:The Flash Advancer

I grew up thinking that the Tarot and playing cards like poker were closely related. While I was never explicitly told that the two forms are cards were related, I always thought that with their odd imagery, unique ranking systems, and widespread use- the two must be related. Looking around the internet the other day, I realized that a lot of other people were operating under the same impression.

To clear up the confusion, most scholars think that playing cards came first. People have dated playing cards to the 9th century, but can only date the tarot to the 15th century. One popular theory is that the tarot grew out of the hierarchal system of playing cards, but the jury is still out on that one. What is clear is that the two versions of cards were developed for entirely different purposes. Playing cards were associated with gambling and casino and early didactic lessons, while tarot cards were supposedly used to connect an individual with a higher authority.

A further point to differentiate poker and tarot reading is that tarot decks have way more cards (around 78) than a traditional playing card deck. Presumably the additional cards were added so that the deck would be more useful for purposes of divination. The images are also indicative that the two different forms of cards had wildly different purposes and audiences.

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Quick question:
Is tabemasu a verb?
If you said yes: congratulations - you’re about to defeat your second myth of learning Japanese Verbs.

I bet, if you’re anything like me, you probably started out learning all kinds of Japanese ‘verbs’ like the above tabemasu.

One of the first sentances I learned in Japanese was:
Nani o tabemasu ka?

What are you eating?

At the time, I figured (logically) that tabemasu was the verb in the sentence. Worse, to an extent, it is the verb of that sentence. It does everything a verb should. It creates action in the sentence. It shows ‘what’ someone or something is doing.
So why does believing that tabemasu is a verb make your life difficult?

Imagine you are an alien who lands on Earth and beams into a Halloween Party to ask for directions. The person who opens the door is wearing a black cloak, bone white face makeup, platform shoes, red contact lenses and Dracula teeth. Behind him/her is a host of other people dressed like the living dead. You’ll form some pretty quick (and possibly gruesome) impressions of the people on this planet.

Why shouldn’t you?

How are you supposed to know (without turning on your super space-aged scanning equipment) that the natives are in costume?
It’s the same with Tabemasu. Tabemasu is a verb in costume.
And as with people, it is a bad idea to form your real impression of a verb based on it’s costume.

The first step to really knowing your verb is to take off the costume it is wearing.

Tabemasu is wearing a very common costume generally called the masu form.

This costume is very easy to put on, and relatively easy to take once you know how it is put on.

So let’s get dressed:

First, start with the real/naked verb. The best way to find naked verbs is to look them up in the dictionary. The naked verb is just the dictionary form of the verb. It is also called the plain form, or the infinitive.

The naked form of Tabemasu is:
Taberu - to eat.

This is an ichidan verb. You can easily recognize ichidan verbs because they always end in iru or eru. If your naked verb ends in either iru or eru, 98% of the time it is an ichidan verb.

Other fun ichiban verbs include:
Iru - to exist (animate objects)
Dekiru - to be able to do
Uragiru - to betray
Eru - to gain/get
Tsutomeru - to work for

The other type of verbs are called godan verbs. If you see a plain verb and it doesn’t end in eru or iru, it is a godan verb (with the exception of Kuru (to come) and Suru (to do), the only two really irregular godan verbs)

Godan verbs come in nine flavors:
RU - eg: Odoru - to dance (note - this ends with oru NOT eru or iru, hence a godan verb)
SU - eg: Hanasu - to speak
KU - eg: Iku - to go
GU - eg: Oyogu - to swim
MU - eg: Yasumu - to take a break/vacation
BU - eg: Yobu - to call (out to someone)
NU - shinu - to die (often Romanized Sinu)
Vowel + U - Eg: Warau - to laugh

Occasionally, a godan verb will look exactly like an ichidan verb. The three most common examples of these are:
Hashiru - to run
Kaeru - only when it means to return home/to your place of origin
Hairu - to enter
Highly Irregular: (You have to memorize these)
Suru (to do) and Kuru (to come)

When learning verbs, is vitally important to learn the naked/plain form of the verb and form all of your conjugations from there. The plain form is the center of your wheel of conjugation. The masu form of the verb is one of many, many spokes that come from this plain form of the verb. It is one of many costumes.

