When my brother was younger he would watch the horse races on TV just for something to do.  We did not have a lot of channels on our television back then, and so you would just watch whatever happened to be on.  He used to think that he was a great horse racing tipster just because he watched it on TV and we used to make a lot of fun of him behind his back.

To this day, he still tries to hand out horse racing tips, even though to this day he has never set foot at a real race track.  He thinks that he knows everything just from what he watched on TV way back in the day when he was just a kid and I think it would be so funny to actually take them to a track and watch him make bets.

I am sure it wouldn’t take long before he would be asking other people for racing tips, as he would soon realize that he doesn’t know everything that he thinks he knows. Hmm…maybe that is what we should do for his birthday, just to watch him make a fool of himself.  Maybe Mr. Know it all doesn’t know as much as he thinks he knows.

Working in the medical field, I have noticed a big difference in the CPAP supply and demand.  It seems that sleep apnea is becoming a lot more common and this struck me as odd and made me curious as to why this would be.

I think we have sent out more than two times the number of CPAP machines this year than we did last year.  I am not sure if it is because there are that many more people now with sleep apnea or if we deal to a whole lot more companies than we did last year.

We have also more than quadrupled our sales of Bipap machines which could be a good thing, as maybe there are more and more people who are able to use these because in my opinion, they are better than the CPAP machines.

It will be interesting to see if the numbers keep rising and it will be interesting to find out why they are.

“If you miss the train I’m on, you will know that I am gone. You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.” So goes the haunting folk song from the sixties.

There’s something about a train whistle, when the Doppler effect causes its sound to change as it moves away, that has always evoked a sense of sadness, just like that folk song does.

“Lord, I’m one; Lord, I’m two; Lord, I’m three; Lord, I’m four; Lord, I’m five hundred miles away from home.”

Having lived twice outside the United States, I know too well the tug of homesickness. It doesn’t matter if you’re abroad arranging an overseas property investment or stationed at a foreign military installation. No matter how much you enjoy where you are, it still feels like you’re visiting.

I also know that unless you’ve only ever lived one place in your life, somewhere else can become home, in time. It’s true. Home is where our heart is.

If you’d like your website or blog to get more traffic and rank high in search engine listings, it helps to know some basics for optimizing your web pages. What are the words your customers might use when searching for your product? Think carefully about this. What you might type and what your customers might type may differ.

If so, perhaps you haven’t really considered who your ideal customer is. Take the time to brainstorm some of their characteristics. These are a few things to consider:

Age?
Income?
Interests?
Hobbies?
Internet connection type?
Are they spending money online?
Where do they interact online?
What are their problems?
Why do they need your widget?
How will your widget benefit them?

At this point, many site owners feel overwhelmed. If this is you, there’s no need to be discouraged.

No one in business can be expected to do everything. This is a perfect time to call in an IT consultant. He or she will do all the keyword research, help you set up your pages optimally and guide you in understanding who your ideal customer is. Never underestimate the value of good IT help.

My dad was a garage sale expert. His van braked automatically at every GARAGE or YARD SALE sign. He always stopped and wasn’t afraid to ask about other items that might be for sale. (Garages are interesting places for someone looking for tools.)

Over the years he bought wood items to use in his woodshop or fix up to resell. Once he even bought a pipe organ! Although most purchases were useful, he sometimes bought on impulse.

After he died we had a big auction — his last request. Boy, did that man have tools (and about a million other things) — all neatly put away, oiled and sharpened. (I did NOT inherit that gene from him…)

There were some surprises that turned up from his impulse buys. In a small trunk at the bottom of a cupboard were three ornately ornamented boxes entitled: Magick talismans, magick amulets & charms and magick spells & rituals. My dad! Who knew?

In a nearby city there’s a downtown hotel that’s been in business for over a hundred years. When they renovated a number of years back, they eliminated the traditional hotel arrangement and opted for motel rooms around the property’s perimeter, built an underground parking garage to support another layer of rooms, and created a cozy pub where the heart of the old hotel stood.

The restaurant has always served interesting food. For a time they specialized in seafood. Then it was steaks and chops, including lamb.

Then suddenly the business was under new management and the cuisine changed again. This time it reflected the culture of the new manager, and Henry’s began specializing in Indian food. Whether he imported a new chef, or imported some Indian recipes, I’m not sure. We’ll see how long Henry’s stays Indian.

I remember, many years ago, when I first started my job at this hotel. I started out as a part time housekeeper and I have worked my way up the ranks. In fact, the day that I was promoted from housekeeper to front desk agent was one of the happiest of my life. I know that they only promote those that they feel are doing an exceptional job.

I continued to stick it out and I became a front desk supervisor and then eventually the front desk manager. That was my job for the past four years and I figured I had gone as high up the ladder as I possibly could. I was actually considering going elsewhere when I was offered another promotion.

I am now the head of travel management for the hotel. It is demanding, but I love the challenge. There is only one more rung on the ladder and that is general manager of the whole hotel. Maybe if I stick it out, that will be me one day. And to think, I started out as a housekeeper.

Well, what a lovely day it is in Las Vegas today.  I thought that it would be nice to have a change of venue for where I blog, so I jumped in the car with my laptop and went for a drive.  Where I ended up was Las Vegas.

Now, it isn’t the first time that I have been here, but I love coming back.  There are just some Las Vegas attractions that I can’t help but see each time that I am here.  They just never get old for me, and I am in awe each time that I am here.

I think that I will also take advantage of some Las Vegas hotel deals that I just found online and make a weekend of it.  I don’t seem to go on holidays as much anymore, and I think that this weekend away will be a nice treat.

I find myself wanting to learn as much as I can about the Internet.  There are just so many amazing things that you can do online, and I want to learn about all of them.

Honestly, I do realize that I can’t learn everything, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t try to make an effort to learn something new everyday.  I have learned a lot from reading blogs about various subjects as they tend to give a good, detailed view of the subject at hand.

So, when I wanted to learn about online dating, I knew that blogs would be the best source of free information.  I found a couple after a quick search and spent most of this afternoon, reading and absorbing all the information that I found.

Now, a couple of hours later, I think that I have a basic understanding of online dating.  Too bad it wasn’t around years ago, I might have had an easier time finding a wife.

Now, personally I am not a motorcycle rider.  You see, years ago, I made the promise to my wife that I would never ride a motorcycle and I am staying true to that promise.  She is worried that I will crash and die should I ride one, so I have made sure to say away from them.

But that doesn’t mean that I am not interested in them.  In some respects it is like I am a little child that is looking at a toy that he can’t have - I can look, but I can’t use it.  So, I make the point of checking out any motorcycle shows that are in town to see what new bikes are on the market.

I will be going this weekend to the used motorcycles show that will be in town.  It is the opportunity for anyone to get rid of their used bike and a great place to get a good deal.  I know that I went last year, and I had a blast - in fact, I needed to go back the second day to see everything.  So it looks like this weekend is shaping up to be interesting.