Emma About All: Feb 16, 2009

Direct TV Internet - Is Direct TV Internet All it's Cracked Up to Be?

One day my wife came in from picking up our kids at her sisterвЂ™s house and wanted to know why we didnвЂ™t have Internet service through our Direct TV subscription. She said her sister had just gotten it and loved it. I didnвЂ™t want to tell her I didnвЂ™t know Direct TV even offered Internet access. She looks up to me and thinks I know everything there is to know about any topic she has questions about. So I let her think it. (Hey, whoвЂ™s it hurting?) I told her I hadnвЂ™t gotten around to finding the best deal yet, but IвЂ™d look into it.

Several days later I finally took a few minutes and poked around online, looking for information on Internet service from Direct TV. I did a MASSIVE amount of searching, wading through a bunch of nonsense, and came away with three and only three sites that are worth your time. I decided to bookmark those to come back to later when I had more time. IвЂ™ve listed them below so you can check them out for yourself. Anyway, a few more days went by, and my sister-in-law calls the house and wants to know if weвЂ™ve gotten Direct TV Internet service yet. Well, all that did was stir up my wife to nag me about why I hadnвЂ™t done what I said IвЂ™d do. So back to the computer I went.

This time I was a bit more careful and took my time looking over first one site then another, but I just ended up going back to the same three sites I had bookmarked earlier. (Remember, the links to them are at the end of this story). I found all kinds of information I needed to make a smart decision about Direct TVвЂ™s Internet services.

Seems it doesnвЂ™t matter where you live, theyвЂ™re able to get the Internet to you, whether itвЂ™s through your existing phone lines or via satellite. I even ran across an article in one of my searches that says Direct TV will be offering Internet access through your power lines, and thatвЂ™s going to be totally sweet when it gets rolled out nationally.

And Direct TV is partnered with several well-known companies in the communications industry in order to provide Internet access to you, no matter where your house is. Heavy hitters like AT&T, Verizon, Wildblue and others IвЂ™m sure youвЂ™re familiar with.

According to the sites IвЂ™ve referenced below, there are times when you can find substantial savings when you bundle your Direct TV and Internet access together. The promotions vary, which is why itвЂ™s important to order through a site that stays current like the ones below.

Anyway, we finally got it and the wifeвЂ™s happyвЂ¦for now. And I have to admit, I am too. Internet access through Direct TV is light years faster than our old dial-up. Looking back, I canвЂ™t believe I waited so long. Fortunately, you donвЂ™t have to. All you have to do is click the links below and you can find the best deals running right now on Direct TVвЂ™s Internet services. It costs nothing to click, and who knows, it might save you a bundle.

When it comes to getting the best deal on Direct TV's Internet service, here are the only three sites I found that you need to check out. The first one I'd recommend is this Direct TV Internet article at DigitalTVDojo (these guys really do it right!). You should also take a few minutes and check out the Direct TV Internet page on Squidoo, and this Direct TV Internet article on Hubpages. You'll be glad you did.

Lessons From Janet Jackson's Weight Loss and Diet

The recent publicity over Janet Jackson's weight gain, and subsequent weight loss campaign, also aroused a lot of public opinion and comment. Not surprisingly, given the superstar status of the singer, for me the star of the Jackson family, and the size of the weight reduction she supposedly achieved over a 4 month period.

Janet Jackson is reputedly a yo-yo dieter, someone who has phases of dieting followed by putting all the weight back on. That can never be good for long term health for anyone, and that surely goes for Janet Jackson too. But, she was overweight by the accepted measures that are used by the medical profession today, and she knew it. So she set out on a weight loss campaign, as millions of people around the world do, every year. Only in her case, and on this occasion, she was successful in losing weight.

Cause of Janet Jackon's Weight Gain

Many have speculated how and why Ms Jackson got so heavy in the first place; depression, stress and all the usual reasons have been suggested by various commentators. Some excused that it was her stressful superstar existence that caused the recent problem, and the eating disorders that have been reported on in the past. Maybe, maybe not; that's her business really. Stars in the public limelight do have stresses that may be different to other people's stresses. But there are millions of people not in the limelight who are overweight and may be tempted to blame stress.

Of course, it could be that Janet Jackson just felt like letting herself go for while, and let the weight drift upwards, without feeling any real incentive to keep it under a tight rein. Then one day felt the effects of being too heavy and thought: "That's it, I'm going to lose weight."

Unless Janet Jackson has a medical problem, then being overweight was simply caused by consuming too many calories compared to the energy she was expending each day. That is the case with almost all overweight and obese people. So, once that decision was made to get back to what she thought was her best weight, she had to set about reversing that situation. In other words, strike a better balance between exercise and food consumption.

