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Lark Valley Zip Lines
Ready for another adventure? Last weekend, my hubby and I decided we would try zip lining. I actually bought a package on Groupon last month for his birthday and we didn't have a whole lot of time these last few months, so we sort of forgot about it. Now that I've graduated and we've settled down a bit, I decided it was time. We were both super excited to try something new! I've actually never heard of zip lining in Indiana before… so this was a first for me!
This place is literally in the middle of nowhere. Hidden away in a little town called Shoals in Indiana, it is about an hour from Bloomington. It's so far out in the country that I lost cell reception at the end. I guess that is the kind of place that a zip line area would be though! I was really excited to be flying through the wilderness.
Look at us go! There are 10 ziplines in the normal zipline package at Lark Valley Zip Lines. They start you out with the shortest and slowest zipline and then gradually increase the speed and length with each line. Each of the lines has you stopping yourself in the dirt, which can be a little tricky. I actually bit the dust on the 5th line and landed on my butt. It didn't hurt or anything, but it was not the most graceful entry haha.
I was really nervous at first about zip lining at Lark Valley Zip Lines, but surprisingly after I did the first one I wasn't scared at all. It feels very safe, and is over quite fast. It feels amazing to be soaring through the trees! A few of the lines have you zipping by trees that are pretty close to you, which can be a little freaky. Two guides go with your group on your tour, and one of them stays on one side to help you land and the other stays at the beginning of the line to make sure you are hooked onto the line properly and ready to go. I never felt like anything would go wrong!
The 8th line has two lines, so you can race a partner. I was so excited (my competitive nature coming out haha) to race my husband. He cheated somehow and beat me! Pfft. We got to go over the lake twice, which felt awesome! All of the lines took about two hours to complete, and the time flew!
We both had such a good time at Lark Valley Zip Lines… I was a little nervous because it was in the middle of nowhere, but the owners were really kind and friendly to us and we didn't feel any awkwardness at all. There is a well displayed sign along the road telling you where to enter… make sure to follow the sign and not your GPS!
Each tour group goes out every 30 minutes and they sell water and cans of soda for $1 on-site. One downside is that they only accept cash, which we didn't even think about so we had no money to spend! We were dying of thirst too, haha. I felt bad because people tipped our tour guides but we didn't bring money so we couldn't tip. So bring cash if you come here!
They recently just opened two more zip lines that are longer and faster which they offered us to add onto our package. We didn't bring cash so we couldn't do it, but the lines looked really cool! Maybe next time. 😉
You can check out Lark Valley Zip Lines on their website or their Facebook Page. 🙂
Have you ever went zip lining before? Do you think you could brave the lines at Lark Valley Zip Lines? 😉


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Issue 16-132: Building Permits
July 7, 2016
Municipalities in British Columbia issued building permits worth $1.2 billion (seasonally adjusted) in May, a 2.2% boost from the previous month. Expansions in non-residential building plans (+12.7%) were entirely responsible for the increase, as the residential sector saw a slight decline (-1.0%).
Nationally, the value of building permits slipped 1.9% in May. New Brunswick (-48.0%), Manitoba (-32.3%) and Alberta (-22.5%) registered the largest declines in permits, while Nova Scotia (+77.3%), P.E.I. (+16.7%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+15.7%) posted the strongest increases.
Regional Building Permits
Year-to-date, building intentions in the province were up 8.9% in May. Cariboo (+62.1%) saw the largest growth, but gains were also recorded in Thompson/Okanagan (+27.5%), Vancouver Island/Coast (+22.3%), Mainland/Southwest (+4.8%), Kootenay (+1.8%), and Nechako (+0.6%). North Coast (-25.4%) and Northeast (-36.2%) were the only regions to see declines in permit values.
Data Source: Statistics Canada (Regional data produced by BC Stats from unpublished data)

subset: commoncrawl


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Derby Museums Objects of Love, Hope and Fear launch party
PUBLISHED: 00:00 28 January 2019
Derby Museums impressive new World Collection gallery – Objects of Love, Hope and Fear – was opened late last year by broadcaster and arts reporter Geeta Pendse.
Derby Museums Objects of Love, Hope and Fear
Geeta Pendse at the Believe zone of the gallery
Saif Udin, 7, chooses a label for the display
Liz Fothergill at the gallery launch
Max Craven
Mayme Moore, 7, listens to telephone messages in different languages
Storytelling sessions
The Moore family from Derby
A section of the gallery
One of the first visitors to the gallery has a look around
The World Collection Gallery is officially open
Visitors at the launch event
Volunteer Ann Ishikawa with a milk jug
Volunteer Ann Ishikawa with a milk jug
Dean and Linda Sullivan
Andy and Moira Findlay
Geoffrey Mann and Jenny Cuadrado
Naheed Chatha and Zainab Amin
Naomi Rubinstein and Alastair Willis
Neil and Margaret Wright
Rachel Atherton and Olivia Dean
Rowena Hamilton and Brian Stone
Stephanie Allen and Lucia Wan
Vicky Washinton and Laura Mitchell
Derek Limer, Ann Ishikawa and Alan Foord
Dave Brown, Sally Cooper and Dan Brown
Thousands of people have worked closely with Derby Museums to create the gallery, which contains a stunning display of 1,400 ordinary and extraordinary objects from around the world, from talking drums to weapons. It has received generous funding from Arts Council England, the Wolfson Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund. Geeta Pendse commented: 'This belongs to Derby, it's about reflecting on Derby's communal history, as well as connecting to the world community that we are all part of.'
Tony Butler, Executive Director of Derby Museums said: 'Some of these objects were bought, some were exchanged or commissioned, some were looted. Never before has there been a gallery in Derby Museums dedicated to telling the stories of how these objects got here.'


