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Knowing play insurance policy could be easy with all from the instruction aids available could be really hard at exactly the same time. For starters, costs for that education is usually a element. Person insurance policy lessons having a non-pro trainer can most likely price you anyplace from 30$ to 100$. Every session that you simply spend for can operate for thirty minutes as much as an hour, perhaps much more having a greater cost. Investing cash on insurance policy lessons at these costs factors are certainly worth it if you have made the decision to become an avid insuranceer or if you are seeking to enhance your skill. Once again, these costs are for hourly sessions so should you strategy on heading as soon as per week for any year, (at 50$/hr) you wind up having to pay close to 3 grand. For some, it is just pocket alter, but it is an excellent deal of cash to other people. Other instruction aids are points like placing aids, which could be useful and affordable, or handicap trackers.

All of these techniques are excellent, but the downside is at 1 session per week, getting a placing support at house or within the office, or just watching and observing insuranceers, they can’t get you you’d like to become rapidly. It just appears so time consuming to need to make time for only an hour of training, or to attempt and self teach.

Numerous individuals say that so that you can be a much better insuranceer, create a much better swing. Unless you are a pro insuranceer and you have currently got an incredible swing, how do you do that very easily and effectively in your personal? Think it or not, there’s a way.

Introducing, Naples Insurance plan. It is fresh, it is new also it functions. It is a newly created instruction device created to allow you to enhance your swinging speed and as a result producing your insurance policy swing that a lot much better. Perhaps functioning having a trainer for an hour or two to create correct type will be advantageous, but Naples Insurance plan can manage the rest. With Naples Insurance plan, resistance as you’re swinging is produced producing your entire body produce correct sequencing. It’s a really effective instruction application, simply because as soon as Naples Insurance plan is in a position to produce this correct sequencing, you create lag and effectively effect the ball. It may consider a swing or two to obtain accustomed to getting an attachment hook onto your club, but give it several much more swings and it’ll function it is magic. As soon as you are produced your correct type and have utilized the Naples Insurance plan, consider it off from the club. Maintain your weight in your heels, simply because your swing will now consider you for any ride. Naples Insurance plan is so powerful, that individuals have fallen more than simply because their swing just follows via with ease. The strength from the Naples Insurance plan is created to drive your ball as far as feasible. We’ve talked concerning the amazing component, and also the cost point is very possibly amazing too. To obtain began with Naples Insurance plan, go to allstate.com. It begins at 199.95$, but an insider membership to suggestions and professional training arrive together with it. How about that- a instruction support that you are able to really bring onto the green with you together with expert on the internet training.

The history of Insurance dates back to the time of the Babylonians. However, the first real example of insurance seen in the way that is seen today was with the Persian Empire. Every year, the heads of different ethnic groups would go before the monarch and offer presents to the monarch. If someone gave more than 10,000 Derrik’s, they were recorded in a special book that kept track of the presents of large amounts.

When the time came that an individual needed help, whether it was for a wedding or because they wanted to build a new building, they went to the monarch and what they gave in the form of a present was given back to them. If they gave more than 10,000, they received double back. In other words, the monarch needed the money to finance his campaigns and if you gave him presents, he’d take care of you.

As time went on, insurance evolved. When merchants were shipping their goods aboard ships, they’d pay premiums to insure their goods arrived safely. If the goods were lost, the premiums would be split to pay for their losses. If nothing happened, the premiums were kept in the insurers pockets.

Guilds in the middle ages existed where the guild members would take care of those left behind when one of the members died. For example, if a member died, the guild would take care of the wife and children. On top of that, the guild would also take care of the funeral costs.

It wasn’t until the Great Fire of London in 1666 that the insurance known today appeared. After 13,200 houses were completely burned to the ground, Nicholas Barbon opened an office to insure people from fire in the future. It became known as The Fire House. Health Insurance was proposed in the 17th century, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that accident insurance appeared.

