Table of contents
1 Ask the expert
2 Business commentary
3 From the soap box
4 The reader’s choice
5 News and views
6 Helpful tips
7 Accessibility news
8 Editorial
9 Comments to the editor
10 Notes
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the following contributors to this month’s STAE issue.
The Sterling Creations accessibility team, the Sterling Creations business team, the Sterling Creations research team, Scott Savoy our managing editor, Christian Robicheau our assistant editor, our readers, and Donna J Jodhan our president.
Donna J Jodhan is the founder and president of Sterling Creations which was founded in 1994. As a blind woman she has had to overcome mountainous challenges in order to get where she is today. She is a very successful business woman, consultant, and author and she continues to help produce daily blogs that contain weekly features on topics of interest and relevance. She is never tired, always willing to help others, and never gives up when it comes to helping others to voice their opinions. As she puts it: "My undying commitment is to ensure that the kids of tomorrow have a more level playing field when it comes to such things as employment opportunities, equal access to the Internet and technology. I think that if I can do my little part to help someone else succeed then in turn they will help others."
We are all very proud to be part of the Sterling Creations team but above all, we are pleased and delighted to have Donna J Jodhan as our leader.
Message from the president
Dear readers,
On behalf of my very hardworking staff, I would like to personally thank you for all of your feedback and comments. Your feedback is extremely important to us and we hope that you continue to send us your emails with your suggestions, comments, and critiques. We would like to thank those of you who take the time to send us articles of interest which we use for our feature called the reader’s choice.
I hope that you continue to enjoy our magazine and invite you to read our latest newsletter. To obtain a free electronic copy please email us at info@sterlingcreations.ca.
Finally, I’d like to invite you to visit our newest sister website, www.onestopbookcafe.com and there you’ll find oodles of tips on a wide range of topics ranging from consumer tips to healthy eating tips, tips on home business opportunities for women, seniors, retirees, and parents to security tips for home computer users, and tips on how to deal with stress, anxiety, and depression. In addition, we have a wide selection of books that will enable you to spend less and save more, and coming soon will be a collection of e books written by me. These books are designed to help you gather info that will enable you to enrich your daily lives. At www.onestopbookcafe.com, the goal is to motivate you to follow your dreams.
You will also be able to make your own contribution free of charge to our Café Talk page. I hope you enjoy this month’s magazine.
Ask the expert
Library Takes 'Talking Books' Digital
July 2008
By the Sterling creations accessibility team
Hello there! This month we would like to answer a very common question that many mainstream readers often ask us and that is: Are blind and visually impaired persons able to read books? How do they keep up with all the technological changes that are constantly taking place? In answer to this, we are going to share an article with you that will definitely help to shed some light on this subject. We hope you find this article enlightening.
Have a great month.
Library Takes 'Talking Books' Digital
Products for the Blind Migrate From Cassette to Flash Drive
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post, March 5, 2008
Judith M. Dixon, a clinical psychologist by training and a sophisticated
techie by avocation, is helping to lead the Library of Congress
into the digital age.
Dixon, 55, who gave up university teaching 27 years ago to join the
library's National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, is a key player on
a team that has been working for the better part of a decade to create a new
generation of audiobooks for the library's more than 700,000 registered blind and
disabled users. The goal is to make the digital format the backbone of the library's
"talking book" program by transferring onto special digital flash drives the 60,000 titles
that the library has on audiocassettes and giving patrons new machines on which
to play them.
"The library system is here because free public library service is a basic
tenet of our society," said Dixon, who is blind and navigates with the aid of a
guide dog.
"This program is providing access to people who would otherwise not have
it."
Under the program, blind and disabled users may obtain audiobooks through
the mail from any of the service's more than 130 regional libraries throughout the
country. There is no charge for the books or the players, but to keep the machines,
users must check out at least one book a year. The library plans to roll out
the new machines and digital books by the end of the year.
One of the new digital cartridges can hold 46 hours of audio. In contrast, a
single cassette tape holds six hours -- and then only when recorded at half-speed
and on four tracks. Since the typical book is 15 hours long, the new format means
all but the longest books can be contained on a single cartridge, Dixon said.
