Don’t I look fantastic?

How’s dinner sounding now?

Have fun catching me to serve for dinner.

You better catch me before I catch you, I just might want to make you my dinner.

All in all, it’d be an interesting dinner for someone or something.

Ah, chocolate! So many different kinds to choose from, and all of it delicious! But where did it originate – and is it really an aphrodisiac?

The average American consumes 11.7 pounds of chocolate a year. To get an idea of how much – imagine almost 12 packages of butter as being made of solid chocolate – or about the size of your average well-fed house cat. That is a lot of chocolate! (And it won’t stop meowing for some reason.)

The treat so loved worldwide has very humble beginnings. The cacao bean begins life inside a fruit, called a pod, on a tree in the tropics, primarily in remote areas of West Africa, Southeast Asia and Central and South America.

These delicate, flower-covered trees need much tending and, when farmed using sustainable methods, grow in harmony in tropical forests beneath other cash crops such as bananas, rubber or hardwood trees. Grown on small family farms, the beans leave cocoa farms by hand, in carts, on donkeys or rugged trucks to be sold to a local buyer and then to processors abroad. Once in the factory, they are ground, pressed, heated and stirred to create luxurious chocolate.

3,000 years ago, the ancient Meso Americans discovered the seeds which would be processed into what we now know as chocolate on the cacao tree, found in the tropical rainforests of the Americas. They mixed the ground seeds with seasonings back then, to make what they believed to be a health elixir – a bitter, spicy drink that could be considered the World’s first Cocoa drink.

The pods that the cacao seeds grew in were considered by the Mayans to symbolize life and fertility, and so the Mayans often used the symbol of the pod in their religious rituals. They called cacao “The Food of the Gods”. The Aztecs also believed the plant had magic properties, and that it could bestow wisdom and power. They also thought it to be a great source of nutrition – and most interestingly, used it as an aphrodisiac, which today’s science says isn’t so far off!

The Spaniards were the first to introduce sugar to chocolate – and thank goodness they did, or else we wouldn’t be enjoying all of the sweet confections available to us in the present. They also added new spices to the health elixir the Mayans and Aztecs enjoyed, and the modified beverage quickly spread throughout Europe like wildfire, enjoying a reputation as “the drink of the elite” for centuries.

Leave it to the French, however, to further the food’s reputation as an aphrodisiac! Casanova – the infamous womanizer – drank chocolate before seeing his lady friends, and as word of his romantic prowess spread, so did the romantic reputation of chocolate, inspiring much erotic art and literature in the French royal court.

In Barcelona in 1780, finally the first machine-produced chocolate was made. It was still in liquid form, however; smooth, solid eating chocolate would not be available until British chocolatier Fry & Sons developed the first solid chocolate bar in the early 1800s.

So when did Valentines Day chocolates begin to become a tradition? Richard Cadbury, founder of Cadbury Chocolate, introduced the first box of Valentine chocolates in 1868. However, the chocolates must have been dark, because the first milk chocolate was not brought to market until 1875, when a Swiss chocolate maker named Daniel Peter introduced it.

Chocolate became so popular around the world that during World War II, the U.S. government shipped cocoa beans to the troops. Even today, the U.S. Army includes chocolate bars in their rations. Chocolate has even been taken into space by NASA.

So is chocolate an aphrodisiac? Chocolate contains a small amount of phenylethylamine, which has been linked to the regulation of physical energy, mood and attention. A tiny amount of this chemical is released during moments of emotional euphoria, elevating heart rate and blood pressure. There’s no evidence that this chemical in foods elevates the level of the chemical in humans – however, the extra dopamine boost that you get from the caffeine and sugar in chocolate, combined from the happiness of eating such a yummy treat, might put you in a better frame of mind, which can only be a good thing when it comes to romance! Also, some scientists have said that chocolate causes the release of oxytocin, aka “the love chemical”, which causes us to bond with one another. Final analysis? It never hurts to believe!

