ve got to keep your eye on the finish line. You can play the game of life with no goal but you won’t get where you want to go. You’ll be blown about like an airplane without an autopilot or GPS. You life will be an endless game of maybe, an often frustrating one.

But if you know your goal, if you learn and use strategies along the way, if you’re patient as obstacles pop up — and they will both in the game and in life — you can really enjoy the process as you go along the journey.

A Personal Relationship

"for every step we take closer to God"

By Claude Pitout

In life we are all searching for something and in life there is something we all need and may be lacking, we live our stressful lives in search of wealth for temporary comfort and worldly desires in search of pleasure, yet there is something we all need and are lacking. The thing I feel we all search for and may be lacking is love, the greatest command was to love God and I say be loved by Him in return, we all search to love and be loved, through a personal relationship with God we come to find love, not only is God love but we begin to love God and God loves us in return, finding the highest form of love.

In order to have an experience with God one does not necessarily need to live a religious lifestyle or have to go to church but that rather through talks, prayers and communion with God one can form and have their very own personal relationship with God their dad.

“A personal relationship” is based around and rooted in belief, faith and love and helps one to learn to trust and rely on God on a day to day basis in your life. In order to be in right relation with God and to live and experience the fullness of God’s favour and blessings “A personal relationship” teaches one the wisdom of the importance of a path of goodness, to be a good person and to always give out and do good, it then takes you into the principle to love one another as we wish to be loved in order to be in right relation with God. A personal relationship with God does not matter what religion, faith or path you are from as all the streams of a river but lead to the ultimate source God and as a personal relationship should be the base to any religion, path or faith as “are you just religious” or do you truly have a relationship with your God.

In the above picture I have used the two wolves to show you the relationship that we have with our father, the older wolf I relate to being God and the younger wolf I relate to being us, the older more wise wolf rests his chin on his sons neck which to me shows the protective nature of God over us while the younger more innocent and curious wolf looks on into the wilderness with a playful nature, the picture to me symbolises the relationship that we have with God our father, a relationship of father is to son, while we go out into life “the open wilderness” God our father who is more wise protects us from the open wilderness “the dangers in life that we have to face and may also come across”.

A personal relationship with God is a one on one personal experience that we have with God our father and dad and can be done in a quiet moment where we find the space and time or even when we find a peaceful moment like watching the sun set over the ocean, there in this space and time, there in a peaceful moment we enter talks and prayers with God where we get to know and experience God on a close and personal level and God likewise gets to know and experience us on this same level in the comfort of our own home, not in any congregation or gathering.

The book “A personal relationship” by Claude Pitout is now available to purchase from the various online bookstores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble or it can be bought directly from the publishers site at a reduced rate FeedARead.com, the book can also be bought from your local bookstore given the title, author and ISBN code, the ISBN code for the book is 9781782992875, there is an ebook available to purchase from Amazon, Kobo or Scribd.

You are welcome to like my books Facebook page “A personal relationship” for more information or you can also join me on Twitter @ClaudePitout, If you would like to view your opinions and experiences you can join my group on Facebook “Spirituality, A personal relationship” devoted to the root of spirituality being and devoted to a personal relationship with God. My website is : claudepitout.wix.com/spirit.

About The Author

Claude Pitout found he had a close connection with God from a young age whom he likes to call his dad giving him the strength to cope with his troubles in life, through his difficulties and in his relationship with God finding not only a father but friend in God. Claude grew up in an abusive home with a father who drank excessively and which his drinking often resulted in rages and outbursts, yet Claude held strong to his faith in God, trusting in Him always bringing Claude this friend and father in God. Today Claude has been delivered by the hand of God from many of his life’s challenges and would like to share with others who may be going through similar difficulties in life or whom simply may be seeking an experience and relationship with God. Claude would like to share through his writing the lessons he has gained through the wisdom of personal experience in order to help others to cope with the difficulties in life and then to seek a relationship with their father and dad, God

May God always be with you

This is a guest post by Claude Pitout. He can be contacted through ghostinusa@msn.com, claudepitout.wix.com/spirit.