The transformation also is driven by necessity. The cassette tape belongs to
a generation of technology whose time has passed. As the library-issued
cassette players on which blind users play tapes fall into disrepair, finding spare parts grows harder
and harder.
The Library of Congress and its users have been through technological
revolutions before. The library began offering audiobooks on long-play records in 1934.
It added books on cassettes in the late 1960s, but the vinyl era lasted well into the
1980s.
"This transition is probably going to have to happen a lot faster because
cassettes just aren't going to be available much longer," said Dixon, who is a
consumer relations officer for the library.
The new players resemble the flat, dictionary-size cassette machines of old,
with large buttons and a single built-in speaker. The digital cartridge is about
the same size as a cassette tape, but it connects to the player via a USB port rather
than fitting over two rotating pegs.
Dixon and advocates for the blind say that relying on commercially available
books on compact disc or in MP3 format is not an option. Many blind users have
difficulty operating the tiny buttons of MP3 players, and the inventory of available
books is usually limited to commercially popular titles.
Congress has approved $12.5 million annually for four years to help the
program go digital, less than the $19.1 million that the library had sought. That means
it will be able to make 3.5 million copies of audiobooks over four years instead of
4.8 million, officials said. The program's advocates plan to press their case for more
money today at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the library's budget.
"The old players will start to break down and the new players will not be
available yet, and a lot of patrons are going to experience a halt in service," said
Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind. "The
talking-book program is the primary source of reading material for most blind people.
Imagine if someone told you, 'You know what, you just don't get to read anything for
a while.'
Business commentary
Workplace bullying causes great stress
July 2008
By the Sterling Creations business team
Hello! For our contribution this month, we would like to publish an article of interest to many. There was a time when many business experts were saying that sexual harassment was one of the leading stress factors in the workplace. This may still be true but a report published a few months ago pointed to another very big factor; bullying. Our contribution has some very interesting findings. We hope that you find it of interest.
Workplace bullying causes great stress, study finds; Results can be worse
than sexual harassment, researchers says
Sharon Kirkey
Ottawa Citizen, Mar. 10, 2008-03-10)
In April 1999, a former public transit employee in Ottawa who had been
constantly teased about his stuttering at work went on a shooting rampage,
killing four people before taking his own life.
Two years ago, a former RCMP constable was awarded nearly $1 million after
experiencing bullying by her commander that was so severe, she lost 20
pounds and couldn't eat or sleep.
Extreme examples. But a new Canadian study finds that being bullied at work
is more emotionally and psychologically devastating than being sexually
harassed -- yet most victims are still left to fend for themselves.
Studies suggest 25 to 30 per cent of employees are bullied and emotionally
abused at some time in their working lives.
Researchers aren't suggesting sexual harassment isn't important. "There is
no question sexual harassment is negative," says Sandy Hershcovis, an
assistant professor in business administration at the University of
Manitoba's I. H. Asper School of Business.
But sexual harassment has been legally prohibited in North America and other
nations around the world, and systems are in place to help victims report
abuse.
Bullying and other non-violent forms of workplace aggression, on the other
hand, aren't illegal, "leaving employees to fend for themselves when they
experience such acts," Ms. Hershcovis and her co-author wrote in a paper
presented over the weekend at an international conference on work, stress
and health in Washington, D.C.
Even when they do speak out, a recent study found that two-thirds of victims
face some form of retaliation from their harassers.
Ms. Hershcovis and Julian Barling, of Queen's University in Kingston,
reviewed 100 studies conducted over 21 years that compared the mental and
physical fallout from sexual harassment and workplace aggression.
Adult bullying at work includes yelling, insults, teasing, constant
criticism, spreading gossip, lies or rumours and socially excluding
co-workers.
The team found bullied workers did worse on almost every outcome measured:
they were more likely to quit, suffer low well-being and experience higher
levels of anger and anxiety.
She says organizations need to pay more attention to workplace aggression
and train managers to recognize when it's happening. The more employees
speak out, "the less tolerable it is likely to become."
