Country Farm Style House Plans For Simple, Enjoyable Living

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Simple living means minimizing stress by minimizing the pursuit of conspicuous consumption and wealth for its own sake.  The decision for voluntary simplicity is often made for health reasons; as a philosophical or spiritual path; or to increase the amount of quality time which a person has to spend with friends and family.  Often the decision is motivated by a desire to save the earth; or by considerations of social justice.  As Duane Elgin put it, the decision for voluntary simplicity means being outwardly more frugal but inwardly richer - the exact opposite of how our society trains us to be.  The choice of simple living, for example, means choice of country farm style house plans rather than luxury building.  It means growing at least some of your own food, even if all this means is a few pots of herbs or jars of sprouts growing on a windowsill.  It means relying on public transportation whenever possible rather than driving one's own car.  It means generating as little non-recyclable waste as possible. 

The beginnings of the philosophy of simple living go back to the Athenian philosopher Epicurus, who taught that the problems and worries inherent in living a sumptious lifestyle outweigh the pleasures.  Epicurus believed that anything beyond what is really necessary for life and simple comfort should be avoided.  In more recent times, movements such as the Shakers, Amish, and Mennonites have deliberately sought a style of life excluding wealth and technology.  Henry David Thoreau's classic Walden was a statement against the non-sustainable lifestyle of mid-nineteenth century America.  Thoreau's log home house plan life was an inspiration to Henry Stephens Salt in England, who popularized the Simplification idea in Victorian Britain; and to George Lorenzo Noyes in New England, who wrote about sustainable lifestyle and spiritual communion with nature.  In the early twentieth century the Vanderbilt Agrarian movement advocated sustainability and traditional agrarian values. 

The simplicity movement grew in the twentieth century, inspired by such authors as Richard Gregg, Gary Snyder, Ralph Borsodi, and Helen and Scott Nearing, who wrote about leaving the city with their bungalow craftsman house plans and their vision of a better life.   The hippie movement of the 1960's was the first mass movement which advocated leaving the cities to return to the land.  The main spokesperson for simple living today is Duane Elgin, whose Voluntary Simplicity was published in 1981 and remains the bible of the voluntary simplicity movement.  Nowadays voluntary simplicity means reducing one's need for bought items and services, and reducing correspondingly the amount of time sold for money.  Simple living means seeing that freedom results from giving up worrying about money, rather than accumulating more and more of it.  It means understanding that our society is headed for a fall.  Jared Diamond's Collapse, which explains the historic reasons why previous civilizations perished and makes it plain that our own society is making the same errors, was a nationwide bestseller.  Clearly, simple living is an idea whose time has come.

Stop Cat Scratching Post - a simple way Stupidly

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Do not you wish you could stop cat scratching at your home, it's time you, scratched, or your furniture? You know when your cat uses its claws (I want to be with a hangover for consistency). It can be felt through the broken ends, or you can feel it penetrate the skin.

I have other methods, like having a cat tree and putting them in catnip, your cat to scratch, rather than encourage the reading of the furniture ... But I discovered that my cat would still beScratch my arms and some furniture, which is enjoyed.

The fact is, cat scratching is a natural thing, and it feels good for your cat (you want your cat to enjoy his life right?). Cats scratch to mark their territory (leaving scent) to stay healthy in old layers of their claws, and sometimes as a method of stretching the muscles (which is good for your body).

Stop your cat from scratches with this simple method
My cousin has a daughter 3 years, so IWatch an episode of "Super Nanny". What has to do to stop a cat scratches? Well, the trick is more important that your child uses something called Whisperer "Time Out". Simple right? Once that is out of the last thing your cat - because as we all know, cats love the attention!

Here are the step by step instructions:

Your cat scratching the sofa, and you want to stop
Go get your cat, he, and put into a pre-designated area that closes the door(Maybe your laundry room or in his sedan chair is it?).
Wait 9 minutes (yes, nine minutes of arc) - then let your cat out of the room.

And that's it ... Right?

Now you might have a little patience because there is more time to use the "Time Out" before your cat gets the point. You want to bind your cat scratching the furniture, not always all the attention in the form of being locked in a room (for a short period).

A personal testimonythis method - I did it, it works. Every time my cat is from "Time Out", is in nice lap to cuddle and purrs her way into sleep. And, of course, has stopped scratching the furniture. Now I have to admit that he has a scratching post that used very often. And I took cat nip (and renewed every month or so), I will zero in place for the good of his health.

