Archive for December 31, 2009

5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 31, 2009
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An Indian Goddess in Singapore

Singapore is a fantastic place for travelers.  There is so much to see and to do in this magnificent city state, and there’s never any end to the innovation.  This means that there’s always a steady stream of art, entertainment, science, and technology that comes from the vibrant urban center.  It’s also in the middle of a gorgeous tropical setting, so that when the city is something you want to escape from, there is plenty of nature always nearby.  Singapore has a very interesting history, and is made up of many different cultures.  Influences from China, Malaysia, and India are particularly present here, and visible in the population as well as the art, and the cuisine.

These cultures have a great dexterity and fondness for the gifts of the sea, and together, they help to make Singapore’s seafood restaurants some of the most delightful places on earth.  There is an abundance of fresh fish, as well as plenty of other necessary ingredients, so you can be sure that your meal will always be excellent.  These cultures also have very substantial pantheons in their spiritual traditions, and that means a lot of goddesses and gods.  If you like to bring the two together, spirit and seafood, you might enjoy taking a meal close to the Singapore River.

There is a very famous temple on the river devoted to the Hindu deity Mariamman, and it’s one of the many splendid sites in Singapore.  Mariamman is regarded in places as the sacred body of a village, and she is also an aspect of Kali.  As such, she has the power of destruction as well as the nutritive power of the earth, and is also related to diseases and fevers.  Her stories are complex, and the nature of this deity is even more complex, and Singapore is a lovely place to get to know more about her many aspects.

Category: culture | Tags: ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 30, 2009
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What is Search Engine Optimization? And How Can it Help You?

It is an Internet world now. Businesses rely on consumers being able to find them online. I, myself, have a Yellow Pages phonebook. I think that it must be about ten years old, and I have not taken it from the cabinet…in about ten years. Information now, is available at the touch of your fingertips. But what if your business is not coming up on the first page of a search? You hire a company that specializes in Search Engine Optimization services . What does this mean? Well, these companies will help to ensure that the traffic and the quality of that traffic to your site, will improve drastically.

The higher up your company’s site appears on a search will greatly affect the number of consumers who will have access to you, who will be able to find you on the vast Web. This is a new form of marketing that reflects our ever-changing and ever-advancing times. The people working for the SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) firms, take into consideration just how the search engines operate and function, and they keep track of what it is that consumers are searching for on a regular basis.

They keep track of the web crawlers, or the indexing, of the information that is found by browsing the Web. A “web crawler” is a term that is also commonly referred to as a Web spider, a bot, a worm and and ant. Sounds a bit like Mission Impossible , robotic insects and all. Well, these robotic insects provide up to the minute data, and they have a huge effect on the number of people that hit your site. Taken into account is the text and the key words that will increase your site”s relevance to the “bots”.

Those in the SEO industry, know how to optimize the search engines to your company”s and your site”s benefit. This will guarantee the exposure that you need in order to compete for the attention of the robotic insects, and the attention of the consumers, of whom you are wanting to attract. As stated, the phone books have pretty much gone out the window, and a Search Engine Optimization firm will make certain that your company stays in the forefront.

Category: Business | Tags: , ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 28, 2009
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Raleigh and Charlotte North Carolina

Tom had just graduated from college and was celebrating his freedom and independence with his friends when he realized that it was time for him to strike out on his own and move to another city and possibly even another state. He had stayed in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona to go to school and he was suddenly strong, and very strongly indeed, with the need to move on and strike out on his own. His degree was in social services and while he knew it would be difficult to find a job he was also passionate about helping people in need and in particular working with the youth population. Because his career was going to be state employment oriented, or at least it would likely be for an agency that was heavily funded by the state, he knew pretty much what he would be dealing with regarding the job scene in most places.

After doing some preliminary investigation Tom decided that North Carolina was at the top of his list. He made plans to visit the state and stay in one of the hotels Carolina and planned to bring his good friend Curtis with him to help in his investigation. He was certain that he wanted to be near the Atlantic coast though he was also certain he wanted to settle into one of the larger cities. He decided that he would first visit Raleigh and spend a few days there and then move on to Charlotte where he would spend another couple of days. He decided that staying in one of the state’s largest cities would give him the best possibility in finding a job in his field.

