FREE RIDE

Labor Day in SoCal means sunny skies, crowded beaches and a gentle 2-3 foot swell the kids can play in, so we visited family friends at their Huntington Beach house.  In 1963, I was 18 and still hadn’t seen the already legendary Hawai’i, but I literally crawled into the Laguna Beach surf when I was six months old.  I kept right on going, spending my time outside school bodysurfing and SCUBA diving.  Just to keep beach lifeguards in on their toes, I had already ‘shot’ between the pilings of every pier between Santa Monica and La Jolla in eras I can’t even remember.

It was ten years until satellite photos, radar images or any form of swell forecasting, so my brother Tom and I expected some small Huntington shoulders while our parents watched from their beach chairs.

What we found was15-foot closeout dumping surf – the largest I’d ever seen. Huntington is a long, sand beach without a point break – just huge swells dumping outside, reforming a hundred meters out, dumping again and hitting the beach in a wall of foam powerful enough to knock us over in knee deep water. 

Just getting outside was hopeless, let alone catching a decent ride.  Young and stupid, we gave it a try. 

We didn’t get anywhere.  Obviously, with a swell this big, we needed a point break just to get out – or a jetty break.  This was the best swell of our lives, and we should have been at the Wedge.

Back at the beach house, Tom and I lobbied hard for a drive to Newport.  . The only problem was Mom knew her surf, and she knew the Wedge.  No way, today!

Plan “B” was to convince Mom into snorkeling at Corona Del Mar cove, usually ideal for a pleasant day’s snorkeling.  There’s a small but beautiful sandy spit snuggled up against the Newport Harbor jetty, well protected inside the double jetty.  The other side of the channel is the legendary Wedge, the biggest, meanest, strangest shore break anywhere east of Hawai’i.

Mom saw right through our strategy and said that if we went bodysurfing on a day that big we would go to the Corona Del Mar side.  Maybe she could still go snorkeling.

It was a fair compromise.  Off we went.

Thanks for Mothers.  Corona was a nice ripping 15-foot peak swamping over the breakwater, sucking so deep we saw rocks that hadn’t seen air since they built the jetty. The beach was packed with Labor Day crowds, but only a couple of dozen bodysurfers. The form was excellent, and getting out was fairly easy. Waves broke big, in plenty of water, so we took some chances, experimented, and spent the day playing with the peak.  Sometimes we caught the pitch, dropped straight down the face, made a radical bottom turn and raced the tubes.  When they collapsed, we tucked back and came up facing a monstrous but predictable wall.  No problem.

Our favorite game became intentionally pitching over the falls, free falling head first into the foot of the wave, tuck, and let our momentum take us under the wave foot just in time to surface in the line up of the next wave.

It was something like a 15-foot “hydraulic” on a river, except we had to work to stay in the cycle.  We played like this for hours.

In the early afternoon, the beach guard was going nuts with his bullhorn until he finally caught my attention.  He was pointing to a swimmer so tired he was headed to the barnacle-encrusted jetty instead of the beach.    Even an experienced waterman would die going for the jetty when awash.  This guy was so inexperienced he didn’t realize he was about to become hamburger.

I signaled the guard that I had it under control.  His hands were full already.  The guy was already so close to the rocks it was foolish to go in and get him, so of course I did. 

No fool, I considered my options.  My Super Extra Large Voit Duck Feet gave me the torque to time the break, grab a cross-chest carry, and pull him out beyond the break before we both got dumped on the jetty.  Plan B was to let a big peak wash us over the breakwater and into the channel without scrapping rocks, a truly low percentage option with high percentage negative consequences.

Luckily, I was able to pull the guy away from the jetty.  I waved off the guard.  Now it became a normal rescue – all I had to do was get him in through 15-foot surf.   

My victim was really tired, and really freaked, on the verge of panic.  He wasn’t thinking normally.  This was the pre-chopper era, and who knew where the Lifeguard boat was, if it even left the harbor.  I had to take this guy in through the surf.

We regrouped outside the break where waves are peaking, but not yet breaking.  It’s an interesting spot to calm down a victim, I had no choice except to calm my new friend, assess the situation, explain what we would do, and do it. 

The next time you find yourself on that roller coaster forming 15-foot waves, imagine pulling somebody out of there, with or without fins.  In the trough, there’s nothing but water.  From the peak, you’ll get a frustrating and fleeting glance at dry, safe land beyond that huge break before you.

There’s really only one way to handle an unassisted rescue in large dumping surf, and it’s not fun.  Gradually swim closer to the break with your victim, and wait at the peak for a break in the sets.  When calm comes, “swim” like hell through the impact zone before the next set hits.  Of course, all the water is dumping off the beach, and usually, your victim is just dead weight anyway, so go into this maneuver expecting both of you to get crunched. 

Of course your goal is your victim’s survival, so you’ve got to break some rules.  Your only hope of saving them in that dumping soup is to stay with them – and the only way to stay together in that pandemonium is to double bear-hug, face to face.  This makes you a serious candidate for a double drowning and the funny farm.  Bear hugs require extreme faith in your superior conditioning and swimming abilities; and the hope the victim will release when things get really bleak.  

The last thing you want is to get dumped “Over the Falls”; a problem because you are so sluggish you can never maintain speed with the wave – a bad spot to be with so much water washing up the wave face.

