Category: General Articles

The Best Gaming Laptops That Can Be Bought

There are many ways that a person can purchase gaming laptops on the market. The average person use them for business or for school. They would not think of using them for games. Those units for business are not good gaming laptops. This is because they don’t have the requirements that the large gaming systems require in order to work correctly.

But with so many people on the go laptops that play games have become very popular. Not to mention the ability to take the game wherever the laptop goes. This allows gamers to share their games, show off what they have done, and move, as they need to. These units allow for the best mobility.

Many companies provide the systems just for games. Each game has different types of components they require in order to work. If a larger game is being played then a larger system will be needed. But one can spend quite a lot on a system that plays the larger games.

So as not to waste your money you should carefully consider which one will benefit you the most. The price of these systems varies widely, so choose carefully. If you don’t plan on playing big games you can select a smaller unit. This will save you money as smaller systems are less expensive.

Once you know what system to buy you can decide how much to spend. With some systems costing thousands of dollars it is important to select the right one. If the right system is select the gamer will have a system that will last a while.

There is always the options of having a system designed just for you and the game you play. This ensure the system has exactly what you need and want. But you will pay way more for a custom system than a store bought system. The units come in different sizes and shapes, as well as their weight.

Stores offer many options for a person that wants a system. And you will find a sales person to help you understand what is available and what you need to play your favorite game. This comes in handy for beginners to the gaming experience. Regardless of what system you buy you should always research all options and their components, this will ensure you have a great system.

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Spiritual Development and the Healing Power of Music

Healing is a necessary part of ongoing spiritual development and self growth. We all have the ability to heal, but so often it just lies dormant, awaiting our willingness to be open and receptive to a change in consciousness. Music awakens us to a vibrational energy which is “the most metaphysical and mystical force in all nature.” David Tame.

The healing power of sound and music is certainly not a recent discovery. In the bible we read of the walls of the city of Jericho tumbling down at the sound of rams’ horns whilst the rest of the army stood completely silent. In fact, the ancients seemed far more familiar with, and trusting of, this form of healing than modern day man. Perhaps they inherently knew and understood that sound was the primal breath of all creation, and we are just beginning to remember the truth of our beginnings. We can now intentionally tap into the positively charged vibrational energies of sounds and music that surround us each and every day, and use these to bring about healing on all levels; physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Modern day researchers are showing that sound and music can significantly influence our health, our physical bodies, our state of mind and our emotions. Knowing this, it is of the utmost importance that we closely monitor the sounds around us. Our environment has become filled with negatively charged vibrations, many of which are inaudible, low frequency sounds.

The great news is that we have the ability to change the effects of these negative sounds. By spending time listening to beautiful music or spiritual music, which soothes the mind, heart and soul, we begin to tune into the rhythms and sounds of the universe. We must remember though, that what may be a magical sound to one person may be a nightmare to someone else. Each person is uniquely created, and, as such, has his/her own unique healing process.

Music has the ability to open the hearts of those searching for healing, and allows them to be immersed in emotions needed to be felt at a spiritual level rather than just at a physical level. At present, there are many who believe that music equates to a microcosm of the order of the universe, following universal law.

Deepak Chopra explains it so beautifully when he writes in his book, Quantum Healing, “the reality of music is the shimmering, beautiful, invisible form that haunts our memories without ever being present in the physical world.”

Music feeds and nourishes us in ways that we don’t realise or understand, but we know that it has the power to heal us and keep us healthy and whole; physically, emotionally and spiritually. Music is the pulse of creation, moving in and through everything in the form of vibration; it harmonises with the cosmos. Through music, we can draw on the intuitive knowledge that lies deep within each individual cell. Music acts as a …

Cheap Laptop Bags – Alternative to Leather Laptop Bags

Everywhere you go nowadays, you’re bound to find a sale somewhere some how. In view of this, are cheap laptop bags the way to go? The answer lies in accordance to what type of laptop user you are and also your lifestyle.

Individuals who are just purchasing a laptop bag for the sole purpose of preventing their laptop from getting dusty, do not need to purchase an expensive bag. But for situations such as traveling one should bear in mind that proper protection is highly recommended for your laptop as it can be easily damaged.

Cheap laptop bags usually do not have proper padding to protect your laptop during travel. In view of this, always think twice before buying this type of bag as at the end of the day you may eventually see your laptop in tatters. Besides that, always check if your bag has a smooth surface, as scratches that accumulate due to an uneven surface may cause your laptop to look dull and ugly.

However, cheap laptop bags have also their own plus points as many are light and easy to carry around. This is mainly because many of the extra features such as metal clips and padding are not included in the bag.

