Author: signordal

It’s International Owl Awareness Day, and we’re celebrating…

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An owl family at Rocky Mountain National Park.


Barn owls by USFWS.


A parliament of baby burrowing owls by USFWS.

It’s International Owl Awareness Day, and we’re celebrating these majestic birds with awesome owl photos and facts!

With fluffy feathers, large eyes and dramatic facial expressions, these birds of prey have long been fan favorites. There are 150 species of owls worldwide and 19 that call North America home, providing plenty of opportunities to spot these birds on public lands or in your backyard.

While they may look adorable, owls are fierce hunters. These well-adapted predators are silent hunters with excellent eyesight and hearing, allowing them to soar through the night sky in search of prey. Some scientists estimate that a single owl can eat 2,000 rodents a year.

Be sure to check out more owl photos – they’re a real hoot! https://on.doi.gov/owls

Refreshing House Designed by Ark4lab of Architecture in Thassos, Greece

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This refreshing house is located in an olive grove where trees have been planted since the beginning of the 16th century.It has a wonderful terrace that invites residents and guests to relax and enjoy its facilities, with outdoor furniture and vaporous curtains that protect from the breeze and the sun when necessary. This wonderful space also gives us the opportunity to relax in its swimming pool. Designed by the architectural..

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7 Ways To Save Money While Traveling

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Are you planning to go on a vacation soon? Do you have an urgent business trip coming up shortly?

Leaving your home and going for a vacation can sound fun. But, without proper preparation, it can easily burn holes in your wallet.

If you’re like me, you want to save money whenever you can. Unfortunately, things always cost more than you plan for them to, especially when you are on vacation. This is why it helps to research first where you’re going before you make your hotel reservations and start packing.

In this post, we’ll take a look at seven ways to save money while traveling so that you can come back with money in your pocket!

7 Tips for Saving Money When Traveling

Below are seven ways to save money while traveling. See which ones you might benefit from when planning your next trip.

Start with saving at home

One of the things that can help you have more money for your vacation is to start saving money at home. Set aside a little money every month and set a goal you want to meet. In setting your goal, make sure it will meet the total expected cost of your trip.

One thing I sometimes do is to put spare change in an automatic ATM coin bank. You may think it’s just “pocket change” but it adds up quick! If you deposit a few quarters every week from the change you get back from small transactions, you’ll get a lot of money over time which you can use for your vacation.

Some online banks offer a way to put aside money specifically for various purposes. I’ve often used my mobile banking “goals” option to save for a vacation automatically.

Join a discount membership service

You know the offers I’m talking about. You probably see them in magazines or newspapers. You may even get calls about some of them. Some are scams, but some are true values that you should look into.

Discount travel booking sites, such as NextVacay.com, can save you hundreds of dollars on vacation costs, airfares and more. If you are planning on flying somewhere in the near future, take a moment to visit their site and select your flight location from their quick pull down menu and instantly see which travel deals match up best with your local and final destination. If you are short on ideas for where you might like to travel next, be sure to check out the bottom section of their site to see where the latest deals were purchased from other customers.

Unlike other “discounted travel sites”, NextVacay was actually created based on the needs and experiences of real-life travelers. The story of the site was recently shared on The Ringer, where it went on to say “Naveen Dittakavi and his wife started Next Vacay after catching the flight-hunting bug. They’d seen a friend’s Facebook post about a $300 round trip from D.C. to India and they were sold. Friends noticed the couple’s frequent travels and asked how they were managing this. From that, Next Vacay became a subscription service that costs $25 a year and is personalized to members’ origin airports.”

Find a debit card without foreign fees

debit card

If you are traveling abroad, you will want to find a debit or credit card that doesn’t charge you extra fees for foreign transactions. These fees can add up to large amounts of money that can cost you far more than you bargained for.

One card that allows you to avoid these fees is the Charles Schwab card. There are actually a lot of credit cards with no international fees if you just do your homework.

NerdWallet has a great article on the best credit cards without foreign fees attached to them. The last thing you want to do is to travel while feeling limited by every purchase you make.

Get a job!