From the soap box
U.S. doctor links radio waves from cell phone towers to cancer, Alzheimer's,
senility, dementia, Parkinson's and Autism -
July 2008
By Scott Savoy
Happy summer! I hope that you are enjoying summer 2008 as much as I am. This month, I would like to shine the torch on an article that I came across a few months ago. I feel that the time has come for us to pay more attention to the potential hazards that cell phone use could cause. I will let you be the judge of this.
Here’s wishing you an enjoyable rest of the summer.
U.S. doctor links radio waves from cell phone towers to cancer, Alzheimer's,
senility, dementia, Parkinson's and Autism
by Dr. Joseph Mercola
Globe and Mail, February 11, 2008
Unless you live in some unbelievably remote location, the odds are high that
you're being bombarded with information-carrying radio waves that can wreak
havoc on your body.
These radio waves have increased dramatically and exponentially over the
last few years -- especially from cell phones, but also from WiFi, WiMax,
BlueTooth, and other wireless devices. For most people, the damage from this 24-7
exposure will take years or even decades to surface since there is a lag time of five to
20 years for The health effects to become clinically apparent.
For those unfortunate people in London, England, who were living directly
below a major cell phone mast, the damage became apparent, sometime between
the mast's Construction in 1994 and the beginning of the resident's campaign to have
the mast removed in 2002.
You may not realize that you are likely living closer to a cell phone tower
Than you think. Cell "sites" can look like antennas or huge towers, but they
can Also be quite camouflaged. They exist on many schools, churches, firehouses,
Cemeteries and even in national parks. If you're wondering why a school or
park would want a cell site on their grounds, it's because the cell phone companies pay
to have them there, with fees that can range upwards of $2,000 a month.
While there are already more than 175,000 cell towers in the United States
(there is approximately 8,000 cell phone towers in Canada), this number is
expected to increase by 48 percent to 260,000 by 2010, according to CTIA (the
International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry).
If you want to know just how close you are to a cell phone tower or antenna,
Simply type your location into AntennaSearch.com. It will tell you all of
the towers (existing and future) and antennas that are within about ten
kilometres of your address!
Why are Increasing Cell Phone Towers so Concerning?
What most people, including experts, fail to understand is that the danger
from land-based portable phones, cell phones and WiFi routers is not from
the magnetic Radiation or the microwave carrier wave from which typical SAR ratings are
given on phones. Unless you have massive exposures like you might expect in a
microwave oven, These thermal effects are insignificant.
Nearly all the biological damage comes from the modulated signals that are
Carried ON the carrier microwave. These modulated information-carrying radio
waves Resonate in biological frequencies of a few to a few hundred cycles per
second, and can stimulate your vibrational cellular receptors causing a whole cascade of
pathological Consequences that can culminate in fatigue, anxiety and ultimately cancers.
Again, this is a very serious concern because, unless you live in an
isolated rural setting, you are probably being exposed to these radio-waves
day-in and day-out -- whether or not you even own or use a cell phone.
Numerous studies have linked exposure to information-carrying radio waves to
Health problems, but you may not realize that your symptoms are related to
these radio frequencies because they could easily be attributed to other causes as
well.
Aside from cancer and brain tumours, cells phones and other radio
frequencies can cause:
-- Alzheimer's, senility and dementia
-- Parkinson's
-- Autism
-- Headaches
-- Sleep disruptions and fatigue
-- Altered memory function, poor concentration and spatial awareness
Can You Hear Me Now?
The Truth the Cell Phone Industry Doesn't Want You to
Hear One of the world's undisputed experts in cell phone safety is Dr.
George Carlo, and I had the privilege of spending two full days with him in October
2007.
I was so compelled with the information I heard that my next book, slated
for release in 2009, will detail the reasons why I believe using cell phones
is far more Dangerous than smoking cigarettes ever was.
In the 1990s, Dr. Carlo was given a $28-million grant from the cell phone
Industry to put an end to the talk that cell phones were hazardous to your
health.
Unfortunately, what he found was not what he'd been paid to find. Instead,
he discovered that they DO, in fact, cause damage.