A New Dawn for the iOS

After the unexpected drop of the long-time Apple iOS executive Scott Forstall, people have been keeping on what the next version of the iOS will bring. Now under senior vice presidents Craig Federighi and JonyIve, the iOS has changed a lot. The newest installment to the iOS family, the iOS 7 brings a whole lot of change in terms of functionality and design. The iOS is much whiter and with more flat look and the icons have a more 2D feel to it than its predecessor, iOS 6, with its glasslike smooth icons. The iOS 7 brings a lot to the table than any of its previous updates. And although there have been numerous complaints about the battery life and installation problems, iOS 7 still proves a worthy foe to its mobile OS competitors.

Apple has decided to drop most of its older generation phones like the iPhone 3GS and iOS 7 and only supports iPhones 4 and above. Although there have been numerous complaints about the performance of iOS 7 or iPhone 4s, there seems to be no problems with iPhone 4S and above. The first thing iOS 7 users will notice is the new feel to the iOS 7, unlike any other iOS. Apple has decided to get rid of its old flux-glass icons and have reverted to more basic, color-prioritized flat icons. The applications have lost most of textures and now provide a basic streamlined design. No more of the notepad feel to the Notes app and no more of the rich black leather or the brown wood textures. This flat user-interface feel more like a mobile app and makes it easier for the user to concentrate on the more important buttons and content of an app. The latest version of the iOS has been known for its Android and Windows 7 Phone-type features, like the Android-styled control center or the Windows Phone animations. There are plenty of features on the iOS 7 that you won’t find on any of its competitors.

Turning on your phone will introduce you to a more Android Ice Scream Sandwich-type of lock screen that seems to have done away with the thick bars and the realistic slider. Now you are greeted by a simple text and two bars on the top and bottom that encourage you to pull down the notification center or the control center, again a feature previously seen on Android devices. But no matter how different you expect the iOS 7 to be, the general feel and usability of the iOS remains the same. It’s the same page-by-page application icons, and the much loved widget feature of the Android system still seems to be absent although multitasking has been improved greatly with the Web OS-style app switcher. The recent applications that have been running around show up next to each other and dismissing them is as simple as swiping them up or down.

Another visual upgrade on the iOS 7 is the more prominent User Interface (UI) animations that had been much simpler and transparent than the ones on iOS 7. Unlocking the phone prompts a swooping effect of the application icons. Opening up a folder icon or the application switcher prompts a zoom-in and zoom-out effect and even the screen’s off and on animations have been beautified with a slight fadeout and fade-in. The notification icon on the top of the phone also seems to have undergone some serious redesign. The signal bar seems to be the most prominent with dots instead of bars that puts the whole mobile design into question because of the fact that bars have turned into a universal language for network. Can Apple change it to dots is yet to be seen.

The iOS 7 also brings a lot of new features, like the Control Center that provides quick access to frequently used settings. It’s in stark contrast to its predecessors when every setting had to be changed from the setting app. Or the new tabbed notification center that makes it easier to browse notifications by type, or the new translucent feel to all of these features. There are colors everywhere now, even in places where it becomes more of a nuisance rather than an addition to design. The new design to the iOS design also calls for new application design. Most of the applications on the AppStore are built for iOS 6 and that slight hiccup on switching from a more modern design to the old would call for a light inconvenience. Most of the proprietary software that comes designed by Apple possesses the streamlined feel of the OS but many third-party applications still need a facelift.

The performance of the new OS seems smooth and quick on the newer A5 and A6 processors but on older phones like the iPhone 4, which sports an A4, the OS can seem quite slow and sludgy. The OS also creates new opportunities for sluggishness with more prominent animations that can be easily noticed if it stutters. Another problem that the iOS 7 brings is the quick depletion of the battery life. The iOS 7 seems to be notorious for hogging the CPU and cutting down on battery life.