We go on a vacation to get away from work, right? But, there are many foreign countries that love to hire travelers from other countries to improve their perspective on things or get ideas from other cultures. Look into this and see if this is something you might want to do to increase the money you have available for your vacation.

If you have the time to spend working on something while you are on vacation and don’t mind trying something new, look into working abroad for a day or two per week to earn more money for your trip. Just make sure you understand the foreign exchange rate and how you’ll be paid before you take on such an opportunity.

Visit discount websites for airfare and taxi service

visit discount websites

One way to save money while traveling is to watch your transportation budget. Paying for transportation, such as taxis and airfare, can get expensive when you are on a vacation.

It pays to hunt for transportation discounts on the Internet that can save you money. If you can save money on your travel fares, you’ll cut down your expenses substantially. In essence, you’ll have more money to spend on things you want to enjoy.

Use mobile apps to find deals

Many vacation and travel-related companies are creating mobile apps that allow you to find great deals to help you save money on food, shopping and recreation. Google can help, too. It can help you find great deals according to your location.

Apple users can use Safari to locate similar opportunities as they travel. These are onboard programs on the Google and Apple platforms.

In addition to those two, there are plenty of other apps available for travelers who want to save money while on the road. Gate Guru by Apple is one good example. It’s a mobile app that can help you locate restaurants, local hot spots and other shopping opportunities near your area when you’re traveling.

See Also: 21 Top Travel Apps and Tools 

Use the hotel extras to save on little things

Hotels leave toothpaste, soap, shampoos and body wash bottle in your hotel room. Many even leave free mouthwash and other items. There’s no need to buy toiletries like those if you’ll have them in the hotel. So, check to see what your hotel offers and leave some things at home and pack lighter.

In addition to the extra bathroom and toiletry items, some hotels offer free breakfasts that are better than some of the local restaurants. If you get up in time to enjoy it, you can save $20 or $30 per meal by eating in your hotel. Ask your desk clerk when you make reservations to see what the policies are for dining and free food.

How to Make the Most Out of Your Next Big Trip

Planning ahead is really what we’re talking about. When you look around for saving and budgeting opportunities all of the time, you’ll find lots of ways to save money. So, when you are ready to go on vacation, you’ll be ready.

Read our other travel articles to learn more about great tips on saving money when planning your next vacation. You can also run through these travel checklists for helpful tips on ways to save money while traveling abroad as well as domestic traveling tips.

Remember, when you save on airfare and travel expenses, you’ll enjoy your vacation a whole lot more. You may even have enough money left for a cool souvenir, too!

See Also: 7 Ways To Save Money When Traveling In South Africa

The post 7 Ways To Save Money While Traveling appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Apartment in Taipei City, Taiwan, Designed by Studio de Alfonso Ideas

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This apartment, from the very second we enter it, has a palpably authentic sample of good taste. Beautiful wooden floors cover the area, giving it a touch of warmth. Its design was carried out by Studio de Alfonso Ideas in Taipei City, Taiwan. The space, characterized by its narrow design, was distributed in such a way that its furniture would not obstruct people’s way and thus creates a naturally flowing..

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August 4th

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The sunlight claps the earth, and the moonbeams kiss the sea: what are all these kissings worth, if thou kiss not me?

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5 Morning Rituals to Help You Become More Productive

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You’re reading 5 Morning Rituals to Help You Become More Productive, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

We all know the saying that humans are “creatures of habit”, right? That’s because we often gravitate towards familiarity and routine. We like to stay in our routines because the potential for something to go wrong is diminished.

You probably have some sort of familiar rhythm to your day. Wake up, get ready for work, go to work, come home, sleep, repeat. Humans like to drop into this cycle on a daily basis to help reduce the potential for impromptu stress.

So what’s your morning routine like? Do you have any rituals to help kick start your day? Sure there are the basic necessities like brushing your teeth, getting dressed, and eating breakfast, but do you ever make time to truly map out your day or better prepare your mind for the workload ahead?

