I have to get this out of the way: In case anyone is not familiar, I am a NON-Participating member of tvi.

I am going to tell you what they don’t want you to know until after you join. Tvi isn’t entirely open about how the whole process works. I will try to explain it as simply as I can.  It’s alot more than you join and sign up 2 more people. They LOVE to harp on this in the beginning. “Two people, that’s all you have to bring in, 2 people! Not 20, 0r 30 or even 100! Just 2 people!”.

Here begins the REAL deal:

There are 2 boards. The Traveller Board and the Express Board. Each board has 15 slots/positions and when you join you begin on the Traveller Board. You could be in any one of the slots depending on how filled the board is when you join.  (This can also determine how fast you climb the board)

The board is shared amongst many people. Some you may know, but most you will never know. It’s supposed to be a team venture to fill the boards.

First, you need to get 2 people signed up under you (or you purchase 3 positions total)

Second, they also EACH need to get 2 people signed up. This makes 6 people in your downline.

The Traveller boards you and those 6 in your downline are on (as they may not be the same after the first split) ALL have to fill up and SPLIT several times or no one from your team will ever cycle. If that doesn’t happen, you will sit there forever. 

It also depends on how fast your downline each gets their 2. If they get them fast and no one else on their boards has their 2 they can JUMP over the ones that don’t, which will speed up the process, but the boards still all have to fill up and split at least 3 times in order to cycle. It’s possible to do it in 2 splits, but not common.

To cycle off the Traveller board you CAN get spillover. Spillover happens when someone else in your upline already has their 2 people. Every person they sign up under them after that is spilled over to someone else on their downline that needs it. It goes in the order they joined. So, if everyone has their 2, but the 6th person in your downline, the extra(s) will go to them and so on.

When you cycle off the Traveller Board you receive $250 into your ewallet (good luck actually getting it put into real money though) and a $250 evoucher to sell. You are automatically put on the Express Board. (This is the board that if you cycle you will get $10k in your ewallet and a $5k voucher used for company sponsored events only. Also good luck getting the $10k turned into actual money)

Now here’s the tricky part alot of people don’t realize. In order to cycle off the Express Board AND qualify to receive the $10k and $5k company sponsored travel voucher, 2 members of your downline need to ALSO cycle off of the Traveller Board and join the Express board with you. (it doesn’t need to be the same express board, btw) If you are the ONLY one in your team to cycle the Traveller Board, you will never get off of the Express Board with any possibility of that $10k. You will get jumped over til the cows come home and never get the typed words and numbers “$10k” into your ewallet.

It’s actually entirely possible to sign 50 people up and you NEVER get off the express board. If those 50 never bring anyone else in, everything is at a stand still. People try to get their 2 signed up right away because they think that’s all they need to do. Then they find out that those 2 HAVE to get their 2 or they might as well have never signed them up. They are useless to them. So, people sign up mom and dad, but don’t think ahead that mom and dad may never sign anyone up.

 Pretty deceiving. You get your two and they each get their 2 and you’re golden you’re told. NOT! Until the traveller boards they are on are filled and 2 of them also cycle, you will never get off the Express board.

So, IF you’ve decided to join tvi, you’ll see it’s alot more difficult than they make it sound. So, quick recap, you join, get 2 more people to join and they each get their 2. Now, at least 2 get off traveller board and you qualify for the express board. Sounds simple until everyone else on the traveller board stops bringing people in.

I should also mention that if you are someone who cycled off the Traveller board because you got a spillover or 2 (you didn’t sign 1 or 2 up yourself), you will NOT qualify to get $10k if you cycle the express board! To qualify you MUST sign up 2 DIRECT members, NOT spillovers. Most are not told this and are left to find out the hard way. So, there you have it. The real scoop on the boards and how it’s possible to bring alot of people in and never cycle either board.

I hope people are doing their research and realizing this is NOT the company to do any kind of business with. It’s not legit and it’s not as easy as they make it sound either. Don’t forget, they’ve changed how to get ewallet “funds”. You MUST use a 3rd party company to receive any funds at all from tvi. (IF you use STP or LR, remember there are fees involved and it will come out to more like $8500 NOT $10k when all is said and done) OR turn those “funds” into vouchers and sell. OR I read about someone that transfers their “funds” to their upline and their upline pays them. Once tvi’s new amendment goes into effect, they will no longer be able to do this as “funds” will not be allowed from downline to upline anymore. Only upline to downline.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to comment and I will respond as soon as I can.

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Just telling it like it is…..

According to a survey from 2005, there are 110,000 registered internet cafes in China, employing over 1,000,000 people in total. Net bars serve a highly useful purpouse as both recreational retreats and community centres for young people without home internet connections. That same 2005 survey revealed that 20% of China’s internet users log on at net bars, and 70% of those are aged from 18 to 30.

For the homesick traveller in China, an internet café promises an opportunity to check up on news from home, contact friends or organise the next stage of your tour. However, you will have to brave stale air, sticky seats and chain-smoking teenagers to enjoy your online bounty. Net bars have opened networks of communication to people who previously had very little contact with the outside world; and they use it 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Non-Chinese nationals wishing to use a net bar anywhere in China should bring their passports on every visit and register at the reception desk. Basic internet use costs around Y1 per ten minutes, with money being subtracted from the Y10 deposit that is paid at the beginning of every session. If you use up your original payment, top up your funds at reception.