Benjamin Franklin started the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. This was a company that would give money if there was a fire. However, it was in this company that information was provided on how to ensure fire didn’t happen and, more importantly, Franklin would refuse to insure houses that he felt were too much of a risk.

In the late 1760s, life insurance began to pop up as an idea. All people died and the belief was that they should leave some money to their families. The way that they made money was because they took the money that was paid into the insurance policy and then reinvested it.

Finally, it was in the 1970s and 80s that demand for drivers to have car insurance began to appear. Because people began to realize that these vehicles could cause considerable damage, they felt it was important for there to be some sort of liability to ensure that if there was an accident, people would be compensated.

Insurance, today, is a contested issue. However, the history of it is a fascinating one that really demonstrates where insurance came from and, more importantly, where it might go in the future. With the Internet, anything is possible with insurance.

Search engine optimization SEO is a buzz that is catching up on the Internet. Every business web site wants SEO as it fetches good business. The dependence and reliability on SEO is growing on a rapid pace and it is important that one must try and find out what exactly is SEO.

If web content is to be prepared for a web site, and there are certain key words that are accepted by Google search engine which will ensure the appearance of your web site either on the first page or in the second or among the top ten pages. This is also similar to page ranking done by Google.

The point of emphasis, if a customer is searching for  your web site and if it is appearing on the first page of Google search engine, it will be very easy to open. Here, your web site must be search engine optimized which returns quick results for the customers.

For instance if you are a real estate agent and you have developed a web site Iamrealestateagent.com. One of your customers does not know how to visit your web site and searches for your web site on google search engine by typing the key word real estate agent. Immediately, if your web site is appearing on the first page of search results, your client will be very successful to visit your web site and find information about buying and selling of property.

In order to find your web site on Google search engine  your web site should be search engine optimized and this is where web content writers do a good job by developing suitable content various web sites.

It is not easy to say that your business may not prosper if your web site is not SEO. But as millions of customers log on to Internet every day, if your web site is registered under SEO, it will drive more traffic to you and can sell your products.

Similarly, whether you are providing services or goods, your web site is your office and Google search engine is an advertisement tool that helps you to sell your services and goods. One of the important aspects of Internet is, its presence is very much required and there is more scope for quick generation of business throughout the world.  With the help of Internet you can sell your laptops to Asia, Europe, Africa or to any remote place in the world. Because of the fact Internet is wide spread throughout the world and your web site is your asset on Internet. On line purchase and shipping are the most convenient aspects of Internet. There is exchange of goods and services and to achieve this SEO is an effective tool.

How about making your thoughts much clearer to your target audience with the aid of an uncomplicated tool? Indeed sounds exciting! For the same reason, we are here to give you the best of the options available to be a stronger promoter of your thought. We know that in a way many of you would have already building thoughts as to how to go about it. We would recommend try it and then see for the pleasing results achieved

Let us begin here by breaking all your ongoing thoughts and directly refer to the soul of the tool we provide. Video production is a booming concept wherein your thoughts are turned into moving images and then distributed as a refined product. We would refer to two main categories this concept can fall into.

Video Production Categories

When you plan to organize a conference or a corporate event of a large number of people, you might not be able to offer the direct view of the speaker to your direct audience. This can lead to huge loss of business as well as result into waste of money with no target achieved at the end of the event. Now switch the entire picture where you have supporting video transmission carried on behind the speaker with a superior view of his/her known as the I-Mag, trust us this can definitely save your day and not to miss effort. Similarly, you can publicize your grand event online by just transmitting it through computers as well.

Another category that might be of massive use  for the people involved in the field of entertainment, sports, events etc. is the recording of  the event that you are involved with and then broadcast it later as and when required. You never thought that would be so easy, right? Bingo! It’s an opportunity to capture and feature the best.

How to go about it?

