Christmas fruitcakes have been baked for centuries with the oldest known method dating back to old Rome. Fruitcakes were a way to sustain fruits and nuts as well as a way to celebrate the harvest and seek good luck in the advent year. Jamaicans beloved Christmas cake is dark, spongy and heavy, with rum soaked fruit and rich flavor. Eaten only at Christmas the cake is a favored gift and house tradition.
Ingredients:
* 1 lb. Raisins
* 4 oz. Cherries
* ½ lb. Chopped prunes
* 2 oz. Cranberries
* 32 oz. Dark Jamaican rum
* 4 oz. Citrus peels
* grated rind of 1 lime
* 6 oz. Or 1.5 cup flour
* 8 oz. Butter
* 8 oz. Sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1 tsp. Cinnamon
* ½ tsp. Allspice
* ½ tsp. Ground cloves
* ½ tsp. Salt
* 1 cup wine/brandy
* 1 tsp. Baking powder
* 1 tsp. Vanilla
* 2 tbsp. Browning
Directions:
Soak fruits, peels and rind in rum for two weeks before baking. In a isolate bowl whip butter, sugar and browning until creamy. combine dry ingredients in isolate bowl and mix well. In a third bowl beat eggs and brandy together until well blended.
Add egg composition to creamed butter composition and blend well. Strain and add fruits, retention rum for fruity drinks. slowly mix dry ingredients to batter and fold together.
Pour batter into a lightly buttered 9" cake pan and bake at 350F for 1-½ hours checking after 1 hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
original Jamaican Christmas CakeCompiling a list of the history's ten best writers is like skating on a heated swimming pool. Just when you get started, you find yourself in hot water.
The reckon is: writing's completely subjective. What interests you may not interest me. We all read for separate reasons.
But, here - in no particular order -- is another list of the world's top wordsmiths:
1. Aesop - nearby 600 B.C. This Greek slave began to relate fables from nearby the world. His stories - like the one about the tortoise and hare - gave animals human qualities, and graphic primary life lessons.
2. Aristophanes - Reportedly the first comedy writer, back in 400 B.C. He combined plays with song and repetition to supply entertainment for antique Greeks.
3. Socrates - A contemporary of Aristophanes, he was likely history's first "self-help" writer. He taught citizen to seek greatest truths by questioning conventional wisdom and examining their own beliefs. He said folks shouldn't accept opinion as fact.
4. Sophocles - another guy with no last name. He created plays that usually centered on a particular heroic character who chose an unpopular procedure of action.
5. William Shakespeare - This brilliant author's plays and phrases will live forever. If historians ever prove a theory that he was a composite of three dramatists, the list of "top ten" authors will immediately enlarge to 12.
6. Benjamin Franklin - This multi-talented American championed succinct writing, and his epigrams became part of our national heritage. Ben warned, "He that speaks much is much mistaken."
7. Abraham Lincoln - Sure, he nearly always heads the list of "best Presidents." But this Illinois native crafted some of this country's finest speeches, together with the Gettysburg Address.
8. Mark Twain - He's been called America's finest author because he wrote in American dialect, using phrases and speech unique to the United States. He punctured pompous prose, and laced his stories with regional references.
9. Winston Churchill/Franklin Roosevelt - These Allied leaders led their countries straight through World War Ii, and their vivid words inspired millions.
10. You or me? - Who knows? There's an old saying that "there's always room at the top." Good writing can change minds, and great writing can change the world.
10 Best Writers Who Ever LivedWhy do we resist change?
As the saying goes, the only population who like convert are busy cashiers and wet babies. We find convert disorienting, creating within us an anxiety similar to culture shock, the unease visitors to an alien land feel because of the absence of the familiar cues they took for granted back home. With an established routine, we don't have to think! And thinking is hard work.
Change is a firm fact of life
Is your firm is currently undergoing major changes that will affect the lives of all of its employees? These changes are probably in response to the evolving needs of your customers. They are made potential because of improvements in telecommunications and digital technology. They are likely guided by proper principles and practices of total quality management. And you can expect that they will supervene in critical improvements profitability--a success that all employees will share. Because our customers' needs are Now, we must make changes swiftly, which means that all of us must cooperate with the changes, rather than resist them.
How do we resist change?
We tend to retort to convert the same way we retort to whatever we realize as a threat: by flight or fight. Our first reaction is flight--we try to avoid convert if we can. We do what futurist Faith Popcorn calls "cocooning": we seal ourselves off from those nearby us and try to ignore what is happening. This can happen in the workplace just by being passive. We don't volunteer for teams or committees; we don't make suggestions, ask questions, or offer constructive criticism. But the changes ahead are inescapable. Those who "cocoon" themselves will be left behind.