If the figures that we read at the time were true, Ms Jackson lost weight at a rate well above the "safe" rate suggested by most doctors. She was losing nearly 4 pound a week over the period of 4 months, about double the recommended weight loss rate. But how was she able to do it?

How Janet Jackson Lost Weight

If reports are to be believed, Janet Jackson just did what all the books and experts tell overweight people to do. On the one hand, she had a controlled diet; on the other hand, she had a systematic exercise programme. Now, any of us can do that, but most of us do not. We spend billions of dollars a year on special diets and weight loss plans, and just keep getting heavier. We know what to do, but just don't do it.

In Ms Jackson's case, she did it. To simplify things, she had the motivation to lose weight, despite the effort and self control that was required. If anyone has the motivation, they too can lose weight. There is enough free information to enable anyone to get those pounds off, and to bring their BMI down to a healthy level.

When Janet Jackson's weight loss success was reported, many people dismissed it, saying "oh, it's alright for her, she can afford a personal fitness trainer and personal chef." That, though, is not the point. She could have done the same without the personal chef or trainer; she just happened to take advantage of her wealth to outsource two important features of her weight loss campaign. Surely she would have been too busy to count out her calories every day? Most of us are not, although we may claim to be. And we can all exercise and go to the gym, or just exercise at home, or walk the streets, beaches or fields to burn off those calories.

The simple fact is, Janet Jackson was inspired, for whatever reason, to lose weight, so she did what was necessary. Some say it was to get to looking slim and sexy for a new album, but that does not matter. What does matter is that she found the motivation to reduce her weight, and took seriously to the task with a high level of endurance.

I suspect that for millions of people, motivation is the missing link. Find that inspiration, that motivating factor, and you could be shedding the pounds at a healthy rate suggested by your doctor.

This diet article was written by Roy Thomsitt, owner and part author of the Routes To Self Improvement website, where you can find many articles on weight loss, plus Motivation and other personal development topics.

Finding Portrait Originals of Celebrities

It could be pretty much agreed that celebrities are people who have a creative streak in themselves. This is what pushes them to follow their art, whether it be acting, writing, figuring out creative new moves in a sports game, or standing in front of a crowd and delivering a passionate speech as a politician. Most of these people have creative talents which gives them an urge to explore multiple activities. This is why many different celebrities tend to dabble in different areas of artistic expression, one of them certainly being painting.

Along with being creative individuals, many celebrities are very critical of themselves. When they work on a project, many times they are very aware of the need to make a statement and assert themselves with their work. In fact, if they do not try to use their art to make the world a better place, they feel as if they are failures. In addition to this, though, even when these artists are simply exploring their creative sides and gaining experience in techniques, they will often pick subjects that are deeply personal to explore, something that they can critique about themselves.

This has given way to a number of celebrity made self-portraits. Many celebrities will often try to depict themselves in a variety of lights, from critical interpretations where they try to depict themselves showing the very nature of their own souls, to light-hearted and even comical renditions where they exaggerate many of their features. These self-portraits can be incredibly deep and insightful or more humorous and jovial. Either way, they become items which are highly collectible and rather rare. Anyone can paint a picture of a celebrity, but it isn't often that celebrities craft pictures of themselves. In fact, very few celebrities have made self-portraits.

John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney have all made self-portraits, some of which are available for purchase. Jerry Garcia, David Bowie, and Janis Joplin have also experimented with painting self-portraits. These different celebrities have all used their creativity towards expressing themselves through the media of art and as a result, have produced some of the most collectible works of art that have ever existed. Self-portraits by celebrities are images which are usually not widely shared, making them not only rare, but something secret and special as well, considering that so many members of the public have never seen them.

Celebrities need not necessarily express themselves through self-portraits, however. Many celebrities experiment with painting in a way that is not directly representational of their images. Some celebrities craft paintings based on their inner feelings, giving the world a view of what their souls look like. These paintings are often collectible pieces in themselves, all the more when they have been autographed by the original artist. Whenever a popular celebrity branches out and explores other mediums, those items often become collectible for the sake of their existence, irrespective of the level of artistic value that the piece may hold in itself.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for autographed celebrity photos, celebrity collectibles, and autographed art. You will find it all at these sites for autographed celebrity photos, celebrity collectibles.

Emma About All

Monday, February 16, 2009

Direct TV Internet - Is Direct TV Internet All it's Cracked Up to Be?

Lessons From Janet Jackson's Weight Loss and Diet

Finding Portrait Originals of Celebrities

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