The cell phone industry offered him a position for $1 million a year to
silence him, but he refused, and started a non-profit institute called The
Safe Wireless Initiative to inform the world of this danger instead. I highly recommend
you check out His site as he has compiled excellent resources on interventions you can use
to Maximize your health and minimize your risks.
I also tried to spread the word about the dangers of cell phones via a
Today Show interview I did last year. Well, they only aired four seconds of
my 20-minute interview, completely censoring the supporting evidence that cell
phones can cause damage.
Tips to Limit Your Damage from Information-Carrying Radio Waves
There quite simply is no safe biological threshold for exposure to
information-carrying radio waves, and there is, quite honestly, little you
can do to avoid them 100 percent. But you can reduce your, and your family's, exposure by taking
the following Common sense precautions:
Limit the amount of time you spend on a cell phone or cordless phone.
Use a wired headset to limit your exposure to the cell phone -- ideally, an
air tube headset that conducts sound but prevents any radiation from
traveling up the Wire to your brain. Also make sure the wire is SHIELDED,
which prevents the wire from acting as an antenna that could attract more
information-carrying radio waves directly to your brain. Wireless BlueTooth
headsets should be avoided.
Limit your exposure to WiFi routers. Find out where they are located in your
Work environment and stay away from them.
If you have any land-based (non-cellular) portable phones, do NOT use
anything other than the 900 MHz phones as the Gigahertz phones stay on
continuously, blasting you with information-carrying radio waves 24/7.
Use the speakerphone instead of putting the phone to your ear; this is
probably one of the single most important steps you can take other than not
using your cell phone.
Limit calls inside buildings. Use the phone in open spaces as often as
possible.
Limit use by children and preadolescents, or don't let them use cell phones
at all.
Children's developing nervous systems and thinner skulls are simply too
Vulnerable to cell phone damage.
Dr. Joseph Mercola, is a physician, health activist, and entrepreneur
Practicing near Chicago. He is the author of two New York Times<.i>
best-sellers, The No-Grain Diet co-authored with Alison Rose Levy, and
The Great Bird Flu Hoax, together with several other books. He is the
founder and editor of Mercola.com.
The reader’s choice
New Report reveals a widening wage gap between men and women in Canada
July 2008
Contributed by Kelly Gregson of Toronto Canada
Dear STAE, thank you for choosing my article. As a Canadian working woman, I am totally appalled with regard to the findings of this article and I feel that it is time for working women worldwide to start taking action now. For if we don’t the situation is only going to grow worse and I am afraid that my daughters are only going to encounter further wage discrimination when it comes to equal pay for all. Is this the type of future that we want for our daughters and other females?
New Report reveals a widening wage gap between men and women in Canada
OTTAWA – It just doesn’t pay to be a working woman in Canada today,
according to a new report released by the Canadian Labour Congress. In fact,
for today’s younger, more educated working woman, it pays a lot less than it
did just ten years ago.
“Canada’s economy has a problem – it pays women less than men. It pays women
less even when we are just as skilled, just as educated and work just as
long. It leaves us with less to live on when our working years are over and
it rewards us less when we invest in higher education or put career ahead of
family. The bottom line is women are still not equal, not even close, when
it comes to the bottom line,” says Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-President
of the Canadian
Labour Congress.
According to the report Working Women: Still a Long Way from Equality,
women in Canada who worked full-time, full-year jobs in 2005 earned just 70½
cents for every dollar earned by men in full-time, full-year jobs.
Compare this to the 72 cents women earned for every dollar earned by men
doing similar work in the 1990s and it’s clear things have not improved
despite the fact that more women have invested in post-secondary education
and more women have delayed having children in order to establish themselves
in the workforce.
In fact, over the past ten years, women with post-secondary degrees have
lost the most ground. Ten years ago, the wage gap saw them earning 75 cents
for every dollar earned by men with the same qualifications. Today, their
earnings have slipped to just 68 cents.
Byers says the deck is stacked against women largely because our workplaces
and our social and labour market policies have failed to reflect the
realities of womens’ lives.
“Women are still expected to be the lead caregivers at home. It’s still
largely our job to take care of the kids, manage the household and,
increasingly, our responsibility to care for aging parents. This limits the
choices a woman has when she needs to work,” she says.