And it can even help, if it gets you to eat a little chocolate: Dark chocolate (as opposed to milk or white chocolate) contains healthful flavonoids similar to those found in tea, red wine, fruits, and vegetables. Studies have shown that dark chocolate can improve blood vessel flow and may improve blood sugar and insulin sensitivity to help reduce the risk of diabetes. But beware, chocolate candy has plenty of saturated fat and sugar, so enjoy small portions of as part of a healthy diet.

If you do happen to overindulge, just remember, these “Chocolate holidays” only come a few times a year, so just get back to your healthful eating plan as soon as possible – and take a nice, long walk outside to get your motivation and energy back in line. That always does a body good!

Tour a Chocolate Factory in San Francisco (video – RealPlayer required)

Thanksgiving follows this parade and then the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday. Downtown is perfect for shopping. Not only is it decorated with holiday cheer and shopping center banners promoting sales, but you can find all kinds of specialty shops. You will be able to purchase a ton of great gifts while shopping in Downtown Kalamazoo.

Another event residents can attend each holiday season is the tree-lighting ceremony at Bronson Park. Those who enjoy frugal living will enjoy this product as it is free to attend and its a great way to experience the Christmas experience with your community. Each year the park is adorned with giant candy canes and Christmas lights everywhere. Each individual tree is decorated. It truly is a beautiful sight.

One other fun part about the holidays in this city is the Holly Jolly Trolley. This is a shuttle service downtown that is free. The trolley itself wears a wreath and in previous years, Christmas lights as well. People use this service to shuttle around while shopping or simply touring the city.

The conclusion of holiday events in Kalamazoo is the annual fireworks show. Each year on New Year’s Eve, you can witness an elaborate display of fireworks over Bronson Park. It is a great way to bring in the New Year.

The holiday season in Kalamazoo truly stands out. There are fun, festive activities throughout November and December. Each year I look forward to experiencing the holidays in this city with all the other locals.

Writing can be passion for many people who share their experiences on various subjects they encounter every day. I have seen few people focus on a specific topic they are most interested in; on the other hand, other do write on a various types of topics depending on their knowledge and the sources they find on Internet or through a common understanding of the trending topics. However, in both cases most people publish their articles on the Web to make good money through increased traffic to their articles. Unless one has a typical passion to be engaged by just writing anything, most people do write on various topics to ensure that they provide relevant information to the global audience and generate income based on the page views.

Now, while doing this, a suitable niche is of primary importance. Isn’t so? Well, I strongly believe that one who cares to write for a cause not limited to simply earning money can take up any topic that will help readers in some way or the other. But hitting the right niche at the right time is quite important in today’s demanding scenario. By saying “demanding scenario” I mean people search for one or more topics very often for a particular time only. However, they are other topics that run through the search engines throughout the year. Let me make a few things clear here about choosing a suitable niche.

Specific occasions in a year

In an entire year, we come across various occasion, including New Year, Christmas, Thanksgiving Day, Birthdays, Marriage, and so on. Now, if you have been writing fairly well all through the year on various topics, try choosing a niche depending on the occasion. Say you write some fifty odd articles on Christmas celebrations, Christmas gifts, Christmas decorations, etc. During the month of December, these topics are most likely to be searched over the Internet by maximum number of people. Not only your articles will provide useful information about various activities during Christmas, it will generate good revenue for you as your article pages will hit the maximum number of times. Needless to mention that your articles needs to be keyword oriented, well written, informative, and appealing to generate the traffic you might be targeting at.

Same is the case with every occasion in the year. Be it a New Year celebration or Thanksgiving day, your articles can be on these topics to generate the maximum page views if you post your articles during the celebration timeframe.  I have experienced that a few of my articles on New Year Party ideas got good traffic in December and the first half of January. But the traffic and page view reduced like anything in the month of March and April. Believe, that is a common trend and quite inevitable.

Current affairs and everyday news

Well, if you are a hardcore writer who writes articles every day, occasions can limit your passion. Then it becomes vital to choose good niches that are very demanding. Current affairs and everyday news on various national and international issues are something people search over the Internet everyday without fail. So, it is one good – rather great – opportunity to share your views on the everyday topics through your articles. With this, you can trigger a thought in every reader’s mind and continue to have discussions to share your opinions and gather others’ understanding. This is definitely one more way of creating maximum number of traffic to your articles as people in such cases will share your articles to multiple people for sharing knowledge, initiating a discussion, and talking over a debate. So, keep yourself updated about the current topics and news that people find interesting to know about.

