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As anybody in the middle of making the decision to purchase or sell a residence can tell you, the whole procedure can seem impossible. Many who look for the help of a professional real estate broker spend lots of long sleepless nights trying to determine who is taking advantage of them more — the broker or the mortgage company. The Federal Trade Commission guide helps to sort it out.

You may want to surf to the Buyig your First Home article to read more about how to deal with homes for sale.

The Federal Trade Commission provides a information packed guide that acquaints new purchasers or property sellers with some FAQs on the subject of real estate. entitled “Selling Your Home – Tips for Selecting a Real Estate Professional”. The guide focuses on the proper amount you should expect to pay for a real estate commission, the ins and outs of contracts as well as business models.

While the guide is a little slim, with only a few pages, it does contain lots of wonderful bits of information. In the portion on the subject of real estate agent commissions, the guide explains that six percent is the normal commission, it is not set in stone.

The guide goes on to prompt potential clients to attempt to negotiate for a more reasonable fee, since the broker covets your business just as much as you need their assistance.

You can access the guide by surfing to the FTC Web site at ftc.gov. When you are ready to buy or sell you may want to visit the Property for Sale site to get your best deal on a new home.

Class-exclusive power running boards and a new power liftgate highlighted the 2003 redesign of Lincoln’s full-size sport-utility vehicle. Essentially, the Navigator is a Ford Expedition luxury spinoff. Dimensions changed little, but styling was revised. Introduction of an independent rear suspension lowered the rear floor by 9 inches, to provide more third-row leg room. Navigator’s new dashboard design was not shared with the Expedition. Luxury, Premium, and top-line Ultimate models were offered, all equipped with a 300-horsepower, 5.4-liter V8, versus the 260-hp engine in the Expedition. A four-speed automatic was the sole transmission. Navigators were offered with rear-wheel drive or Ford’s ControlTrac four-wheel drive, which could be left engaged on dry pavement and included low-range gearing. Antilock four-wheel disc brakes, 18-inch wheels (versus 17s in 2002), power-adjustable pedals, leather upholstery, and genuine walnut interior trim were standard. So were curtain side air bags that served the first and second seating rows, and were designed to deploy in side impacts and rollovers. Torso side airbags were unavailable.

Heated power-folding door mirrors and an in-dash CD changer also were standard. A self-leveling air-spring suspension was included with 4WD. Second-row seating was a choice of two buckets with a center console, or a three-passenger split-folding bench. A 60/40 split folding third-row bench was standard. The Premium model featured traction/antiskid control and heated/cooled front seats. The Ultimate added a power-fold feature for each section, which was also available for the Expedition. However, no other SUV offered the Navigator Ultimate’s standard power liftgate or power running boards. The latter automatically extended when a side door opened, and retracted when it closed. Premium and Ultimate options included rear-seat DVD entertainment and a navigation system. Later in the year, a tire-pressure monitor became available. Rivals included the Acura MDX, Cadillac Escalade, Mercedes-Benz M-Class, and Toyota Land Cruiser.

2004 Lincoln Navigator: Highlights for 2004 included a standard tire-pressure monitor and, at midyear, availability of Ford’s Roll Stability Control. That system was designed to detect an impending tip and activate the antiskid system to reduce chances of a rollover. Navigators came in Luxury and Ultimate models this year. A self-leveling rear suspension was standard. The Ultimate had a standard power liftgate and optional power running boards. Antiskid/traction control and heated/cooled front seats were standard on the Ultimate.

Are your clothes getting tight again and you’re a few pounds above the weight you’d like to be? This seems to happen to many people in life, and often it takes some dieting and exercise to get those extra pounds off. If you happen to be looking for a new diet to lose those extra pounds, one you may not have heard of is the Raw Foods diet. While there are mixed opinions about this diet, there are many people who have truly found it to be an effective way to lose weight. Of course before you try it yourself, you may want to learn a bit more about it, so let’s take a look at those the diet works for best, pros and cons, what you can eat, and how the medical community weighs in.