It’s easy and very feasible. Three phases covers the entire production. We would initiate it by grasping the thoughts that are required to be converted into images by working on storyboards, budget and deadlines table, and of course the spot listing. Now, when we are ready with the plan to be executed, we step to the next level by hitting the floor and arranging the equipments like light, camera etc. and we begin. Oh yes! That’s it. You are ready with the following final stage giving you the opportunity to include any kind of effects, enhancements etc. to be made.

So, start thinking what you want to promote in an absolute way that has never been done before. Hey folks, we say come to us and speak out while we start rolling the camera for you with our entire team.

Every one of us dream of at least one vacation overseas or at least once travel abroad. To some, it is just a matter of time, and for others, it is a matter of lifetime. But today, as the tourism industry has flourished significantly, countries world wide have understood that if they can showcase their country in a proper way, tourism can earn handsome revenue for the economy. As a result, package tours to foreign destinations have become so popular. Countries are even advertising to attract more and more tourists every year.

If you find an opportunity coming your way, do not waste time. Grab it before it is late but do not forget the essential things that you would require on your trip abroad, and travel insurance is the most important one. A travel insurance policy keeps you prepared for any unfortunate possibility that may come. It is quite impossible even to think of anything going wrong when everything appears to be so perfect, yet it is better to stay safe than to be sorry.

There are number of renowned companies available in market that offer different plans for travel insurance. While choosing one for yourself, you might end up being confused and pick up a wrong one. This article will help you choose the one that suits your requirement best.

Do Some Homework of Quotes Research

Different companies offer different plans at various rates. If you don’t research properly, you may buy an expensive travel insurance policy even when same benefits were available at a cheaper rate too. By having quotes of the maximum companies, you will be sure to have the best priced insurance policy for yourself.

Go Through the Terms and Conditions Thoroughly

If you find a quote for travel insurance which you find too good to be true, go through the terms and conditions to know more about the exclusions and inclusions. Excellent policies do exist, do not ignore it thinking it to be a scam. But ask in detail about your part of job in order to make the claim and what does it cover you from.

Basic Coverage

The basic coverage provided by any travel insurance policy is the coverage for loss or theft of baggage, coverage for missed flights and medical coverage. Depending upon your kind of travel, you can go further to another level of inclusions, e.g. legal coverage, that is if you get involved in some legal issue, the cost of legal assistance will be taken care of.

Initially, it may occur to you that how feasible is it to spend so much on travel insurance when you are already spending so much on the trip itself. In that case, convince yourself to cut the cost at some different level because, this small cost can save you a fortune if you experience some serious trouble while on trip. Do not let any lingering fear of unknown spoil the excitement of your foreign trip. With the help of a good travel insurance policy, enjoy it to your fullest.

Insurance is important for every one whether it is your car insurance, vehicle insurance, health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance or marine insurance. Each type of insurance has some kind of new safety that is given to your asset or yourself. Insurance is very important in every aspect.

The benefits that you can gain from insurance are plenty. But you need to take a good decision which type of insurance is required for you and why. For instance, if you are an employee who works for 18 hrs a day and you are in need of dental insurance. Once when you take a decision that you are in need of dental insurance, you can consult an insurance broker or an insurance company and find out details about the procedure of dental insurance.

Similarly, if you have purchased a new car, and you wish to insure your new car, you can consult a good insurance company to provide with the best car insurance policy. Similarly, you can insure your home, vehicle, business or any industry or factory. Almost every thing that is in your home can be insured which include your refrigerator, aquarium, television set or your expensive dining table on which you have spent lot of your earnings.

Insurance saves lot of your expenses and costs. An unforeseen event or accident which can damage your car, vehicle or home, can come back to you, in the form of insurance annuity. This is because, once you have insured your home, you pay regular premium fixed by the company and when there is a genuine situation of accident or damage caused to your home, insurance company has to pay you the sum insured on the home. With this amount, either you can buy a new home or you can repair the present home.