When you see that inevitable crunch-time looming, get as low on the wave face as possible, bear-hug each other, take one last deep breath – and get crunched.  With luck, you can stay clenched through the impact.  It’s a sickening feeling to lose your grip on somebody during this explosion.

This uncomfortable scenario should be avoided whenever possible. Several tons of water dumps from five meters up, tossing both of you in a giant washing machine.  But if you want to save a life, there are times when you have no other option.

We held our breath, bear-hugged, took the dump, and according to plan, we tumbled onto the beach right in front of the guard.  It was my first contact with dry land in hours. 

The victim spit foam for a couple of minutes, and then said, “Damn, I never realized ocean waves were so big and strong.”

The guard and I shared a look that said, “What’s this jerk talking about.  This is the biggest swell of our lives.”

I said, “What do you mean, man?  This is the biggest day I’ve ever seen” 

Flat on his back in wet sand, my victim said, “Really – I’m from Iowa.  This is my first time at the ocean.  I just thought every day was like this.”

Disgusted, I grabbed my fins, and ran back into the surf for another few hours of free falls.  But the karma I “banked” from that rescue helped save my life almost immediately.

All day long, the jetty was awash – not with spray, but thick green stuff.  It was the first time I’d seen this awesome sight, and we all wondered about the Wedge. We left about 4pm, trying to convince Mom to drive the Newport circuit in Labor Day traffic so we could “just watch” the waves. Sure, nobody’s surfing, but let’s take a look.”  It’s only 200 yards across the Channel, but the Wedge is a long drive around Newport from Corona.

From the Corona parking lot, we saw the peaks of swells.  Driving up the cliff, we got the awesome panorama.  Mom went for it.  We were off to the Wedge.

It was late afternoon when we finally beat the traffic, but there were still several hundred onlookers…but only two lunatics in the water,

I slid into my wet suit, grabbed those Duck Feet, jumped off the overhead sand cut into the water and immediately caught a nice 15 foot right while I was swimming to the line up.  The Wedge runs double the size of anywhere else, so that wasn’t an unusual wave.  What was unusual was the right.

The Wedge is a “rebound” wave.  When a wave jams into the corner where the beach meets the jetty, it rebounds off the rocks almost perpendicular to the following wave.  On reasonable days, it is great fun to start near the jetty, catch the rebound and race across the face before it meets the next wave and builds into a giant bowl.

The rebounding wave packs into the face of the oncoming swell, driving the wall so steep that water “peaks” so rapidly you can hear liquid explode. Where the two forces intersect, everything sucks up, forming a caldron called the “Bowl”.

Instead of pealing off, the Bowl collapses into itself on either side.  Wedgeheads can take the rebound off the jetty, race high on the wave away from the jetty to hopefully “Beat the Bowl”.  We usually enter the forming bowl on an incline; make a turn at the point of the bowl, screaming down and away from the break (and the rocks) as the bowl collapses into itself from either side.  Because of the complexity and dangers involved, this is the perfect Wedge ride. Making that turn in the bowl, sliding like a stunt plane in a tight turn, realizing you are making the wave, and then screaming down the steep wave face, is Nirvana. 

However, an early take-off on the rebound wave results in a sluggish ride, arriving late into the collapsing bowl.

A wipe out is a given.  But you do have choices.

The safest option is to bail.  Dive deep under the wave foot, and pop up before the next peak.  This is smart on a slow ride because without momentum, you are doomed to being blown backwards over the falls when you confront that collapsing peak deep inside the Bowl. 

However, if you are smoking, you may hit the collapsing lip with enough momentum to punch straight up into a free fall.  It’s great fun for about three seconds.  You arc into the sky, totally separated from water.  At the top of your arc, you hang, suspended in time.  Just when you think, “Wow, what a beautiful space”, survival genes start screaming “Oh, shit. I’m going to fall back into that caldron!” (see Linda 4 “launched by a wave from Linda”)

It’s inevitable.

Well, none of this happened on my ride.  I started near the bowl, and peeled away with the break back into the rebound wave – right towards the Jetty.

I realized the stupidity of my actions, but didn’t care. . I was lined up perfectly on the wrong shoulder on a dangerous day, so I dropped in and screamed across the face.  When I came to the rebound, I turned up the face and snapped into a free fall arc. It was a great ride.

I landed behind the collapsing wave, which broke with the usual deadening roar.  I heard cheers, and at 19, I was stoked. I knew I was close to the jetty, but I was pumped with my own ego, and started swimming on my back like an otter, casually kicking back to the line up.  I was a Hero!

Suddenly, everything turned dark, and the water was dropping fast.  I was sucking into a forming wave!  I flipped onto my stomach to face an already vertical dark green wall with white foam across its face.  It was a monster – 30 or 40 feet, and the lip was already pitching beyond me.

The wave sucked water off the sand, a rare event that far out even at the Wedge.  For an instant, time stopped as I froze like a deer caught in headlights.  I stood on exposed wet sand, only 10 yards from those meat-grinder boulders, with tons of Green Death about to envelop me. 

A million options went through my mind.  “What am I doing here” was not among them.  I didn’t have the time for self-pity.

Bodysurfer instinct says dive under the wave, so I dove at the very foot of the wave, but the last water sucked up the face, and I landed flat out on wet sand.  It was a good thing. I stayed flat, becoming one with the crabs, limpets and barnacles living in the jetty, evolved flat to withstand surf.