Here are some other good ideas to stop cat scratching:

Place the scratching postnear the area of furniture or scratching like a cat
Block access to a bed or your cat scratches most often
Place foil, adhesive tape or plastic sheeting on the furniture your cat prefers
Try the vertical and horizontal scratching post / pad
Put the catnip for a good cause at the Scratching Post

I think if you can my stupid simple method in collaboration with some of the methods mentioned, you stop your cat from scratching unwanted areas, and make him happyand healthy at the same time! Hope this helps!

Simple C# Page Hit Counter

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If you have or are interested in developing your own website, there probably will come a time when you want to get a general idea of how many times your website is being visited. There are more elaborate ways to do this of course, some developers refer you to reading the server logs, others will suggest using a third party product and implementing it's code within your own website.

For the rest of you who would rather just get a general idea if your personal website is getting roughly 10 hits per day or 1000, this little code snippet will help get you on your way. I have developed elaborate site analysis applications that provide statistics on what pages are being viewed, how long the visitor remains at that specific page, what browser they are using, who referred them to the website to begin with as well as what their I.P address is and the list goes on. For the sake of this article though, we'll be using the k.i.s.s method.

The level of this code requires only a minimal amount of knowledge of the .NET environment, and of course your website should be hosted on a windows server with the .NET environment.

This code can be copied and pasted in the footer area of any .aspx file in your website. Generally, you would put it in the footer of the home page, or at least that's a good place to start.

The first thing you'll want to do is create an empty text file, call it counter.txt and save it to your root directory. The next step is even easier, copy and paste the code below into your .aspx file and save it. Be sure to import the system.IO class into your page something like this

public string counter()
{

StreamReader re = File.OpenText(Server.MapPath("counter.txt"));
string input = null;
string mycounter = "";

while ((input = re.ReadLine()) != null)
{
mycounter = mycounter + input;
}

re.Close();

int myInt = int.Parse(mycounter);
myInt = myInt + 1;

TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(Server.MapPath("counter.txt"));

tw.WriteLine(Convert.ToString(myInt));

tw.Close();


re = File.OpenText(Server.MapPath("counter.txt"));
input = null;
mycounter = "";

while ((input = re.ReadLine()) != null)
{
mycounter = mycounter + input;
}
re.Close();


return mycounter;

}




'copy this code to the bottom of your .aspx page.







A brief description of what is going on in this code goes as follows:



a. create a method called counter

b. Call the StreamReader class from the system.IO library and read your text file

c. Store the value of the text file in a variable

d. Close the StreamReader

e. Open the StreamWriter

f. Add 1 to the variable holding the value from the text file

g. Write the new incremented by 1 value to the text file

h. Close the StreamWriter


This last line

is the line that calls the method when someone visits your homepage for instance. You can put all of the code at the bottom of the page, or if you are a little more experienced with c# you could place it in a "code-behind" file or an "include" of class methods to keep the code a bit more clean.

Nothing fancy, but gives me an idea of how active the site has been recently.
Hope this helps you in the same way that it has helped me.

Happy Coding!

5-on-5 Flag Football Playbook Philosophy - Keep it Simple

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Five-on-five flag football is a growing sport both in the United States and abroad. If you look at television ratings throughout the year, you will see that some of the most watched programs include Monday Night Football, the Superbowl, the college Bowl games, as well as just the normal football college and professional games played on Saturday and Sunday. There's a reason why many non-football fans complain on the weekends of football season: There's nothing on but football!

Flag football prepares interested youngsters for a future career in pads. Developing a 5-on-5 flag football playbook makes youngsters accustomed to learning some of the basic structure of what they will see in the future. The 5-on-5 flag football playbooks are simple to make, and should be kept simple for the sake of the youngster, or the average Joe who wants to engage in the support as a hobby - as a part of an office group or among friends - as they will unlikely have time to study more sophisticated playbooks.

The 5-on-5 playbook should consist of a majority of running plays, and a few simple pass plays. At least two trick plays should be included in the 5-on-5 playbook, as well, to develop the players' mentality of thinking outside the box.