So how do you spot a net bar in China? Keep an eye out for these conveniently illustrative Chinese characters.

Wang=Net Ba=Bar

view of side walk cafe from our hotel

view of street from our hotel

At the moment we are on the 5^th floor in our hotel.  Not unlike all the other cities we’ve been in so far in Argentina, Tucuman is noisy too.  Our room doesn’t have windows that open, but it does have a glass door that opens out onto a little balcony.  This means we need to keep it open all the time for air (we are both not in favour of air-conditioning – even though there is a unit in our room) but it also means that the constant, determined, aggressive noise of cars, people, hooters, and daily life enters incessantly.

The further north we are going the hotter it is becoming.  I love the heat, but I have to concede this kind of heat is debilitating and ceaseless. We experienced something similar in Vietnam.  I can remember saying that it felt like a Sumo wrestler was sitting on your chest, allowing you to breath once every three minutes.  Considering we are in land, the humidity is highly oppressive too.  I’m pleased to know my sweat glands are in good working order…I tried the au natural thing but it was just not successful…I went in search of stronger deodorant this morning.

 Free wi-fi is marvellously accessible in most hostels / hotels, restaurants, cafes and coffee shops.  We’ve just woken from our afternoon siesta, and we’re off in search of an ice cold local beer and wi-fi access…we leave for the hills tomorrow ….

bridge near Tanti Hostel

Tanti Hostel Family

The night before we left we spent a little time after dinner saying goodbye to the good people of Tanti Hostel.  An early morning rise, 6 am to be exact, was interfering with our bodies trying to adjust to Latin time.  Average wake up time here is between 8h30 and 09h00.  Breakfast would be at 10h00.  Lunch at 3pm and then dinner between 10pm and midnight.

We needed to take two buses to get to Tucuman, all in all it was 11 hours on the bus.  As I’ve mentioned before, Argentina has a terrific bus system that connects  almost every corner of this 8^th largest country in the world.  Apart from one other time, I don’t recall actually reserving a ticket in advance for any bus trip to any destination.  Our modus operandi has been to arrive at a bus terminus and purchase a ticket on the next bus.  Buses run so frequently that waiting time is minimal.  We were also told that public transport is highly subsidised allowing the commuter to enjoy the benefits of inexpensive travel.  So far we have travelled a distance of approximately 1,300km  on buses.

This is my fourth day off work in a row, which has been great. In order not to spoil it I’ve been ignoring condo corporation emails, though from the snippets that are visible in my inbox it appears there’s a bunch of sniping going on at our property manager. I have no desire to get in there at all. I’m enjoying the end of my weekend. Tomorrow.

Friday I watched Battlestar Galactica in the morning and then went to get tattooed in the afternoon. I didn’t know I was going to get tattooed. I was fully planning to go down, make an appointment and then wander in the village a little while. But the kid behind the counter asked if I was free, and I was, and so was an artist, and now I’ve got twice as much ink on my arms as I did before. (Still a very small quantity of ink, all told.)

Friday night was a party at Michael’s. I showed up late but had some really interesting conversation. A big conversation about the Mental Healthcare system went on, which isn’t something I know very much about at all. I stayed on the sidelines, acting a bit as an audience, but that’s a role I’m good at filling so yeah.

Saturday was Unrau family Xmas and I saw my cousins and played video games with my once-removed cousins. Oh, they had a karaoke Xbox game, so after people had been mumbling through Christmas carols (and I’d been hiding in the kitchen) for a while, Austin and I closed the singing off with U Can’t Touch This. Done really quite poorly. But it was fun.

The Danny Michel concert on Saturday was super. Danny Michel has actually spoiled me for basically every other live show ever. I want everyone else to be as funny and not taking himself super seriously but also sincere and not stagey as he does his inbetween song bits. The fact that he builds these great soundscapes with his loop pedals and shit is icing. They were recording the show (along with the Friday night edition) for a live CD so he paused to redo lines sometimes. In Tennessee Tobacco he explained that everyone clapping along was probably going to be a problem, recording wise, because he doesn’t actually play in time. I loved the songs where he sat at the piano. My favourite of the evening was his piano version of Valley of Doom, which was sad and dark and a lot creepier without any guitars.

Then off to Sean’s, where we ate burnt ochre velvet cupcakes and stacked chairs and generally had a good time drinking whisky. I may have been the only one drinking whisky. But I didn’t tell anyone off so it counts as a win.

Sunday Kate was in town before heading off to Europe in a couple of weeks and we went for lunch to a Portuguese restaurant, and set up her blog, and then off to my Mom’s for dinner, where Kate was a very good conversationalist. There was a big thing on why/how people make judgments about people, which was a sort of voluble discussion about race. Mom tried to head it off (in an “Agh! Don’t get angry!” kind of way) but the academics kept charging forward, and actually agreeing with each other more than you’d think from the volume. Good times.

And now here I am. I’ve got a book review to write, and Traveller to play this evening. This weekend was pretty much the part of Xmas I was most looking forward to, so I’m glad it met expectations. Go me.

Our 2^nd  destination still in Phuket, hehe.. Wala pang beach na makikita dahil enjoy muna sa sight seeing.Temple, everywhere in Thailand makakakita ka ng ibat ibang klaseng temple.