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Why are you doing this?
drt on Dec 22 2006 at 1:12 pm | Filed under: About
That was the question a friend of mine asked me this morning, when I showed him this blog and told him to use the same webhosting that I'm affiliated with. He could not understand why am I doing this?
Three reasons, I told him.
First, I would like to update my linkpage in a quick and easy way. In the past I tried to update by adding a what's new section in my index page, but it was a tedious job. I need to go through editing, uploading process etc. With a blog, it's much easier and I can update it individually without tying it to any page. This is a good starting place where I can learn the art of blogging and how to make money.
Second, I love to do volunteer works, such as maintaining the website of my church or helping people seting up the blog for their charity work. All these takes time…., and sometime I have to spend extra out of pocket money. After reading the various stories at John Chow's blog, like this one, I thought, hm, may be I need to create a blog and let the blog collects some extra money to reduce my expenses after spending time working on these sites.
Third, the extra income that people can make from the Internet as described in John Chow's posting is really amazing. This is what John Chow wrote about Jeremy Shoemaker:"If ever anyone can be considered an Internet marketing superstar, ShoeMoney would be near the top of the list. Jeremy Shoemaker is a search engine marketer who knows how to take advantage of both Google AdSense and AdWords. In the above photo, you see him with the biggest Google AdSense check he has ever received from Google. The income was earned back in the month of August 2005."
I thought what Jeremy and others have made via the Internet were really incredible. Of course it all dependents on so many factors such as, how much time are you going to put in, how are you going to slant your site, etc. You can find all these factors described in one of John Chow's article cited above and John will help to promote your site too if you you know how. However, my point is, there is a possibility to make money here. I saw so many technical sites in various fields on the Internet, some have already utilized the adsense and other affiliate programs, such as Heavens-above, CalSKY, just to name a few in the same techical field as mine,… but many have done nothing in that direction at all. I think a link to John Chow's "The Internet's biggest Google Whores" page may surprised them. I hope!
Isn't it too late, now? My friend asked. I just shrugged my shoulder. "You never know!" When I said bye to him, suddenly the pharase, "if you think you can or if you think you can't, you're always right" filled up my mind.
3 Responses to "Why are you doing this?"
on 25 Dec 2006 at 7:44 pm 1Aris
This is a test since a visitor tried to post and could not get thru due to the math question in the comment forms. He got an error saying "your math doesn't add up". I just simply type the result of the math in the form above and would like to see if that's how it works.
Edit: This comment indeed shows up after being approved. I just wonder why my visitor got that error message. All a visitor need to avoid being identified as spam robot is to answer that math and fill in the answer. Sorry my friend for causing a little trouble. Merry Christmas.
on 26 Dec 2006 at 5:20 pm 2Jeff
As a follow up: I thought the phrase "please add 7 and 10 meant add the numbers 7 and 10 to the box. Evidently, what it means is numerically add 7 and 10 and insert 17 into the box. Duuh!!!!
What's strange to me is the first time I made a comment on this blog it worked when I just inserted the two numbers provided.
on 27 Dec 2006 at 11:43 am 3Aris
Sorry Jeff, I changed the plugin to prevent the spam robot few days after your first post. That's the reason why it didn't work the second time. But hey, it works now.
I'm still learning to use the WordPress . Actually, when I first installed it, I didn't follow the procedure, and I could not access most of the files and database, let's say, to edit the appearance on this blog for example. I have tried to reinstall in other site, but I still don't know how to keep all these postings when I transfer them to the new site. Once I know how to do it, I will make one more change to use a new header picture and use a 3-column lay out.