But all in all, the iOS 7 seems to bring a lot of new features and clean new UI design to the table. No doubt that it poses a big threat for its competitors but the new iOS also seems to spark up some love and hate relationship with its users. Some users seem to love the new flat look of the iOS 7 whereas others seem to prefer the more professional look of the iOS 6. The iOS has definitely changed, but for the better or the worse is yet to be seen.

Prajesh Sjb Rana, the writer of this post is República The Week’s much loved tech guru.

One at a Time

Where do we start? People tell me about their work, relationship, family, exams et cetera. And how difficult it is to handle situations, emotions, and pressures. I too share my own ups and downs with my friends.

We never could provide each other answers, but we sure know that ultimately we will overcome them or rather we have to. It is indeed important to plan for the future but it is important to also understand that achievements take time. As one proverb goes “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”

I believe it is better to handle things at one’s own pace them to plunge into it. We just have to concentrate on the building pieces of our lives, one at a time. Go through adversities, one at a time. Solve our problems, one at a time. Go through life, one step at a time. Beautiful paintings that have taken their place in history were not painted in a day, in a week, or in a month. It took time. Each brush-stroke was just a little foundation on which a masterpiece rested. Similarly, our lives are also a function of many single strokes. Let’s handle these strokes, one at a time. — Han Senthil

Managing a Multiple Location Company

A sign of growth and success, becoming a multi-office company represents a significant outlay in finances, manpower and a general commitment to driving towards a higher level of achievement. Like a new baby, a new office in so many ways seems deserving of all of your time. But at the very same moment, there is your existing office, like an older child, whose need for attention has not diminished.

Share and share alike

The key to multiple location management is to ensure that information is shared across the entire company simultaneously. It means that no one is behind on important information and also creates a sense of community. Technology can help as it allows immediate, widespread communication.

Leadership team is your greatest asset

Digital communication is not always the correct method through which to communicate with employees. Employing an excellent senior management team to undertake communication on the company’s behalf is equally important to successfully managing multi-office operations.

Timing is everything

However much you trust your leadership team, it is essential to maintain a top level presence across all offices and be a recognisable face to all employees. One must try to prioritise visits according to size, maintaining a high level of inclusion in digital communications to show staff they are all highly valued.

Integrate wherever possible

Cross office collaboration is highly advised: it is important to develop a wider understanding of the business and it is healthy to work with a number of different people. It is also very conducive to caring about the business beyond the four walls seen every day.

Do not be afraid to try something new

Always try new things and commit to change for multi-site businesses trying to achieve equilibrium. What suits one business may not suit another. Be prepared to innovate to find out what works for you.

It can seem like a lot of hard work, but splitting your time between offices and building a system of sharing information is of crucial importance to the overall long-term success of your business. — The Guardian

Using Social Media to Boost Professional Profile

Whether you’re actively job seeking or not, building your professional profile using social media will extend your professional reach beyond your immediate circle. This could increase the potential career opportunities coming your way.

Social media is the term used for an online platform such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any other community discussion board, where individuals can post information, exchange ideas and comment. Here are some of the key social media components that you should consider as part of your career management strategy:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is relevant for all professionals, regardless of whether you work in business, the public sector, charities or the media. Even if your industry tends to recruit using job boards or personal recommendations, LinkedIn provides an easy way to keep in touch with your network and publish your expertise.

• Describe yourself on LinkedIn in a way that’s relevant to kind of role you’re looking for next, rather than just reflecting where you’ve been. Focus on achievements — don’t just list factual information about dates and duties.

• Use relevant terminology and keywords so that when recruiters or potential employers search these terms, they’ll find you.

• Your profile is in the public domain so all factual information must be accurate. Prospective employers will check for discrepancies between your CV and LinkedIn profile.

• Include a photo but make sure that it is business appropriate.

• Personal recommendations add credibility so ask your contacts — including manager and customers — to write about your capabilities.