Here is how you dress your naked verb up in the masu form:
For Ichidan verbs:
1. Take your base verb.
2. Drop the RU.
3. Add masu.
That’s it!

EG:
1. Taberu
2. Tabe
3. Tabemasu

For Godan Verbs:
1. Take the last U of your verb
2. Turn it into an I
3. Add masu

That’s it!

EG:
1. Hanasu
2. Hanashi (remember, there’s no SI in the Japanese Alphabet, so SI is pronounced SHI)
3. Hanashimasu

How about this one:
1. Warau
2. Warai
3. Waraimasu

Easy isn’t it?

Lastly, the two Irregulars: (there is no rhyme or reason to these, just be glad there’s really only two of them)

1. Suru (to do) = Shimasu (this looks exactly like what would if you just put SU ending of a Godan verb into this masu form. Scroll up and take a look. That is the best way to remember how Suru conjugates in this form)
2. Kuru (to come) = Kimasu (Other than the fact it sounds like Shimasu - a little - you just have to memorize this)

What’s even better is that you can attach more than just masu to the step two of this conjugation.

For example, what if you want to say, I start to speak:
1. Start with Hanasu (to speak)
2. Take it to Step 2 of the Masu shift = hanashi
3. Add hajimeru = hanashihajimeru

Congratulations - you’ve just made your first compound verb.

If you want to continue doing something, try tsuzukeru.

I continue to speak = hanashitsuzukeru.

You can combine tons of verbs using the base just before where you usually put the masu.

That’s because, in reality, the familiar masu form is just one of many endings you can attach to the STEP 2 base conjugation of your naked verb.

So, make sure to get your verbs naked before you have fun dressing them up.

Part 3: How to Conjugate

About The Author
Minna Shiawase is an avid Japanese student and fan of Japanese culture. Read more about Japanese grammer at her blog, AI Love Bunpou.

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It is amazing how humans seek out companionship and it appears in an observation of over all society, more people do wish to get to know people better. They seem to be intrigued with meeting new people and enjoy the personal insights they get from discovering more about the inner thoughts of others.

This is a positive thing for human interaction even as the interpersonal relationships in larger more dense civilizations trivialize the individual and dehumanize social interactions. This is not a negative comment or a positive one of humanity, just an observation.

Some of the reasons for less interpersonal relationships seem to be caused from Data Smog or over load of information taking our bandwidth or organic brain thought processes. Some people assume this is bad and they blame the 250 channels of Satellite radio, 600 channels of Satellite TV and the Internet online news, Ezine newsletters, email or 8.88 Billion web pages searched in .06 seconds.

It is truly amazing if you stop to think about it. So I suppose you might like to get to know me better and I suppose I might like to get to know you better. It is for this reason and many are joining in ad hoc online forums, emails and Blogs to share them selves and meet others online. Perhaps this ability may just bring us all back together again? Think on it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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Balding is by far one of the most distressing diseases men & women have ever had to bear. Loads of individuals look upon their hair as; a critical part of one’s true identity, a fundamental ingredient of one’s self. Hair in conjunction with hair loss is frequently considered as symptoms of one’s true youth. That is evidently why people are continuously troubled when faced with the odds of balding. And so people persistently do whatever they can & believe everything they hear in order to make sure that they retain that magnificent hair of theirs as lush & as strong as can be.

Hair loss can be common in women and is more usual after the menopause; though; alopecia is not likely to come about in all cases. In the majority of cases the victim will simply witness an increase in hair loss & thinning of the scalp, specific treatment programs can help to improve the effect. While alopecia is inclined to be generally reasonable in men it’s intolerable in women and in a great deal of instances it can have very bad effects on the person’s emotional situation and self-assurance. Though you should not be concerned - hair loss can easily be resolved and stopped once you know what is causing it & what you need to do.