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Many individuals argue that the reason they cannot lose weight or stay in shape is because they simply do not have time to dedicate to daily activity or workouts. Furthermore, people commonly view exercising as indimidating and tedious.
Setting a workout schedule can be not only difficult, but also cause some to view exercising as more of a job than recreation. The most common activities that people think of in regards to fitness are running and lifting weights - these are also activities that many people dislike and avoid at all costs.
The key to understanding daily activity is realizing that all activity helps you maintain a healthy weight and improve your overall fitness. If you cannot dedicate an hour each day, or even three hours per week, to working out at a gym or running, there are many small changes you can make in your everyday life to increase your total daily activity level.
The American lifestyle is extremely sedentary; therefore, our society presents many opportunities for changes which will increase our daily activity levels. Monitor your activity level for an entire day, including your chosen methods for transporatation, and you will soon find numerous personal opportunities to increase your overall caloric expenditures.
Monumental changes are not necessary - start small.
The next time you drive to your local shopping center or grocery store, park farther away from the doors than you normally would. This small change will increase the total number of steps you must take, and though it is indeed a small change, after a week of completing errands in this manner, you will see a significant increase in your overall activity level.
Once you are inside shopping establishments, avoid escalators and elevators whenever possible. By taking the stairs you are burning a significantly higher amount of calories than if you simply stand in place and let a machine bring you to your destination.
If you talk on the phone a great deal while you are at work, stand up and pace back and forth during the conversation. This will not only help break up your day (by getting you out of that uncomfortable seat), but also increase the number of calories you burn while working. As always, avoid elevators and escalators. Take the stairs at work. You have the rest of the work shift to be sedentary!
If your work site is close enough, consider biking daily. This will not only increase your total caloric expenditure, but also decrease your overall vehicle expenses (such as gas and maintenance)!
When you are home in the evening, if you do not have time to set aside specifically for walking, add some incentives. Any errands you need to take care of, within walking distance, should be completed on foot. This is a great excuse to get some extra exercise for the day while also enjoying your surroundings and completing necessary tasks! You will learn much more about your neighborhood on foot than you will from your car.
Although everyone states a lack of time as the reason they do not workout regularly, nearly everyone spends at least 30 minutes watching TV daily. To increase your activity, do push-ups, sit-ups, or jumping jacks during the commercial breaks. This allows you to burn more calories without missing the next episode of your favorite show!
As you can see, a daily workout is not necessary to burn more calories and increase your daily activity levels, and there are many more ways to subtly do so. Get creative and have fun with it! After all, you only have one body. Take care of it and you will live a longer, healthier, happier life!