Many employers demand long hours from full-time workers, fail to provide
work schedules which match family needs, and penalize workers who take
temporary leaves. This pushes many women into part-time jobs that are more
unstable and pay less. It forces them to pay a big price if they drop out of
the workforce for a year or two, or decide to work very long hours and not
have children.
“We’ve been equal participants in Canada’s workforce for two generations. We
should be equally rewarded for our work. It’s time for some things to
change,” says Byers.
To push for change, Byers says the labour movement is launching a year-long
campaign
to tell Canadians about the wage gap and how to close it. She says the
report identifies a number of changes that would make a big difference,
including:
Access to affordable, quality child care.
• Raising the minimum wage to at least $10/hour.
• Changing minimum labour standards so an hour of part-time work gets paid
the same as an hour of full-time work.
• Modernizing the federal EI program so people whose jobs no longer fit into
the traditional nine-to-five mold, but work just as much can access their
benefits.
• Improving public pensions so women, who live longer, are not rewarded with
poverty for taking time away from the workforce to care for children.
• Changing labour laws to make it easier for people to join unions,
especially lower-paid women in the private services sector.
“Unionizing every workplace in the country would certainly make a huge
difference and close the wage gap. But we know that's not going to happen.
It's not for everybody. So let's start talking about the things we can do
for everybody because paying women 70½ cents for every dollar of work we do
has got to go,” says Byers.
The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement,
represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada’s
national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial
federations of labour and 136 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca
Contact: Jeff Atkinson, 613-526-7425 and 613-863-1413
News and views
Low-calorie sweeteners can make you fat, study finds; Researchers discover
rats chow down after consuming saccharin
July 2008
By Christian Robicheau
Greetings everyone! This month I’ve chosen an article that will certainly spark some debate among health professionals as well as those who share a healthy interest on the topic of the benefits and disadvantages of the use of saccharin. Hope you find it as interesting as I did.
Low-calorie sweeteners can make you fat, study finds; Researchers discover
rats chow down after consuming saccharin
Sharon Kirkey
Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 11, 2008
Sugar-free sweeteners may make you fat, new research suggests.
In a study to be published today, researchers found that rats fed yogurt
sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin later consumed more calories and
gained more weight and body fat than rats fed yogurt sweetened with sugar.
The finding may help explain why rates of overweight and obesity have
increased dramatically over the past 30 years along with the growing use of
artificial sweeteners by millions of people, the researchers say.
"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie
saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity (fat tissue)
than would consuming the same food sweetened with a high-calorie sugar,"
Purdue University psychologists report in today's issue of Behavioral
Neuroscience.
The study was done in rodents, not humans. But recent epidemiological
studies have suggested an association between diet pop and a higher risk of
obesity and metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of risk factors for heart
disease and diabetes that includes excessive belly fat, high blood pressure
and increased blood sugar.
"If you look on the human side, there have been a number of studies and what
they've suggested is kind of all over the map," said Susan Swithers, lead
author of the new study. "One of the questions has always been, why is it so
hard to find any consistent answer to this problem?"
In the new research, one group of rats was fed plain, unsweetened yogurt on
some days, and yogurt sweetened with glucose -- a sugar with 15 calories per
teaspoon, the same as table sugar -- on others. A second group had yogurt
sweetened with saccharin alternated with unsweetened yogurt.
After five weeks, the rodents fed the artificially-sweetened yogurt gained
more weight and were fatter than the other animals.
A second study revealed that the rats fed yogurt sweetened with saccharin
were eating more.
"They're actually getting fewer calories from the yogurt than the other
animals, but they're eating extra chow, they're eating more," Ms. Swithers
said.
The researchers measured changes in core body temperature. When we eat a
meal, body temperature increases as metabolism "revs us," according to a
background release issued with today's study. But the rats fed
artificially-sweetened yogurt didn't show as big an increase in core body
temperature.
"It looks like the other reason the other animals might have gained the
extra weight may be because they're not burning up as many calories," Ms.
Swithers said.
