My name is carol and i am addicted to audio books

Hi, my name is Carol and I am addicted to audio books. My story: I am 32 and addicted to audio books. I have been trying to cut back but I can’t. I was first introduced to audio books 12 years ago. My parents bought me a Stephen King audio book as a birthday present. It included 10 books on cassettes each 25 minutes. I finished listening to it the first night. Then, I started buying audio books for me and for each of my friend’s birthdays (whether they liked audio books or not). As times passed I moved to audio books on CDs and later on to downloadable audio books. I have known all the online audio book rental services and buying services. In fact, I had an account in most of them. My average output was two audio books per week but I remember some weeks where I skipped sleeping and listened to up to five audio books. I purchased almost any new fiction audio book in the market. I managed to find some free audio books but still paid a lot of money for my audio book collection. I got addicted to the comfort of having a “miniature” book. I got addicted to the narration, the music and the sound effects. I got addicted to the ability to listen to audio books anytime and anywhere (I remember listening to it in the bathroom and in work and in other weird places). And then I decided to make the move. If I can’t beat it, I would join it. I resigned from work and made a profession out of my hobby – I started making money out of my comprehensive knowledge of audio books. Nowadays, I write reviews about new audio books and serve as a consultant for audio books’ publishers. I am happy listening to free audio books and being paid for it (just finished listening to the last Harry Potter audio book). Have you tried listening to audio books? Try it.

Divierte y busca un comic book

Con solo mirar sus dibujos nos damos cuenta que Jerry King es un hombre muy talentoso que con sus pinturas y dibujos permite que la gente pase un rato agradable. Jerry King es un dibujante profesional que trae a colisiуn todas aquellas cosas que le pasan a los apostadores de casinos, especialmente en el pуquer. Un pintor muy destacado, que a sus 42 aсos, con un B. A en Inglйs ha logrado dibujar historietas acerca de casinos reales y casinos en lнnea en especial acerca del pуquer. En su trabajo podemos encontrar varios comics acerca de temas, magazines, libros de cartoons, cartoons en Internet, tarjetas de regalo y libros para niсos. Sus comics acerca de casinos reflejan situaciones cуmicas de los jugadores aficionados al pуquer. Los dibujos de los comics sobre pуquer de este hombre retratan dнa a dнa lo que viven personas normales en el mundo de Casinos en Lнnea y que estбn sumergidos en el mundo de las cartas y del azar ya sea pуquer o blackjack u otros juegos que tienen que ver con naipes. Jerry King plasma en muchos de sus comics lo que pasa en la vida de un jugador de poker, sus reacciones, sus pensamientos y hasta su forma de expresarse ante la gente. Uno de los ejemplos que puedo dar acerca de sus comics es el de un hombre que le pide a su jefe que en vez de ponerlo a trabar el dнa entero, lo deje jugar poker en casinos en lнnea y a cambio de eso йl le darб el 2 por ciento de lo que el gane apostando. Esto puede ser muy racional pero їque pasa cuando pierde? Este hombre no podrб recuperar ni siquiera las horas de trabajo que invirtiу. Por ese estilo podemos encontrar los comics de Jerry King. En fin, Jerry se dedica al humor y a entretener a las personas con sus magnнficos comics. En su pagina de Internet podrбn encontrar no solo los comics que el ha pintado sobre casinos en lнnea o pуquer sino algunas de sus fotografнas con famosos y cartoons acerca de otros temas. Es muy interesante ver como Jerry King dibuja sus comics, incluye caricaturas de series animadas y personajes que йl mismo crea, con una caracterнstica muy notable como es la nariz grande. Su humor no tiene lнmites y permite que el lector se deleite con sus dibujos y chistes. Este artista ha diseсado mas de 2.000 postales con sus dibujos de su propia creaciуn, ademбs de esto ha publicado varias cosas para diferentes organizaciones tales como Nacional Enquirer, Golf Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, Woman's World, Disney, American Greetings, The United States Golf Assoc., y muchos otras que han valorado su tan importante labor. Su trabajo ha aparecido en muchos lugares como en tarjetas postales, paginas de Internet, periуdicos, libros y libros para niсos, revistas de casinos y de juegos de pуquer. Actualmente Jerry es el autor e ilustrador de 7 libros de Historietas publicadas, tambiйn ha ilustrado 10 libros para niсos ademбs de sus propios comics. Solo resta decir que este artista talentoso los espera para apreciar su talento en las diferentes paginas de Internet, tambiйn es necesario entrar de vez en cuando y admirar arte y a la misma vez disfrutar y gozar del humor que este grandioso dibujante trae para nosotros.