Even worse is to fight, to actively resist change. Resistance tactics might contain negativity, destructive criticism, and even sabotage. If this seldom happens at your company, you are fortunate.
Take a dissimilar coming to change
Rejecting both alternatives of flight or flight, we seek a best option--one that neither avoids convert nor resists it, but harnesses and guides it.
Change can be the means to your goals, not a fence to them.
Both fight and flight are reactions to perceiving convert as a threat. But if we can convert our perceptions, we can avoid those reactions. An old proverb goes, "Every convert brings an opportunity." In other words, we must learn to see convert as a means of achieving our goals, not a fence preventing us from reaching them.
Another way of expressing the same idea is: A convert in my external circumstances provides me with an opening to grow as a human being. The greater the convert is, the greater and faster I can grow. If we can realize convert along these lines, we will find it spicy and energizing, rather than depressing and debilitating.
Yet this restructuring of our perspective on convert can take some time. In fact, coping with convert follows the same steps as the grieving process.1 The steps are shock and denial that the old habit must be left behind, then anger that convert is inevitable, then despair and a longing for the old ways, finally replaced by acceptance of the new and a brighter view of the future. Everybody works through this process; for some, the transition is lightning fast, for others painfully slow.
Realize your capacity to adapt.
As one writer put it recently:
Our foreparents lived through sea changes, upheavals so cataclysmic, so devastating we may never appreciate the fortitude and resilience required to survive them. The next time you feel resistant, think about them and about what they faced--and about what they fashioned from a fraction of the options we have. They blended old and new worlds, creating family, language, cuisine and new life-affirming rhythms, and they encouraged their children to keep on stepping toward an unknown but malleable future.2
Human beings are created remarkably flexible, capable of adapting to a wide collection of environments and situations. Realizing this can help you to embrace and guide convert rather than resisting or avoiding it.
Develop a coping strategy based on who you are.
Corporate employees typically supervene one of four decision-making styles: analytical, directive, conceptual, and behavioral. These four styles, described in a book by Alan J. Rowe and Richard O. Mason,3 have the following characteristics:
Analytical Style - technical, logical, careful, methodical, needs much data, likes order, enjoys problem-solving, enjoys structure, enjoys scientific study, and enjoys working alone.
Conceptual Style - creative and artistic, hereafter oriented, likes to brainstorm, wants independence, uses judgment, optimistic, uses ideas vs. Data, looks at the big picture, rebellious and opinionated, and committed to principles or a vision.
Behavioral Style - supportive of others, empathetic, wants affiliation, nurtures others, communicates easily, uses instinct, avoids stress, avoids conflict, relies on feelings instead of data, and enjoys team/group efforts.
Directive Style - aggressive, acts rapidly, takes charge, persuasive and/or is manipulative, uses rules, needs power/status, impatient, productive, single-minded, and enjoys private achievements.
Read once more through these descriptions and recognize which style best describes you. Then find and study the strategy population who share your style supervene to cope with change:
Analytical coping strategy - You see convert as a spicy puzzle to be solved. You need fullness of time to fetch information, analyze data, and draw conclusions. You will resist convert if you are not given sufficient time to think it through. Conceptual coping strategy - You are interested in how convert fits into the big picture. You want to be complicated in defining what needs to convert and why. You will resist convert if you feel excluded from participating in the convert process. Behavioral coping strategy - You want to know how Everybody feels about the changes ahead. You work best when you know that the whole group is supportive of each other and that Everybody champions the convert process. If the convert adversely affects person in the group, you will realize convert as a crisis. Directive coping strategy - You want specifics on how the convert will affect you and what your own role will be during the convert process. If you know the rules of the convert process and the desired outcome, you will act rapidly and aggressively to perform convert goals. You resist convert if the rules or expected results are not clearly defined.
Realizing what our general decision-making style is, can enable us to establish personal change-coping tactics.
How can we cope with change?
Getting at least this much insight of the big picture will help us to understand where each of us fits.
2. Do some anchoring. - When everything nearby you is in a state of flux, it sure helps to find something stable that isn't going to change, no matter what. Your company's values (whether articulated or not) can supply that kind of stability for you. Ours contain the firm Family, Focus on the Customer, Be Committed to Quality, and allege Mutual Respect. These values are rock-solid; they are not going to disappear or rearrange themselves into something else. Plus, each of us has personal values that perhaps are even more critical and permanent. Such immovables can serve as anchors to help us ride out the storm.