Offensively, the 5-on-5 flag football playbook should show how the opponents defense will appear on an average basis. The 5-on-5 playbook should make runners aware of the holes in this defense, or basically, potential Weaknesses to be activated during a game. It should be easy enough where players can understand what a coach called and also sufficient to allow them to use their creativity and adjustments mid-game open. Every game should have the 5-on-5 flag football playbook a brief summary of why the game is designed so a player understands what he or she needs to get in the game.

Defensive, 5-on-5 flag football playbook should be a defensivesetup that maximizes the potential to top runs up the middle and around the outside of the front line, while leaving a player or two back to cover passes. Again, write down the philosophies of the defensive scheme, so each player understands his or her role. You don't want a safety always rushing up to the line, if their job is to stay back and wait for a pass or cover a breakthrough on a run.

Plays for a 5-on-5 football playback should be left to the discretion of the coach, but again, be made simple enough for the youngest of rookies to pick up on. After a while, the 5-on-5 flag football playbook can be modified off of the simple plays that are already established. Look at the 5-on-5 flag football playback as a lego building, which you can keep adding pieces on as time progresses.

It's As Simple As A Smile!

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How often have you woken up on the wrong side of the bed or had a bad encounter with someone and assumed the rest of your day would follow suit? Then out of the blue you are side swapped with a smile from a stranger or friend. You physically feel lighter with a glimpse of hope for the rest of your day. A simple smile actually turned your day around, and from an unexpected source to say the least. Who can deny the power of a smile, the impact a smile can make from one person to another? What if you harnessed that same logic for yourself and commited to smile even when you weren't feeling in the best of moods. Could you change your own mood and situation by "faking" to be happy? At the very least you could make someone else feel good. Would the act of smiling impact your mood? It is truly amazing what a simple act of kindness can do for yourself and others around you. Who is to say your smile didn't come at the exact right moment for someone having a horrible day? Your actions will soon become habit and you will wonder why you are feeling more optimistic and genuinely happy.

ACTION STEPS FOR THE WEEK:

1. Smile for the sake of smiling

This week make an effort to smile more during the day. Smile to yourself as well as others and notice the impact it has on everyone. Most of us don't realize the effect we can have on other's lives. Make a point this week to smile when you least feel like smiling.

2. Write it down

This week make a point of writing down your experiences with the "smile experiment". Keep a journal or notepad and write down every evening what effect your smiling had. Write down how you felt. Write down how it affected your day. Write down the differences it made. Being aware and fully present not only keeps you in the moment, but opens your eyes to the power of your actions.

3. Impact another

This week make a commitment to smile at 5 strangers every day. Every morning commit to smile at 5 people througout the day. It may feel awkward at first, again this is expanding your comfort zone. You can truly make a difference in the life of another with a simple smile. Try it out this week and see how it feels. Notice how it changes your own outlook and mood.

Have a great week!

Air Bed Repair Made Simple

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You are in a situation where the steps that are necessary for the repair of air mattress need to learn? If you noticed that the air mattress, you do not have is reasonable, air, or feel the breeze, which may in a particular area on the mattress to be necessary to repair the unit.

There are many different ways that an air mattress can be well prepared, but for this tutorial, I'll give you a simple solution to repair the mattress that you provide,without all the complications that occur in general with this task. The steps are made to repair air easily read in an easy to understand, to here.

This is a product that is manufactured by a company as "Rustoleum", which is marketed as "the market Aqua. This is a great project to use when it comes to repair an air mattress that even a slow leak or fast . If you find this product, you need to buy out two-three doses. In some cases you may find thatnot able to find the product "Aqua".

If this is the case, you can choose from which is based acrylic spray paint. If you choose to do this, so make sure the color is considered the color of the air mattress that you are trying to choose the closest possible to replace it. Remember, if you buy the acrylic paint instead of "Aqua" of the product, you must implement the use of such data in an area that is ventilated for your personal safety.

After collecting both the Aqua-product,or acrylic paint on, it's time to start the project. What you want is to make sure that the air gets into bed, to the point where you can get blown so far pumped. Instead of focusing on the area that really needs to be repaired, it takes the products you have purchased and sprayed the whole bed as a whole.

In this way, the substance acts as a barrier to read everything, and not just one section. That will be much moremore efficient repair of a section. It will also give a new mattress, appear bright. If you follow these simple steps, you, who can repair air mattress is actually a relatively simple process, in an inexpensive and can be done in time.