Rail travel tips

Traveling by train, in itself, is fun. The continuous jostling of the compartments, screeching of train brakes and the loud horns make train traveling a real fun. However you need to take care of certain things while traveling, so that the journey remains hassle-free and fine.

Rail travel is a lengthy journey, so you should try to relax as much as possible. Relaxation does not mean that you simply sleep as board the train or remain quite throughout your journey. It means that you should spend your time comfortably. For this purpose you can bring along a disk man or walk man to listen to your favorite music and enjoy the views via window pane.

If you are traveling alone, you can seek advice from the rail crew. If you are not able to get something or you are not able to understand something, you can definitely ask the well-trained and friendly crew members.

To prevent yourself from getting bored throughout the journey, try interacting with the people around. Try to strike a conversation with them. This way, you can explore them and share your opinion and rail experiences with them. You can even make the other travelers as your friends. Interaction is always good to explore the dimensions of rail travel.

Always carry light luggage, while traveling via railways. You should only carry useful stuff along with you. You can carry a good book, a light blanket, a pillow, bathing items, grooming items, clothes, sunglasses, mineral water, some fruits and snacks.

You should pack comfortable and light clothes, avoid carrying heavy jewelry, but you should carry enough cash to meet all the needs of the trip. Carrying a first aid kit is a must. You should include all the important medicines which you might need during the trip.

You should never leave your luggage on the train or station unguarded. Always keep an eye on your luggage and keep it close to you. If the rail journey is lengthy, you should keep your baggage to the rack securely and put on a small bicycle lock to prevent any possibility of theft or stealing. As far as possible, try to keep your money concealed, don’t flaunt it on the train.

Do your packing in advance. Ideally you should pack your bags one day before your travel. This would give you ample time to think about all the necessary items you need to carry along. So packing should be done ideally a day before you leave. If you plan to pack your bags at the last moment, you would probably end up missing things.

Before you leave your home, always confirm that you have all the necessary things required. You should check the railway ticket, your wallet and other things. You should always check that all your bags and attachй are locked. Double check them and place their keys with you. Always have duplicate keys. The duplicate keys are great relief, incase you lose your original keys.

Following these tips can surely make your rail travel hassle free and comfortable.

Save money while you survive the heat

Staying cool this summer could become a challenge when the waves of summer heat come lapping at your door. If you haven't prepared your home to keep the cool air indoors and the heat out, you may lose in the battle to survive the summer with reasonable cooling bills and optimal comfort.

The company that brings you Heil brand heating and cooling products suggests the following steps to keep your energy bills affordable and your home comfortably cool:

* Lock your windows and shut your garage door. It's important to minimize the loss of cool air from your home. Sunshine can heat up your garage and cause your air conditioner to work much harder than necessary. Windows not shut tightly will allow cool air to escape. Lock your windows to give them a better seal, and shut your garage door to help keep your cool air indoors.

* Clear the area around your thermostat. Keep the area around your thermostat clear of electronics and lighting. The thermostat will sense heat from these appliances and run the air conditioner longer than necessary.

* Program your thermostat. A programmable thermostat can save money and energy by

operating at a more cost-efficient temperature while you're asleep or away from home, and automatically lower the temperature to cool your home just before you wake up or return. New Heil brand programmable thermostats can help save money and are backed by a five-year warranty.

* Evaluate your landscaping. Plant trees and shrubs to shade your air conditioner but not block its air flow. A shaded air-conditioning unit will run more efficiently than one that operates in the sun. According to the U. S. Department of Energy, an air conditioner uses as much as 10 percent less electricity when working in the shade.

* Re-examine your air-conditioning system. Your heating and cooling system may be sending hundreds of dollars in wasted energy bills through the roof. Purchasing a new, more energy-efficient system can cost less than keeping an older, less energy-efficient system.

For example, the Heil QuietComfort line of 14 Plus air conditioners saves energy, uses an environmentally friendly, chlorine-free refrigerant, and can save you up to 57 percent on your summer cooling costs.

Individual travel or travel guide which one to choose

What according to you is the best way to travel, would it be by guided travel or individual travel? We recently took a trip to Washington. Taking a bus tour that would take us around the capital showing us the highlights, this turned out to be a good decision. We were allowed to travel by foot the next day to see those sights we wanted to from up close. Giving us an opportunity to plan our three days in the city and select what we wanted to see.

The San Francisco Bay Area which happens to be a favorite holiday spot for me and my family holds many pleasant and cherished memories of our holidays in those places. There are few places, which are so much haunted by tourists that you could visit them on your own. As a result you can decide on your own time and pace to visit. Good examples of the same are Fisherman's Wharf and Pier39. By walking a couple of blocks you can see the Aquarium of the Bay, or cruise around San Francisco Bay, take some time at the Riptide Arcade on Pier 39 and go around the famous Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.

Those traveling without a guide might like to buy a San Francisco City Pass. Buying this would give you tickets to five hot spots, apart from free rides on the Cable Cars and an optional ticket which could be used at select optional places like the Steinhart Aquarium or Legion of Honor & Academy of Science.