Therefore benefits such as this are plenty through insurance. Once you have registered yourself with an insurance company, the company will be able to give you proper guidance and advice on which type of insurance is suitable for you and what is the procedure and formalities that are required to be done. In this pattern, the entire functioning of insurance company is aimed at in the interests of the consumers.

Further there is always safety and protection ensured for the consumer in all aspects of assets, health and life. There are many people who gain benefits from insurance company. It is true that the laws of insurance are very elaborative and exhaustive but these are aimed at the well being and well functioning of the insurance companies and also for the protection of consumers.

Apart from providing benefits to the assets and health of people, insurance companies also promote disability insurance which can provide financial security to the employees who lose their health during the performance of their duties. This is also one of the advantages of insurance that it provides care and attention to the disabled employees.

There are different products, saving plan and premium calculations offered by insurance companies depending on the total income earned by people.

We all know plain English isn’t a strong point of insurance companies.  Some of the terms used don’t make much sense until you know them, which is why we have compiled this short list of the most popular terms we use.

Actual cash value – The current value of the car right now.

Anti-theft device – An alarm, immobilizer or any other approved device that deters theft.

Assigned risk insurance -Insurance issued for high risk drivers in states where insurance is mandatory.  Insurance companies operating in these states have to have a given number of these drivers on their books.

Auto replacement coverage – Supplement that allows for your entire vehicle to be completely repaired or replaced, regardless of cost to the insurance company.

Bodily injury liability coverage – Covers third party personal injuries if involved in a crash with you.

Betterment – This is where damage can be repaired using higher specification parts than were present on the vehicle at the time.  Usually involves the owner paying the difference in cost.

Collision coverage – The most basic auto insurance.  Replaces or repairs your vehicle in the event of a collision.

Comprehensive insurance - The “everything else” coverage.  Covers events that collision coverage doesn’t like theft and vandalism.

Deductible – This is a voluntary premium excess you offer to pay before the insurance has to.  The higher the deductible, the lower the premium.

Gap car insurance - Mainly for cars under finance.  It insures you for the difference between what the car is worth and the amount of finance owed.

Good driver plan – An incentive offered by some insurance companies for being a good driver over a specific time period.

Liability insurance – Another insurance staple.  This covers you for losses and claims from third parties through your proven negligence.

Passive restraint system - While not passive, this covers things like seatbelts, airbags, impact protection and other systems that are design to protect the occupants of a vehicle.

No-fault auto insurance – Replaces liability insurance in some states.  It covers you and your vehicle regardless of fault.  It costs more, but covers more.  It does have defined limits though so read the small print.

Total loss – This is where the cost of repairing the car exceeds the nominal value of it.  The insurer will pay the insured or current value and will then own the car.

Uninsured motorist coverage – Essential for most people.  With premiums rising, more people are going without insurance.  This covers you if you have an accident with an uninsured driver.

Now those are just some of the terms used frequently in the insurance industry.  So hopefully when dealing with agents, or the companies themselves you will have more of an idea of what they’re talking about.

A few weeks ago, Computer Choppers teased us with an image of the shell of it’s 24k Gold PS3.  At that time nothing was known except that it was a PS3 Slim dipped in 24k gold.  Today, Computer Choppers has released it’s 24k Gold PS3 to the world and been kind enough to supply us with some information.

The 24k gold PS3’s are now available and can be ordered like any of their other products.  Units start at $4,999, come with 2 24k gold controllers, and a 1 year warranty(just in case).  Customers who purchase one of these can get custom logos in chrome, black chrome, 24kt gold, white gold, rose gold, or platinum.

If customers would like to take things a step further and make theirs a little more unique, they will be allowed to create a PS3 logo with diamonds or almost any exotic material.  No word on how much extra that will cost you, but I’m sure it will.

There is a “jeweled” limited edition PS3 on the way for those seeking something more extravagant and limited.  Computer Choppers told us, “The limited edition model will be released in the coming weeks, unfortunately not in time for the Christmas holiday.”  By limited there will only be a few of these “jeweled” PS3s made.

