Let's suppose that you have a child who will be graduating soon from high school. Of course, you will feel happy, just like any proud parent who have their children graduating from high school. It is one of the challenges of life that you have successfully surpassed, despite of the financial instabilities that you have probably experienced. It is time to celebrate, for you have fulfilled your responsibility of giving your child a bright future.

But as many would say, a high school graduation is not the end. In fact, it is just the beginning of tougher challenges that awaits you and your child in the succeeding years—college education.

At this point, you should start thinking about how you will finance the studies of your college-bound child. With the increasing cost of tuition fees, you need to plan ahead of time to avoid any misfortune, especially if you have experienced how to be financially-needing. You know how hard it is to have both of your hands tied-up against the increasing cost of your child’s high school education before. The sooner you start planning for the college education of your child, the less you will encounter financially-related problems later on.

If you think you will be faced again with financial problems, it is important that you know the different financial aid programs available for your college-bound child. Continue reading and learn the financial aids to lean on to:

• Grants- it is the first type of college financial aid that you can apply for. It simply requires you to complete a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form. Once the application has been sent, it will be evaluated and if your child will qualify, he/she will be entitled to the full amount of what he/she qualifies for. At this point, you need not do anything much further except to provide the name of the college or university your child wants to enroll to.

• Scholarships- although scholarship is commonly intended for students who have the “brains” but do not have the “fortune”, not all college scholarships are bounded to academics. Students who do not have the best academic record can still qualify to other multitudes of college scholarships. There you have the college sports scholarships, community service work scholarships, social involvement scholarships, and others. There are just the different types of scholarships for your child if he is not that talented when it comes to academics.

• Student Loans- these type of loans have lower interest rates compared to other types of loans. There are instances where the loans are subsidized, which means that the interest does not accumulate until a student finishes college. Furthermore, these loans does not require a collateral, thus you do not have to worry about putting your own home as a collateral against the student loan for your child. Most of these loans are available on a variety of repayment plans at low interest rates and low monthly installment payments.

If you have not started searching for the various financial aid programs available, it is recommended that you start now. These financial aids will help you in the long run and will provide the funds needed for your child’s college education. Get yourself free from financial worries through these aids.

Summary:
If you need convincing that a move to Australia may suity you then this article will convine.


Keywords:
australia migration migrating moving western oz


Article Body:
Australia is often described as ' The Lucky Country ', it has so much to offer in terms of natural beauty, high standards of living and a prosperous, growing economy and enjoys the status of being the "most preferred migration destination in the world".

The Australian government migration program for 2004-05 has 120,000 places available for migrants, with a strong focus on attracting skilled people who agree to live in regional areas of Australia.

Migration is not all so simple, the use of a Migration Agent is certainly a positive step to success. The forms and advice booklets are available for all to read, but understanding these forms and procedures can be very difficult, which is where a migration agent can be particularly useful as they can guide you through the whole process.

Many agents offer a FREE service of information / advice regarding any matter on Migration; you usually just need to ask.

Reasons to move to Australia

• Jobs / Employment - Australia is the land of opportunity with over 100,000 vacancies being advertised each week and relatively low unemployment, currently around 5%.

• Cost of Living - The cost of living in Australia is relatively cheap when compared to other developed countries. It is estimated that UK and US residents would need to earn roughly twice as much to enjoy the same standard of living as those in Australia.

• Business - Australia has a booming economy and is one of the world’s biggest exporters. The high standard of living that most Australians enjoy ensures that consumer spending is also high. In short, Australia is an excellent country to base your business.

• Education - Australia has an excellent education system and its schools, colleges and universities are considered amongst the best in the world.

• Health Care - Australia has one of the best health care systems in the world and is internationally recognised for its high standards. All permanent residents pay a Medicare levy which entitles them to free or subsidised services.

• Multicultural society - Australia's is ethnically diverse and approximately half of the population has either been born outside the country or have at least one parent who was born overseas. Australian society is very tolerant and ethnic groups live together in harmony.