The pitching wave started to fall.  Imagine the Goodyear blimp filled with water, falling from five stories up.  It was worse than that as a hundred tons of energized water hit the sand with a force that would have crushed me if I hadn’t been flat on the deck.

I took a huge deep gulp of air, expecting it to be my last.

The impact drove me into the sand, then bounced me back up into the collapsing wave.  The water advanced to the beach with as much force as it was dropping.  The Impact Zone is where these right angle energies intersect, and I was at Ground Zero, buried and bouncing under tons of imploding water.

When you are beneath them, Monster waves drop in agonizing slow motion. Their vortex is the tube, wound tight until it implodes with fury. I was helpless, at the mercy of wave physics, sucked backwards through a giant fire hose – ten feet above sand and ten feet from air. The white fury tried to dismember my extremities as I tossed in a cyclone of wet.

Those were the days before fin straps, and I vividly remember my fins sucked from my feet, the most sickening feeling of my life.  I was lost in the Impact Zone at the Wedge on a legendary day, my only remaining asset my wet suit.  I wouldn’t get sand burns, I could still dive under waves, and I had just enough buoyancy to survive. 

The ability to remember which way is “Up” is a special talent that prevents broken necks at the Wedge, Waimea or Sandy Beach.  It also saved my life when I was knocked unconscious while cliff diving. I was able to maintain enough presence to hit the sand bottom feet first – not easy when you are flipping backwards in turbulent water.  Of course, I instantly toppled and sucked further down the steep bottom while the wave sucked back off the steep sand beach.  I was running out of air, the surge pulling me backwards into deep water.

After a long, wild underwater ride, my air was finished.  I found the surface just in time to take one breath before getting hit square in the face by the next wave, as big as the first.  Repeat the above.

After a third wave, I was wasted, but alive, breathing real air, and floating just outside the impact zone…very important. 

I was also kissing the jetty…very important.

Fortunately, there were no more huge sets.  I could see the waves forming down the jetty, and there was water underneath me.  I was also very tired, and without fins.  In big water like this, it’s every man for himself, and I couldn’t ask for help.  But by then, I didn’t need it.  I was in for a long, grinding, tedious haul, but with determination I could survive, and I knew it.

There is usually a rip along the rocks that takes you on an interesting ride along the jetty to deep water, but I couldn’t find it, so I just floated, expending only enough energy to clear the jetty, and let my wet suit do the work.  When I regained enough energy to deal with the currents and chop, I tried getting away from the rocks. Without fins, that recovery took about 20 minutes.

My strategy was simple – get away from the jetty, swim behind the break, and ride the back of a ‘small” wave onto the beach.  My goal was only 100 meters away, but without fins and sapped of energy in large seas, it took me another 40 minutes to get far enough off the jetty to where I could comfortably let a “small” wave spit me up onto sand.

I was too exhausted to take a wipeout, so I hung way back on the wave and took a sluggish ride in, dropping on the back of the wave. I was finally “inside”, with sand before me, but the shorebreak section reformed quickly. I sucked down the breaking shoulder in perfect position for an ungracious spit onto steep sand, where I scrambled to the cut bank before the next wave hit.  With all my remaining energy and very shaky knees, I stood upright at the wall of sand, my head still three feet below the feet of spectators.  I stuck my arms straight up – my wrists finally at sand level.  I’m 6’4”, so the cut bank must have been about 9 feet. 

Somebody grabbed my wrists and pulled me up to dry sand and safety.

I had my teenage energy back in 15 minutes.  Off came the wet suit and out came the stories.  From shore, the family just though I was having a tough time catching big waves after a full day at Corona.  I clawed and struggled on the edge of death for an hour, and Mom was bummed that I only caught one ride.

When my knees stopped shaking, I walked to the corner where the jetty meets sand.  The sun was setting, and I wanted to muse on what almost was.  The Wedge was still pumping, although nothing like the massive set that almost took my life. 

I looked at the froth before me.  Sure enough, there were both of my fins, bouncing around in the corner.

I judged the break, ran into the surf, and retrieved first one, then the other.  After all, Floating Duck Feet, Super Extra Large, were about $16/pair, special order only, and tomorrow was another day.  (Reborn as classics, they run US$100 today.)  

I realize I died that day.  Teen-age ego got the best of me and clouded my judgement.  The Wedge isn’t a baseball game, and my break in concentration almost cost my life.  Except for the Karma from saving the Corona Del Mar tourist, instantaneous instincts and excellent conditioning, I would not be here to write this.

While I was watching the sunset, I realized that everything I did from that day on became a Free Ride, and at 62, I still live my life accordingly – pushing the envelope daily.

Even so, when I’m on the open sea, I never lose my focus. 

When all is said and done, the ocean just doesn’t care.

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In this article we’ll discuss one of the most traditional and historically relevant branches of American Indian art: beadwork. Beadwork of the Native American peoples had and has practical as well as decorative; utilitarian as well as rich symbolic meaning.

Beadwork and making of the beads themselves is a very old craft. Stone, bone and shell beads (such as turquoise and semi-precious stones) are still made the same ancient way. Little affected by modern technology, the making of beads is still carried out in nearly the exact same way as peoples did thousands of years ago.