We believe these will be the five 24kt Gold & Diamonds PS3 slims we were told about a few weeks back. We’ll let you know when those come around.  Those will probably be a bit more pricey, but for those who can’t afford those, the $5000 model is perfect for you!

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Start-Up Promises More Game Realism

Engineers Say Technology Will Speed Production of Film-Like 3-D Images

A start-up founded by former Apple Inc. engineers said it has developed technology that could bring film-like realism to computer games and change the way movie makers and other design professionals work.

The San Francisco company, Caustic Graphics Inc., plans to exploit a technique called ray-tracing that generates extremely accurate three-dimensional images. Ray-tracing is a mainstay of Hollywood studios, but remains out of reach for most PC users. A single image can take hours to generate; rendering a film can take months on hundreds of server systems.

Computer games and other PC software typically rely on a technology called rasterization. Though the results keep getting more realistic, developing an interactive form of ray-tracing has been a longtime quest in the computer industry.

Caustic Graphics’ technology helps computer-generated images look more like photographs.

Caustic, whose name refers to light rays reflecting off a curved object, says it is close to achieving that goal. The company says its software and chips allow graphics chips to carry out ray-tracing calculations at a 20-fold speed-up compared with existing PC hardware. It said it expects to deliver chips by early 2010 that will be about 200 times faster.

In a demonstration, Caustic executives manipulated a photo-quality image of a sports car, removing components and changing lighting and background settings to change reflections on the vehicle’s surface.

“It’s the first honest acceleration of ray-tracing I’ve seen,” said Jon Peddie, a market researcher in Tiburon, Calif., who specializes in graphics technology.

Caustic faces many challenges. They include larger competitors and the need to persuade PC users to buy a second add-in card containing its chips, in addition to conventional graphics accelerators.

Caustic is largely the brainchild of James McCombe, a 26-year-old native of Northern Ireland who worked on graphics technology used in Apple’s iPhone and iPod. He left in 2006 with two other Apple engineers to form Caustic, a closely held company that employs 35 people and has raised \$11 million.

Mr. McCombe said graphics chips have hundreds of specialized calculating engines that are particularly good at rasterization, which converts three-dimensional models into pixels on a computer screen. Ray-tracing, by contrast, emulates the ways light rays bounce off objects in a scene. Graphics chips can’t easily handle those complex calculations, which require extensive communication between processors. Caustic has developed ways to keep data flowing to them efficiently, Mr. McCombe said.

Armed with the technology, Caustic executives say, designers who now work with the software equivalent of stick figures could manipulate realistic designs — without having to stop to render their images periodically. “This would really represent a breakthrough for us,” said Ron Frankel, president of Proof Inc., which develops “pre-visualizations” to show film directors and designers how movie scenes might be shot.

The company hopes to initially target architects, engineers and animators, and later entertainment applications on PCs and gaming consoles. Mr. McCombe expects accelerator cards using its chips to cost about the same as existing graphics accelerators, adding that its circuitry eventually could be combined with graphics chips. High-end graphics cards typically cost several hundred dollars.

But exploiting Caustic’s chips will require modifications to existing ray-tracing programs. Other companies, meanwhile, are finding ways to do ray-tracing using the microprocessors in PCs, rather than graphics chips. One is Bunkspeed Inc., which has a program called HyperShot that can make photo-quality images from three-dimensional computer models.

Philip Lunn, Bunkspeed’s chief executive, says that Caustic also faces potential competition from larger chip makers that include Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp. The latter is collaborating with Mental Images GmbH, a software maker Nvidia acquired in 2007, to accelerate ray-tracing using graphics chips.

Mr. McCombe “is one of the smartest people in the business,” says Rolf Herken, Mental Images’ chief executive and chief technology officer. But “whether Caustic will have an impact on the design of future chips, that is an open question,” he added.

Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com

Adrianne Curry announced to Planet Twitter on December 6 that she planned to spend the afternoon playing World of Warcraft – naked and stoned. And, indeed, she did.