One theory is that when we eat something sweet, the body thinks it's about
to take in calories and certain physiological responses kick in. But if
there aren't a lot of calories, the system gets confused. The result? People
may eat more, or burn fewer calories than they otherwise would have.
Think of it as Pavlov's dog, Ms. Swithers says. "You ring a bell and the dog
salivates, even if there's no food there.
"That's a response that anticipates the arrival of food. There are lots of
physiological responses that can get conditioned and we think that some of
these physiological responses may contribute to how you use the calories and
when you stop a meal.
"Maybe the next time the animal says, 'well, last time I didn't get very
many calories, I better eat more because those calories aren't going to show
up'," Ms. Swithers said.
She says it's conceivable that people who consume artificially-sweetened
foods and drinks "might be undermining some of these unconscious or
automatic processes."
So, should people stop drinking diet pop?
"We don't know how long-lasting or persistent this effect is," Ms. Swithers
cautioned. But she says people who are drinking diet soft drinks in an
effort to lose weight should make an extra effort to count total calorie
intake.
Helpful tips
July 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
Hello there! The start of a gorgeous month and here we are again like clockwork with our tips for this month. Enjoy!
Helpful tips for July:
Are you tired of trying to find ways to snore less or more softly?
Try lying on your side instead of on your back.
It works to a great extent.
Okay, would you like to hear some useful info about nuts?
Nuts, they contain a lot of oil.
Store them in a warm place and they go bad very quickly.
Store them in a cool place and they last much longer.
Trying to come up with that unique password that can not be easily deciphered?
Here are some useful tips:
Use a combination of letters and numbers.
If you choose to use letters alone, best to have a password that is not a word in the English language.
If you use numbers then do not use those that represent a familiar date of birth.
Your password should be at least more than six characters.
Do not use names of pets, spouses, or family members.
What's the difference between electric stoves and gas stoves?
Gas stoves heat up more quickly but they also cool off more quickly.
Gas stoves cook faster.
How can you tell if your microwave oven has a leak?
Here's a very interesting tip for you.
Turn on your cell and place it in your microwave.
Close the door to the microwave.
Next dial the number of your cell.
If it rings then your oven has a leak.
If it does not, then your microwave is fine.
Some important info with regard to hurricanes?
They start off as tropical storms.
They gain strength while traveling over bodies of warm water.
They lose their strength when over land.
Okay, how about the truth when it comes to lobster and avocado?
For the past many years, many health experts used to tell us that these two food items were loaded with cholesterol.
Now they're telling us that they're not.
Apparently, lobster contains some sort of anti cholesterol enzyme, and avocado is just really good for you.
We'll let you be the judge.
Having difficulty choosing the right size of running shoes?
Here are some helpful hints.
Choose running shoes that have high arches and are wide in the toes.
When trying them on, best to do so in the evening.
Why? Because one's feet are most expanded at this time of day.
The experts say that one's feet can expand to up to about two centimeters during the day.
O boy! What's this about the benefits of honey?
Well, according to good old granny, here's what we have learned.
A teaspoon of honey in a warm glass of milk each night makes you sleep well.
Use a tip of honey on a soft piece of lint to clean baby's tongue.
Honey is also good to treat the common cold.
What are two important attributes of the benefits of salt?
Salt preserves, and salt cures.
Salt is used to preserves countless types of foods.
Salt is used as a healing agent.
Primarily to start the process of healing.
All types of salt come from the sea.
Sea salt is the most flexible type of salt, for every day use.
Having problems sliding your balcony and cabinet doors back and forth?
Take a bit of bath soap and rub it against the inside of the track.
Rub well and then try it!
It works like a charm.
Tired of scrubbing those baking pans after you have baked in them?
Try this idea.
Line your pan with foil.
After your baking is finished, remove your baked food and all you need to do is to remove the soiled foil paper and put it in the garbage.
It works.
Accessibility news
Hotel key cards
July 2008
By the Sterling creations research team
Well, here we are again for our second contribution for this month. A very important article for you to pay attention to.
Hotel Key Cards - do not give them back
for recycling!
Ever thought about key cards containing anything other than an access code
for the room?
Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?
Answer:
a. Customer's name
B. Customer's partial home address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there
for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner.