We’ve compiled a list of 5 Morning Rituals to start doing so you can set yourself up for a better and more productive day:

1. Wake Up Early

Set your (Yoga Wake Up) alarm! With the increasingly busy lives of modern society, more time in the morning can change how we view our day to come. When we give ourselves ample time, we reduce the potential for rushing and scrambling out the door. This creates a more peaceful and relaxing morning and gives us time to mentally prepare for the day ahead free from worry and stress. Our Yoga Wake Up app features an alarm clock that you can set the night before! Simply set your wakeup alarm to whatever time best suits you and keep it open over night. The app will do the rest! Click here to download!

2.Take Time Getting Out of Bed

More often than not, once we open our eyes and escape from dreamland, we get up and get moving almost instantly. While this is sometimes necessary to get to work on time, it can leave us feeling mentally disorganized and physically drained (hence the importance of waking up early). It is important to take your time transitioning from sleep mode to the real world, so find something you can do from bed that helps you remain calm and grounded. There are so many different things you can do such as meditate, journal, and perhaps bring a physical ritual into the mix. This brings us to the next ritual…

3. Get Moving

We suggest adding some sort of physical movement into your morning. When we make time to wake up the body, we can take mental note of where the body is at for the day. Ask yourself, “How do I feel today?” Are you more tired than usual? Do you feel physically energetic? Use this information to help prepare you for your morning movement. This movement could be anything. Dance to music, go for a run, do some yoga, meditate from bed! Yoga Wake Up is a great tool you can use to help you get into some yoga movement or meditation in the mornings.

4. Eat A Healthy Breakfast

This is known everywhere as being one of the most important morning rituals. Whether you’re a breakfast person or not, your brain needs fuel to be as productive as possible throughout the day. Since the first thing on our list is waking up early, this should also give you enough time to make yourself a hearty breakfast. Click here for some great recipes to help start your morning off right! At Yoga Wake Up we dedicate at least 1 blog a week to give you healthy, simple breakfast recipes you can make at home.

5. Make A List

Before work (or play), be sure to make a list of short-term goals you’d like to accomplish by the end of the day. Start with the most important things and then work your way down the list. If you’re into it, you could even make a list for before and after lunch! This way, you’ll be able to set a time management schedule for yourself and keep your goals organized all day. In turn, you’ll feel less distracted, more focused and more productive!

We know it’s extremely difficult to change a person’s routine, but we hope you’ll take some of these rituals and slowly start implementing them into your morning. Try doing it in steps. In no time we’re sure you’ll be on your way to a more productive morning.

Don’t forget to download our Yoga Wake Up app! Subscription is only $1.99/month and we’re constantly working to bring you more wakeups and teachers to choose from so you can start your day out the way you want and be more productive than ever!

http://www.yogawakeup.com
http://ift.tt/2wqylgb

You’ve read 5 Morning Rituals to Help You Become More Productive, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

http://ift.tt/2wcszQ6

5 Morning Rituals to Help You Become More Productive

signordalLeave a comment

You’re reading 5 Morning Rituals to Help You Become More Productive, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

We all know the saying that humans are “creatures of habit”, right? That’s because we often gravitate towards familiarity and routine. We like to stay in our routines because the potential for something to go wrong is diminished.

You probably have some sort of familiar rhythm to your day. Wake up, get ready for work, go to work, come home, sleep, repeat. Humans like to drop into this cycle on a daily basis to help reduce the potential for impromptu stress.

So what’s your morning routine like? Do you have any rituals to help kick start your day? Sure there are the basic necessities like brushing your teeth, getting dressed, and eating breakfast, but do you ever make time to truly map out your day or better prepare your mind for the workload ahead?

We’ve compiled a list of 5 Morning Rituals to start doing so you can set yourself up for a better and more productive day:

1. Wake Up Early

Set your (Yoga Wake Up) alarm! With the increasingly busy lives of modern society, more time in the morning can change how we view our day to come. When we give ourselves ample time, we reduce the potential for rushing and scrambling out the door. This creates a more peaceful and relaxing morning and gives us time to mentally prepare for the day ahead free from worry and stress. Our Yoga Wake Up app features an alarm clock that you can set the night before! Simply set your wakeup alarm to whatever time best suits you and keep it open over night. The app will do the rest! Click here to download!