And pumunta din kami sa Pinakamalaking istatwa ng Buddha ayun sa kanila itu ay ang “The Big Buddha of Phuket”

At dahil kulang sa oras, kaya hindi na naming nakita ng maaga ang magandang tanawin sa likod ko, hehehe..                                            

Then after dinner, balik sa gala, at lakad sa beach.

Then the next day, we are planning to go swimming, kaya maaga palang alis nanaman.

Sa beach.

Liguan na!!

Siyet, ganda talaga ng mga tanawin! Hehe.. ( sayang hindi naka trunks, hak hak) Kaso iilan lang ang mga  HUNKS, ang iba mga hungHUNKS na! hehe

Tinymingan ko talagang dumaan si Lolo at Lola! lolz! Lolo said “Oh, Im sorry” hindi nya alam sya nakaganda ng picture ko, gumanda nga ba? o naging worst lang?!  hehehe..

Etu pa ang isang picture na nakapag paganda ng tanawin ko! kso mga masyosyonda na sila. hehehe

Kita nyu ba  tanawin sa likod?! Damn! Wish I can do that! topless everrr!

At pagkatapos maligo, pahinga na.

After magpahinga, get dressed and panibagong gala nanaman.

Picture muna with friends.

Take a last picture before its ending.

After ng vacation, we leaved Phuket @ 6:30 pm, then we arrived @ 5:30 am. Hays, it is the ending of my vacation, so Have a nice vacation to all!! :-)

“Traveling is not just seeing the new; it is also leaving behind. Not just opening doors; also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes.” —Jan Myrdal

“A travel adventure has no substitute. It is the ultimate experience, your one big opportunity for flair.”
– Rosalind Massow

I loved the effect this image produced – the silhoutte of the map with the blue of the ocean shining through the heart shape.

This was it…goodbye to Africa…Cape Town rapdily disappearing below us as we settled in to enjoy the flight to Buenos Aires…the first stop on our South American trip.

Inspired by: http://www.dailywriting.net/Doors.htm

(collage made from some of my door photos)

Doors and windows, what is it about them that never ceases to fascinate us? Frequently photographed and illustrated they appeal to something deep within us. They are literary doors of possibility too. Open the cover of a book and you immediately step into another world.

Discovering Heather’s Soulfood Café was like opening the door of possibility for myself. I stepped into a world where I could write and create art in a supportive, non-judgemental environment. Indeed doors were to feature frequently in subsequent adventures where crossing through the portal was as important as the rest of the journey. Reviewing the 4 years in which I have been involved with SFC I found that I had written no less than 4 pieces about portals and had created at least 2 collages/images of doors.

When I first arrived at the Soul Food Café this is the first door I created:

My door is in a little street paved with cobbles. Curiously enough the name of the street “rue pavée d’amour” means the street paved with love. Above the door there are two inscriptions “abandon inhibition all ye who enter here” and “in order for us to discover new lands we must be prepared to lose sight of the shore”. There are two panels in the lower part of the door, when these are open you can see, in one, a series of numbers. These represent the lotto that is life – thank goodness you don’t have to find the right combination to get through the door! Behind the other panel is a heart, for this indeed will be a journey to and through the heart.

You can read the other pieces here:

http://enchanteur.wordpress.com/2006/09/18/troubadour-sets-out/

http://traveller2006.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/desert-portal/

http://enchanteur.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/finally-made-it-through-the-portal/

Windows of opportunity – The eyes are the windows of the soul – Close one door and another one opens, etc. Thinking about how often references to doors are made during ordinary conversation I decided to see what quotations I could find on the internet. These are some of my favourites:

“It is often the last key on the ring which opens the door” Proverb

“The greatest step is out the door.” German Proverb

“When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don’t see the one that has opened for us.” Helen Keller

“Every wall is a door.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness” Christopher Morley

“A small key opens big doors.” Turkish Proverb

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Walt Disney

“There are things known, and there are things unknown, And in between are the Doors” Jim Morrison

“When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room, remember, never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone, but God is within, and your genius is within.” Epictetus

“Beware of the door with too many keys” Portuguese Proverb

“All day long the door of the sub-conscious remains just ajar; we slip through to the other side, and return again, as easily and secretly as a cat.” Walter de La Mare

“A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens.” John Updike

“To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.” Anne Rice

“When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.” Jesse Jackson

“Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during a moment” Carl Sandburg

“Traveling is not just seeing the new; it is also leaving behind. Not just opening doors; also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes.” Jan Myrdal

“A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.” Ogden Nash (same applies to a cat to my way of thinking!)

“The one happiness is to shut one’s door upon a little room, with a table before one, and to create; to create life in that isolation from life.” Eleanora Duse

“Don’t ever slam a door; you might want to go back” Don Herold

“The back of one door is the face of another.” Proverb

“An open door invites callers.” Turkish Proverb

“You just have to believe in yourself when you’ve got something, and just keep pounding on the door, because if you pound long enough, somebody is going to open it.” Cynthia Weil

“I have been here before./ But when or how I cannot tell:/ I know the grass beyond the door,/ The sweet keen smell,/ The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.” Dante Gabriel Rossetti

“It is a dangerous business going out your front door.” J.R.R. Tolkien

“Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” Chinese Proverb

Walking around in Brussels at lunchtime two years ago, in the area near where I was working, I came across a terrace of houses probably dating back to the turn of the century. Each house had a different pattern of ironwork balconies gracing its facade and one of the houses had stained glass windows. Unfortunately there were no lights on inside which might have given an idea of the probable beauty of the designs.