Sea shell bead pieces are among the most popular and well known pieces of regional trade importance for thousands of years. Nearly everyone has seen American Indian art pieces, from beaded necklaces to purses, belts and such.

For the last several decades modern beadwork has been replicated in oriental factories and very cheaply imported. This makes it a competing factor against the top quality beadwork done by American Indian craftspeople. The native American crafts people have lost several millions of dollars (just over an eight year period during the 1980s) to these fake native beads and beadwork pieces.

Historically, beads were carved from turtle shell, animal horn and deer hooves. These were often used for making rattling or tinkling pieces utilized in dance. Hunters often wore necklaces put together with animal portions, such as bear claws or wolf claws. These indicated a hunter’s prowess. Bones and seeds were often steamed to soften them for stringing and /or bending into various shapes.

As an example of beadwork used for a most practical purpose, the Iroqois League (Haudenosee) used white and purple wampum chains made of fresh-water clam shells to record sacred ceremonies, treaties and songs. This practice was used both before and after the coming of European settlers.

Many types of agreements were recorded with such beadwork chains. They were highly valued and cared for by their owners. European settlers mistook this care and reverence for wampum beads as a sign that the beads held monetary significance. As such, they mistakenly assumed that the word ‘wampum’ referred to money, when in actuality these important beads were much more like very important original documents.

To string beads, Native Americans used animal sinew that is split very fine with which to attach beads to clothing, though infrequently strong plant fibers such as hide thongs or nettle were used for these purposes.

Today, the Navajos as well as some pueblo people still make the ancient bead type called the heishii. This is by far the most popular and high quantity type of beadwork that is still made today as it was in ancient times. These necklaces are also referred to as story necklaces as they can be used to tell stories, with each bead representing a character.

Beads and beadwork are a very important part of archaeological explorations of pre-European history. Beads have survived thousands of years and tell many fascinating stories about times we weren’t around to witness. This is particularly true with respect to beadwork mad of sea shells. Ancient shell beads have been found thousands of miles from seas, which indicates various trade routes and contacts among different groups of people.

Today American Indian artists even create digital beadwork designs to help them make actual beadwork pieces. In this way complex designs and pieces can be tested on the screen before the project is begun. This has certainly added to the creative process for many beadwork artists.

Beadworking weaves through native history both in ancient times as well as in today’s modern computer technology. The most important aspect of beadwork, though, is not what can be sold or gained, but personal pieces that are only given among family and friends. The true meanings behind these pieces are personal associations tied to visions, important perspectives and other things that an individual wishes to be reminded of.

aPriori, the leading provider of enterprise cost management solutions for discrete product companies, today announced it has released the newest version, v4.6, of its enterprise cost management software platform.

“Our vision is to improve the financial results of discrete product companies by enabling them to actively control and measurably reduce products’ cost of goods sold (COGS) with an innovative, predictive, and reliable cost management software platform,” said John Busa, Vice-President of Product Management of aPriori. Busa added, “This release adds significant breadth, scalability, and ease of use features to meet this vision. The rapid ROI (return-on-investment) our customers are seeing as measured by hard savings is a testament to the capabilities and value our product brings.”

Key new features include:

An improved user interface that allows for easier navigation and data visualization

An innovative costing decision support capability called “Scenarios” that enables efficient comparisons of design and process alternatives and can be used to maintain the cost history of a product

Robust support for milling processes is now supported in addition to existing support of sheet metal fabrication, welding, casting, painting/plating, and injection molding.

Multi-currency support for all cost computations allows global companies and their foreign suppliers and facilities to be easily integrated into costing decisions

User defined data fields for VPE modeling adds the ability for users to easily create and maintain unique VPE cost factors resulting in efficient and scalable cost management

The new features provide significant enhancements in three key areas of the aPriori platform. This release delivers powerful new costing decision support capabilities and an enhanced user interface for non-engineering personnel. It also provides robust support for milling processes to add to the extensive list of manufacturing processes aPriori supports. Finally, the v4.6 extends the scalability of the cost management environment with enhancements to its innovative Virtual Production Environment (VPE) modeling capability. A VPE models the characteristics of a factory including the manufacturing processes, the machines supporting that process and the factory’s cost structure.

“Determining the optimal cost of a product during the initial concept phase and throughout the development process is critical to truly meeting cost goals and eliminating expensive post design cost issues,” said Tim Roberts, Vice President of Engineering, Thomas and Betts. Roberts noted, “New features from aPriori, such as multi-currency support and a user interface for non-engineering personnel, provide even more robust capabilities in managing our cost targets across our division.”

Availability

The aPriori enterprise cost management platform version 4.6 is available immediately.

About aPriori

Based in Concord, MA, aPriori is the leading provider of enterprise cost management solutions to the discrete manufacturing industry. aPriori’s Cost Management Platform empowers manufacturers to lower cost-of-goods sold (COGS), provides real-time visibility to “cost-critical” decision information, and builds critical cost knowledge to go on the business “offensive.” aPriori’s groundbreaking and innovative Cost Management Platform integrates cost decisions for all critical functions throughout the corporate cost management ecosystem. This enables manufacturers, for the first time, to understand product cost decisions early, comprehensively and throughout the product development and delivery cycle. aPriori’s patent protected Cost Management Platform allows companies to assess, control, and reduce cost of goods sold by whole percentages. The aPriori Platform truly enables “Cost Knowledge Before it Matters.”