If you’re planning to travel around with your laptop right by your shoulder, this cheaper computer bag may allow you the advantage of walking around without accumulating stress on your shoulder.

Cheap may not be always the way to go, but if you are a careful and cautious buyer, you would always make the best and appropriate buy. Your laptop needs the best care and at times cheap laptop bags do make a good companion.

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Top 5 Date Ideas For Music Lovers in London

So you’ve met a nice girl/boy, you’ve swapped numbers and you want to arrange a date, but where are you going to take them? All the traditional dating ideas like “drinks”, “dinner” or “watching a film” seem so clich?�d and you want to impress, but if you’re a music lover then you’re in luck. We’ve scoured the city to drum up some dating ideas with a difference.

1. British Music Experience at The O2

This is an absolute must see for anyone who considers themselves a music lover. The exhibition looks at how popular music has influenced Britain’s culture over the last 70 years, but is also invitingly hands on. If you’re a budding musician you’ll love the Gibson Interactive Studio where Blur themselves will teach you how to play the epic Song 2 (alright it’s a video, but still!) And if you’re already sufficiently talented when it comes to making sweet, sweet music, why not challenge your date to jam?

2. 100 Club

If you fancy something a little more central, head to the 100 Club on Oxford Street. This historic music venue will celebrate its 69th birthday this year, having been everything from a 40’s swing club to host of the very first International Punk Festival. With decor unchanged since the 70’s, we’re not saying it’s going to be glam, but as a music lover in London it’s a rite of passage that everyone should experience at least once.

3. Musical Bingo

Held in cool new Shoreditch venue, Concrete, music bingo is definitely not for grannies. Forget numbers – they do things differently in E2. Your bingo card holds a list of songs, which you have to identify from the tracks played by the DJ. Once you have a full house, get onto the dance floor to claim your prize. This is not just a great date for music lovers, but foodies too. Kill two birds with one stone by popping in to Concrete’s upstairs neighbour, Pizza East. They serve delicious pizzas at reasonable prices, but make sure you choose one with a tomato sauce or you’ll be disappointed.

4. Royal Albert Hall

If you’re a music lover – but not the beer swilling, head banging type – then consider something a little more sophisticated and head down to the Royal Albert Hall for a proper concert. If you happen to visit over the summer months you may even be lucky enough to catch the BBC Proms. If you want something a little lighter, check out their free lunchtime jazz concerts for a bite-sized date.

5. Karaoke with a twist

Oh no, I hear you say, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I am not going to do karaoke in front of my date who I want to impress; this is not a date for a music lover. Well actually, it just might be. KaraUke is karaoke with a twist. Rather than wailing Total Eclipse of The Heart …

How Family Businesses Are Being Shut Down By Financial Difficulty

Last week Daddy’s Junky Music abruptly closed all their stores throughout New England. For those who live in the North East, the family owned Daddy’s music stores have been a cultural icon for 40 years.

Daddy’s is where millions of Americans bought their first guitar, learned to play the bass, met other musicians, got to visit with touring superstars, and even performed at frequent open mic nights on the in-store stages.

The Daddy’s stores were run by musicians for musicians. They accepted ALL used instruments with generous credit toward a new instrument or cash. This policy, virtually unknown in the music business, was a catalyst behind making New England one of the most exciting music scenes in American history.

In recent years the New England states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine) have had more local performances, more active online discussion groups for musicians, and far more trading of musical instruments. Just check and Craigslist for a taste.

Daddy’s was clearly behind all this. Yet the music retail business is one of small profits and tough competition. You don’t own a music store to get rich. You do it for the love of music.

Financial Problems Due to Recession

Daddy’s owner Fred Bramante (who started the first location with just a few hundred dollars and some old guitars) continued to put Daddy’s locations in more communities. Just like virtually every other American business, he did this by borrowing expansion capital from a commercial bank. In this case — GE Capital. GE Capital is the bank division of General Electric.

Then in 2008 the Great Recession hit and sales slumped. Daddy’s figured they could work harder, plan smarter, save money where ever they could, and weather the storm.

This year, with the recession dragging on longer than expected, Daddy’s closed several less popular stores and tightly focused their product lines. Bramante reported in many press interviews that they were optimistic their earnings would be back on track after the Holiday Season.

This is the standard scenario for almost all of America’s retail businesses both large and small. As much as half of the year’s sales are earned during the Christmas season.

But a catastrophe was just around the corner. In late October Daddy’s received orders from their bank to pay $3 Million within five days or else lose the entire Daddy’s chain.