Without a doubt the most common brand of hair thinning seen in ladies is androgenetic alopecia, also known as female pattern alopecia or baldness. This is seen as hair thinning chiefly over the crest and sides of the skull. It concerns nearly thirty-three percent of all prone females, even though it is most usually seen following menopause, though it might begin as soon as puberty. On average hair fall is by & large one hundred to one hundred & twenty-five hairs daily. Fortunately, these hairs are re-grown by the systems in the body. It’s absolutely true that baldness happens when lost hairs are not re-grown or when the daily hair shed goes above one hundred & twenty-five hairs. Genetically, hair thinning can come from either of your parent’s section of the family. There are numerous hair loss treatments available such as, Strand by Strand and Advanced Laser Therapy to name a few.

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Vieques is an island that is known as ‘La Isla Nena’ (little girl island) and ‘Isabel Segunda’ (Isabel II).Found in 1843 by Francisco Sainz, Vieques island is located between Puerto Rico and St. Thomas (United StatesVirgin Islands), and is separated from the southeast coast of Puerto Rico by approximately 8 miles of sea. Vieques’ Bio Bay is the finest bioluminescent bay in the world. There are scuba and snorkeling tour companies, kayak rentals and tours and do it yourself equipment rentals. There are also many other small cays (islets) that lie offshore of Vieques.

The island is filled with beauty and history. It is only 21 by 4 miles island, yet that is enough to make visitors always come back. The Arawak Indians once lived on the island and it was an infamous haven for pirates during the 17th century. Now it is a haven for vacationers looking for a different kind of holiday. Many travelers prefer to stay in gorgeous beach villa rentals that are right on the beach for an even more special, adventurous, and cozy vacation.

The Punta Mulas Lighthouse also known as Morropo was built in 1893. This old lighthouse still protects the port and boasts a reflector imported from Paris in 1895. It’s beam can be seen from as far as 16 miles away.

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Debt is not much fun and when faced with it, people sometimes look for complicated debt solutions and often overlook the many simple ways that you can save money. Believe it or not, one of the simplest and most effective debt solutions is to get hold of a pen and a piece of paper and make a list. By this I mean that keeping a daily record of your expenditure can reveal some interesting facts about your spending and point you in the direction of how you can make easy savings right away. My Father first introduced me to this, showing me the little piece of paper that he kept in his wallet. But at the time I just rolled my eyes and ignored his advice - big mistake. It was only a few years later when I wanted to try to seriously start saving money in order to make a dent in my mortgage loan. But this debt solution is not only useful for helping you to pay off a mortgage debt, but also credit cards and student loans and many other types of debt.

At the beginning of each month, I would just tear a piece off an old envelope and write my salary at the top and then immediately subtract the amount I want to save in order to pay off my mortgage debt. I could then clearly see how much I money I had to get me through the month. I then simply subtracted everything I spent when I spent it. The key to this is to writing down absolutely everything, no matter how small. I found that it was really easy to do - I would either write something down on the list as soon as I spent the money or take two minutes in the evening at home to go back over what I had spent during the day. Whenever there was a fairly large sum on the list, I would just write down what it was next to the amount, so that I could remember.

Once you have kept your list for a couple of weeks, you already start to make some fascinating discoveries. It was not the big amounts on my list that had to be dealt with, as I had imagined. These were essentials, which there was no way I could do without. However, the small amounts on my list were doing the damage! I was well aware that I was buying something to eat EVERY morning before going into the office, but I was totally unaware of what it was costing me. I was spending 2.75 British Pounds every morning on this. That was adding up to around 55 Pounds per month! As soon as I realised this, I started making my own. In addition to this, I could always turn to my list at any point during the month and see how much money I had left until the next pay day. This way, there was never any danger that I would have to go into the overdraft on my bank account.