Away from the terrace I found another house with a stucco-work “green man” type head next to the front door and a magnificient frieze, at the top of the building, featuring panels of voluptuous ladies devouring bunches of grapes.

This started me thinking:

1) what sort of people live in a house decorated with panels of voluptuous ladies? is the decoration linked to their mode of life? cultural (or any other) interests? or did they simply purchase the house because they liked it? or did they have it built for themselves ?

2) have you ever walked past a building and thought: ” that’s exactly the house I would like” ?

3) If you were asked to make a picture of the house you would really like to inhabit, what would it look like?

by Traveller

the Departure is my 1st photo essay to document all my travels in abstract and straightforward images. Numbers, seats, movements, lights, terminals, buses, trains, planes, stranger and yet familiar faces with their own expression are the main particles of the Departure. To capture and embrace the priceless moment that been forgotten by crowd are the reason for me to come out with this photo essay.

the Departure will be presented in series of black & white photographs.

Inspired by Ricardo Cezar.

Itinerary 2
: Kuala Lumpur – Penang, December 2009.

Penang holds priceless memories of me. This is the place that I got my 1st camera. I still remember that day, with a new camera on my hand and the tripod on my back, I explored Georgetown alone. Walk trough old shop lot buildings, stop by street stalls to buy drinks and snap photos without even read the camera’s manual yet.
This time my trip to Penang was more happening, I tried things that I haven’t done yet in previous trips. I took train, ferry, bus, fisherman boat and car cable to reach my destination. Not to forget I also went to Penang Jazz Festival, it was incredible performances. And ohh..I always love Penang’s food so much. Now, I already miss Penang badly.

MKhalid Ibrahim
December 10th, 2009.
http://mkhalidibrahim.wordpress.com/

Ko Jum is a little island off the coast of Krabi.  It takes about an hour to get there.  It isn’t that well known.  It only has electricity during certain hours of the day.   There are bungalows sparsely scattered along the coastline and there are beaches where no one is in sight.  Thus, Ko Jum was heaven to me.

I arrived at the island and instantly fell in love.  I stayed at a little place called Bo Daeng Bungalows where the manager was  an amazing lady named Deela who was always smiling and laughing.  The bungalow had the basic ammenities:  a bathroom (of course, no western toilet), a  handheld shower, a comfortable bed, and a mosquito net.  There were hammocks everywhere.  The few guests that were there were scattered around the grounds, reading, chatting, drawing, just enjoying the laid back atmosphere.  The weekend was full of swimming in clear blue water, sunbathing on a beach where only occasional wanderers could be seen, and reading in my favorite hammock placed perfectly on the beach ready for that sun to set. 

The most important part of the weekend was my alone time.  I’m constantly surrounded by people, some speak english some speak thai, but nonetheless I am never in complete seclusion.  Well I got it this weekend and it was exactly what I have been looking for.  I took a step in the right direction.  I started defining what it is I want in my life.  Most importantly I want happiness.  And I just need to find what it is I want that will bring me that happiness I am searching for.  Many of my ideas for happiness conflict with each other, so I just began the process of figuring out which is the most important one.  I don’t know, but I know I will find out.  The solitude of the island was absolutely amazing.  Being able to just focus on myself and my thoughts and my feelings brought me a little closer to finding myself and what I want to make out of my life, who I want to be.

I thank Ko Jum for bringing me one step closer to knowing the true me.  I will be back.

Written in response to unleashing monsters

I searched my memories for wild things or wild happenings but couldn’t think of any until I remembered one of my favourite childhood songs – “the teddy bears picnic” although this hardly constitutes anything really wild.

The teddy bears’ picnic words by Jimmy Kennedy in 1932, music by John W. Bratton in1907

If you go down to the woods today

You’re sure of a big surprise.

If you go down to the woods today

You’d better go in disguise.

For ev’ry bear that ever there was

Will gather there for certain, because

Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Ev’ry teddy bear who’s been good

Is sure of a treat today.

There’s lots of marvelous things to eat

And wonderful games to play.

Beneath the trees where nobody sees

They’ll hide and seek as long as they please

Cause that’s the way the teddy bears have their picnic.

If you go down to the woods today

You’d better not go alone.

It’s lovely down in the woods today

But safer to stay at home.

For ev’ry bear that ever there was

Will gather there for certain, because

Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Picnic time for teddy bears

The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today

Watch them, catch them unawares

And see them picnic on their holiday.

See them gaily gad about

They love to play and shout;

They never have any care;

At six o’clock their mummies and daddies,

Will take them home to bed,

Because they’re tired little teddy bears.

So this post is really about childhood memories.

When I was about 6 my class at kindergarten went on a teddy bears picnic. My teddy bear had a cough pill tin for a lunch box filled with miniature cheese sandwiches.

Later my sister and I were given a small bear each. Hers was brown and mine was white and I called mine “Syrian Bear”. Both bears had joints so you could move their arms and legs. They also had a small tail and by moving their tails you could move their heads. Syrian Bear lived in my dolls house – a Georgian style house with a colonnaded entrance and a balcony. You could take the whole of the front off.