2.Take Time Getting Out of Bed

More often than not, once we open our eyes and escape from dreamland, we get up and get moving almost instantly. While this is sometimes necessary to get to work on time, it can leave us feeling mentally disorganized and physically drained (hence the importance of waking up early). It is important to take your time transitioning from sleep mode to the real world, so find something you can do from bed that helps you remain calm and grounded. There are so many different things you can do such as meditate, journal, and perhaps bring a physical ritual into the mix. This brings us to the next ritual…

3. Get Moving

We suggest adding some sort of physical movement into your morning. When we make time to wake up the body, we can take mental note of where the body is at for the day. Ask yourself, “How do I feel today?” Are you more tired than usual? Do you feel physically energetic? Use this information to help prepare you for your morning movement. This movement could be anything. Dance to music, go for a run, do some yoga, meditate from bed! Yoga Wake Up is a great tool you can use to help you get into some yoga movement or meditation in the mornings.

4. Eat A Healthy Breakfast

This is known everywhere as being one of the most important morning rituals. Whether you’re a breakfast person or not, your brain needs fuel to be as productive as possible throughout the day. Since the first thing on our list is waking up early, this should also give you enough time to make yourself a hearty breakfast. Click here for some great recipes to help start your morning off right! At Yoga Wake Up we dedicate at least 1 blog a week to give you healthy, simple breakfast recipes you can make at home.

5. Make A List

Before work (or play), be sure to make a list of short-term goals you’d like to accomplish by the end of the day. Start with the most important things and then work your way down the list. If you’re into it, you could even make a list for before and after lunch! This way, you’ll be able to set a time management schedule for yourself and keep your goals organized all day. In turn, you’ll feel less distracted, more focused and more productive!

We know it’s extremely difficult to change a person’s routine, but we hope you’ll take some of these rituals and slowly start implementing them into your morning. Try doing it in steps. In no time we’re sure you’ll be on your way to a more productive morning.

Don’t forget to download our Yoga Wake Up app! Subscription is only $1.99/month and we’re constantly working to bring you more wakeups and teachers to choose from so you can start your day out the way you want and be more productive than ever!

http://www.yogawakeup.com
http://ift.tt/2wqylgb

You’ve read 5 Morning Rituals to Help You Become More Productive, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

http://ift.tt/2wcszQ6

Great Reading on the High Seas: Linnea Hartsuyker

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“Well before I began writing about Vikings in The Half-Drowned King and its sequels, I had already fallen in love with books about ships and the sea. Beauty and hardship, grace and horror exist side-by-side in these narratives. They illuminate the heights and depths of what humanity is capable of while reminding us how small we are compared to the endless ocean. Here are a few of my very favorite books about ships and the sea.” — Linnea Hartsuker

 

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
By Susan Casey

To write The Wave, Susan Casey spent years with legendary surfer Laird Hamilton while he chased giant waves all over the globe. She experienced nearly 100-foot waves from the back of his Jet Ski and heard the surfers’ horrific wipeout stories told around the beach bonfires at night. Interspersed with Hamilton’s quest for the largest waves, Casey explores other facets of waves and discovers little we know about them. Freak waves, whose physics is still not understood, rise to three times the height those surrounding. At least two container ships sink or go missing with all hands every month. Lloyd’s of London got its start insuring shipping, a task that gets harder every year, while salvage operators descend on sinking ships to save their crew and cargo — for a price. Casey weaves all of these threads together into a narrative that is both gripping and informative.

The Horatio Hornblower Books
By C. S. Forester

You could start at the beginning of the story, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, or with the first books that Forester wrote: Beat to Quarters, Ship of the Line, and Flying Colours (my preferred reading order), but either way, you will meet and be both charmed and exasperated by Horatio Hornblower, an officer in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Hornblower rises from modest origins, through the ranks, to become a very able seaman but is always tormented by his self-doubt and perfectionism. Forester’s ability to draw readers into the arcane world of a nineteenth-century warship is without parallel, and the action scenes will leave you breathless.