Adrianne Curry doesn’t mind sharing her peccadilloes with the world. A most recent case was December 6, when she tweeted her Sunday plans of getting high and playing video games in her birthday suit. The festivities followed her morning kickboxing workout.

“Jumping into shower,” the America’s Next Top Model winner wrote. “Going to spend my afternoon playing World of Warcraft butt naked and stoned. Perfect Sunday!”

To quell doubt, she snapped a picture and posted it on Twitter with the caption “Me… naked… playing World of Warcraft.”

Well, who’s to stop her? Aside from her own presence in the world as a modeling superpower, she’s married to none other than Christopher Knight, nee Peter Brady. And it was reportedly her husband’s joking around about Curry’s breast asymmetry – nicknaming her “One Hung Low” – that inspired plastic surgery to align her breasts.

“When you have a nice C-cup on one side and a very small boob on the other, it’s not cute,” Curry told Entertainment Tonight in 2006. “Especially when the other boob starts to sag because that’s the natural process of life.”

To fix the ordeal, she enlisted Beverly Hills surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan to reconstruct the area. He deliberately installed a mismatched pair of implants to even out the mounds.

“They’d go in with an implant, they’d sit me up while I was sleeping and look, and go, ‘It’s still not big enough to match the other,’ lay me back down, take it out, put a bigger one in, sit me up again and say, ‘Still not big enough,’ and kept going in and out to match me up,” she said.

Finally they got her straightened out. Curry indeed posted a nude photo of herself on Twitter this past week – but she is sitting in a way that obscures any real nudity. Try as you might, you can’t see much bareness. Even still, nothing above her waist seems to hang low.

Christmas is almost here and that means the NY Times has released a brand new list of the top 10 video games you shouldn’t buy for kids! Obviously you and I take this as a “run out and buy” list and, to give credit where credit is due, it is a pretty damn good list:

•Assassin’s Creed II
•Borderlands
•Brutal Legend
•Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
•Dead Space: Extraction
•Dragon Age: Origins
•Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
•Demon’s Souls
•Left 4 Dead 2

A lot of this season’s most talked-about games include ones with excessive violence, negative role models, extreme gore, sociopathic behavior and other things that have been proven to have a negative effect on children.

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uction of a massive iron wall along its border with the Gaza Strip, in a bid to shut down smuggling tunnels into the territory. The wall will be nine to 10 kilometers long, and will go 20 to 30 meters into the ground, Egyptian sources said. It will be impossible to cut or melt.

The new plan is the latest move by Egypt to step up its counter-smuggling efforts. Although some progress had been made, the smuggling market in Gaza still flourishes.

Egyptian forces demolish tunnels or fill them with gas almost every week, often with people still inside them, and Palestinian casualties in the tunnels have been steadily rising.
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Recently, Egypt examined several possibilities of blocking the tunnels, and joint American-Egyptian patrols have been seen in Rafah attempting to detect tunnels using underground sensors.

Construction of the wall has already begun. It will be made of enormous slates of steel, reaching deep into the ground. However, it is not expected to stem smuggling completely.

Several defense sources told Haaretz they believe that once captive soldier Gilad Shalit is released, Israel will have to re-examine the benefits of closing Gaza off. The closure has been undermined by the tunnel system, which provides not only munitions but food, cars, motorcycles, drugs, medicine and fuel, much more than what Israel allows into the Strip through the official border crossing.

The tunnels also allow people to cross in and out of the Strip, including terrorists who linked up with pro-Al-Qaida groups in Gaza and tried to carry out attacks in Egypt, defense sources said.

The smuggling industry is so institutionalized that tunnel operators purchase licenses from the Rafah municipality, allowing them to connect to electricity and water. Hamas has also been ensuring no children are employed in the tunnels, and is taxing all smuggled goods.