At the end of the day you may just be interested in living the dream. It’s well worth looking into.

Summary:
If you want to learn to play the guitar without buying a lesson package or paying for a teacher, take advantage of the free software that is readily available on the internet to help you to learn and practice guitar music.


Keywords:
learn to play guitar, free guitar software


Article Body:
If you want to learn to play guitar for free there's plenty of software available to help you. This article will enable you to define for yourself how to approach learning the guitar and guide you in setting up the time and space necessary to make solid musical progress.

Imagine yourself sitting down to play the guitar. You want to play to your own musical standards and to make music that impresses your audience. You will play from beginning to end without a hitch. Your attention will be on the music, not nervously anticipating the bits that you can "scrape through" when you are alone in your room but could be your undoing in front of an audience.

To learn to play guitar with a high degree of fluency, the first free resource you will need is time. Even if you have a busy daily schedule you can find say, half an hour to set aside to learning guitar. Think about what you do during the day. After dinner for instance, do you sit staring mindlessly at the television? Could you get up a little earlier in the morning to play guitar? Failing to seriously think about when you are going to practice the guitar will make the other elements of your guitar education more difficult.

Once you have worked when you will practice the guitar each day, you can contemplate the basic needs behind learning music. You can see in your imagination how you want to play guitar, so how do you go about getting the music into your head and your fingers?

An essential piece of equipment you need by your side is your guitar tuner. With free guitar tuners available to download, there's no excuse not to be in tune. I recommend the AP Guitar Tuner. It has a great visual guide to make sure you get your guitar in tune with a minimum of fuss.

Whether you already read standard musical notation or you will be using guitar tablature, you need to go to your friendly neighborhood search engine and look for a free music notation program called TablEdit. Guitarists record arrangements of songs using this program and share it with other guitar players on the internet. You download the software in a zip file and install it on your computer.

Now go to your search engine again and type in the name of the song you want to learn followed by "tabledit". If your request is not too obscure, you will get a number of web pages where you can download your song. As an example, type "classical gas tabledit" into a search engine and you will be rewarded with over one-hundred-and-fifty results. The only drawback with the free version of the program is you can't edit and save the music you are learning.

Another free guitar notation program is called Powertab, so if you can't find a Tabledit file for the piece you want, try your search using "power tab".

Now sit down with yourself and let the notation program play the song. Get a good grip on how the song sounds. Then start to learn the notes in whatever size chunks you need. Break it into licks, bars, half bars, whatever, but don't ride over any bits that are difficult for you. The ultimate aim is to perform a series of small movements, each one leading to the next without unnecessary muscular tension.

If you have difficulty with any part of the song, play it slowly several times on your notation program until you can hear it in your head. Then try it slowly on the guitar.

Finally, if you can't find a TablEdit or Powertab arrangement of your song, the latest version or Apple's Quicktime has the ability to slow down any music without altering the pitch. All you need then is a sound file and a tab or sheet music of your piece and you're ready to rock!

Summary:

Who you are today and the reality you have created are a result of your thoughts - your thoughts about what is possible and what’s not. These thoughts are influenced by your spirituality – your purpose - who you see yourself being, and your beliefs and values.

Keywords:

NLP, reality, self improvement, self help

Article Body:

Look around you. Perhaps you see a chair. This chair is real and exists in time and space. Yet before it came into being, it first existed as a thought. In fact, everything in the room existed as a thought at some point in someone’s mind. Who you are today and the reality you have created are a result of your thoughts - your thoughts about what is possible and what’s not. These thoughts are influenced by your spirituality – your purpose - who you see yourself being, and your beliefs and values.

It is said that a person has over 60,000 thoughts every day. That’s over forty thoughts a minute! Yet, of the 60,000 thoughts you have today, ninety percent of these are the same as the 60,000 you had yesterday and the day before, leaving little room for new thoughts. No wonder life can seem tedious at times. Unless you start to think differently, you are destined to continue to create and repeat the same old reality every day. Is it not time to change your thoughts, live your dreams and let reality catch up?