This in itself represented a real saving that I started making each month and once I had cut one or two other unnecessary expenses revealed by my lists, I was making very significant savings, which I then put towards paying off my mortgage debt. Keeping a list of this type is a simple yet powerful tool because it will clearly and simply show you where your money is going, and give you the control to make some changes.

Emmanuel Mendonca is the webmaster of Debt Genius at http://www.debtgenius.com which provides free advice on debt consolidation, how to get out of debt and on saving money.

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Everybody who likes to take pictures would love to have some of them enlarged and framed for their walls. Its very presence would give you instant satisfaction and the confidence that you, do have an artistic bone in your body after all. A casual perusal of you snapshots, however, might lead you to believe that not one of these snapshots are good enough for the wall. Now, just for a moment, make believe that you could change anything you don’t like about a picture of yours and that you could match that image to the image in your mind. You can - with the help of a scanner and a photo enhancement program. Of course, if you have a digital camera, you don’t even need a scanner.

There are four basic levels of photo software. Freebee programs meant only to crop, change the color balance, and fix red eye in your pictures. A middle quality program uses a macro to change shapes, improve sharpness, and offer some filters for creating a few special effects, like crude oil paintings or black and white charcoal effects. The next step up often will cost $30.00 to $50.00, but will include all the basic tools you need to create a proud-to-display masterpiece. Micrografx (now Corel) Picture Publisher presents six sizes of paint brushes, an air brush, pastel chalks and colored pencils. You can change the size of your picture, crop it any way you want, and take advantage of dozens of filters which simulate real art textures like water color on parchment paper, palette knife paintings, etc. Turn white skies into blue skies with fleecy clouds, soften some of Grandma’s wrinkles or remove a garbage can from an otherwise perfect picture. A cloning tool permits the addition of outside elements, skin retouching, background cleaning and the filling in of empty spaces. A magic cropping knife can isolate a subject, move it onto another background and let you move the objects in your picture around at will, like decoppage, creating a whole new world of graphic manipulation.

The top of the line is Adobe Photoshop and its competitors. This program is considered professional software, costing $300 to $700. The basic tools are the same, but many more levels of manipulation are offered. The dozens of filter you used with Picture Publisher have multiplied but keep in mind that dozens of filters and effects can still be utilized by both programs through plug-in filter software. A two week course is recommended in order to learn how to use the Adobe program effectively while the Picture Publisher help boxes are considered sufficient instruction for most people.

Your finished artistic creations can be saved in computer albums against the time you need a nice graphic for decorating an article or for an artistic card. They can be put on tee shires, mugs, calendars, Holiday Cards, stationary, post cards and business cards.
Wall enlargements up to 13 x 19 are easily produce with a Hewlett Packard 1220 Deskjet printer or an Epson printer. Both are available with archival inks lasting over 60 years without fading. But the most of the enjoyment comes from the creating!

As a retiree, I can take any pictures I want.

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Recently many internet service providers such as Comcast and WOW have started offering VoIP service as a package price plan when you purchase their cable. If you are already paying for Cable TV and High Speed Internet from the cable company don’t be tricked into adding VoIP from them also. Cable and traditional phone companies are realizing that VoIP is here to stay and want to join in.

Many people see the initial savings over traditional phone service and think they are getting a good deal, however many times they are paying almost double for VoIP just to have a single bill for all three services.

Comcast charges $39.95 a month for their unlimited VoIP service compared to $16.58 for VoIP service through SunRocket if you pay yearly. Probably the most well known and best VoIP service provider available is Vonage and they charge $24.99 for unlimited calling. WOW charges about $35.00 a month depending on the package you purchase. As you can see using the cable companies for your VoIP needs can cost you $23.00 more a month just to keep your Cable, Internet, and Phone on one bill. The VoIP service that the cable companies are offering is usually no better than most VoIP providers out there regardless of what the telemarketer tells you.