Bramante said in newspaper and radio interviews this demand was unexpected. Daddy’s had no choice but to shut down all their stores and layoff more than 100 employees. Thousands of customers were left in the lurch after putting money down on orders, paying for orders that could not be delivered, or stuck with worthless gift cards and credits that could not be redeemed.

Daddy’s explained on their Facebook site EVERYTHING they owned, including bank accounts, were being controlled by the bank. The stores were powerless to help customers.

What This Means For YOU

This is simply …

Music Everywhere You Are – Top 5 Android Music Apps

A cell phone, a music player, a portable radio…? Sounds a bit bulky doesn’t it?A� With today’s smart mobile devices and handy apps you can take your music and conversation anywhere you go!A� If you love your android mobile phone and you love your music, you may want to check out these 5 musical apps:

1) Pandora Radio by Pandora

Pandora is a free streaming radio station that you create. Simply enter your favorite artist, song or classical composer and Pandora will play the music you choose and offer you more music just like it to expand your tastes. You can further refine while you listen by clicking like or dislike for each song that comes up.

2) Rhapsody by Rhapsody

With a subscription to Rhapsody you can find and listen to any song instantly. You can literally listen to anything and everything in the catalog whenever you want.

3) Shazam by Shazam Entertainment Limited

If you have ever heard a song and wish you knew who it was, then you will love Shazam. Let Shazam hear the song and it will not only get you the title and artist but also give you the ability to download the song immediately. Other features include finding out tour dates, browsing videos and sharing with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

4) TuneWiki Social Media Player by TuneWiki

This is a social media player that displays the lyrics while you listen to music, watch music videos, and stream songs through SHOUTcast A�. Other features include 40+ languages and Facebook and Twitter integration.

5) doubleTwist by doubleTwist Corp.

If you are looking to integrate your iTunes library to your Android based device, you will find this app to be quite useful. Using the doubleTwist desktop client you can sync all your songs, videos, playlists, podcasts and play counts.

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On Hold Marketing For Your Business Phones

What is it all about? Marketing on hold, music on hold, message on hold, etc, are all basically saying the same thing – using the time your clients or customers are on hold to keep them entertained through music or give them the opportunity to learn more about your company through company-specific messages played on a loop. Though it may seem complicated and the necessary music on hold equipment for a system like this may seem excessive, the truth is that it is much easier than it seems, and using marketing on hold is a real benefit to your business.

Music on Hold Ports

Business phone systems always include a music on hold port that is already included in the system and makes it much easier to set up and use message on hold or telephone hold music for the benefit of their customers. Because it is built into the system, it is almost effortless to get started once you have bought the proper music on hold equipment. Some websites offer all the accessories you might need to get your music on hold system started, and even that usually only includes an on hold player.

The equipment needed to get your on hold player started is remarkably minimal. At the most your phone will need a small adapter to connect the on hold player to, or a USB or flash drive loading system for the player itself. This makes on hold players cheap, easy and effective for any business.

Boon to Business

Because it is so simple and already built into your business phone system, it is easy to see the benefits it will bring to your business itself. Instead of hearing static, bad commercials, or ads for your competitors, you can help your customers hear a specific point about your company or nice music while they are waiting for service from your customer service representatives or to be transferred.

On hold players and the few necessary add-ons will more than pay for themselves in a short amount of time. People both enjoy and appreciate a company that takes the time and consideration to ensure that their on hold time is spent either listening to entertaining music or hearing important information about the company itself.

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Top 5 Tips to Get the Best Out of Your Session Players

Challenges of all types are all around nowadays and people must face them daily. The challenges being faced come in an array of variations in difficulty. Take the subject of getting the best out of your session player for instance. Many thousands of people have trouble with that challenge, with mixed results. So how does one locate a path through all this to find methods that actually work?

Understanding will be the response. Doing practically anything is simple when you’re conscious of the way to. Anything is simpler to perform if you are well-informed when it comes to it. In the same way, the key to getting great results with managing your session player is much more know-how about what works and about how, and why it works.

Read on to improve your understanding on this subject.

Listed below are 5 effective tips for getting the best out of your session player and still be awesome:

1. Provide quality scratch tracks. Why is this important? Well, of course it’s not about the sound quality (although better sound quality is a plus), but more about keeping everything in time. So create a habit of recording everything to a click track. What happens when you adhere to these suggestions? You’ll definitely be of great help for the session player, as he won’t have to guess the timing. So make this a top priority – keep your timing in check.

2. Express your wishes expressively. Which is important because if you don’t express yourself, you’re allowing the session player to come up with something on the spot. If you want the song to sound a particular way, then go the full extent to show him/her how you want it.