Inside were 4 rooms. Upper left was the bedroom, upper right the sitting room, lower left the dining room and lower right the kitchen. Dad papered the walls with pages from a wallpaper sample book. The curtains were made of the same material as my school uniform summer dress. One year in a Christmas cracker I got a miniature stags head resplendent with horns and this adorned the wall above the fireplace in the dolls house sitting room. A friend of mine had an antique dolls house and she gave me a couple of pieces of furniture, one of which was a high backed chair in faded blue silk. I remember re-covering it in pink satin but the glue left hard patches under the satin and it never really looked as glamorous as I had hoped. Judith also gave me a miniature flower vase; about the size of a slim thimble it was made of clear glass with dark blue and red vertical stripes. At some point I also acquired a pair of miniature bronze candlesticks (I found one the other day which I will put in Enchanteur’s magic bag). Syrian Bear slept in the lid of small box on a piece of artificial fur fabric. The pictures on the walls were torn from those sheets of faux Christmas postage stamps. That was the only room which had a fitted carpet. I think the sitting room just had a mat. The dining room and kitchen were by far the best equipped. The dining room had a dining table and chairs and a sideboard. The kitchen had a cooker and storage units which were stuffed with miniature cutlery, crockery and plates of food. If you have ever read Beatrix Potter’s “tale of two bad mice” you will remember that the mice steal plates of food from the dolls house – those plates of food were just like the ones in my dolls house kitchen. Later Syrian Bear was joined by a small white cat which slept in a small wicker picnic hamper. As I acquired more furniture there was no longer enough room in the dolls house so Dad made me a two-roomed annexe from an old orange box. Sometimes I used to borrow my brother’s wooden train set and would load SB, the cat, other visitors like my sister’s bear and all the food, crockery and cutlery in the cat’s picnic hamper, into the wagons and take them all off on train journeys around the bedroom on wet days or out in the garden on sunny days.

Trains of thought led me to chains of thought and other childhood memories.

The song ‘Nellie The Elephant’ was written in 1957 by Ralph Butler and Peter Hart.

To Bombay A traveling circus came

They brought an intelligent elephant

And Nellie was her name

One dark night

She slipped her iron chain

And off she ran to Hindustan

And was never seen again

Ooooooooooooo…

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk

And said goodbye to the circus

Off she went with a trumpety-trump

Trump, trump, trump

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk

And trundled back to the jungle

Off she went with a trumpety-trump

Trump, trump, trump

Night by night

She danced to the circus band

When Nellie was leading the big parade

She looked so proud and grand

No more tricks For Nellie to perform

They taught her how to take a bow

And she took the crowd by storm

The head of the herd was calling

Far, far away

They met one night in the silver light

On the road to Mandalay

So Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk

And said goodbye to the circus

Off she went with a trumpety-trum

Trump, trump, trump

Ooooooooooooo…

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk

And said goodbye to the circus

Off she went with a trumpety-trump

Trump, trump, trump

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk

And trundled back to the jungle

Off she went with a trumpety-trump

Trump, trump, trump.

I often wondered what a circus elephant would pack in a trunk – my guess is posters and post cards of all the performances she had participated in and all the places she had visited while with the circus, along with some bits of her costumes and photos. Maybe she kept a journal too ….

by Traveller

Residents in Bedfordshire are reassured they will get a chance to have their say over plans for a travellers’ site…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: airline travel. The blog is also related to: holiday travel.

This month’s dispatches of d66 lists focus on fleshing out solar systems. To this end, we bring you d66 Planet Names, d66 Comet Names and d66 Ship Names 2. Armed with these three lists, you can give more life to a new location immediately after your players jump in.

As a chaser to these, the last list of 2009 is d66 Alcoholic Drinks. Want your character to order Tiebrian Water (shaken, not stirred) whenever he goes to a new location. Looking for that perfect local brew when detailing a new location. This list is for you.

Everyone at Jon Brazer Enterprises would like to wish everyone a happy holidays this season. Be safe and we hope to game with you more in the new year.

“Traveller” and the Foreven logo are Trademarks owned by Far Future Enterprises, Inc. and are used with permission. The Traveller Main Rulebook is available from Mongoose Publishing.

  Ok it is confession time I didn’t begin to watch this show until USA had a marathon of all the past episodes leading up to the Fall Finale on Friday night.  Wow I just had a weird thought, since when did we start thinking of winter hiatus as Fall Finale’s?  Ok well anyways I had seen the first 2 episodes and yeah I thought it was enjoyable and interesting.  I thought the chemistry between Matthew Bomer and Tim DeKay was dead on.  Tiffani Thiessen didn’t make me want to gag and I could even see her as the FBI agents wife instead of the femme fatale I had mistakenly thought he was going to play when I heard she was going to be on the show.  But alas it came on during a very busy night in my household and truth be told I just didn’t think about making it appointment television.  Plus if I am to be completely honest the last show starring Matthew Bomer that I had made a point to watch and love was Traveller and well we all know how that turned out.  So you can see why I was reluctant to invite a new show into my home.  I admit now that I should have had more faith in USA.  Granted they are owned by NBC, but whoever is in charge of programming over NBC has not been taking notes from the guys over at USA.  Because not only has USA managed to amass a variety of engaging and unique programming, they have also managed to make a majority of them hits.  Oh sure some are less of a hit than others, but the ones that aren’t they allow the show the time to gain its foothold in the minds of the viewers.  So yes I should have had more faith, but I didn’t and it wasn’t until this past Sunday that I discovered just how good of show they have on their hands.