Overview of the Raw Foods Diet

Basically the raw foods diet is exactly what it sounds like. It is a diet that consists of mainly raw foods. It is based on uncooked and unprocessed plant foods, including seeds, beans, vegetables, fresh fruits, seaweed, nuts, sprouts, and dried fruit. The basic principle of the diet focuses on the idea that heating up food too much, above 116 F, actually gets rid of important enzymes in foods that help with the absorption and digestion of food. Also, cooking the food is thought to get rid of the nutritional value of the food as well. So, this diet usually consists of a minimum of 75% raw or living foods.

Who This Diet Works for Best

This is a diet that is definitely a great choice for those who already lean towards the vegetarian lifestyle. The raw foods diet is a diet that takes quite a bit of time as well to stay on this diet, so it’s not necessarily a great choice for those who have a busy life. People who have anemia or women who are pregnant should not go on this diet, and it’s not a great choice for children either.

Pros and Cons to Consider

Just like any diet, you’ll find that there are both pros and cons to consider before you decide this diet is for you. So, here are a few pros and cons to consider that will help you make your decision.

- Pro #1 – More Energy – One of the main benefits of the raw foods diet is that most people who go on it find that the experience more energy than ever before. Since they are eating raw foods that are not full of preservatives or processed sugars, they don’t deal with the sluggish feelings that come along with those foods.

- Pro #2 – Weight Loss – Weight loss is another pro to consider when considering this diet. It really does work for aiding people with weight loss. If people truly stick to the diet plan, they will see a reduction in weight.

- Pro #3 – Reduced Risk of Certain Diseases – The raw foods diet is high in folate, magnesium, fiber, and phytochemcials. These nutrients are all known to help reduce the risk of a variety of different diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and even diabetes.

- Con #1 – Some Ingredients are Difficult to Find – One of the cons of the raw foods diet is that some of the ingredients that are needed for the diet are quite hard to find. The diet calls for things like Celtic sea salt, Rejuvelac, date sugar, carob powder, sprouted flour, and even young coconut milk, and all of these ingredients are very difficult to find.

- Con #2 – Takes a Lot of Time and Commitment – This diet also takes a lot of time and commitment if you are truly going to follow it the right way. Not only will you spend time looking for the foods that you need, but many of the foods that have to be made take quite a bit of your time as well. It’s definitely not the best choice for people who have extremely busy lives.

- Con #3 – Certain Nutritional Deficiencies Can Occur – There are several nutritional deficiencies that can occur as well when you go on the raw foods diet. It is possible to become deficient in iron, calcium, protein, B12, and protein, to name a few.

Do’s and Don’ts of Food

When you are on Raw Foods diet, the eating plan is quite strict. You are only allowed to eat foods that are organic and unprocessed when you’re on this diet. Also, most of the food eaten should not be cooked. Some of the foods that are allowed include organic foods, dried fruits, beans, nuts, legumes, seaweed, young coconut milk, fresh veggies, fresh fruits, grains, juiced vegetables and fruits, and purified water. Some people do add some quality poultry and fish to their diet as well, and of course you are allowed to cook these meats.

The Medical Community Gives Their Opinion

While there are several benefits of the Raw Foods diet, some professionals in the medical community are still a bit skeptical of this diet. Some medical professionals argue that cooking certain foods actually helps to aid with the absorption of some important nutrients as well. Doctors also find themselves concerned about the deficiencies that can occur. Studies have even shown that this diet can make things worse for people who are already at risk for osteoporosis, since calcium deficiencies can occur, and they can end up with lower bone mass.

Disclaimer: Always consult your doctor before starting any dieting program.

So many people seem to be training their trail horses to go plowing mindlessly thru all sorts of obstacles rather than encouraging the horse to show some of his natural good sense in avoiding those things which might prove harmful to him. Who wants a horse that will dive into water without first trying to find out how deep it is? One show I went to had an obstacle consisting of a narrow aisle of poles, between which they put down several cardboard dress boxes! I never found out whether the horse was supposed to step on or over the boxes. Some stepped over, as mine did-which made sense I thought-and some stepped on them without batting an eyelash.

As for the concept of changing hands on the reins for the gate obstacle, I feel this should not be considered a fault. When you go out on a real trail ride, do you always know which way a gate is going to open? No! And if you come to one that opens the “wrong” way for the hand you are using, what do you do? You change hands and use the one most convenient.