Walk in traffic schools a bleak future

With the ease of doing business on the internet – whether it's shopping for groceries, paying bills or taking an online traffic course - online companies are giving brick and mortar businesses a run for their money. There's no better example of this than the increasing popularity of online traffic schools. Gone are the days when individuals, hit with a traffic violation, are forced to spend eight uncomfortable hours with strangers in a stuffy room, watching outdated movies and wishing the day would end. Online traffic schools may well be the trend of today – and tomorrow. TickeRelief founder Travis sees this surge of popularity with online traffic schools as a phenomenon that will only grow, eventually leading to the end of the walk-in traffic school. "Traffic school online is a growing trend and soon, I believe, that walk-in traffic will be obsolete. Taking traffic school online is quick, easy, and convenient," he says. In fact, statistics for online traffic schools are promising. In 2004, for example, more than a third of the 500,000 people ordered to complete traffic school in Florida did so online. Ninety perfect of those who completed the online traffic course passed the final exam. An administrator at East L. Amunity College Service, who requested her name be withheld, recognizes the advantages of online traffic school, citing students can complete the course at their own convenience. She, however, disagrees that walk-in traffic school will one day disappear altogether. In fact, she hasn't yet noticed a big difference in attendance. "We have noticed it has somewhat decreased. It (online traffic school) looks like it's doing very well, but it's not affecting us very much," she says. As for the future of traditional walk-in traffic schools like East L. Amunity College Service, she doesn't think they're going to disappear anytime soon. Attendance will "decrease, but it (walk-in traffic school) won't be a thing of the past." Travis, however, believes the future of the walk-in traffic school is bleak, pointing to California bill AB2377. Initiated by Democrat Assemblyman John Longville, the bill sought to require the licensing of all online and home study traffic schools by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill in September 2004. Still, the very fact that the bill even made it to the governor’s desk may indicate that all is not as rosy as it may appear for walk-in traffic schools. “From what I understand about the bill," Travis says, "walk-in traffic schools are losing a lot of business to online traffic school and this bill would increase requirements making it harder for online traffic schools to get approved." If the bill had passed, it would have required all online traffic schools to be licensed through the DMV, a lengthy process lasting between one and two years. Currently, online traffic schools must be certified before they are able to do business and are added to the list of court-approved schools. Certified by the National Traffic Safety Administration and the Coordinated Courts System, Ticket Relief currently serves California (including Los Angeles and San Diego counties), Texas (in partnership with Continued Ed) and Florida (in partnership with American Institute). Ticket Relief’s partners are certified by the DMV. Certification, however, is a thorough process that requires online traffic schools to meet legal, curriculum and grammatical standards with its course materials. Ticket Relief’s course materials run between 100-110 pages. With the rising competition from online traffic and defensive driving schools, walk-in traffic schools are often forced to step up their performance, if they want to stay in business. Many walk-in traffic schools, particularly in Los Angeles, offer incentives such as comedy and pizza. Still, pizza and a few laughs is often not enough enticement for forgoing a Saturday afternoon when individuals can complete Los Angeles traffic school online in as few as six hours in the comfort of their own homes. Furthermore, online traffic schools like Ticket Relief are poised for major growth in the next few years, a move that could have a major impact on the way drivers do business. "Ticket Relief will continue to grow until it covers all 52 states. Ticket Relief is also looking to venture into other driving related services. Some of the services are: ordering a copy of your driver license record, reducing your insurance rate, renewing your driver's license, and offering a membership with exclusive member benefits. Ideally, I would like customers to come to TicketRelief for all their driving needs," Travis says.

Portrait painting

As an oil painter, there will come a time that you will be asked to create a portrait. Or perhaps, you have always wanted to be known as a portraitist. There are many reasons why portraits are painted, most of which pertains to the sitter, the person whose portrait you will paint. The sitter would probably want to establish a public image and you, as the artist, would do well to emphasize the status, looks, and personality. A portrait is also meant to explore the qualities of the sitter that normally would not show in his or her day to day activities. And a portrait is made to have a souvenir of a loved one, who is either absent or dead. There is no correct way to do a portrait. And there is no fool-proof technique that will assure the painter to produce a likeness to the sitter. There are, however, several things to keep in mind when painting a portrait. Most portraitists feel comfortable in putting oil to canvass after they have done several sketches of the sitter. Drawing the sketches will help you understand the things you see and how to translate them into two-dimensional lines. Sometimes, you will find easy strokes and sometimes you will discover that finding that right line is difficult. Nevertheless, when you move the final canvass, remember to use chalks for broad sketches and use pencils for detailed sketches. Normally, two thirds of the canvass is the maximum limit that the subject may cover. But you must not make your subject too small that there would be many wide spaces you would be hard-pressed to fill in. Make sure that the source of light will fall on the sitter’s face in such a way that light and shadows bestow strength and solidity to the face. As much as possible, avoid drawing the full face. Instead, focus on the expressive details, such as the eye folds and the mouth. Similar to other oil paintings, you must paint the shadows first, in order to establish a broad structure. The nose is the ideal spot to begin. Shadows should have similar colors with the background. In areas where a shadow and light meet, include a touch of color. If you believe that the face lacks structure, deepen the shadows. To bring cheeks and chin forward, paint in warm colors. While you give attention to the background, you must also remember that the backgrounds should not be more prominent than the subject. Use relatively neutral hues.