Common and informative niches

Besides the above two categories, there are various other niches that are common to everyone. People look for information about many things including health, fitness, beauty, etc. Now, here you may have to consider your expertise in choosing a niche to write articles on because every topic may not be your cup of tea, unless you have sufficient knowledge or do a good research on a particular niche that you are new to. So, before trying out on every niche that comes to your mind, it might be good to stick to a couple of niches here that you have interest in. You may like to write on “making money online” and “real estate investment opportunities”. This way, you are likely to write good and informative articles that can build a sound reputation about you through the information you share with others. Moreover, such articles are searched all through the year without any time dependencies. So, you can generate good traffic everyday through such common and information niches.

Product-based niches

This is one of the most popular and difficult niches I believe. There are numerous products in the market that are highly in demand. People make their best effort to find all possible information about a product before they purchase one. Now being a writer, one cannot just pick up any product and start writing unless you have sound knowledge about a product’s features, its functions, and its advantages and disadvantages. Be it a health-related product like herbal medicines, sports-related product like sports drinks or sports T-shirts, or a device like a trendy Smartphone, you must be equipped with sufficient product knowledge. Choosing a niche in this category might be quite critical. If you have been keen on electronic gadgets and mobile devices, you better not choose a medicine niche to write on “advantages and disadvantages of Aleo vera”. I am not saying you cannot choose to writing about the medicine, all you need is good knowledge. It is important that you provide accurate information about any product you are writing about. So, all I can say is, choose your product niche sensibly.

How to do… niches

This one is my favorite. Again, the How to do… topics are always informative and interesting. The best part of such niches is that you can think of very simple topics that everyone would be interested in knowing. Most of us might be having Google plus, Facebook, or Orkut accounts. No one among us might have ever felt the need for deleting one of these accounts since we might not be using one very often. One fine day you plan to delete one of your accounts, say Google plus. You will be keen to know how to delete the account, what happens to all the images and videos you having in your account, and so on. Wonder, a simple How to do… article on such topics can be very important for readers. Not just these, there can be many such articles where you can help people understand and follow some simple steps to perform an activity, such as “How to clean your car interiors?”, “How to prepare for an interview?”, “How to maintain a healthy diet?” and many more.

Conclusion

Choosing a suitable niche is very important as you build a good rapport among your audience. The more your articles are informative and oriented towards the demands of readers, the more you can drive traffic to your web pages and articles. Your selection of niches would of course depend on your knowledge about specific areas, but it is worth attempting to gather sufficient knowledge on occasional niches, trending topics, current affairs and news, and so on. 

There is actually nothing incorrect with taking a look at certain possibilities as time for you to start an exercise routine. The new start of the new 12 months, the day time after your own big Thanksgiving holiday feast, or your day you commemorate a birthday celebration… no issue what the actual occasion, it is usually a good time for you to begin exercising.

The issue isn’t within when you choose to start exercising. It’s when your heart isn’t really inside it. Because it does not matter how “perfect” the actual timing is actually… if your heart isn’t genuinely engaged for making changes, it’s not going to happen.

Good motives really won’t enable you to get anywhere. You might have all the actual intentions on the planet to start exercising after Thanksgiving holiday. But they’ll quickly vanish when you realize just how much hard function and work is included. What a person thought inside your mind was an excellent idea has now converted into simply a discomfort in the-you-know-what.

So the truth is it’s truly pointless to make use of these “special” occasions like a reason to start exercising. No day is really magical it will all of a sudden create wholesome habits. Those may only end up being developed once they come out of your heart.

I detest seeming like a downer… but I do not have an answer for you personally, as much as ways to get the idea of exercising from inside your mind to your heart. I cannot move this there. I cannot change your heart. I will only let you know the advantages and attempt to encourage. But you need to be the one that is prepared to embrace this, with all your heart.

For those who have had achievement in obtaining the idea of exercising from your face to your heart, make sure you share.