• Include any other materials that illustrate your skills and achievements, such as videos, PowerPoint presentations, creative portfolios, links to your website, articles and blogs. This is useful for creative professionals.

• Build your connections online so that you can swap information, ideas and updates. If you’re interested in a particular company, search through LinkedIn to see if you know anyone working there who can make an introduction for you.

• Use activity updates to remind people about you and what you offer. For instance, share news about any business successes, events or feedback. You can also send out comments or questions on topics to encourage a dialogue with people in your network.

• Join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to you and participate in discussions where you feel you can add a useful perspective and/or want to engage with users. Recruiters, employers and managers will be members of these groups so this will help increase your visibility.

Twitter

Use Twitter to interact with people or organisations you find interesting or useful. Twitter is more informal than LinkedIn but it’s still a great opportunity to promote yourself to potential employers and business contacts.

• As with LinkedIn, you can use Twitter as part of a personal PR campaign to remind people of your expertise, share successes and encourage people to look at your online CV or website.

• You can follow companies or individuals that you’d like to work for and send them messages to start a dialogue.

• Increasing numbers of jobs are posted via Twitter. You can apply to these directly or by following the link provided.

• You can have multiple Twitter accounts but reserve a professionally-oriented one for career purposes. All tweets are public so if you don’t want your personal tweets to be read by a prospective employer then use a pseudonym, and be careful about what you send into cyberspace.

Facebook

This is increasingly being used by organisations to communicate with staff, customers and the wider public. Some companies are also using it to recruit and vet potential candidates. On Facebook, the boundaries between the personal and the professional can be very blurred, so make sure of what information about you can accessed and by whom.

• Use Facebook to tell your friends and family exactly what you do for a living and ask them for information and advice about your career or job search.

• Company pages on Facebook tend to be a great information resource for news, features and asking questions. Use this to find out more about companies you are interested in.

Other social media sites

Many professional institutes, educational establishments and media organisations provide an array of online communities for niche audiences to exchange information, advice and opinions. You can also use YouTube to upload video content or produce a blog to share your commentary on hot topics.

Keep an eye on developments as this is a very fast-moving area and new social media applications, such as Google+, are likely to grow in importance. — The Guardian

Speak Your Heart

That night was my big chance and all I did was just sit there…

It all started when I was 16 years old. While I was playing outside, I met a boy. He was a boy who teased you and then you chased them and beat them up. After that first meeting in which I beat him up we kept on meeting and beating each other up at the fence.

We would meet at the fence all the time and we were always together. I would tell him all my secrets. He was very listen to what I had to say.

In school we had separate friends, but when we got home we would always talk about what happened in school. One day I said to him that guy I liked hurt me and broke my heart. He just comforted me and said everything would be okay. He gave me words of encouragement and helped me get over him.

I was happy and thought of him as a real friend. But I knew that there was something else about him that I liked. I thought of it was just a friend kind of thing that I was feeling.

All through high school and even through graduation we were always together and of course I thought of it as being friends. But I knew deep inside that I really felt differently. On graduation night even though we had different dates to the prom, I wanted to be with him.

That night after everybody went home I went to his house. That night was my big chance and all I did was just sit there with him watching the stars and talking about what I was going to do and what he was going to do. I looked into his eyes and listened to him talk about what his dream. How he wanted to get married and settle down. He said how he wanted to be rich and successful. All I could do was to tell him my dream and cuddle him.

I went home hurt because I didn’t tell him so bad that I loved him but I was too scared and frightened. I let my feelings go and told myself that someday I would tell him just how I felt.

All through college I wanted to tell him but he always had someone with him. After graduation he got a job in New York; I was happy for him but at the same time I was sad also because I didn’t tell him how I felt. So I just kept it to myself and watched him go on the plane. I cried as I hugged him for what I felt was going to be the last time.

Well, I got a job as a secretary and then worked my way to a computer analyst. One day I got a letter with an invitation to a wedding. It was from him; I was happy and sad at the same time. Now I knew that I could never be with him and that we could only be friends.