Most of our thoughts and actions are habits, and we go through the same motions each day, with little change in our behaviors or outlook. What would happen if you challenged these habits or customs? If you were to step out of your comfort zone and explore new ideas or new ways of doing things? Would your life not change as a result?

Often our thoughts are about not measuring up, being incapable or inadequate, avoiding failure or beating ourselves up because we did not say or do the right thing. Just as thought preceded the creation of the chair, your thoughts precede the reality that you create for yourself.

The future lies ahead of you, determined by your current thoughts. These are the only thoughts over which you have any control. What thoughts will you choose for yourself that will be the cause of a different future for you?

Thought is a form of energy. Does this energy propel you forward or hold you back? You have a choice about the thoughts you think. How many times in the past have you chosen to disregard your positive thoughts and focus on your negative thoughts? At this moment, if you were to be at cause and to focus on your positive thoughts while discounting your negative thoughts, how would your life change?

“You become what you think about.”

– Earl Nightingale

To realize your dreams, pay attention to what is happening around you. Be curious. Notice how your thoughts about yourself, your thoughts about others and your thoughts about what others may be thinking of you influence what you are able to achieve. Start to think, see and experience things, people, places and events in new ways. Recognize what happens when you begin to think differently about yourself and what you are capable of achieving.

If you're hosting a 4th of July party, there are hours and hours to fill before the highlight events of the day begin - the fireworks. You'll want to have plenty of activities and games planned to keep everyone busy and entertained.

There are a variety of games you can plan that have a patriotic theme.

Balloon pass - This game involves relaying a balloon down a line of people. Use balloons that are red, white and blue and tell the participants they will be using their hands and their legs to pass the balloon down the line. Create two teams of people, and line them up in straight lines. Give the first person a balloon and tell them to put it between their legs, passing the balloon to the next person in line with their legs only. That person will take the balloon and pass it to the next person by putting it over their head. That third person will put the balloon between their legs and pass to the next person like that. The game continues until the balloon has passed all the way down the line. If you have a small group, require that the balloon get passed down the line and back again before declaring a winner.

Chalk it up - Pick a panel of judges (the oldest members of the family are the obvious picks) and have them become the official judges for a chalk contest. Break your guests into two teams (or more, depending on how many people are at the party) and give them each one or two containers of sidewalk chalk. Tell them to create a sidewalk picture that shows something patriotic, and tell them the flag must be included in the picture. Give them a time limit (depending on your group, this time limit might range from 10 minutes to 45 minutes) and then have the judges declare a winner after they have carefully examined all the artwork. You could have art-themed prizes for the winners.

Parade - One fun 4th of July activity that just screams "4th of July!" is a parade with decorated bikes, scooters and the like. Ask everyone who comes to the party to decorate their bike or scooter or other item in patriotic garb. You can have people bring them to the party already decorated and have a contest for "best bike", etc., but also fun is to have a decorating party within the party. Have all the items on hand to decorate the bikes and scooters and skateboards. You might have streamers, banners, flags, and ribbons. The children and adults can decorate their bikes and scooters as a party activity.

Guessing Game - These games are always popular for just about any occasion. Fill a large jar with peppermint candy (the red and white striped kind) and decorate it with blue and red ribbon. Have people guess how many candies are in the jar (which of course means you count as you place the candies in the jar). The winner, or the person who comes closest to the number without going over, gets the jar of candy.

Fireworks - If you're having fireworks at your home, you might have a big box of assorted fireworks. Everyone has their personal favorites and people might have clear ideas of what they want to see and hear. You can play a game to determine who gets to pick the next firework to go off next. You might ask trivia questions (why are there 13 stars on the flag?). Or you can have a dance off. While music plays in the background, each person who really wants to pick the next firework to go off has to dance the craziest, silliest dance they can come up with. Someone who's been designated a judge will decide who won the dance off and that person gets to pick the next fireworks item. Unless there are more fireworks than people, each person only gets to pick once.