There are some attractions again where you would enjoy more with a tour guide. While on Alcatraz Island, you could go solo, but having a lively tour guide or listening to earphones could make you aware of the interesting points when you go through them.

The Walking Tours of Chinatown are a must see. This adds to the behind the scenes colorful picture of the place. This tour takes you through the history and traditions of the local people and familiarizes you with the culture you would never understand on your own.

San Francisco has almost 30 fun and free walking tours of the city. For information on these free tours, visit sfcityguides. org.

It is the same for Napa valley tours. You could drive up to the place yourself while looking around, but a guided tour to some of the vineyards and wine tasting rooms would make it more interesting.

A 17-mile drive to the coast is also a favorite driving tour. The winding roads give you fantastic views of beautiful mansions and the country side. You would be traveling through Carmel and Pebble Beach Golf Club.

Whether you chose to visit alone or take a guided tour, should depend on your place of visit and what you want to see. Mixing a bit of both could make your travel tour worthwhile.

Outdoor classrooms a smart way to teach teens

When it comes to learning, the best classrooms aren't always inside a school. That's the word from experts who say that one of the latest trends involves using the great outdoors to teach teens life lessons.

For instance, Matt Schmitz may seem like an average 18-year-old. He's enjoying his senior year in high school and looking ahead to graduation. However, he's already developed the type of leadership skills that many people strive for well into adulthood.

At age 15, Schmitz learned about the Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), a National Park Service program that, he said, let him combine his thirst for knowledge with his passion for the outdoors. "Getting a chance to know Yellowstone is a rare thing," he said. "Plus, it was a chance to spend a summer outdoors, and on my own away from the family."

For 30-35 teens every year, YCC is a work/learn/earn program that teaches lessons in conservation, ecosystem preservation, environmental engineering and leadership. Participants earn minimum wage building bridges, repairing cabins, maintaining trails and more.

Since 1990, YCC has been funded completely by the Community Service program of the Moose fraternal organization. The group began its partnership with Yellowstone National Park in 1988, when fires spread across the park and destroyed hiking trails and visitor facilities. The Yellowstone Youth Fund was established to aid in restoration. Since 1989, the group's members have donated more than $2 million ($135,000 annually) in support of the YCC program.

"The Moose is proud to provide this program to youth across the country. It's a vibrant example of our dedication to connecting families and community service," said Shawn M. Baile, Director of Community Service for Moose International.

The friendships Schmitz has developed span coast to coast. "I've met people that I probably never would have met otherwise," he said. "It's a program that enables you to grow as a person. One thing I tell students is that they shouldn't discount themselves. It's not summer camp; it's work. But it's all about teamwork," explained Schmitz.

Agoraphobia four things i had to change before healing could begin

I suffered with agoraphobia for more that twenty years. During that time I tried all sorts of treatments, some conventional, some not so, and nothing I did seemed to have any sort of positive effect upon my agoraphobia, panic disorder or anxiety disorder. In fact, some things made my condition worse, in some cases, much worse.

When my panic attacks started, back in 1985, I was left with a travel phobia but as the years passed, my safe-zone became increasingly smaller until I wound up being more or less completely housebound. During this time, at two separate stages of my downward progress, I consulted with a couple of homeopaths to see if they could help me. We tried all sorts of different treatments but nothing seemed to work. However, there was something that they both told me that lingered with me for a long time afterwards. They both stated that there was a “time for healing”. I must admit that I didn’t fully grasp what they actually meant by that and figured that they were trying to say that there was some God-given, pre-determined date when my recovery would begin. It wasn’t until much later, when I was well on the road to recovery, that it finally dawned on me what they were talking about.

I was working with the wrong definition of time. What they were getting at was that, there is, in a person’s life, a “suitable point” at which healing can take place. Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t until I had got to that suitable point that I was able to figure out what they were trying to tell me. You see, unbeknown to me at the time, there were some things happening in my life that were preventing me from getting well again. Looking back now, I can plainly see that until I went ahead and physically removed these things, I hadn’t a prayer of getting better.

Here’s a list of things that needed rectifying:

1. The first thing I had to get over was my resentment toward my agoraphobia: Right from the moment that I suffered my first panic attack I was extremely resentful of the fact. In my opinion, I wasn’t a bad person. Why me?

2. The second item was my denial that I had agoraphobia: It took me years to acknowledge that I was ill and in need of help. I truly believed that one day I would wake up and it would magically be gone. In the meantime, if asked about it by even the closest of friends, I’d deny that there was a problem.

3. The third in line was the guilt I was carrying because of letting people down: I had this crazy habit of agreeing to anything that I was asked to do, including things that involved travelling, and hoping that everything would work out fine on the day. Things seldom worked out fine and more often than not, I just couldn’t face the journey. Even if I could confront going through with what I’d agreed to, I’d put myself through hell just to keep someone else happy.

4. And the last item on the list was self-medicating with alcohol: At first it started out as a couple of drinks to steady my nerves but as time rolled by, I started to lean on the stuff more and more. Eventually, I was drinking just to get through the day and wound up with depression.