The Master and Commander Books
By Patrick O’Brian

O’Brian’s twenty-book series about Captain Jack Aubrey and amateur naturalist Stephen Maturin creates one of the great friendships in English literature. With O’Brian’s ear for nineteenth-century language, even though he was writing in the twentieth, these books make a wonderful parallel to Jane Austen’s novels. This is what Persuasion‘s Captain Wentworth was doing while Anne Elliot was regretting their parting. The first book is a bit heavy with nautical terms, even for someone who has read all of Hornblower, but worth it for the story, and all of those terms are well explained in Book 2 and beyond. Aubrey and Maturin’s friendship grows and changes, affecting both men, who are as different from one another as the cello and violin they play together.

The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition
By Caroline Alexander

Ernest Shackleton’s best-known voyage is remarkable as a successful failure. His ship was trapped in pack ice and crushed, leaving him and his twenty-seven men stranded on the ice floes. They made two attempts to escape in open ships in the treacherous Southern Atlantic before finally being rescued. Alexander’s narrative brings to life the varied personalities in the expedition, and Shackleton’s extraordinary leadership that brought them all to safety. This book also contains the photographs of Frank Hurley, the voyage’s photographer, here together for the first time.

The Terror
By Dan Simmons

If a book has hypothermia, cannibalism, or sailing in it, I’m probably going to be interested — combine all three, and I will read a 600-page book in one sitting, as I did with The Terror. The novel recreates Captain Franklin’s lost expedition in 1845 to find the Northwest Passage. Both of his ships, The Terror and The Erebus, are trapped in ice and eventually sink, while the captain and crew have to survive the cold, botulism from cheap canned food, and a mystical polar bear that stalks them. Simmons smoothly interweaves a historical recreation with memorable details and characters, while building a supernatural menace that lurks out on the ice. In the end, though, the threat that the men pose each other is as great as that of the cold spirits of the North.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
By Avi

This was probably the first novel I ever read about ships and the sea, and I read it until it fell apart. Geared toward eight-to-twelve-year-olds, this book is still wonderful for all ages, telling the story of the young Charlotte Doyle, sent from England in 1832 to rejoin her family in the United States. She is meant to travel with a family that will chaperon her but finds herself the only passenger on a ship captained by a man whose mistreatment of his crew soon sparks a mutiny. Charlotte must make herself into a sailor and clear herself of a murder charge before the voyage is over. Charlotte is a wonderful protagonist, with a good heart but much to learn. If you ever fantasized about running away to sea, this is the book for you.

 

The Scar
By China Miéville

In China Miéville’s strange world of Bas Lag, Bellis Coldwine is a linguist whose part in a revolutionary plot condemns her to transportation to a prison colony. But her ship is captured by the Armada, a floating pirate city. As the Armada chases the Godwhale, an enormous creature that will give them speed, Bellis must understand their true goals and navigate the strange world of the Armada. Miéville’s fantasy is like no other, bringing the reader into a world of horrifying grotesqueries and astonishing beauty.

 

 

Colony
By Anne Rivers Siddons

No list of books about the sea is complete without a beach read and Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons is the type of long book you can get lost in. Spanning nearly seventy years, it tells the story of Maude Chambliss, a wild southern girl who marries into a blue-blooded New England family and spends her summers at Retreat vacation colony on Cape Rosier in northern Maine. While fighting for her family’s survival against the mental illness that runs in their blood, she learns to love the rugged Maine landscape. The sea takes her loved ones from her and gives her back herself. The descriptions of harsh and beautiful landscapes make this a book you’ll want to move into.

The post Great Reading on the High Seas: Linnea Hartsuyker appeared first on The Barnes & Noble Review.

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Teju Cole: At the Border of the Visible

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Conceived after Teju Cole suffered an attack of papillophlebitis, or “big blind spot syndrome,” in 2011, “Blind Spot” and its companion volume of the same title complete what he calls “a quartet about the limits of vision.” It combines the omnivorous erudition of his 2016 essay collection Known and Strange Things with the associative structure of Every Day is for the Thief (2007) and Open City (2011), peripatetic novels set, respectively, in Lagos and New York. The show is a record of Cole’s extensive travels between 2011 and 2017, but it is less concerned with his own itinerary than with the paths of others.

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Here’s how Tesla’s Model 3 stacks up against the…

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