Leaving the beaten path can be one of the great pleasures of horseback riding. I would like to suggest that common sense and preparation should guide us in developing these training programs.

Here’s hoping that a specific set of rules will be set up to eliminate the uncertainty and inefficiency of trail riding classes so that there will be trail classes that really do present obstacles that truly simulate the hazards found on a trail.

There are a lot of people looking for some type of guidance to help them get a book written and published. It can be a long and confusing journey and it helps to have a mentor or group of experts you can turn to. Good thing we have 4 popular fantasy authors to help you out.

Here is another good article about writing books, from one of four authors that post weekly about the writing process and getting published.

This one is from Misty Massey:

Writing to the Writer

As a writer, I’ve always ever had one true hope for my work, and that was that it might someday make a reader feel the way my favorite author’s books always made me feel. I wanted my readers to come away from my stories breathing a satisfied sigh of time well spent.

When I was a child, I used to write letters to authors whose work impressed me, people like E L Konigsberg, Elizabeth Enright (and was broken-hearted to learn she had died some years before my letter arrived), and Marguerite Henry. Most of the time the only response was a form letter of some kind from the publisher, thanking me for my interest.

When I was 10 or 11, I wrote a letter to my favorite author (at the time), Alexander Key. I’d just finished his fantastic novel Flight to the Lonesome Place, and I had a question about one of the characters. Everyone told me not to expect a personal response, since he was a famous author and I was just a kid who read his book.

Imagine my excitement when a letter arrived a few weeks later, with “A. Key” in the return address corner. I read his charming, thoughtful, personal response to my question at least one hundred times. My favorite author had taken the time to write to me, a mere reader. How amazing was that?

These days I’m the one getting correspondence from readers. It’s a good deal easier here in the 21st century, what with email and blog lines. No one has to search very diligently before they find a way to contact me, which is nice for both of us.

Yesterday, for example, I opened my email and found a delightful note from a young woman who had just finished reading Mad Kestrel, and wanted to tell me how she felt about it. As I read her gushing email, I began to cry, because I realized that I’d done what I wanted to do. I had given at least one person a story that became real, a cast of characters she could care about, and a world she didn’t want to leave behind.

As writers, we all hope for award nominations and bestseller status and seven figure advances, but honestly, when it all comes down, what we really want is to touch someone else’s soul with our work. That’s what being an artist is all about.

If you are interested in learning more about writing a fantasy novel then be sure to follow one of the links in this article.

Many of us take it for granted that the water we get from our kitchen sink is safe to drink and cook with.  However, some of us are not so fortunate and may have to install water filtration systems to remove impurities which may cause us harm, perhaps not immediately, but gradually as toxic substances in our drinking water may accumulate in our bodies over time.  For people who are concerned about the health risk of their home water supply, they may want to consider looking at installing a reverse osmosis system.

The central step in the reverse osmosis process lies in what happens inside the membrane, which is the most important part of the RO set up.  Here water is forced through this thin porous film which only allows anything the size of a water molecule to pass through.  Anything else greater than .001 microns are prevented from penetrating this barrier.  Potentially harmful impurities such as bacteria, industrial wastes and pesticides can not go through and are drained away.  What comes out the other end of this membrane is mostly pure water.

Various pre-filters and post filters connect with this membrane.  Pre-filters remove sand, silt, dirt and other sediment.  Carbon pre-filters may be necessary to remove chlorine which may damage membranes that are made of thin film composite TFC or thin film material TFM.  Carbon post filters remove remaining tastes and odors just before the water reaches the faucet.

Many of the reverse osmosis systems available consists of the same basic components and function in the same way.  The critical difference is in the quality of the filters and membrane used.  When making a decision on which system to install in your own home, the quality of these parts should be considered.  A RO system does require some maintenance and eventually replacement of parts, so finding the right one should not be based solely on the initial cost.  If you are a handy person, you can install it yourself.  However, if you don’t consider yourself mechanically inclined, then a plumber familiar with reverse osmosis systems can install it for you at a reasonable hourly or flat fee.