“aPriori has customers in a variety of industries including High Technology, Industrial Equipment, Automotive, and Heavy Machinery. Recent customers include John Deere, Panasonic, Thomas & Betts, Flextronics, JLG, and Dana Corporation.”

If you are reading this article then you odds are have looked up and down the internet trying to source a solid and legitimate method to generate income online. Now if I have done my job optimizing and ranking this guide you odds are located it by searching specifically on how to make money with ebay’s affiliate program or some dirivitive of those keywords or phrases.

Below is a simple step by step guide that is my blueprint that I use to make money online using the ebay affiliate program and if you follow it step by step (without skipping or breeze reading) you too can generate an extra $100 or even an extra $1k+ per month practically hands free once setup.

This is the same exact thing I do to create income online and NOT have to work a 9-5 so it really is up to you to NOT make money online OR go for the gold and follow these easy BUT important steps outlined below.

How To Make Money With The eBay Partner Network Affiliate Program

There are odds are plenty of you who have either tried or want to attempt to make money online. There are plenty of methods for this to be achieved BUT let me save you the trouble of probable failure now and give you step by step methods, tricks and tips to succeed with the ebay affiliate program starting today.

Here is a bit about myself and why you should follow my lead. My name is Don Luttrull and I have been teaching and training people in affiliate marketing and network marketing for over 10 years. I have generated income with hundreds if not thousands of affiliate programs, gimmicks, ideas, books and pretty much anything that I felt had a chance and will continue to do so.

This page however is dedicated 100% to helping you SUCCEED with the eBay Partner Network as an ebay affiliate member. If you don’t know what the EPN is then continue reading because this will odds are be the SINGLE 100% FREE guide to making money with the ebay affiliate program online that ACTUALLY WORKS.

STEP 1 TO MAKING MONEY WITH EBAYS AFFILIATE PROGRAM

The first thing you need to do is open up a text file or grab yourself a piece of paper to write on. I tend to go for the paper over a text file simply because it is easier to jot down ideas and thoughts versus typing them into a text editor. Now that you have a way to save your thoughts and ideas I need to to start writing down a few “products” or “niches” that YOU personally enjoy RIGHT NOW.

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An example:

bicycles

skateboarding

making money online

fishing boats

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Now what you are going to do is write down a MINIMUM of 20 products, items, services or niches in the least amount of time possible. You are not trying to dwell on this step because some might procrastinate and NEVER get to step 2 simply because they are worried ABOUT their choices and if they sell.

You need to write down things that YOU are interested in, might know something about, or a hobby that can peak and KEEP your interests for a MINIMUM of 3 months and as long as a year plus.

After you have your list of AT LEAST 20 things you can move onto STEP 2 which you can see below. If you haven’t gotten a list of AT LEAST 20 items then STOP and finish step 1 before continuing. Skipping methods and instructions NOW will only prove to help you FAIL later on down the road So why not learn from my mistakes over the years and follow this plan to the T so speak.

Step 2 To Making Money With The Ebay Affiliate Program

Now that you have your list together you are going to want to arrange them in order of “top picks” and put your most favorite product, niche or idea at the head of the class in that Number 1 spot. Don’t take too much time with this step because just like step 1, you need to push to keep moving along through these steps before you get bored, lose interest or focus. It really doesn’t surprise me how many people I have seen NOT make money simply because of their follow through. I am writing these tips, tricks and ideas in a fashion that will either REMOVE those lazies from my site or MOTIVATE them to keep moving forward and stay focused on the end goal which is MAKING MONEY WITH EBAY.

Step 3 To Generating Income With Ebay’s EPN Affiliate Program

By now you should not only have 20+ income generating ideas BUT have them arranged in order from FAVORITE to LEAST favorite sitting in front of you. Now comes the fun part that I like to call “competitive research”. Some might consider this part something different BUT I am writing the step by step system here that WORKS so stay focused and remember that FOLLOW THROUGH pays the bills while others sit and argue or terminology and the BEST way to do this or that.

What you are going to want to do is go to eBay.com and if you are not already a member of eBay whether as a buyer or seller make sure and SIGN UP. If you are already a member of ebay than skip the above part and continue with this step below.

Login To Your Ebay Account – You need to be logged in because you will be required to do so to search “completed items”. After you are logged in you will want to go to the ebay search bar and enter your #1 pick from the list you created and press SEARCH. After the results populate the screen scroll down and on the left side you will see “Show Only” under the preferences section. Click the COMPLETED LISTINGS box which will then only return items that have ENDED with their ending price, if they were left unsold and how many bids were made.

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Here Is An Example:

Let’s assume that my top pick was “john deere tractor”…

I would login to my eBay account and then search for: john deere tractor

Then I would scroll down to the preferences section and click the “completed listings” box and allow the page to refresh

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Now with the above example which you can test out by going to ebay and following my example it will then show ONLY auctions that have ended whether with a winner or not. Items with RED on the price ended without a winner and those with GREEN on the price ended WITH a winner.

What you will be able to do with this information is to gauge the amount of items within your “item list” that are hot sellers, have slow to no sales, not even listed ON eBay and even better HIGH END items that sell non stop.