3. Keep your expectations realistic. - A big part of taking control of the convert you touch is to set your expectations. You can still allege an optimistic outlook, but aim for what is realistically attainable. That way, the negatives that come along won't be so overwhelming, and the positives will be an adrenaline rush. Here are some examples:
Invest time and power in training. Edge your skills so that you can meet the challenges ahead with confidence. If the training you need is not ready through Bowne, get it somewhere else, such as the society college or adult study agenda in your area.
Get help when you need it. If you are confused or overwhelmed with the changes swirling nearby you, ask for help. Your supervisor, manager, or coworkers may be able to support you in adjusting to the changes taking place. Your human resources group and any company-provided counseling services are other resources ready to you.
Make sure the convert does not compromise either your firm values or your personal ones. If you are not careful, the technological advances jostling each other for your concentration and adoption will tend to cut off you from personal touch with your coworkers and customers. E-mail, teleconference, voice-mail, and Intranet can make us more in touch with each other, or they can keep us antiseptically detached, removed from an awareness that the digital signals we are sending reach and affect an additional one flesh-and-blood human being.
Aware of this tendency, we must actively counteract the drift in this direction by taking an interest in population and opening up ourselves to them in return. We have to remember to spend in people--all of those nearby us--not just in technology.
The "new normalcy"
Ultimately, we may seek that the current state of flux is permanent. After the events of September 11, Vice President Richard Cheney said we should accept the many resultant changes in daily life as permanent rather than temporary. "Think of them," he recommended, "as the 'new normalcy.'"
You should take the same coming to the changes happening at your workplace. These are not temporary adjustments until things get "back to normal." They are probably the "new normalcy" of your life as a company. The sooner you can accept that these changes are permanent, the best you can cope with them all--and enjoy their determined results.
Notes
1. Nancy J. Barger and Linda K. Kirby, The Challenge of convert in Organizations: Helping Employees Thrive in the New Frontier (Palo Alto, Ca: Davies-Black Publ., 1995). This source is summarized in Mary M. Witherspoon, "Coping with Change," Women in firm 52, 3 (May/June 2000): 22-25.
2. Susan Taylor, "Embracing Change," Essence (Feb. 2002): 5.
3. Alan J. Rowe and Richard O. Mason, Managing with Style: A Guide to Understanding, Assessing and improving Decision-Making (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass administration Series, 1987) cited in Witherspoon, "Coping with Change."
4. Emily Friedman, "Creature Comforts," condition Forum Journal 42, 3 (May/June 1999): 8-11. Futurist John Naisbitt has addressed this tendency in his book, High tech/high touch: Technology and our crusade for meaning (New York: Random House, 1999). Naisbitt co-wrote this book with his daughter Nana Naisbitt and Douglas Philips.
Coping with Change: produce Your Personal StrategyOne of the best decisions I ever made in my 62 years of life on this planet was to become my own boss in a field that is never dull, always challenging, and intrinsically interesting. It was not an early decision. In fact it did not occur to me to enter this field until after I'd already spent ten years as a pro photographer. It came about in an odd way, as many serendipitous things do. But regardless of how it came to be, I think that decision the one that paved the way for me to spend the rest of my working life in relax and with a good portion of security.
I've since discovered that many people corollary a similar course, turning to locksmithing only after seeing themselves unhappy in other jobs. I'm not sure how or why so many survey this single business when seeing for an spicy career. In my case it was a natural progression from a rather unique part-time work I had fashioned for myself: That of installing straightforward door viewers and doing this door to door. Many times my customers would ask if I could install deadbolts for them while I was at it, and after turning down money a dozen or so times I finally got wise and visited a local locksmith victualer who sold me an install kit and a book of instructions. From what I can tell, others come across this idea by doing Internet searches for home businesses, because finally this qualifies as such if you, like I do, run it out of your home and structure it as a Sole Proprietorship. In any case, it is inescapable that locksmithing has become a popular selection for a opportunity at self-employment.
After tiring of door to door selling (which didn't take long to do) I hit upon the idea of cold calling. I was still mental too small, but at the time I didn't know it. Part amount One: Don't do this. I was doing it back in 1981 or so when the stigma attached to such endeavors wasn't quite so strong. I'm afraid that calling people out of the phone book and asking if they'd like to have deadbolts installed just would not fly in the gift era of terrorism and business rip-offs.
