Great tips before you purchase tennis shoes

A few months back I happened to meet one of my high school friend George after quite a few years at a friends party. George had an obsession with tennis and was always highly enthusiastic about the sport. He invited me over to his house for lunch the very next day where we spent some time chatting about the nostalgic high school days. Then we moved to the tennis court he had in the backyard of his house where he gave me some absolutely wonderful tips on playing the game which made me a great fan of the sport. Since then I have been sincerely following the game and all the news(http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/) related to the sport.

I often visit George to spend some quality time on the court and over the course of time I have realized that I don’t have a proper pair of shoes which can assist me to endure the frequent lateral movements, rigors, short sprints and the quick starts and stops. George suggested me to buy a pair of tennis shoes which will be perfect for the game. He gave me some wonderful tips for purchasing the most perfect and comfortable pair of shoes which will serve well while playing tennis.

Below is a brief synopsis of the tips to keep in mind before you make a purchase:

• Determine your type of foot and your shoe size accurately
• Check for lateral support
• Look for shoes which have good cushioning and shock absorption
• Scrutinize the sole construction and durability
• It is extremely important that you look for durable soles if you are going to play on hard court

I also found some great tips on the web. Some of the most popular brands for tennis are Adidas, Nike, New Balance, Asics and Converse tennis shoes. You can look out for them at your local store or many of the online portals which provide free shipping and various discounts. Please leave your comments and thoughts and if you enjoyed reading this article do share it with your friends and acquaintances.

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Photo courtesy of [faceme]

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Shopping Shoes Online Safely

Now days, more and more consumers are searching online for the products and services they need. If you are new to shopping shoes online, you will want to use caution with the companies that you choose to do business with. Experts give us recommendations when using your personal and financial information for an online transaction.

First and foremost, word of mouth, is a powerful tool. If your friends or family members have had bad experiences with online companies, you might want to research the company more carefully, or reconsider your options altogether. Secondly, more and more online business are willing to accept third party payments in which they never actually see your bank account or credit card account information. This is a very wise thing to do. There are several reputable third party payment companies, such as Paypal and 2Checkout. Just by doing this, you are almost eliminating fradulent charges to your account. Thirdly, make sure you READ everything! Know what you are getting into before submitting your order. Most companies doing business online have specific policies on returns and or refunds. And lastly, if you have to pay via your credit card and submit personal information, do so only on a secure site. Make absolutely sure that the url on the page that asks for this type of information begins with “https:”, a page that begins with “http:” is not secure, and never apply for anything via email.

These are just a few tips to ensure a safe and confidential online purchase. Above all use your common sense. If something seems odd or strange, do more investigating before buying online.

The Old Crested Butte School

This 1881 building was the second school built in Crested Butte and was located adjacent to where the Rock Schoolhouse is located today. A frame school was erected on Big Mine Hill and used during 1880-1881. The location of that building made it difficult for children in town to attend during winter. Accordingly, this frame building was constructed. When the fourth school building, a red brick structure, was being erected next to the Rock Schoolhouse, this building was moved.
The building was divided in half and sold as two houses. The other half of the school later burned. The building, in recent days, housed Phil and Lillian Hyslop’s Gifts and Things, the Western World shop, a doughnut shop, and now Alpine Outside.

Statement Of Significance:
This building is associated with the history of education in Crested Butte, Colorado, having been the second school erected in the town (in 1881). The building is representative of the small vernacular buildings erected as schoolhouses in small towns during the late nineteenth century, as reflected in the gabled roof, frame construction, tall windows, and projecting porch.
This information is part of the Crested Butte Historic Building Survey funded in part by a state historical grant awarded from the Colorado Historical Society to the Town of Crested Butte.

Just smiling for the camera

Once I saw one of those classic television narratives. A visit by the “weatherman” to a primary school where the children were very environmentally aware, were saving water, planting trees, they were the hope for the future in fact. As the story ends the photogenic “presenters” of the show turn to each other and comment, once again, as they do after every such story, how good it was that children were environmentally aware and active and what a good sign it was for the future. I bathe in the warm glow of this feel good story for a moment, and then reality swings back and hits me over the head like a dislodged truck load of pulp mill logs.

This is the same channel (along with all other major media outlets) that will treat with contempt, or refuse to show, any protest by conservationists anywhere, any time, on any issue. At the same time they will lavishly support with footage and interviews, any counter protest by mountain cattlemen, irrigators, deserted town residents, coastal developers, rice growers, hunters, four wheel drive clubs, miners, tourism operators, orchardists, freeway builders, fishermen, energy companies. It is absolutely certain that whenever an issue arises that involves a choice between destruction of some habitat, extinction of some species, pollution of some river; as against money to be made as a result of destruction, extinction, pollution, the television stations will put all of their weight on the side of the money. The only “conservation” story they will present positively is one in which a money making venture such as a zoo or wildlife park or tourist resort claims some success in captive (or indeed artificial) breeding some threatened species. This will be presented as a triumph for the environment, without any thought that the species concerned is threatened because of the destruction of habitat they may well have supported the day before, and will certainly support on the following day. And that whether there is success in breeding an animal in captivity has absolutely no relevance to maintaining the species in the wild.

So when those bright-eyed, fresh-faced, photogenic schoolchildren grow up, and attempt to act effectively on their concern for, and love of, the world they live in, they will discover that in the real world, the world of adults, the world of pragmatism, of conservatism (not conservation), that their attempts will be rendered completely ineffective by the media. And their once friendly weatherman won’t want to know them, having moved on to some more young children growing trees in the schoolyard, secure in the knowledge that photogenic kids have absolutely no power to alter anything.

Cynical? You think? Oh, you mean the media. Cynical.

The Deserted Towns

In England that Goldsmith was writing about, big landholders, through mechanisms such as enclosures, were throwing small farmers off the land . In the cities the rich were getting richer and richer, in part as a consequence of the industrial revolution which was gathering pace. The gap between rich and poor was widening as the rich got richer and the poor had been left behind – reduced to agricultural laboring or poor wages in the new factories. The backbone of old England – the yeoman farmers each with their own farm forming the support of the local village – was being rapidly lost, and the result was Goldsmith’s diagnosis that what was being lost was being lost forever, and the land would not fare well. Hard to believe that 237 years later, in the country that, unknown to Goldsmith, was being discovered as he wrote, the same pattern of events would occur with the same results. 

In Australia huge agribusinesses are rapidly replacing family farms and there are few if any opportunities for young people to continue on the land. Villages and towns in rural areas are faltering – rural populations fall and big companies (and governments) withdraw services. Deserted villages can’t be far away. Meanwhile in the cities, artificial wealth creation through property, takeovers, consolidations, outsourcing, asset stripping, and private equity piracy, all serve to make a handful of people very rich indeed. At the same time new workplace laws (mustn’t say ‘work choices’, mustn’t) ensure that wages and conditions will gradually fall for the poor all over Australia. A growing gap between rich and poor, and a growing divide between the rich of the cities and the poor of the country. How could John Howard say late last year – The country overall is still doing very well. A country in which farming is going downhill can never be ‘doing well’, no matter how rich some individuals and corporations become in the cities. 

And over the top of all that, the government’s decision to continue to support coal mining and the oil industry instead of agriculture, through its refusal to act on global warming, means that once rich farming areas are going to become uninhabitable non-farming areas within a few decades at most. Oliver Goldsmith didn’t know that the industrial revolution, getting underway and causing some of the ills he observed, would ultimately result in the global warming that now has a stranglehold on Australian farmers. ‘Ill fares the land’ indeed!