An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device,
access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your
expense.
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an
employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new
guest's information is electronically "overwritten" on the card and the
previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.
But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a
drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!
The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy
them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER
turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not
charge you for the card (its illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving
a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off
with any simple scanning device card reader.
For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still
have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket.
Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the
electronic information strip!
If you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several
times. Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on
the card.
Information courtesy of: Queensland Police Service
Editorial
Work smarter and not harder
July 2008
By Donna J Jodhan
Work smarter and not harder
I think that I may have just figured out something very important in my life. I need to start working smarter, not harder. Up till now I used to think that the harder I worked, the better it would be for me. I used to burn the candle at both ends by working more than 50 hours a week. I used to really throw myself into my job and double my efforts to please my clients and even beat their deadlines. I used to multi task all the time because I honestly felt that it was the only way for me to succeed but guess what! Whereas I was doing well enough in my business, my personal life along with my health was suffering.
Then last year I lost my elder brother to cancer. Before he passed on he told us he believed that his illness had been caused by too much stress on the job. As an airline captain he had to spend the majority of his married life away from home and he definitely worked harder and not smarter. I am still struggling to come to terms with his loss and every day I remember his words. Working harder does not necessarily mean working smarter. I am in no way saying that stress is a forerunner to cancer but many health experts are strongly suggesting that there may be a link between the two.
As a blind professional woman, I have to work that bit harder in order to keep up with my competitors because like it or not it takes me longer to do things. The same thing applies to my household chores and these are just facts of life that I have to accept. What I realized a few months ago is that if I don't change my lifestyle soon it will definitely change me soon. So, with this in mind, I have made a few changes to the way I do things. I am still working hard but now I am working smart. How am I doing this? Well, here's what I have started to do.
I give myself a mental health holiday every week and on the designated day I do what I enjoy doing outside of work. Things like ice skating, playing chess, fooling around on my electronic keyboard, reading, relaxing, socializing, and cooking. I have made it a habit not to think about work on my day off and I leave the office to my team. I enjoy what the outdoors has to offer me and in short I take precious time to smell the roses and appreciate my loved ones. Working smarter means that I now prioritize my tasks. I do what I enjoy doing and not what I feel obligated to do. I work best at tasks I love the most and I work worst at tasks that I feel pressured to do. So I now work at what I love and enjoy.
I take brief mental breaks between projects. Each day I allocate five to 10 minutes to dream and this helps me to replenish my creative juices. I take time to eat properly and there is also time to make at least 1 social phone call per day. Whenever I feel mentally tired I leave my desk and go for a brief walk. Finally, I ensure that the projects I undertake are ones that will bring me personal satisfaction. Life is too short to not enjoy what you are doing.
Try working smarter and not harder. It's working for me and I'm feeling really good about myself, my life and my job.
Have a great summer.
Comments to the editor
July 2008
From the desk of the editor
Greetings everyone! Here are our contributions for July.
From Don Diable of Wisconsin:
This is for Donna J Jodhan. Donna, I have to applaud you for going after R.E.B. Magnetics for their false advertising. I have been following your blogs on other websites and it is a darn shame that this company is doing this. No respect, no caring, and this company should be run out of town.
From Beth Hydworth of New York:
You know, this magazine really does produce some very interesting articles. I believe that we need more companies like this to research and produce articles of interest to consumers with special needs but hey! Everyone can benefit from thise.
From Scott Mindler of Atlantic City New Jersey:
I am still waiting to see those promised e books that your president keeps talking about. Any date for publication?
From Anna Berger of Stockholm Sweden:
I am trying to find a travel company that specializes in tours and cruises for retirees. Do you know of any?
Thank you.
From Shirley Mendez of Miami:
Where can I go to find out more about software for translators?
From Chris Todman of Ottawa Canada:
Donna, good going. I refer to the April 2008 editorial that you wrote. Dreams are precious and no one should allow someone else to take it away from them. Keep up the good work.
If you have something to say, an opinion to express, or anything that you wish to share with the rest of the world, then please send it on to info@sterlingcreations.ca.
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Notes
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