Still, I owe to this duration of hard knocks a good deal. I became efficient at installing locks, rekeying locks, and duplicating keys. It was during this one year duration that I scrounged together enough money to purchase a small key duplicator and also a lock rekeying kit. I carried these items in the trunk of my car and carried them into my customer's home when needed. I also purchased some boxes of the most base domestic key blanks and by the time I'd accumulated all this stuff my car's trunk was crammed and I was wishing for more room. Also, and most important, I came to realize that driving nearby in an unmarked car and working out of the trunk was not lending itself well to my credibility.
Lesson amount Two: Start out with credibility. purchase a small work van, or a large one if you can afford it. Buy signs or have signs painted on it. Use anyone lending power you have, may it be with banks or with family, to locate a used car and have signage made up, even if this is in the form of magnetic signs. Of procedure all this suggests you start out as a legitimate business, and this is just my point. Create a name for your business (think long and hard about this, as you'll lose any credibility you might initially gain if you keep changing it), have signs and forms and letterheads made up, and dive in.
There is, too, the examine of legality. This is a hard subject to field, because the legality of doing business from one jurisdiction to an additional one can differ widely, and even wildly. It is incumbent upon you to do the study and settle whether or not your jurisdiction requires a locksmith be certified, bonded, and/or licensed. You'll roughly absolutely survey that licensing is the fundamental hurdle, and that is normally taken care of with the signing of a few forms and the payment of a small annual fee. Certification is something else. Not all jurisdictions want this. In my case I found that the state in which I was then living -- Utah -- did not want it. Nor was I required to be bonded, though I chose to do so for the added safety (it is widely and incorrectly understanding that bonding protects the locksmith's customer, whereas in fact it is the locksmith that is protected by the bond).
Lesson amount Three: Do the homework required to settle if acquiring a business license is all that is needed to develop your locksmith service. One phone call to your state's Attorney general office will likely retort that question.
Once you have lined up an affordable car and put a reasonably pro sign on it, you must begin outfitting it. This should, and must, be done before you begin advertising your services because if you are like I was at this point you know next to nothing about the business and not much more about the work. We will effort at this point to educate ourselves. Locksmithing is in point of fact one of the few professions left in this world in which a formal study is absolutely Unnecessary. I have spoken to very few professionals during my work who got to be that way through going to a 'locksmith school' or a college. This is absolutely not to say that a formal study isn't desirable. If you can afford it, if you have the means, then by all means take that route. This report is for those of you who can't.
The car you purchase will in large part settle how it is to be equipped. I've always favorite a full-size van (I've owned Ford, Chevy and Gmc models during my career), but there are many locksmiths who just love the Astro Van or Safari Van made by Gm. These minivans are popular with many distinct professions and are ubiquitous. You can absolutely find one in your price range. whether way, the first order of business is to erect a work bench that will give you as much space as possible. Best to have the bench on one side of the van and leave the opposite side for shelves or storage bins. Make it sturdy! There is nothing worse than a wobbly bench when you're trying to rekey locks. Make it level for the same reason.
You'll need a power source. It is excusable to string postponement cords until you can afford something better, but bear in mind that this detracts from your professionalism. The greatest is probably having a RediLine Generator that runs off your van's 12V power. This is not a power inverter, it is absolutely a generator and it kicks out 110-115V power. They are astonishing sources of Ac power and you can even run a bank of flourescent lamps off one of these for your interior shop lighting. There are some models to select from with varying outputs, but they are expensive. If you can locate a rebuilt, so much the better. A good inverter might do the trick if you can't afford a RediLine, but be careful. Some key machines (and you're going to have to have one) will not run with an inverter.
Power now available, you need to start out with at least a key duplicator on your bench and preferably, as well, a good code cutting machine. The latter is desirable but not indispensable in the beginning unless you plan to start directly into automotive locksmithing, in which case you'll find it hard to get along without one. We'll touch on that in a moment. Key machines are roughly impossible to find used. You'll likely end up buying a small Hpc Speedex because they're pretty much the least expensive good key duplicator around. Expect to pay nearby 0. Best if you comprise this in your first loan. A key duplicator is bread and butter for any locksmith, movable or otherwise, so don't even think about beginning up until you have one.
Equip yourself with a good rekeying kit. I've always favorite 'universal' kits because they do the work of dozens of other keyway-specific kits and they are easy to use. Lab makes the best of these, hands down. If you have the space, try to get a metal first-rate Kit. If you don't, you can start out with one of Lab's Mini-Durex kits or, better, the little version of the Universal Kit (Lmk-005 or Lmk-003). You plainly can't rekey locks without one, and if you get a Universal you won't be confined to keying up one or two brands . . . You'll be able to handle them all. Don't know how to rekey locks? Pick up an study manual on the Internet or at Amazon.com. They are ready and this is one of the quickest locksmith skills to pick up. While you're at it, buy at least one plug follower, a pair of pin tweezers, and ideally a pair of TruArc pliers. Over time you'll collect more rekeying tools but these fundamentals are nearly essential.