Tom loved Raleigh from the moment he landed. He loved the symbolic strength and mythological association to Oak Trees and there were plenty of them everywhere in the city. He visited the Old Town area and loved the combination of historic buildings and contemporary cultural elements. Also, Raleigh was in a convenient trip distance to the ocean. However, since Charlotte is the largest city in the state Tom had a suspicion he would be naturally more drawn to it. He loved the historic feel and relevance of the city and particularly appreciated its reputation of strength and colonial rebellion. However, he couldn’t deny the instinctive connection he felt in Raleigh and he knew that was where he wanted to move. Besides, he thought, he could always move again if things didn’t work out. And Tom wanted to explore his country and live in a few different places before he would settle down and start a family.

Category: Travel | Tags: ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 22, 2009
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Space and the Seattle Space Needle

As a child, my imagination was captured by a single building in Washington State: The Seattle Space Needle.  It wasn’t just the elegant tower and the UFO-shaped structure, but also the very name itself — the Space Needle, as if we were trying to thread the sky.  It was built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, an era of changing times.  John F. Kennedy was President and had already announced his intentions to land men on the Moon before the decade was out.  The human drive for exploration, not only of this world, but the worlds beyond it, naturally collided with a piece of architecture aimed directly at those worlds.  The Needle was first conceived as sketches on a placemat in a coffee house by Edward E. Carlson, the president of a hotel chain.  His inspiration came, apparently, from the Stuttgart Tower in Germany, a television tower built in 1956.  A dozen other architects worked from the initial sketches to the design we know today.

The Needle was built in the thirteen months before the World’s Fair opened, starting with a foundation thirty feet deep and a hundred and twenty feet across, which weighed as much as the Space Needle itself in order to keep the structure’s center of gravity just above the Earth’s surface.  The flying saucer structure on top is comprised of five levels, including a revolving restaurant and Observation Deck.  The top house is balanced so well that it only takes a one horsepower motor to rotate the restaurant.  The building was finished within four months of its opening date, the first day of the World’s Fair on the 21st of April, 1962.

Occasionally, storms will force the Space Needle to close (Columbus Day, 1962, was one such storm; and a storm on Inauguration Day of 1993 was another; wind gusts were at ninety miles an hour); however, the Needle is built to hold against a wind of 200 miles per hour, and it’s survived earthquake tremors, too, even the one in 2001 which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, approximately the same size of quake that shook Los Angeles in 1994.  While the Needle was built for 4.5 million dollars, just ten years ago it underwent a renovation for twenty million.  If you’re checking into a hotel Seattle makes available for its tourists and travelers alike, to not stop at the Space Needle would be like traveling to Paris and not stopping in at the Eiffel Tower.

Category: Travel | Tags: , ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 14, 2009
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Singapore Pontianak Stories

It’s a pleasure to visit Singapore, especially these days.  The extremely rich cosmopolitan culture here means that there are always new things to see, products of the intense creativity of the artists who live here.  There are also a dizzying array of influences from around the world, and it’s long status as a major trading port has made it very open to new ideas and traditions.  It’s a great place to see new works of art, to enjoy excellent museums and fun attractions, and a great place to hear some great ghost stories.  While you’re here, getting a taste of the local culture, a Singapore food guide can certainly help you find the very best in local cooking.

The culinary traditions here are a mix of cultures, from Malay, to Chinese, to Indian, and beyond.  Singapore has a way of taking the very best of everything and creating something altogether new, and the results are absolutely delightful.  It’s very difficult to eat the same thing twice, because there is so much to choose from, and there’s always something new and tempting.  The combinations in the food are also reflected in other ways.  The local folktales and legends also come from a variety of places, and take on peculiar local features.  One of the spookiest figures in Singapore myth, surely, is the Pontianak.

