Roadturn

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It’s a Test…

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Here’s a cool tool for entrepreneurs and digital marketers in general.

Want to make sure your readers are aware of a deadline coming up?

Maybe you’re holding a webinar and want to let folks know they need to get registered ASAP.

Or maybe a product is on sale… but the price is going up soon.

Here’s one sweet little timer

For my test, it’s set to countdown to the birthday celebration for someone special (better not forget that event). You can configure it to any end date and time zone you choose.

Here’s something else I like: You can set it so that someone clicking on the timer activates a hyperlink to another page (try it and see).

Other features: You can change the color of font and background. There are a number of different timer shapes to choose from. It has a stat feature with it… there’s a whole lot to like.

How can you get it? Well… you can’t right now. It’s still in beta. As soon as it is available, though, I’ll let everyone on my email list know.

How can you be sure you’re on the list? Click on the Timer .

How long does it take to set up a timer like this? About a minute…. wow.

Love it!

The Roots of Roadturn

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The Roadturn concept began in June of 2007 — inspired by the incredible voice and story of Paul Potts, winner of the Britain’s Got Talent show that year.

I was at a place in my own life where I was beginning to doubt the possibility of my own dream. Paul’s win gave me a necessary push. I’ll never forget it or him.

Tonight, I listened to another young man sing his heart out. Once again, I was moved to tears.

Jordan Smith, I admire your ability to say, “This is who I am.”

May the Lord bless and keep you always.

An Earth Day Idea: Bring Nature Indoors

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It is an Earth Day activity that will pay off all year long: build your own terrarium. The project is relatively inexpensive, doesn’t take much time, and is a family-bonding activity anyone can enjoy. Moreover, when you bring a piece of nature inside your home or office, your living environment is positively affected. A small terrarium can significantly add to the mood of any room.

Materials needed for a terrarium

A basic terrarium can be constructed from the simplest of supplies: a suitable enclosure, moss, pea gravel, potting soil, and plants. You may also wish to include activated charcoal (for odor control) and structural props. You can get as involved as you wish, or you can keep it as easy as you wish. It’s your choice.

Follow these steps, and you will be enjoying the benefits of a home-crafted terrarium in no time.

Choose your enclosure: Clear glass is the go-to material for terrariums. It is clean, sturdy, and permits ready exposure to sunlight. You can choose a fancy design or a basic jar. Whichever end of the spectrum you gravitate towards, remember you will need to reach inside the container to arrange your indoor garden (unless you want to get tricky and use “ship in a bottle” techniques). Choose a container that offers a suitably wide access hole to make plant arrangement a breeze.

Choose your plants: The best plants for terrariums are those that won’t get too large. While you can prune the plants in your micro-world, it is time consuming and not at all necessary. Here is a short list of favorites:

  • Rex begonias (miniature)
  • Chirita
  • African violets
  • Ivies (miniature)
  • Peperomia
  • Orchids (miniature)
  • Helxine (baby’s tears)

Many more choices exist. You can even create a miniature garden scene by including accessory items designed especially for terrariums. Possibilities include baby bunnies, fairy garden benches, garden furniture sets, urns, arbors and others. Terrariums can be crafted to mimic your own outdoor space or to resemble one you’ve visited. The results can be fantastic, especially when there is help available from someone who is artistically savvy and friendly with architectural treatments.

Collect your supplies: Any garden store – or even the gardening section of a department store – should have everything you need for planting your terrarium. You should put moss down first, cover it with pebbles, add in your activated charcoal and another layer of moss, then layer in several inches of good organic potting soil. That’s all you need to get going.

Plant, dampen, and seal: While you may leave your terrarium as an open top construction, true terrariums are always completely enclosed. You should make sure the plants and soil are damp (not soaked), then close the lid. Your miniature environment will now take on a life of its own – changing the water to vapor and back to liquid and creating oxygen as a part of photosynthesis and plant respiration. It truly is an amazing sight to behold.

Make every day Earth Day in your home

Whether or not you are concerned about global warming, genetically modified plants, water pollution or any other facet of environmental health, your terrarium will be a silent witness to the process of life. Terrariums are special in a big sort of way. They remind us of how all of us are dependent upon Nature.

Singing to Her Mom: I’ll Always Love You

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JUST WHEN YOU THINK you’ve heard it all, along comes someone who will blow you away. And that’s the case with Ashly Williams and her rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” on X Factor 2013.

What can you say?

Incredible.

Cleaning Up the Gyres in the Plastic Age

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IF THE INCREDIBLE drive and tenacity of Ryan Page isn’t enough to restore your hope in humanity, consider the beyond-his-years ambition of teenage inventor, Boyan Slat.

Boyan says the oceans can be cleared of plastic waste in five years — if we come together to fix the vast pollution problem WE created. And he has formed the Ocean Cleanup Foundation to get the work done.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Boyan’s presentation at TEDxDelft:

  • Once there was a stone age, a bronze age, and now we are in the middle of the plastic age
  • Use your list of concerns as challenges
  • Of course, we didn’t quit there
  • I believe the great Pacific garbage patch can clean itself in five years.
  • If we want to do something different, shouldn’t we also have to think differently?
  • Let’s use our enemy to our advantage
  • In other words; it’s possible
  • If we realize change is more important than money, money will come
  • We made this mess, so don’t tell me we can’t clean it up together

Good work, Boyan. You’re definitely a hero.

From the Heart of Og Mandino

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It’s the 4th of July — Independence Day in the USA — and I can’t think of a better message to hear, or a better person to present it.

Og was on the streets, drunk, homeless, and near despair … when a library and a new way of thinking changed his life.

The same can happen for you and me. Miracles still happen, and you aren’t whipped for good until YOU say so.