Cable Company VoIP Provider Information:

• Comcast Digital Voice: Comcast offers an unlimited US & Canada calling package for $39.95 a month when you purchase their high speed internet service. If you would like to keep your existing internet service from a competitor then the price jumps to $54.95. The main selling point for Comcast is the promise of calls traveling across proprietary Comcast lines, which allows for higher quality and reliability than calls from upstarts that travel exclusively across the public Internet. Comcast quality and reliability have yet to be proven compared to other competitive VoIP providers.

• Wide Open West (WOW): WOW offers two choices, the WOW phone Basic and Advanced plans. The basic service offer unlimited calling in the US with Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, 3Way Calling, and Call Return(*69). The Advanced plan offers the same features as the basic plan and Caller ID, Repeat Dial, Selective Call Forwarding, and Voice Mail. The Basic plan costs around $25.00 a month when you purchase their high speed internet service. The Advanced plan costs around $30.00 a month when you purchase their high speed internet service. WOW does not offer VoIP unless you purchase internet service from them.

• Bright HouseNetworks: Bright house offers what they call Digital Phone for their VoIP plan. The plan offers unlimited calling in the US with Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, 3Way Calling, and Call Return(*69), Caller ID, Repeat Dial, and Selective Call Forwarding. The plan costs $39.99 a month when you purchase their high speed internet service or $49.99 if you use your existing internet service provider.

• Time Warner: Time Warner offers what they call Digital Phone for their VoIP plan. The plan offers unlimited calling in the US with Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, 3Way Calling, and Call Return(*69), Caller ID, Repeat Dial, and Selective Call Forwarding plus a few more. The plan costs $39.99 a month when you purchase their high speed internet service.

This is just a sample of Cable Companies that are starting to provide VoIP. To find out more you can search for additional providers online or visit our website.

Article may be reprinted without permission with original content, including signature and links.

For more information regarding VoIP visit our site at Michigan VoIP

Jason Christensen is the creator and editor of Michigan-VoIP-Info.com Visit our site for additional VoIP information Michigan VoIP

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There are many steps you can take in efforts to improve your credit, eliminate your debt, and avoid bankruptcy. Which should be the ultimate goal of all people, while bankruptcy is an excellent method of helping you clear up your debt, it should only be used as a last resort. Bankruptcy remains on your credit for up to ten years and it could result in the inability to retain any other type of credit until it has been removed or several years has passed.

On thing that a debtor can do, this is especially true if they have no income or assets, is to do nothing. Yes that is right nothing, if you have no assets or income that can be garnished bankruptcy would not benefit you in any way, your financial situation would not change as a result. It is likely that without anything of high value, credits would not attempt to take any court action against you because there would be nothing they could collect.

Another step you could take is to undergo credit counseling, you would learn how to manage your money to reduce the debt. You could create a budget that contains your monthly income and expenses, thus reducing expenses. By doing this, any extra money you have could go towards reducing the debt you owe to creditors.

You could also begin negotiation with your creditors, most of them realize that bankruptcy is a viable option for those who have more debt than they can handle. For this reason, most will be willing to “take what they can get” rather than get nothing if the debtor files bankruptcy. This option requires that the debtor has income or assets that can be used in efforts to raise money to apply towards the debt you owe. Additionally, this can allow you to rebuild your credit instead of applying a negative bankruptcy on it.

Debt consolidation is another bankruptcy alternative that many could consider, by consolidating your debts into one low monthly payment you could easily reduce the amount of your debt, get the creditors off your back and avoid bankruptcy.

Finally, another option of avoiding bankruptcy is to make a formal proposal directly to your creditors. This proposal or also knows as a deal, will allow you to create a payment plan. It is all dependent upon what area of the world you live in and the laws surrounding the area of debt compromise.

Jeff Lakie is a contributing author at our website where
You can get a free
Secured Loans Quote right now. Take a moment and see
for yourself.

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