They could have gone the easy route with White Collar.  They could have made it like every other procedural cop show there is on right now.  They could have made it into a cliche.  They could have done alot of things.  They could have, but thankfully they didn’t.  And we are the luckier for it.  Whenever you have a show that is basically a buddy cop show you run the risk of one character over powering the other.  But with WC Neal Caffrey doesn’t work without Peter Burke and it is the same the other way around.  Instead of making Peter into a bumbling fall guy for Neal’s antics they have made him his equal in every way.  Granted I am not sure how many FBI agents are looking to try and partner up with a convicted fellon or how real (which I am sure is pure creative speculation) it is to get a criminal out of jail to help you solve crimes.  But come on do we really say we care about the validity of that little piece of storytelling?  Yeah I didn’t think so. 

As with every good show the supporting cast is just as important as the main players and although we have yet to learn more about Agent Jones and Agent Cruz they appear to be more than just background noise.  I loved it when Agent Cruz admitted to writing her theisis on him and instead of it being in homage to him and his greatness it was in hmage to her boss, the man who caught him twice.  What a nice little jab at the man who thinks all women just fall at his feet when he turns his charm on them.  Or when Agent Jones delibertly kept the ORB Agent from following his boss.  He had no idea what his boss was up too and he looked quite sure that Peter was going against FBI protocol but he put his faith and loyalty on the line no questions asked.  And come on people can we forget the formidable Willie Garson?  Not only does he manage to slip into the role of Mozzie like an old pair of jeans, he manages to do so while making us forget Stanford Blatch (SATC).  Not an easy feat I am sure, but he did it.  What could have been a cartoon character put there merely for the occasional laugh has turned out to be a guy Neal and White Collar wouldn’t be the same without. 

I have read some reports on the internet that some people had a problem with the shocking twist that came at the end of Friday’s episode and my only question is why?  Do they honestly believe that after seven episodes of building the relationship between these two characters just to blow it all to hell?  Come on people.  If they were to do that the show wouldn’t last much longer than a season and it would be a completely different show than the one they started building.  I seriously doubt they decided “oh wait, never mind the show that you have been watching isn’t the show you have been watching at all.”  I personnaly thought it was a great ending and it helps to allow for a much bigger season finale a few months from now.  But for all you naysayers out there who couldn’t see the brilliance of this ending well we only have to wait until January to find out what is really going on with Kate and Peter.  And if Neal will believe that Peter betrayed him.  I sure hope not.

I came across this interesting, weird, funny but, serious article at http://www.wisebread.com

Actually it seems so true that most of the tax payers indulge into such weird tactics in order to save whatever chunk of tax they can. Its amazing, to what an extent a mind can imagine various creative ways. Its a pleasure to share the reading here.

Imagine the Tax Fraud Tactics: 20 amazing, outrageous and just plain weird tax deductions

Tax Fraud Tactic

Well, it’s that time again. The tax deadline is just around the corner. If you’re like me, you will have taken care of your taxes months ago and already be enjoying the cash your high-interest savings account is giving you on your return.

If you’re smarter than me, you won’t have any tax return at all. It’s best to come out owing nothing and getting nothing. Evens is best here. But if you still haven’t done your return, take a look at the top 20 funky, strange and outrageous deductions that folks have tried, and sometimes failed, to get away with.

It’s ironic that I was sweating over the deduction of office supplies for my home business, when some folks out there are deducting breast implants and beer. As I’m often told, God Bless America.

1 – Free beer – YES
Strange but true. A gas station owner gave his customers free beer (brand unknown…I doubt it was Stella Artois though) in lieu of trading stamps. And the Tax Courts said yes, this is a legitimate business expense and tax deductible. Which makes the next entry even stranger…

2 – Free whisky – NO
How ironic. A cunning fella thought a case or two of whisky would make nice client gifts, and thus tried to deduct them on his annual tax return. The category he chose was client entertainment. However, not only was it not allowed, it was a gift that violated state laws. Ouch.

3 – Cost of hiring an arsonist – NO
Hard to believe, right? A man with a failing furniture business decided to hire someone to burn it down. The store-owner’s plan was not only to collect the $500,000 insurance money, but also to deduct the $10,000 expenses of hiring the arsonist! He was denied. I’m sure it wasn’t too long before the police were also looking carefully at his return. Not a smart man.

4 – Fake Boobs – YES
This one is infamous. A stripper going by the name of CHESTY LOVE used her hard-earned savings to boost the size of her boobs, to the eye-popping size of 56-FF (do they even make bras in that size?) She figured it would get her more tips. And the write-off was allowed, being considered a stage prop essential to her act. Ha!

5 – Prostitution expenses – NO
Maybe in Amsterdam or at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada, but you can’t deduct expenses of illegal professions. Trying to deduct 4000 condoms or push-up bras are no good if you put down “prostitute” as your career. Similarly, drug dealers can’t deduct the cost of baggies or soil for Marijuana plants.

6 – Cat food – YES
Junkyard owners set out bowls of pet food nightly to attract wild cats. The wild cats also took care of their nasty snake and rat problem, making the junkyard safer for customers and providing a useful business service. Yep, you guessed it…the pet food is a business expense, it was allowed. I need to get the number of their tax attorney.

7 -Your own racehorse – NO
I can see how this would be a business expense to some people. But if you just go out and buy your own prize-winning horse, name it after yourself (the ego on some folks) and then take clients out to see your horse run, you cannot deduct this. It’s not a business expense, it’s a personal expense. But hey, if you can afford a racehorse and stables, why are you worried about the deduction in the first place?