Go ahead and run the same searches with the entire list that you made of the 20+ items, products, services and so forth and write any notes down about specific items within your niche that seem to sell more, others that seem to sell less and POSSIBLY even better ideas that you found within your search results to add to your current list alltogether.

Step 4 – Start Making Money With EPN Using Bans PhpBay Pro Wordbay Or Ebay Api

In step 3 you learned how to perform competitive market research using your list of items and ebays search results. In this step you will learn how to EXECUTE and GENERATE income using YOUR niche ideas. I have listed a couple different options depending on if you are looking for a 100% free method or if you (like me) are willing to spend a little to gain alot (using software coded to help INCREASE ebay affiliate income AND be hands free all in one).

To continue onto Step 5 click here

As an affiliate marketer for over 10 years I am more than happy to help you take your ebay affiliate earnings further than you could possibly imagine.

Augustana College is situated in Illinois, one of the beautiful states of US. Augustana College is a liberal arts and science college. Swedish settlers started Augustana College in 1860. The college is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The college offers bachelor degree of arts and science, pre- professional programs like law, medicine, and veterinary medicine. The ratio of student and teacher is 13:1 in this college. The College provides good campus facilities for their students. It is the main attraction of Augustana College. The college provides student supports. The college provides hostel facilities for students and faculty. It also provides international and domestic study opportunities. The college also gives latest technologies and equipments. The Augustana College offers good study environment for their students.

Swenson center is a center, which is located in Augustana College. This Swenson center is a national archives and research institute. This Swenson center includes all the information for the study of Swedish immigration to North America. The college also offered library facilities for their students and their faculties.

In this competitive world every persons should be so skilled. Augustana College prepares their students to take leadership and to contribute their services to this competitive world. The college offers large percentage of the student to participate in various arts programs. These arts programs are conducted by Augustana College. This college also supports to enhance the talents of all the students and also supports them in extra curricular activities. Augustana College contains so many other features and facilities for its students. This college has a museum and a planetarium. The name of the museum is Fryxell Geology Museum it is named after Fritiof Fryxell. The museum has huge collections of rocks, minerals and fossils. The name of the planetarium is John Deere Planetarium. The Fryxell Geology museum, and John Deere planetarium in Augustana College helps in enhancing the knowledge of all the students. The Augustana College has an excellent library, which helps the students and faculties of the college in their studies and references. The name of library is Thomas Tredway Library. The Thomas Tredway library of Augustana College has won the “Excellence in Academic Libraries Award” in 2006. The Augustana College has a music group on campus, which is for students. The name of music group is Augustana Symphony Orchestra. The music group is started on 1875. The student of Augustana College performs music concerts in art festivals.

The Deerhound is one of the most decorative of dogs, impressively stately and picturesque wherever he is seen, whether it be amid the surroundings of the baronial hall, reclining at luxurious length before the open hearth in the fitful light of the log fire that flickers on polished armour and tarnished tapestry; out in the open, straining at the leash as he scents the dewy air, or gracefully bounding over the purple of his native hills. Grace and majesty are in his every movement and attitude, and even to the most prosaic mind there is about him the inseparable glamour of feudal romance and poetry.

From remote days the Scottish nobles cherished their strains of Deerhound, seeking glorious sport in the Highland forests. The red deer belonged by inexorable law to the kings of Scotland, and great drives, which often lasted for several days, were made to round up the herds into given neighbourhoods for the pleasure of the court, as in the reign of Queen Mary. But the organised coursing of deer by courtiers ceased during the Stuart troubles, and was left in the hands of retainers, who thus replenished their chief’s larder.

Head:-

The head should be broadest at the ears, tapering slightly to the eyes, with the muzzle tapering more decidedly to the nose. The muzzle should be pointed, but the teeth and lips level. The head should be long, the skull flat rather than round, with a very slight rise over the eyes, but with nothing approaching a stop. The skull should be coated with moderately long hair which is softer than the rest of the coat. The nose should be black (though in some blue-fawns the colour is blue) and slightly aquiline. In the lighter-coloured dogs a black muzzle is preferred. There should be a good moustache of rather silky hair, and a fair beard.

Ears:-

The ears should be set on high, and, in repose, folded back like the Greyhound’s, though raised above the head in excitement without losing the fold, and even, in some cases, semi-erect.The ear should be soft, glossy, and like a mouse’s coat to the touch, and the smaller it is the better. It should have no long coat or long fringe, but there is often a silky, silvery coat on the body of the ear and the tip. Whatever the general colour, the ears should be black or dark-coloured.

Neck and shoulders:-

The neck should be long that is, of the length that befits the Greyhound character of the dog. The nape of the neck should be very prominent where the head is set on, and the throat should be clean-cut at the angle and prominent. The shoulders should be well sloped, the blades well back, with not too much width between them.

Stern:-

Stern should be tolerably long, tapering, and reaching to within 1-1/2 inches of the ground, and about 1-1/2 inches below the hocks. When the dog is still, dropped perfectly straight down, or curved. When in motion it should be curved when excited, in no case to be lifted out of the line of the back. It should be well covered with hair, on the inside thick and wiry, underside longer.

Eyes:-

The eyes should be dark: generally they are dark brown or hazel. The eye is moderately full with a soft look in repose, but a keen, far-away gaze when the dog is roused. The rims of the eyelids should be black.