This is a kind of local vampire, that has origins in stories from Malaysia, and the legends can be very chilling, or terrific fun, depending on your tastes.  The Poniatanak is the spirit of a woman who died during childbirth, and she returns in vampire form, with long black hair, and a white robe that goes below her feet, and she seeks revenge.  The are many different variations of the story, and some have the spirit of the child as her companion.  Either way, it’s good for some scary bedtime stories, and better not to meet one in person.  If you do, however, one good way to cure the spirit is to trim her hair and nails and insert them into the hole in the back of her neck.

Category: Dining, Travel | Tags: ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 14, 2009
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Singapore Media Fiesta

A rich and vibrant city state with a steady stream of fantastic events, Singapore is a wonderful place for tourists.  There are so many fascinating things to see and do here, for newcomers who have never been to Asia before, to business travelers who visit all the time.  There are always splendid distractions that can take up an entire vacation, and rather spectacularly, too.  It has a long history of relationships with other countries and people, being a major trading port, and as such it is magnificently prepared to take care of guests with great hospitality and style.  Some travelers feel that Singapore hotels are the finest in the world, in their ability to accommodate with panache, but also for their individual touches of elegant style.

It is considered a place where the east meets the west, and there are many cultural influences that intersect here like no other place on the planet.  Old traditions and contemporary innovations often work hand in hand, and provide a delightful mix of the familiar and the new.  Singapore has always been on the cutting edges of culture and technology, and if you’re visiting in March, you can see how these come together at the Media Fiesta.  This is an event that lasts an entire month, with a fantastic lineup of performances and exhibitions, but the main part of the event lasts for four days.

Visitors can see examples of all the latest developments in animation, video games, and new media, for an experience that is entertaining and extremely engaging.  There are artists and technologists from all over the world, but the focus is on what’s happening in Singapore right now.  Part of the reason for the Media Fiesta, which has been going on for years now, is to expose the young people here to the possibility of careers that are open for them, if they have an interest and a talent for dazzling the next generation.

Category: Travel | Tags: ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 14, 2009
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Even a Few Days In Singapore Can be Fun

I was already in a steamy mood about being booted off a Qantas airline due to purchasing budget tickets, but when I did manage to stay on a flight, I had to pay $10 to watch in-flight entertainment. Fortunately, there was a nice return to normalcy when I realized Singaporeans call Burger King, Burger King instead of Hungry Jacks, which for some odd reason, the Australians like to call a Burger King.

I was excited about my new surroundings in Singapore, I checked into my Singapore boutique hotel, which I was apprehensive about at first, due to the extra expense, but the staff was super friendly, professional and the accommodations were supreme. In the morning, I took the MRT into town and hung around the colonial area. That’s were I saw a world famous hotel, a war memorial, the CBD (Central Business District) and the very funny looking Merlion statue, which look liked someone designed it while they were on a drinking binge.

If Cairns is known as the backpackers tourism capital of the world, then Singapore is known as the consumer goods capital. Even though I like shopping as much as the next person, I thoroughly enjoyed the food hawkers stalls. I had some of the best dishes there and the cheapest. I went back on the MRT and notice that not only the kids have all the latest electronic gadgets, but the elderly do too! I felt like I was McFly in ‘Back to the Future II‘, too bad though there weren’t any hover-boards. I felt like a kid in a sweet shop as I explored Singapore, there was so much to do and choose from, I was overwhelmed. I finally decided to hit Chinatown and happened upon a market were I was so touted upon it became annoying. So, I went back to Orchard Street, Singapore’s main shopping district, and did my best to stay away from the various clothes shops, because I have already purchased too much; if I bought anymore, I’d have to ship it back home, and I really don’t want to do that.

Singapore, needs more than just a few days to explore all it’s fantastic beauty, but for the moment, that’s all I could afford, only a few days. I feel I made the most of it and was happy to do so.

Category: Cinema, Travel | Tags: , ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 9, 2009
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Santa Monica Swell

If you just walk up the board walk far enough from Venice beach you will hit Santa Monica. It is the oldest and the largest beach town of Los Angeles California. It is the big pool of famous British rock stars and writers that have taken there place here. You could run into Rod Stewart or John Lydon out for a stroll. Even the actors of LA make it down hear for some fresh sea air. It was originally a small quiet beach and began to boom when the streetcar system was created. That is when all the people living downtown could make it out to the pier.