8 – A fabulous African Safari – YES
If the IRS considers a business trip “ordinary and necessary”, you can take it as a deduction. For the owners of a dairy business, this included a wonderful African Safari, because many of the activities on the trip were focused on wild animals. Please note – going to see adult shows in Vegas would not count as viewing exotic wildlife.

9 – The costs of moving…the family pet – YES
Whether you’ve got a Great Dane or a Great White Shark, your pet is considered a personal effect. And that’s great news for you. When it comes to any expenses relating to any kind move associated with a job, the tax man says yes. But I suspect hiring a Hummer Limo to move your gerbil across the state may not be looked upon favorably.

10 – A Trip to Bermuda – YES, YES, YES
I love this one. I have to find a way to do it. ANY business convention held in Bermuda can be written off without even showing there was a special reason to hold your business meeting in paradise. And it’s not the only place. Barbados, Costa Rica, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, Mexico and all U.S. possessions also fall into this special tax treatment. But outside the U.S. is a different story. I guess I can’t hold a board meeting in England so I can go see my folks then

11 – Body Oil – YES
If you’re a regular Joe, body oil is a once in a blue-moon splurge. Maybe something to spice up an evening with your partner, but certainly not a write-off. However, if you’re a pro bodybuilder and need gallons of body oil to make your muscles glisten, then it is a genuine tax write-off. Just don’t turn up at a client meeting covered in oil, wearing nothing but a thong and a smile. It won’t be considered “ordinary and necessary.”

12 – A trip to the Super bowl – NO
I’d like to put this one in the ‘nice try’ category. Someone decided to take clients and their spouses to the Super bowl, but just could not prove that the shindig was in any way related to business. And even if it was, it’s an extravagant expense for a meeting and would have been disallowed anyway. Sorry bud.

13 – A Private Airplane – YES
A couple with a rental condo didn’t fancy the hassle of driving up to 7 hours to check on it. They didn’t want to be stuck to the schedule of the only daily flight available. So, they did what you ore I would do. They bought their own jet! They were allowed to deduct all expenses on the jet relating to the condo, including the high costs of fuel. That must have been some

14 – A Mink Coat – NO
And thank goodness, because I hate fur. Claiming that the Mink coat was a conversation piece when visiting clients with his wife (what was the topic…blood on the runway?) a man tried to deduct the garment. Fortunately, he was denied.

15 – Babysitting costs – YES
Believe it or not, you can deduct the cost of a babysitter as a charitable deduction, if the mother of the child is leaving the house to do volunteer work for a charity. Which, of course, we all do on a daily basis.

16 – A ‘Playmate’ Party – YES!
How he got away with this one is beyond me. The owner of a nightclub promotions firm decided that a regular party wasn’t good enough for his clients. So, he brought in a bunch of scantily clad “bunnies” as decoration. The tax man said sure, it’s a valid expense. Whether or not pictures of the bunnies were attached to the return is unknown at this time.

17 – A Nuclear Fallout Shelter – NO
This one bombed (ouch, sorry…bad pun). Yup, way back in the days of the cold war and the threat of nuclear meltdown, one clever chap built a nuclear fallout shelter on his property and then decided to list it as “preventative medicine.” The IRS gave that one a big thumbs down. But who’ll be laughing if Word War 3 does happen?

18 – A beautiful swimming pool – YES
This one’s a great example of lateral thinking. After being told by his doctor that he needed to exercise (after developing emphysema), the smart fella put in a swimming pool. The deduction was put down as a necessary MEDICAL EXPENSE and was allowed, along with the various chemicals, heating, cleaning and general upkeep of the pool. Now that’s using your head.

19 – Dancing lessons – NO
Dancing With The Stars may be popular, but it’s not going down well with the IRS as the subject of a deduction. You CANNOT take dancing as a deduction for medical expenses, and the following reason are outlawed – dancing to relive varicose veins, dancing to cure arthritis and finally, dancing to alleviate nervous disorders. Try any of these and you’ll be dancing all the way to the tax courts.

20 – Sperm donation as a loss – NO
It’s one thing to make a little extra cash as a sperm donor. It’s quite another to try and claim a depletion loss on the aforementioned sperm. Unless you’re an oil well, that kind of depletion is not really going to make much of an impact.

I’ve been going through some tough stuff in my life.  I feel all alone in Thailand.  Far, far away from the ones I love and I have definitely been having some trouble coping.  I have had  experienced a heartbreak that I had never anticipated and I felt like a all I needed was a beautiful beach.   Its hard enjoying an amazing place when you are sad.  I jumped on the bus to Surat Thani (the place where the lady yelled at me about my window being open) and caught a bus to Krabi.  When I got into town, there were no normal taxis, only motorcycle taxis.  Something I have never endeavored.  Well I did.  And as the wind whipped into my face, I made a promise to myself to fully enjoy where I am.  To embrace my “solitude.”  I found a hotel and as I was checking in, I met Katja.  Katja is from Germany, a country I really didn’t want to hear much about at the moment, but nonetheless there was something about her and I asked her if she wanted to grab a beer and dinner.  She was travelling on holiday for a few weeks and we became instant friends.  We decided to book an island hopping tour together for the next day. 