I went to the wedding the next month. It was a big occasion. It was a big church wedding with the reception at a hotel. I met the bride and of course I talked to him too. I fell in love one more time. But I held back so it wouldn’t spoil what should be the happiest day in his life.

I tried to have fun that night but it was killing me inside watching him being so happy and me trying to be happy covering up my sadness tears inside of me. Before I left on the flight, he came running out of nowhere and said his good-byes and how he was very happy to see me.

I came home and just tried to forget everything. I had to go on with my life. As the years went on, we wrote to each other on what was going on and how he had missed talking to me.

On one occasion he never wrote back to me at all. I was getting worried as to why he hadn’t written anything for a long time. Well, just when everything seemed hopeless and sad in my life, I got a note that said: “Meet me at the fence where we used to talk about things.”

I went and saw him there. I was happy to see him, but he was broken-hearted and sad inside. We hugged until we couldn’t breathe anymore. Then he told me about the divorce and why he hadn’t written for a long time. He cried until he couldn’t cry anymore. Finally, we went back to the house and talked and laughed about what I had been doing and to catch up on old times. But I felt about him.

In the days that followed, we had fun and forgot about all his problem and his divorce. I fell in love again with him. When it came time to leave, I went to see him off and cried. I hated to see him leave. He promised to see me every time he could get a vacation. I couldn’t wait for him to come so I could be with him. We would always have fun when we were together.

One day he didn’t show up like he said he would. I figured that he might have been busy. The days turned into months and just forgot about it. Then I got a call one day from a lawyer in New York. The lawyer said that he had died in a car accident going to the airport, and that it took this long till everything was settled.

It broke my heart. Now I knew why he didn’t come that day. I cried that night, cried tears of sadness and heartache. I asked questions: “Why did this happen to a kind guy like him?”

I gathered my things and went to New York for the reading of his will. When the will was read, the one thing that was given to me was a diary.

It was a dairy that of his life. I cried as it was given to me. I didn’t know what to think. Why was this given to me? I took it and flew back. As I flew I remembered the good times that we had together. I started reading the diary and what was written.

The diary was started with the day we first met. I read on till I started to cry. The diary told of him saying that he had fallen in love with me that day I was broken-hearted. But he was too afraid to tell me what he had felt. That is why he was so quiet and liked to listen to me. It told of how he wanted to tell me so many times, but was too afraid to say anything. It told of when he went to New York and fell on love with another. How the happiest time he had was seeing me and dancing with me at the wedding. He said he imagined it was our wedding. How he was always unhappy till he had no choice but to divorce his wife. How the best time in his life was to read the letters written to him by me.

Finally, the diary ended when it said, “today I will tell her I love her”. It was the day he was killed. The day I was going to finally find out what was really in his heart.

So the moral of the story, if you love someone, don’t wait till tomorrow to tell him/her. Maybe the next day will never come at all.

In Search of Purpose

All of us are on some or the other journey of finding the purpose of our essence being. For some, its a beautiful journey, for some difficult, for some a mixed one and for some very very interesting.

Its a common belief that each one of us must have a purpose in life, without which the life becomes hollow or worthless. So when we clearly know our purpose or objective, then we have something to base our decisions on. In order to know our purpose, we need to become more aware of who we are, otherwise how can we live our purpose?

We define ourselves as human (body) beings (soul). The human part we know well, but the soul, the one observing the world from within this body, tends to remain a bit of a secret. Unaware of the soul we wear the mantle of the identity given to us by the outside world, from our family, culture, friends, the environment we are associated with. When all these things are removed though, we are just left with ‘the being’ that is the soul. Just imagine your body becoming light and starts disappearing...

When this confidence about ‘who I am’ is born within us, the mists disappear resulting in a lot of clarity from within. This power of clarity, born from this relationship of love with self, guides us and enables us to live with care, compassion and mercy for humanity. Loving others then becomes inevitable, natural and we will also realise the purpose for which we are here...

Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj ji, the author can be contacted through nikunjji@brahmakumaris.in, www.brahmakumaris.com.

From Blog to Business: 5 Success Stories

From advertisements, sponsorships and brand collaborations to endorsement opportunities and even book deals — the world of blogging has turned hobbies into full-time careers.

Here are five females who have turned their blogs into profitable, fulltime businesses.

See also: 10 Common Blog Writing Mistakes [INFOGRAPHIC]

Jenni Radosevich: I Spy DIY

After college, Jenni Radosevich relocated to New York and landed an internship with InStyle magazine. During her time at the publication, she pitched her editors the idea of a monthly style column and was given a shot at it. This allowed Radosevich and start her blog. During the same year, a publishing company approached her to write a book, I SPY DIY Style and two years later, she had quit her job to focus full-time on blogging. She has been paid through her blog for brand partnership, advertisement, DIY services and more.

“Make sure you find a niche,” she advises. “With a million blogs out there, you really need to differentiate yourself.”

Kathie Wiehanne: BluChic

Starting a blog comes with an expense and sometimes that is creating a beautiful website. When getting started, people either choose to have a customised site or use a pre-made template or theme. BluChic creates WordPress themes and designed-to-match marketing kits.

“It’s my passion to help bloggers have an affordable website that fits in their business niche,” says Wiehanne. She adds that a common hurdle bloggers face is ‘wearing so many hats’, from running the blog, being the writer, editor, photographer, graphic designer and more.

Angle Laws: Concrete Loop

What started as an outlet for personal thoughts and interests has emerged into a top urban entertainment site. Angle Laws created Concrete Loop when she was still a college student.

“My confidence was low and I wanted a place to vent. I also noticed that there were no sites that catered to urban entertainment,” she says.

Describing herself as a ‘broke college student’, Laws used money she earned from her parttime job to help fund to help fund her blog. Two years into it, Rapper and Fashion Designer Kanye West endorsed her site — that recognition placed her on a national stage. Laws advises others to be authentic, create a plan and practice smart money management.

Andi Perullo de Ledesma: My Beautiful Adventures

What began as a way to share her travelling adventures with friends and family has turned into a full-time career for Photojournalist, Andi Perullo. She grew her blog — focused on luxury and adventure travel — into a full-time career within its first year. She says that she was ‘inspired to keep going’ after generating some income and minor-level sponsorship within three months of the launch.

She rarely pays for accommodations when travelling, as most hotels welcome the opportunity for her to review them. In addition to blogging twice a week, Perullo credits social media for growing her online presence, adding, “There is no easier way to draw traffic to your blog than through social media.”

Blair Culwell: Leap Marketing & Design and The Fox and She

Blair Culwell, who has designed over 100 custom blogs, says, “Having a professional design gives you instant credibility, as the web is such a visual medium.”

Culwell originally began blogging in college as part of a school assignment and later continued it as a hobby. As a design professional, Culwell recommends taking a basic class to learn Photoshop or any design programme.

“If you’re looking to take blogging seriously, then invest some money into it,” she says. She advises newbies and those looking to grow their presence to ‘make connections’ and ‘find your niche’. — USA Today

Man in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife,
Whose judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool him in the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass. — Dale Wimbrow

Heart of a Woman

They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up for injustice.
They don’t take “no” for an answer when they believe there is a better solution.

They go without new shoes so their children can have them.
They go to the dictor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally.
They cry when their children excel and cheer when friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about a birth or a new marriage.

Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They have sorrow at the loss of a family member, yet they are strong when they think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all sizes, in all colours and shapes.
They’ll drive, fly, walk, run or email you to show how much they care about you.

The heart of a woman is what makes the world spin!
Women do more than just give birth.
They bring joy and hope.
They give compassion and ideals.
They give moral support to their family and friends.
Women have a lot to say and a lot to give.