Something had to change. The first thing to take a hike was the booze, followed closely by my no longer making promises just to keep others happy. If I was invited anywhere, I’d say that I would try to attend but I’d ask the host/hostess not to make any special arrangements and not to be upset if I didn’t make it. I started to accept my “fate” and settled, quite contentedly, into my restricted life. I started to look upon it as a puzzle that I had been given to solve. Looking at it from this perspective made a game out of it. Also, if and when asked about my agoraphobia, I was truthful with my answer.

Within a short space of time, I started to feel better. I was no longer viewing life through an alcoholic haze and the depression started to lift, the guilt I felt from my missed engagements ceased, I was no longer kidding myself that I would magically get better and, last but not least, the resentment that I used to feel had been replaced with a sense of determination to find a cure.

Doing the above didn’t cure my anxiety, panic attacks or agoraphobia but what it did do was pave the way for my recovery by removing most of the stress from my life. Once this was done, right on cue, I stumbled across the system that I needed to remove the agoraphobia and its cousins completely.

Online tutoring - a real boon when class gets tough

Extra academic help in the form of tuition is a essential and viable option if your child needs help with classroom assignments, or supplemental work. All kids have some areas that they need help with, and if you feel your child can get advantage from it, it might be just what they need. Check out the different Internet tutoring options available, and decide the best for your child. Online tutoring offers so much that you might not realize.

Retired and substitute teachers use it. In fact, some teachers have left classroom teaching, and now teach full time through online tutoring. Before you sign up your child though check out the credentials of the Internet classroom. Write or call your local state governments to find out if there have been any complaints from the Internet Better Business community.

In today’s busy 24 hour work society, kids often get home before parents, and they can profit by going online, and starting their online lessons. Quality online services offer help everyday of the week, including the weekends. When you’re shopping around for a top rated online tutoring service, make sure to ask about schedules. Also, question if their system is secure, so your child won’t be exposed to just anyone that can hack into their online tutoring.

Any of these services should offer ways for you to be able to check in on your student’s progress. Any service that you pick should also give you the choice of being able to talk with a teacher on what your child is having trouble with, and how you can help them at home to do better. Other services that you should find before you sign up for your child should be a pre-assessment on their abilities, and testing for their style of learning. It won’t do your child or you any good if you don’t know what they can do, and what areas they need help in.

If you can find a program that encourages one on one help and training for your child outside of the classroom or online this is perfect. Success for students means that they’ll find others to interact with that are on their level and that they can feel comfortable talking with them. It might be helpful to speak with your child’s teachers for help in locating not only an online tutoring system of help, but also a local center. They know what works for kids, but with your input about your child they’ll be better able to understand the full picture for online tutoring.

Finally, remember to look at any educational help as a blessing. Only a few years ago, kids that needed help didn’t get a lot of it. The fee of tutoring is affordable, and technology has provided kids the chance to get more assistance when they need it, at home or the library. Online tutoring has come of age in the 21st century.

Texas schools benefit from 9 million math science grant

In July 2006 grants of $9 million were given to Texas Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (T-STEM) academics of the Texas Schools. The grants will go to the creation of 12 new academies and centers in the Texas Schools. T-STEM is a program that provides $71 million to various math and science projects at secondary Texas Schools.

The T-STEM project is under the umbrella of the larger Texas High School Project (THSP), which has the goal of increasing graduation and enrollment rates in public Texas Schools. The THSP is funded by both public and private funds in the amount of $261 million. Its partners include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Office of the Governor and others.

Why Fund Math & Science in the Texas Schools?

Concerns that both Texas Schools and American students in general are falling behind in the areas of math and science have increased greatly with recent technology. Federal mandates from the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act have also added to pressure for Texas Schools to increase academic performance of its students in these areas. Finally, awareness of an increasing achievement gap between races and economic levels has prompted Texas Schools to make these changes.

According to Texas Governor Rick Perry, “The T-STEM initiative focuses our efforts where they are needed most - in areas where there are a high number of disadvantaged students who are too often left in the shadows of opportunity. This initiative will help us close the science and math gap that exists in our schools today before it becomes a salary gap for tomorrow’s workers, and an opportunity gap for Texas families.”

Methods For Support and Instruction in the Texas Schools

Funds from both the THSP and T-STEM will provide resources, instructional methods, and innovative approaches to better educate students at Texas Schools in math and science related areas. THSP funds are devoted to creating new and redesigned Texas high schools, training teachers, and preparing students for college. The development of five new T-Stem centers will give instructional materials to the schools, offer training to school educators, and evaluate best practices that can be recreated in other Texas Schools.

Charter schools, small schools, and a YES College Preparatory Academy will be funded with the three implementation grants awarded to Texas Schools to open T-STEM academies. Four start-up grants have been provided that will give $480,000 to four new academies that will open in fall of 2007. Educators and Administrators of Texas Schools are hopeful that the launch of the T-STEM programs in 2007 will reverse the trend of the growing achievement gap.