3. Supervise the recording process. The main reason behind that is that you do want to know what the musician is doing with your precious song, even though you’re outsourcing the recording. It’s also a very good idea because it’s your life’s work and money that you’re putting into the project. So it’s natural you want control over it. There are different solutions that can aid in such situations, like Skype or iChat.

4. Listen and re-listen to the recording. And just exactly why is this a good idea? It’s good because you don’t want to be hasty and just approve everything in the heat of the moment. I know you’re excited, you’ve got your drum tracks recorded and you’re loving it. Listen to it a few times and then let it rest. After a while listen to it again and see if it still sounds as good as the first time you listened to it. You’d be surprised.. Are there more reasons? Sometimes we just get too used to the song and stop perceiving the little nuances that we would otherwise perceive if we had fresh ears. So this is definitely an important step..

5. Never settle for less. And this …

Listen to Music Radio Online

Internet radio stations have become one of the very exciting activities that bring people to the entertainment and information world. Online users can easily listened music on their favorite radio stations on their websites that cater to provide online services. Radio station websites can be easily accessed on laptops and mobile phones. As the internet nowadays had evolved and can be accessed with the help of advance technology such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Wireless devices so that people can keep on listening to the radio while they are on the go.

There are ways to keep up the radio listening fever to people through “music radio listen online services”. These radio station services offered are ‘free of cost’ on the internet. Various mobile, PC, and hand held gadgets can easily access these services with the aid of Wireless technology. Thus it becomes typically possible to listen radio music even if people are on the go.

People can easily tune in to local radio stations of their choice with the help of several free live online radio stations to choose from. A lot of websites bring people to popular radio channels keeping them updated and entertained. All they have to do is to register to the site in order to access every resource that they provide. These websites are also capable of providing resources such as SMS (Short Message Service), free calls, playing online role-playing games, video streaming and live radio listening programs.

The process of listening online radio is very captivating in which it brings joy to people helping them motivate on their daily activities, Radio DJ’s narrate fascinating events such as life stories, breaking news, and chart topping hits that bring entertainment in the life of users. The thrill never ends when loquacious radio jockey began to talk almost about everything and promoting artist albums, and plugging amusing songs to overcome boredom in people’s life. Among the most requested radio programs are the daily top 10 music in this generation coming from various request and votes that helps make their favorite music on the list. Radio programs offered by different radio channels are absolutely amazing and people find it great to listen to the programs that are broadcast by the radio station.

Searching information about radio websites catering free radio services is just a click a way with the help of directory listings. There are a lot of websites in the internet that provide such service, all the users need to do is to register to acquire these type of services. Registration is easy and simple for first timers, they just need a few minutes to get themselves registered on the site by filling up an online form and the services offered by the station is become more accessible to users. The internet plays a dominant role by feeling up the gap of communication between the radio station and the user. With the help of websites, people can subscribe and avail radio services with …

A Simple Songwriting Tip for Coming Up With Chord Progressions for Your Songs

One way to come up with a chord progression is to take a chord progression from a song we like and change the length of each chord, independent of its strumming pattern, tempo or anything else.

We’ll do this in one of two ways:

Lengthening each chord (doubling each one is usually easiest to apply)

Shortening each chord (halving each one is usually easiest to apply)

Or you can use a combination of the above. Shorten some chords, and lengthen others. You can even keep one or two chords the same length as they were in the original song.

Let’s use the chorus of “American Pie” by Don McLean as an example. The chords in the chorus where the lyrics are “Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie” are G-C-G-D. The song is in 4/4 time and each one of those chords is played for about 2 beats.

Grab your guitar or keyboard and play those chords either to a metronome, or while tapping your foot, to get a feel for the length of each two-beat chord.

Got it?

Now play those same chords, but play each one for four beats instead of two. Do you see how it gave the song an different feel? It sounds like you’re playing it at half tempo now. It sounds different than the original, but let’s change it some more to give it a more different feel.

Try this. Play the first and third chords (the G chords) for two beats each, and play the second and fourth chords (the C and the D) for eight beats each. So in 4/4 time, it’ll be like this:

G (for 2 beats) – C (for 8 beats) – G (for 2 beats) – D (for 8 beats)

Do you hear how different that sounds from “American Pie?” Pretty cool right? You have the same exact chords, with the same exact tempo and strumming pattern, but by simply changing the length of only two of the chords (the C and the D – we kept the length of the G chords the same as the original), we have a completely new sound. This is a great way to look to another song’s chords for inspiration, without blatantly copying what they’re doing.

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