The Egyptians often intercept munitions before they can enter the Strip and have stepped up checks at internal roadblocks and checkpoints in the Sinai. Observers say mounting American pressure is in part responsible for increasing Egyptian efforts to combat the smugglers.

An Egyptian source told the daily “Haaretz” that "this wall is made of steel." It will be difficult to cross in any manner whatsoever, or to dig tunnels for the transfer of goods and ammunition to the Ghaza Strip.

The construction of this wall is another step on the part of Egypt that could reduce the "traffic" from Sinai into Ghaza, noted the same source which said that "the growing concern of Egypt to declare War to tunnels for several reasons including U.S. pressure on Cairo.

Ennaharonline / arabs48.com/ M. O.

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The Egypt Game: Descent into Heathenry

In Childhood, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Narrative on 9 December 2009 with no comments

When I was in ele­men­tary school, I read a won­der­ful novel called The Egypt Game. It was about five chil­dren who decided to recre­ate ancient Egypt on a piece of aban­doned prop­erty, and how the gods of the game inte­grated them­selves into the children’s every­day lives in spooky and enter­tain­ing ways.

I fell in love with the book, and knew imme­di­ately that I wanted to cre­ate ancient Egypt for myself, because I would cer­tainly be a very fetch­ing priest­ess for Isis. I looked very good in sparkly gold eyeshadow.

My baby brother and I were deeply imag­i­na­tive. In fact, my brother was so imag­i­na­tive that my mother wasn’t always entirely sure that he was alto­gether sane. He went through a phase of his life where he would gather very small objects of roughly equal size, such as peb­bles or pen­nies, and would con­fine him­self to a cor­ner, cross legged, toss­ing the objects around on the floor, rock­ing back and forth, and mak­ing strange sound effects. If a kid did that kind of thing today, doc­tors would call him autis­tic or some­such non­sense and dope him up with drugs until that silli­ness was knocked right out of him. But in those days, folks just fig­ured it was kids being kids. My mother thought it was strange, and it was, but even­tu­ally my brother grew out of it and that was that.

I say all that to say that the fact my brother and I owned noth­ing at all that even remotely resem­bled idols from ancient Egypt did noth­ing at all to deter us from our stead­fast deter­mi­na­tion to blas­pheme against Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior right there in my mother’s backyard.

“We don’t have any stat­ues of Isis or Anubis,” I pointed out thought­fully, pre­tend­ing I knew what I was talk­ing about. The for­eign names felt good on my tongue, and made me sound intel­li­gent. “But we got those two empty water cooler jugs and some art sup­plies in the garage. We could paint ‘em up and stick some jew­els on them, and then we could just pre­tend they’re ancient gods from Egypt, okay?”

My brother was two and half years younger than I, which made him about five at the time, and he did just about any­thing I told him. He nod­ded his head, hav­ing absolutely no idea what I was say­ing, and helped me lug the over­sized plas­tic con­tain­ers into the backyard.

We must have painted and glued for hours before I was sat­is­fied with how our makeshift gods looked. Painstakingly, we draped our mother’s red, silk Christmas tree skirt over a cou­ple of over­turned card­board boxes for an altar, and set the freshly dec­o­rated five gal­lon jugs on top.

“Those look great!” I exclaimed, step­ping back to admire our hand­i­work. My brother silently agreed, lift­ing up the cro­cheted afghan he held in his left hand.

“Oh, right,” I said, turn­ing him around and drap­ing the blan­ket over his shoul­ders. I took a safety pin from my pocket and secured the blan­ket in a cape-like fash­ion around his neck. I don’t know why we decided that ancient Egyptians wore capes like Superman, but it seemed right at the time. And, really, if you can use a painted water cooler jug for the god­dess Isis, I sup­pose noth­ing is com­pletely out of the question.

We arranged our­selves around the altar, and I raised my hands to the sky, throw­ing my head back melo­dra­mat­i­cally. I sum­moned all the seri­ous I had at my dis­posal, along with the biggest, most impres­sive words in my vocab­u­lary. I had for­got­ten the gold eye glit­ter; fancy words would have to suffice.