It sounds like a logical thing that every one does but they don’t. Right now i am filled with excitement even though realistically nothing out of the ordinary is going to happen. If i believe that more good stuff is coming, then it will. I have my little grand daughter here today and listening to her stories and her innocence is brightening my heart. I couldn’t be richer if i tried.

Image via Wikipedia

The results of X-ray scanning at Shreesti Institute of Medical Science and Research Centre showed a surprising result. Singh in the stomach, doctors found three pieces of keys, 431 coins, 196 metal plate and 17 screws from the metal. Through abdominal surgery, a team of doctors led by Dr. Yadav managed to remove the metals. But unfortunately, her stomach has experienced injury or chronic ulceration that his life is not hopeless shortly after surgery.

“The objects we found that much metal in the bottom of his stomach. At the beginning of the operation is not how much we thought, but it turned out very much. Already there are signs of chronic ulceration in the stomach Singh,” said Dr. Yadav as quoted from Dailymaill.

It is believed, the habit of swallowing metal objects is not known by family and even his own wife. His wife had begun to suspect after Singh had trouble sleeping the last 4 weeks and is always complaining about pain in his stomach. While the doctors expected, Singh suffered from a mental disorder schizophrenia so desperate to do things that make no sense including eating coins. In addition, Singh also allegedly suffered from eating disorder called PICA so happy to insert objects other than food into his stomach.

Sales during the long weekend increased 16 percent over last year, marking the largest amount of dollar every time beyond the period of Black Friday, the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, the NRF said . 

“Filled to the brim with holiday meals and eager to buy, more consumers than ever attended the retailers? Black Friday promotions, a promising sign for economic recovery,” said NRF President Matthew Shay. 

“After a historic weekend, retailers know the holiday season is far from over, and continue to seek ways to excite buyers of vacation and use the momentum we’ve seen so far.” 

The average buyer of holiday – 226 million of them visiting stores and websites this weekend, according to the survey of the association – past $ 398.62, compared with $ 365.34 last year. 

Consumers will likely continue the trend on Monday, known as “Cyber ​​Monday” of the discounts offered on Internet sites for retail. 

“We are anticipating a strong Cyber ​​Monday,” said NRF Vice President Ellen Davis told reporters at a press conference about the survey, which included figures for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and projected spending for Sunday. 

Research firm comScore said meanwhile that 50 million Americans visited online sites for retail on Black Friday alone, a 35 percent jump last year. Sales totaled $ 816 million, 26 percent more than last year. 

Amazon was the most visited site, followed by Wal-Mart, electronics giant Best Buy (Dusseldorf: BUY.DU – news), Target (Berlin: DYH.BE – news) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL – news), according to comScore . 

NRF Davis but warned against excessive optimism, saying that such figures were recorded on Black Friday 2008, during the recession, but then, “no one bought for the rest of the holiday season.” 

Buyers beleaguered shopping and went online to shop for bargains mass Thursday evening, overnight and through Friday – a sales annual ritual marked the beginning of the holiday shopping year end invoked by many retailers . 

The stampede of deeply discounted goods was fueled by aggressive marketing, with many stores this year, raising its sales launches to meddle in Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday, and carry out the weekend. 

The consumption binge was marred by a series of isolated incidents of violence. A woman pepper spray from other buyers in an area of ​​Los Angeles Wal-Mart, while there were several shootings in stores across the country. 

Sears opened the morning of Thanksgiving – traditionally a time when families gather for quiet meetings – and Toys “R” We opened at 9:00 pm Thursday. 

Large Wal-Mart discount rival Target upset some employees to open the doors at midnight on Thanksgiving. 

John Squire, chief strategist for IBM Smarter Commerce, said this year “marked the emergence of Thanksgiving as spending the day in first major holiday season 2011 with a record number of consumers shifting their focus from turkey tablets and the search for the best deals. “ 

The momentum, “he went on Black Friday, where the big winners were the merchants who deliver a smarter experience trading with relevant and compelling offers that people can easily access from their channel of choice,” he said. 

Neel Grover, president and CEO of Property Sale. com, which offers links to consumers at more than 4. 000 major retailers, said his company “The initial results point to a strong holiday season begins.”