Body: The body and general formation is that of a Greyhound of larger size and bone. Chest deep rather than broad, but not too narrow and flat-sided. The loin well arched and drooping to the tail.

Legs and feet:-

The legs should be broad and flat, a good broad forearm and elbow being desirable. Fore-legs, of course, as straight as possible. Feet close and compact, with well-arched toes. The hind-quarters drooping, and as broad and powerful as possible, the hips being set wide apart. The hind-legs should be well bent at the stifle, with great length from the hip to the hock, which should be broad and flat.

Coat:-

The hair on the body, neck, and quarters should be harsh and wiry, and about 3 inches or 4 inches long; that on the head, breast, and belly is much softer. There should be a slight hairy fringe on the inside of the fore and hind-legs, but nothing approaching to the feathering of a Collie. The Deerhound should be a shaggy dog, but not over coated.

Colour:-

Colour is much a matter of fancy. But there is no manner of doubt that the dark blue-grey is the most preferred. Next come the darker and lighter greys or brindles, the darkest being generally preferred. Yellow and sandy-red or red-fawn, especially with black points i.e., ears and muzzle are also in equal estimation.

Height:-

From 28 inches to 30 inches, or even more if there be symmetry without coarseness, which, however, is rare. Height of bitches: From 26 inches upwards. There can be no objection to a bitch being large, unless she is too coarse, as even at her greatest height she does not approach that of the dog, and, therefore, could not well be too big for work, as over-big dogs are.

John Ugoshowa. You can find out more about dogs and the dog section of The Free Ad Forum. http://www.thefreeadforum.com/infowizards/CAT/Dogs_73_1.html

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The English Foxhound is thought to be considered the rarest breed of dog in the United States by AKC registration. It is thought to be rare because they are believed to have originated from sixteenth and seventeenth century England. The English Foxhound was created because there was thought to be an ongoing depletion of the deer population in England, since the royalty hunted deer as part of their sports and also for food.

For this reason, there was a mixing of several breeds to create the English Foxhound. The English Foxhound was created by mixing of Greyhound, for speed, the Fox Terrier, for hunting instinct, and the Bulldog, for tenacity in the hunt. These qualities all encompassed one breed: the English Foxhound.

Originally, because of how they were bred, these dogs were originally bred to live around horses and trained to trail foxes in the hunt. Today, throughout years and years, they are still used for those purposes. They were also originally bred to hunt by scent, thus being a scent hound.

The English Foxhound stands anywhere from about twenty-one to twenty-five inches tall and can weigh anywhere between sixty-five and seventy-five pounds. Their eyes have a sweet look about them and their paws resemble the roundness of a cat’s paw.

Because this breed was originally bred and raised to be a pack hound, they get along well with other dogs and enjoy their companionship. They also enjoy the company of humans, as they are a very tolerant, outgoing and gentle breed. They get along well also with children, horses and other pets. However, the American Foxhound can be hard to own as a typical house pet because of their very high energy level due to hunting. Because their energy level is so high, without almost constant daily exercise, they can be destructive as a form of releasing their energy. They are used to being part of a hunting pack.

Obedience training can be very challenging because the English Foxhound can be easily distracted by their powerfully keen sense of smell. The “Come” command is the most difficult to teach for this reason. Training must begin early to help overcome this obstacle and the “Come” command should be taught first. The trainer must be aware though that they will easily get distracted any time they pick up a scent and it can be hard to bring them back to the training once this has occurred. Patience is the key.

Although the English Foxhounds usually are fed in packs, when they are pets they can be fed anywhere from one to one and a half cans of a meaty product or three cups of a dry dog food. In a pack, they do not get fed the day before the hunt. Otherwise, this breed was trenched-fed with horse meat and an oatmeal mash called “pudding.”

Although the English Foxhound can be slower than the American Foxhound, he loves to run and if left to it, would run constantly. The owner must keep in mind that he is a very active breed that enjoys and looks for the hunt. This breed does very well in a suburban area with a lot of attention and exercise, therefore apartment living is discouraged. This breed can also be known to be vocal and noisy and would make a very good watchdog to ward off intruders.

For more information on the english foxhound or a complete list of dog breeds visit this Dog Behaviour website.

Clearly, Hill seemed to look like a deer caught in Vegas lights. Absolutely unsure, the poor chap kept on holding on to the ball until someone from the opposition team dispossessed him. Worse still, he would not even come back to retrieve the ball for his teammates. If that is not a deer in Vegas lights, then what is? Hill’s teammates sum it up the best, “When we play, we aim to pass the ball from A to B. But with Hill around the corner, you don’t have B, there is only A.”

Arguments for the defense of Hill are precious few. One of the things summarizing the disappointing performance of Hill was that he was learning a new position. So what? Does that mean you compromise on the team’s game plan? The other logic is that he was a new pick, and normally these guys do take some time getting accustomed to the play conditions. Okay, that sounds like a reasonable explanation!

But 2 shoots of 25 games! That record definitely is no explanation for the guy being new. Worse still, being a point guard you cannot play defense watching the likes of Ginobili moving up the ranks and attacking. This best summarized a rather forgetful season for George Hill, and as Gregg Propovich, another point guard for the Spurs puts it aptly, “It will be good for Hill if he forgets that time of his life, else he would soon be relegated to South Ossetia.”