The actual town ship goes inland about three miles but most of the action is within a few blocks off the sand. The Santa Monica Pier is visited by just about everyone who comes to LA area. It has recently be refurbished which included the old wooden carousel from 1922. There have been many famous movie scenes shot on the Santa Monica pier like one with Paul Newman in The Sting. Whether you go day or night the pier is spectacular. You can see to the oceans end with all the birds flying around and the fisherman hang their poles off the edge during the day. At night, the pier mini carnival lights up with enthusiasm and makes for a nice romantic walk. I like going for sunset to get the most out of the experience.

The Third Street Promenade is another main attraction of the Santa Monica area. Walking distance from most of the nice hotels Santa Monica has to offer this street has it all. There are no cars allowed to drive through so in is nice to just wonder back and forth up the street. Shops and outdoor restaurants and cafes are abundant. The people watching is fantastic. The experience is all together inspiring.

Category: Travel | Tags: , ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 8, 2009
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Optional Features and Accessories For Barbeque Islands

Barbeque islands are a great choice when designing and outdoor kitchen area for your home. They are available in a diverse assortment of models and styles and can be as elaborate or simple as what your taste, resource and space allows for. In addition, the actual grill that is included can be as complex or simple as what one desires. The islands can comprise the bulk of the outdoor kitchen appliances or it can be a nice addition to an already existing area.

They are becoming extremely popular with smaller yards such as those found in townhouses and sometimes condos. Because they provide additional features such as counter or bar space as well as storage space and sometimes sinks, the island provides the complete outdoor experience yet does not need to take up a lot of room. Some of the features that are typically included have been mentioned though the models include ovens, food warmers, built in griddles and more. The list goes on and whatever is not included in the consumer choice model can usually be found as an optional feature or be purchased separately.

Some of the models include a canopy, which can add a bistro or sidewalk café quality to the cooking and dining experience. The diverse and continually growing additional feature and or accessory options include an outdoor blender, which is incredibly convenient for making smoothies or margaritas or other blended drinks and contributes to the meal as well as the fun of the experience. Paper towel holders are also extremely useful and convenient when using an outdoor kitchen. One of the fundamental though least glamorous features to these islands is a quality trash can. Whatever your personal budget and space allows for there is likely an outdoor island for you. Just bring the spices and food and guests and you are good to go.

Category: Home | Tags: , ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 7, 2009
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Lowell’s National Historical Park

In the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, you’ll find a bit of American history preserved in the Lowell National Historical Park.  This city, thirty miles northwest of Boston, and founded in 1820, began life in a very deliberate fashion, as a deliberately designed center for making textiles, a response to European facilities.  In the 19th century, the place was a vital center for industry, and it attracted to its mills many migrants and immigrants.  Today, in the 21st Century, mill district along the town’s river has been mostly restored as part of the national park.  If you take a tour of the area, you’ll find stories that highlight the engineering, the technology, but most of all, the people who came here hoping to find a better path in life for their families.  You’ll be able to ride on replicas of trolleys from that period, take a cruise on one of the canals, or simply stroll along the walks along the river and canals to the museums and historic sites.

You can have your choice of the Textile Museum, or the Working Peoples and Immigrants Museum, or the Boott Cotton Mills Museum.  You may find some information repeated from one museum to the next, but there’s a great deal of interesting debate occurring here.  Apparently, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton disagreed on the best way to develop America’s industrial base; Jefferson wanted to abandon the idea of sweatshop labor that was found in 19th Century Europe.  Hamilton, on the other hand, wanted to develop industry in this country.  In one of the museums, real workers talk about their stories of working in these mills, and there’s even a kind of debate presented between the four, showing the different sides of management and worker.  Friends I know who have been there, recommend them all, but if they could choose only one, they said they would focus on the Boott Cotton Mills Museum.

All in all, the Lowell National Historical Park seems like an ideal place to go if you want to learn some history about the early working life in America.  If you find yourself searching for hotels Lowell has to offer, you may want to reserve in advance if you’re going in July.  The festival at the park draws in over a hundred thousand people for music, crafts, and ethnic food!

Category: Travel | Tags: , ,
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