“O won­drous and inim­itable lady Isis! We are your hum­ble ser­vants, born to honor and serve thee!” Ancient Egyptians cer­tainly spoke in Elizabethan English. If it was good enough for the Hebrews, it was def­i­nitely good enough for a priest­ess of Isis, even if I didn’t have any idea what “inim­itable” meant.

My lit­tle brother raised his arms, too, and said, “Amen!” I didn’t think it was right to say “amen”to an Egyptian god, but I didn’t know what else to say, so I repeated him. “Amen!”

We got down on our knees and began pros­trat­ing our­selves before these plas­tic water bot­tle idols. We man­aged a few “hal­lelu­jahs” and quite a few “amens” before my mother appeared before us, arms crossed angrily across her chest, face twisted in a fury.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.

Common sense fled me. I knew what I was about to say was the wrong answer, but I couldn’t help myself. A good, believ­able lie escaped me. My only option was the truth.

“We’re wor­ship­ing Isis and Anubis like the ancient Egyptians did,” I said.

My mother breathed in deeply, try­ing to keep her voice level. My mother could be quite a spec­ta­cle when she got angry. “We are Christians,”she hissed. “And you know that! Thou shalt have no other gods before me, remem­ber? What are you think­ing? And bring­ing your baby brother into your hea­thenry? Get your ass in the house and don’t let me ever catch you wor­ship­ing idols again! Really! What’s got­ten into you lately?”

Forlorn, I unclasped my brother’s cape and fol­lowed him into the house. The paint hadn’t even dried on our idols before we were forced to aban­don them to the twi­light. The next morn­ing, they were gone.

It was about that time my mother decided my brother and I needed to be baptized.

Insurance of any kind is one of those subjects that will always fail to get people excited.  It isn’t cool, it isn’t interesting and you don’t really care about it until you need it.  You pay your premium each year so you can sleep at night knowing you are covered if the worst should happen.

As in control of your life as you may feel, the unexpected can happen at any time.  Insurance allows you to plan for the worst and ensure anyone you leave behind is taken care of.  It allows you to rebuilt what is destroyed, and repair what is broken. 

Its nice living in the now and not worrying about the boring stuff, but you should always have half an eye on the future.  Having up to date and relevant insurance protects you from the things you don’t see coming.  It takes care of the ‘what if’s’ of life.  You are hedging your bets and ensuring you don’t lose out if your luck fails. 

Let’s be honest, living where we do in Florida insurance is essential, if expensive!  Your home is normally your most expensive asset and it needs protecting from hurricanes and crime.  In our litigious society very few people can afford to do anything unprotected. 

You will find information on auto, health, home and life insurance on this site providing information so you don’t become one of the reported 43% of Florida insurance customers that have had their policies cancelled by their insurers.  A staggering 58% of respondents to an online poll this year reported they were dissatisfied with their current insurers.  Of these, 60% cited their insurer cancelling their policy as their main complaint. (Reuters 04/03/09).

With statistics like these, it pays to do your research. 

Auto insurance covers you and your car while out on the road.  From just covering damage to your car, all the way to covering absolutely anything that is theoretically possible on a road.

Medical insurance covers your health needs.  Everything that you and your family may need regarding healthcare can be covered.  From policies that just cover doctors bills, to policies that will pay for long term care.

Home insurance covers your property and belongings.  Let’s be honest Florida has its fair share of natural forces to content with.  This is a thorny subject for most people.

Life insurance covers your dependants and beneficiaries are you’re gone.  Make sure you don’t leave people short when you have to leave them.  Or at the very least cover funeral expenses.

Like death and taxes, insurance is a chore, but one you have to at least consider, and buy if you can afford to.  You have to have even the most basic of auto insurance by law if you want to drive a car on the public roads.  Being as aware as you can be of the subject will enable you to get the most out of it, while putting the least amount of money into it.