A year before when Hill took to the field with Gregg replacing Tony Parker, all he could do was shoot down 7 points and enable five assists. Rest of the time – He was playing defense. How one year could change a player? Today, he seems to have learnt the art of playing a point guard. And he is doing well. Maybe, the thought of going to a war-torn region to play basketball there was something that got Hill focused on his duties!

Maybe, some dressing down by the coach and the management did the trick. The irony of the fact is – Gregg Popovich can’t help his smile when he thinks of Hill’s misfortune a year back. And so do his teammates. But now that things stand rectified, everyone can laugh heartily! On the back of some Black Sea Geopolitics, dare I say!

AwesomeSeating.com provides more information about this incredible team and also offers NBA Tickets to all of your favorite games including San Antonio Spurs Tickets, make sure to get a piece of the action, visit our website at http://www.awesomeseating.com

The Magyars were the first people to document the Vizsla breed being used in pointing and retrieving efforts during hunting. The Magyars were a culture who had to defend themselves against predators and ensured their existence by using animals in defense. The Vizsla breed is named for the Hungarian word meaning “pointer,” the dogs are very intelligent and their ability to point and retrieve made them valuable.

The Magyars were threatened by invading forces from Turkey and were under constant attack. They selected the mountains of present-day Hungary, because they were protected and shielded through the entire region. With the Vizsla’s great sense of smell, the Magyars continued to thrive and survive off of the food they caught in the rough terrain. Many years later, the Vizsla breed became well-known in present day Hungary. The dog had been common in areas like Transylvania where they were able to remain a pure breed. It was during the World Wars that the dog became mixed with other breeds and some different variations came about.

In the 1800’s the Viszla was almost ran out of its own breed class, due to an influx of English and German Shorthair Pointers. There are theories about these breeds, along with the Weimaraner, that were used in the 1900’s to resurrect and cultivate the Vizsla breed. It is simply a theory, there is no concrete evidence to confirm or deny the hypothesis. The Vizsla and Pointer breed share a definite resemblance from the sharp, pointy nose to the thin and erectly pointed tail. The game flushing skills of the Vizsla are only rivaled by the Pointer.

When Communists overtook Hungary, they wanted to eliminate everything from the Hungarian culture. The Vizsla breed all but nearly vanished to the point of extinction, though the hunting skills of the Vizsla is what resulted in the dog begin saved. High ranking officials of the Communist party loved hunting for deer and rabbit; a few Vizsla remained, but were denser in body structure.

While in Hungary the dog become popular for use in hunting rats. During the 1950’s, the United States became aware of the dogs search and finding abilities and the Vizsla was imported. The dog became used for game hunting soon after arriving in America; it was used to retrieve fowl, rabbits and deer. The dog eventually became as popular in Australia as it was in America. Today, there are competitions held around the world to celebrate the Vizsla dog breed and its many talents.

This article was written by John Jackson and has been contributed by http://www.greatdogsite.com. For more information on the Vizsla, please visit our page http://www.greatdogsite.com/breeds/details/Vizsla/.

e of life in animal species coincides with the human world. If a portion of the animal population would collapse, this could have a huge effect on the human population. Each animal, on land or in water, determine how another animal or human will continue to thrive. Nature, as we know it, also known as “birth.” Everything in the natural, material or physical world is known as nature. The physical world we see, touch and feel is also known as nature. Whatever man creates or will create is not known part of the natural world. That is, unless human’s are referred to as in “human nature” supernatural. Wildlife is known as anything that is not domesticated. That would include animals, organisms and plant life. All types of ecosystems: plains, wetlands, oceans and deserts would be where wildlife lives. Sad to say, human beings many times get in the way of a wildlife habitat for the wrong or even right reasons. The natural environment is also known as the environment. The natural environment entails every living organism, which is living, and non-living naturally on planet. If it were not for humans interfering, the natural environment would do what it does best: live, eat, play, mate and pass away. If you consider how vast our natural environment is will wow you. That is because each ecological system has animals, vegetation, soil, rocks, microorganism’s natural phenomenon and the atmosphere. It looks like all of nature, wildlife and the natural environment have to be in sync for the earth, as we know it, to run smoothly. In college, I took two environmental science courses. In one of my courses, I learned about deer overpopulation. What happened was, a herd of deer were growing in numbers on the parcel of land they living on. The deer needed to be ‘thinned’ out. The only predators to thin out this herd were lions. This is the circle of life. One animal will thin out a species in order for all of us to live on this planet. Not a single human should ‘pretend’ to be an animal to ‘thin’ or protect any animal species. It is a good thing human beings are taking pride, and care for our planet. Going to extremes to protect the animal and plant life is just messing with an already perfect plan. It is just not possible or plausible to ‘save’ every single organism on this planet. It is best to let ‘nature’ take its course and allow each species to thrive at will. There is something human beings can do to cure the unnecessary elimination of plant and animal life though. It is not for certain if when the industrial era was in full swing, how it would affect all our lives. It seems highly unlikely humans knew that pollution from steel, car and coal factories would affect our air, soil and waterways. That would be a conspiracy, right? Now that we know how pollutants shorten all our lives, we have begun to ‘mend’ a hurting planet. Through constant repetition, we are starting to reduce, reuse and recycle. Everyone of these things is making a big impact on our daily lives, even the animal and natural environment. For more information on nature, visit http://naturemicroblog.com and http://environmentmicroblog.com