We joined the 4 island tour group and embarked on a day full of sun, snorkeling, swimming, and chatting.  It was amazing to have such a great person with which to experience the beautiful islands of Krabi.  It was exhausting, but absolutely completely worth it.  We saw Chicken Island, two islands that were connected by a thin sand bank, which was awesome, and much more!  I loved getting to see all the little islands!  I wanted to book another one for the next day, but because Katja is a fair, German, who doesn’t see the sun much, her bright red sunburn stood in the way of us spending another blissful day in the sun together.  So I did it alone this time.  I again was surrounded by a boat of Germans, but this time I just kept to myself on the way to Hong Island.  I I snorkeled, I sunbathed and I lied in the sand, writing in my journal.   Hong Island was by far the most beautiful beach I have seen yet, but the pang of sadness kept me enjoying it.  Its hard being alone sometimes.  But I know I have a lot more where that came from.  And I know I’m going to be coming back to Krabi.  Rock climbing in Railay next time.  Ko Phi Phi another.  And much much more!

Mongoose Publishing has posted their 2009 “State of the Mongoose Address” and it’s great to see a RPG company doing so well!

In general, they say “you have to work hard but you can still do well in RPGs.”  They’ve grown to 14 full timers and have a huge roster of games going on.

Highlights:

1. A bunch of new Traveller settings and supplements.  The coolest one is Reavers – Piracy in the Sea of Stars, which in title sounds a lot like my “Reavers on the Seas of Fate” pirate campaign I’m running.  Synchronicity!  And there’s Codename Veil, which sounds a lot like Delta Green.  Plus, a new 2000AD license in the vein of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog called “ABC Warriors,” where you play warbots!
2. A new Runequest 2, redesigned and taken back to its roots – but without a SRD.  With a  huge campaign, Glorantha book, and more.  And variant settings, including Deus Vult, where you are a Catholic demon fighter in the 12th century, and the Eternal Champion stuff.  And they’re moving Wraith Recon over to it, they say they have no plans to do any more D&D 4e stuff.
3. The Conan license is in limbo but they’re dropping prices on the old stuff!
4. They are trying to expand Paranoia as a line, I get the impression they feel like they’ve tapped out the life of a Troubleshooter and have tried some “out of the mold” splatbooks and are seeing how those go to determine direction.
5. And more Earthdawn!  And Dragon Warriors!  And Cthonian Stars, a Cthulhu setting for Traveller!  And a bunch more other stuff!

Man, hats off to these guys, they are shipping some product.  And for those who remember the “old Mongoose” and the bad editorial, they’ve tried very hard to hire up and improve quality in editorial, and claim that in 2009 “in the past few months, the number of editorial issues in the many, many books we have released can be counted on one hand.”

I’m not sure why they are stepping away from openness with RQ2 though, it seems to have paid off for them enough with Traveller.  One demerit for that.  But otherwise, they are expanding heavily despite the global economy, doing so many things that the “common wisdom” says are bad – licensed games, having a bunch of different game lines…

I have some Mongoose games (Conan, Paranoia, Traveller) but don’t play any faithfully.  The lure of large game lines and rich ecosystems, especially like the Traveller one, may just bring me over however.

Update for 30 Nov 2009

An oasis in the desert conjures up inviting images of tall date palm trees, fringing a cool blue pond, with lush grass on its banks. It is a place in the middle of “nowhere”, where the weary traveler can rest his limbs, wash up in the pond, refill his camel skin water-bag and chew on the ripe date fronds that abound the place. It is also the place where children from the nearby settlement escape to, when oppressive mothers drive them out of their huts to tend the sheep. The children play as their flocks gambol among the greenery. They also chatter with the weary traveler and give him some useful inputs on their settlement. The traveler could be a merchant carrying prized salt from the desert that he would trade for food along the way or gold with the white sailors at the port. The traveler could also be a slave driver looking for his next “catch” that he could smartly bundle out to the palaces at the edge of the desert where he would get handsomely paid for. The traveler could also be a gold digger looking for the lost ruins of a civilization and looking for cheap labour or inputs to help him in his mission. Or he could be the maverick explorer just looking for new places and recording them in his journal which he would publish when he went back to his university. Whatever role he essayed, the traveler is always in awe of the oasis as it provides relief from the scorching heat and loneliness that he has been subjected to. It also helps him rewind and gather his energy to travel forth. It can be enriching for any traveler.

The desert storm from the Persian Gulf that clouded D Street seemed to have settled a bit. The D(isoriented) Boyz sighted their oasis this morning and quickly took into its green environs. The green leaves of the date palm, the sweet fruits from the tree, the cool blue waters in its ponds, all invited the D Boyz to stay and savour their much needed respite – so their caravan, the SENSEX, also stayed to enjoy the oasis, recouping the losses of last Friday and gaining more. The children from the nearby village added cheer to the D Boyz and the SENSEX as they brought cheerful news of how their village had so much of business opportunities – actually 7.7% more than the last time … (little children did not understand complex acronyms like the GDP –and “mistook” them for Good Date Pudding – which their mothers would prepare tonight for after dinner). The weary D Boyz were refreshed with this stay and their SENSEX looked healthier – actually 294 points healthier at 16926.

Sometimes, the villagers invite the headman of the caravan to their village for a meal at night, and this opens up opportunities for both to gain from each other. The wise elders of the village always know when to invite and when to avoid. They have lived in these harsh environs for long to know it.

Have a nice day. Cheers….