Archive for April, 2008

What NOT to Do in Your Backyard Pool

Backyard pools are popular with many homeowners, especially in hot climates and resort areas such as Florida.  As a result, Tampa pool builders and Orlando pool contractors are in high demand.

If you are working with a Florida pool contractor to get your pool built, you already know that having work done in your backyard can be a little stressful and overwhelming.  To help lighten your mood and remind you to look forward to the advantages of a backyard pool, here is a list of what NOT to do in your backyard pool.

  1. Drive your truck into it.  Yeah, someone really did this.
  2. Murder someone and bury them under the pool.  Okay, I got that idea from a movie: Sexy Beast, starring Ray Winstone.  He kills Ben Kingsley and buries him underneath the tiled floor of his pool.
  3. Commit suicide.  A.J.’s botched suicide attempt in The Sopranos comes to mind.
  4. Get stuck in a drained pool.  Russell Crowe’s character does this in A Good Year.

Well, you get the picture.  But on a more serious note, do make sure you use your common sense, and set pool safety rules for your family to make sure that no one gets hurt in your backyard pool!

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Who Holds the Keys to a Happy Relationship?

You can find relationship advice without even looking. From books on relationships to relationship-focused television shows, everyone has something to say about relationships. The worst culprits are the people in your life who are well-intentioned but misguided in the advice they offer up so freely.

The truth of the matter is that nobody really knows anything more than you do about how to have a great relationship. Sure, some people have read a better relationship book (or written one) and some people have more experience than you do with dating but that doesn’t mean that they know what they’re talking about. Just take a close look at their own relationships and you’ll probably find that they feel as muddled as you do.

The only person that really holds the keys to a happy relationship in your life is you. You need to get to know yourself and your own desires. You need to find ways to identify your needs and then be able to clearly articulate them to another person. And you need to get skilled at figuring out which people in your life are good for you and which ones aren’t.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t look to the advice of others. It’s always good to get some outside perspective on what you’re going through. Just remember that when it boils down to it, the relationship that you’re going to have for the rest of your life is the one you have with yourself. Work on developing that and the rest will follow.

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Tips for Capture the Flag

You may have played Capture the Flag when you were a kid, at summer camp or day care or simply with a group of friends.  It’s a popular childhood game, used for teaching strategy as well as for entertainment.

Fortunately, there are many grown-up versions of Capture the Flag that are just as much fun.  Here are some tips for putting together a good Capture the Flag game.

  1. Play in interesting terrain.  Woodsy terrain is a lot of fun, because it gives players places to hide and makes the game more challenging.
  2. Make team members easily identifiable.  Especially if you are playing in terrain that makes people hard to see, you need an easy way to identify your teammates.  A brightly colored bandana tied around one arm (i.e. "the blue team" and "the red team") is the classic way to identify players.
  3. Add a grown-up element.  Adult versions of Capture the Flag often include airsoft or paintball guns.  For instance, you can use airsoft sniper rifles to take out members of the opposing team, or classic army airsoft guns to give the game a more genuine feel.

Capture the Flag isn’t just for kids!  Of course, you could also apply the argument, "Bigger kids, bigger toys" — being adults means that we get to make the game more fun, not that we have to stop playing it altogether!

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2 Types of Cross Tattoos

Two people might walk into a tattoo shop on any given day and each may be seeking to get a tattoo of a cross inked onto his or her body. However, that doesn’t mean that the two people have anything else in common at all.

Like with all tattoos, cross tattoos are symbols of personal expression which may reveal different things about the personality of the tattoo bearer. Depending on the type of cross tattoo that it is, you could find strikingly different personalities between these two people.

The first person who comes in might be looking at Celtic tattoos. This may be a person of Irish descent who wants to honor his heritage with a tattoo. Alternatively, this may be someone who is interested in the political symbolism of the Celtic cross.

In contrast, the second person who comes in might be looking at religious tattoos. The traditional Catholic cross may have been chosen after looking at other religious symbols such as the Sacred Heart.

Of course, these two people don’t necessarily have to have opposing views. The Irish Catholic individual may be interested in a cross tattoo that blends either of the traditional cross images to represent her merged beliefs. In other words, the tattoo will be highly unique to the individual (as all tattoos are) and you shouldn’t assume something one way or the other about the person who got the ink done.

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Standard vs. Custom Safety Signs

Imagine that you are in charge of a store’s purchase of safety signs during a period of construction for the business. These signs are going to be the main tool that the store’s customers use to identify areas of danger during the construction. They will also use the signs to understand temporary changes in the store’s design which naturally occur to accommodate the construction. In order to make sure that things go smoothly during this time, you need to be smart about buying the right signs.

The first question that comes up for most people in this situation is whether to buy custom signs or pre-made signs. Custom signs are more expensive but may do a better job of keeping everyone safe during the construction. To determine whether your business needs to spend the extra money on custom signs, you should ask yourself if the standard sign does the trick. For example, if you’re going to need to re-route traffic in the parking lot, will a simple pre-made arrow sign work or does your situation require a sign with very specific instructions?

There are many different safety signs to choose from. (For example, there are solar safety signs; solar signs are safety signs powered by solar energy to illuminate the message on the sign.) Take a look at all of your choices and ask yourself which one is going to keep people safest. This is hardly a situation in which you want to scrimp if safety is a concern.

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