Even before I was production money rekeying locks, I was being called to open cars. If you intend to advertise yourself as an urgency service, you're going to have to take in this kind of lucrative work. Let me tell you now, this will be the easiest money you've ever made. It is well worth studying the skills required to open vehicles even if it means spending a incorporate of hundred dollars on tools and a good manual. Lockouts, at least in my case, virtually supported me for years. If you live in a medium to large city, count on getting lockout calls day and night even if you have only a tiny ad somewhere (a subject for later). There are many good lockout kits ready online, to suit any budget, and the same goes for lockout manuals. Do a Google hunt for 'car opportunity tools' or 'lockout tools' and you'll have no issue seeing suppliers. Are they legal where you live? Again . . . This is up to you to determine. The victualer cannot and will not effort to police this aspect of marketing, as it is plainly not possible. I'm not advocating the purchase of anyone that is not legal where you reside!
House and business lockouts are likewise lucrative sources of income for the locksmith, but these want distinct skills, distinct tools. Here is where it becomes indispensable to learn the skill of lock picking -- probably the most fundamental skill of the trade. It is not as easy to learn as car opportunity and lock rekeying, but it is by no means difficult, either. It requires institution and patience, and it requires good tools. Do not get stingy here. There are lots of cheap lock picking tools for sale. You'll find them in automotive magazines, even. Stick with tools from the established firms like Hpc, SouthOrd, Lockmasters, etc. purchase a beginner's set with a few picks and one or two tension tools for start, unless you have a big budget, then go for a set that will last you a while. selection of spring steel or stainless steel is largely a matter of personal choice. Whichever one you start out with will likely be the kind you'll stay with, because you'll form an attachment to that type and you'll train yourself to make the best of it. More prominent is the understanding of practice. Buy institution Locks. Once you've picked all the locks in your home you're going to need more challenges, and now that institution Locks are an appropriate training aid in this field you'd do well to pick up a few of them. institution until you can repeatedly pick the most spicy of your institution Locks and then institution some more.
Did I mention that servicing lockouts will likely be the single most lucrative service you offer your customers? I understanding so. Good!
There are other aspects to providing a locksmith service and among these is the quality to install locksets on homes and businesses. Primarily you'll be asked to install deadbolts, but later on, as your business gets bigger, you'll want to offer commercial business and real estate fellowships the selection of replacing all their old lock hardware for newer more collect hardware. Again, institution is called for and you should be prepared to install a few unnecessary deadbolts and knobsets on doors in your own home that don't need them. After doing this a dozen or so times, it will be easy to go to that first factory with confidence. You'll need to add a few indispensable tools to your toolbox, such as a 1/2 inch drill, a incorporate of hole saws (2-1/8 inch and 1-inch), a 1/2 inch boring bit, and a good wood chisel. With these tools, you can install deadbolts in metal or wood doors. Unblemished factory kits are ready and are the best selection if you can work them into your budget. Need instruction? Books galore ready on Amazon.com or at any large scale bookstore in your city.
Once you've accumulated car and the tools, and some knowledge gleaned from institution and reading, you can start mental about getting your feet wet. The best way to start is the old fashioned way and that is to appeal to house and friends for work and for referrals. Network. Talk to everybody you know and let them know you're serious about this and that you are available. Step two is to advertise and this is absolutely necessary, even if you start out only as a listing in the Yellow Pages. This is where 99% of the people who need a locksmith will look. Newspaper ads, flyers (Yucchhh!), direct mail and radio ads don't work for locksmiths unless you have one ample budget. Try to illustrate a small one-eight or one-quarter page Yellow Page ad if at all possible. Even in the face of huge competition, you will get calls and over time your name will be spread around, if you do a good job. Well, it will get spread nearby if you don't, as well, but you'd do well to avoid that.
That's how I did it. That's how thousands of others have done it, give or take a detail or two. Be sure to cover the legal bases, because if you jump into it and find later that you're acting exterior the law, don't come to me! This is part of your research. It is not that difficult to collect a certification and satisfy local laws that may pertain to this business. If you keep the business small, and utter yourself as a sole owner, you're going to be profiting right off the bat because overhead with a movable service is nil.
It's within your reach whether you're 18 or 58.
starting a mobile Locksmith business