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Oswego Illinois â SMT Golf broadens their reach into the golf outing community through the magnificent Ruffled Feathers Golf Club in Lemont, Illinois.
Ruffled Feathers, an Eagle Golf property and Chicagolandâs very first all inclusive golf course experience is now offering SMT Golf Outing Services through their facility to each of their 100+ yearly golf outings.
SMT Golf owner Mike Tait had this to say about the Ruffled Feathers Golf Club. âAfter 31 years in the PGA, I must say that it takes something quite special to get my attention. This stunning property, this facility, the quality of the staff and their attention to detail are nothing short of amazing. Add in the fact that this fantastic golf challenge is available to every golfer on the planet under an all inclusive program. At Ruffled Feathers you truly get country club treatment for the same or far less money than you would at other courses with bigger namesâ.
Lisa Lutz, Director of Tournament Sales at Ruffled Feathers said, âMike and his company happened to be performing at a golf outing here and we noticed from the clubhouse the swarm of activity and we were all rather intriguedâ. Lutz went on to say, âWe all commented on how much fun the players were having at the 10th tee with Mike and we decided to walk out there to see what it was all about. After only 15 minutes we knew he had something special here and brought him in for a meeting. We are proud to partner with SMT Golf Outing Services and bring this level of excitement and profitability to all of our golf outingsâ.
Tait concluded, âWe truly love what we are doing. Raising huge sums of money for charities, corporations and private events through a new and unique golf outing approach is something that golf outing coordinators need and oddly, we do it all at absolutely no cost to the event itselfâ.
For more information on the Ruffled Feathers Golf Club or their Event Referral Program, call them directly at 630-257-1000 or check out their golf and outing packages on their website at www.ruffledfeathersgc.com.
About SMT Golf
SMT Golf, The Winningest Component Company In The History Of Golf, and the first and only company to win each division of the RE/Max World Long Drive Championship, and the âLongest driver on any PGA Tourâ since 2003, built its reputation on the highest quality products with unsurpassed performance and durability. SMT drivers, hybrids, irons, and wedges are designed for golfers of all skill levels who expect the most out of their golf clubs.
SMT Golf and Golf Outing Services are based in Oswego, Illinois. For more information on what SMT Golf can do for your next golf outing or their great lineup of products available for your golf outing big or small, call 1-888-693-4001 or visit their website at www.smtgolfoutings.com.
SMT Golf
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 26- It was a mixed year for Kenyan marathoners in 2013 as three male athletes breast the tape under the 2:04 threshold considered to be the benchmark for the ultimate distance race.
After disappointing at the 2012 London Olympics where he went in as the overwhelming bet for the gold medal, Wilson Kipsang closed 2013 as the AIMS Male Marathoner of the Year at the back of his astonishing 2:03:23 world record set in Berlin on September 29.
The nominee for the IAAF World Athlete of the Year, 31, had an inconspicuous start to the year with a fifth finish at the London Marathon in April where he clocked 2:07:47.
"The pacemakers messed that race and I considered dropping out at some stage but decided against it. They went out too fast and spoilt for some of us and it is one of the most disappointing things that can happen since we put in a lot of work to prepare for such a big race," he later explained.
His London experience informed his decision to pick his own pacemaker for Berlin and despite falling a massive minute and a half off the world record pace, a storming last ten kilometre blistering performance brought curtains to compatriot Patrick Makau Musyoki's previous 2:03:38 standard.
Kipsang therefore, completed the most impressive athletics world record of the year, earning the AIMS top award despite missing out on the final-three nomination for the IAAF World Athlete of the Year.
His Volare Sport team mate, Dennis Kimetto, 29, took the honours of the emerging male marathoner of the year with accomplished victories at the Tokyo (2:06:50) and Chicago World Marathon Majors (WMM) races.
In the second, Kimetto ran the scarcely believable 2:03:45, a new Chicago course record that shed over ten seconds off the previous mark to announce his arrival as a potential owner of the world record.
During the same race, compatriot Emmanuel Mutai made history by becoming the fastest ever loser at a world record permissible course when he followed Kimetto home in 2:03:52 but he became the third Kenyan to go under 2:04.
Another Volare Sport runner, Geoffrey Mutai, won the storm swept New York Marathon in 2:08:24 to defend the title he won in 2011 with Super Storm Sandy accounting for its cancellation in 2012.
Therefore, Kenyan male athletes won four of the seven WMM ran in 2013 with Ethiopians Tsegay Kebede (London) and Lelisa Desisa (Boston) as well as Uganda's Stephen Kiprotich who won the World Championships in Moscow, sharing the rest.
The year also saw the Kenyan males surrender the WMM USD500,000 jackpot for the first time in the two-year cycle competition's history when Tsegay became the first Ethiopian to bag that crown.
Robert 'Mwafrika' Cheruiyot, Martin Lel, Samuel Wanjiru, Emmanuel Mutai and Geoffrey Mutai had kept the WMM trophy in Kenya's custody since the inception of the circuit competition that now includes Tokyo in 2006.
London, Boston, World Championships/Olympics in the year they occur, Berlin, Chicago and New York are other WMM races.


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We've already started receiving a ton of emails from concerned readers about L's app compatibility issues, broken functionality, and the like. Of course, we understand how frustrating this can be, but that's actually the point of the developer release.
One of the primary purposes behind Google releasing L for the Nexus 5 and 7 is so developers can get their apps updated before the stable version rolls out, as the switch from Dalvik to ART requires apps to be updated to add support for the latter.Read More


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What creates business growth? Why do organizations expand and or contract? How do you increase your customer base?
It has been something that has been racking my psyche for the better of two decades. Working with over two hundred companies from large Fortune 500's to start-ups and everything in between.
We've seen some marketing work and some fall flat. We have seen some sales organizations close at an exponential rate and others barely survive.
What do certain organizations do that others don't?
With over 21 years working in sales and marketing, a model and framework began to take shape which has evolved to become our 5 A's of Marketing in which we develop your 'Customer Growth Map™'.
Those five A's or Stages include:
After working with organizations both small and large, guess where you think most everyone wants us to start. Yep, you guessed it, Acquisition.
And for many years, we would cave in and start at Acquisition and often would fail. After a lot of trial and error, agonizing over those failures; then going back and studying the successes, we discovered, there are prerequisites to 'acquisition.'
So before we explain the challenge of starting at 'Acquisition, let's define these 5 stages of the 'Customer Growth Map™.'
1. Attention is an Acknowledgement of you and/or your brand.
Customers or prospects see your name in the marketplace. Know you are there and your brand has escaped anonymity. Customers know of your name or logo.
2. Awareness is Recognition & Understanding of your company, product or services.
In this stage, your potential customers may have an idea of who you are and what you do, all the way to clear recognition of your name and/or logo and have an understanding of what industry you are in or what you solve. Curiosity may begin at this stage.
3. Acquisition starts when there is a customer need or desire. They start to research or investigate or the customer is ready to seek your business or competitor for products or services.
4. Adoption starts with usage. The client or customer begins to use your product and expand on its capabilities. This will range from initial use to preference and possible loyalty depending on your industry.
5. Advocacy is Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
This can vary on how much they love your product from your channel partner to the most rabid fan. They include
We will go deeper on each of these and why each is important in future posts.
In the meantime, let's get back to why it's challenging to start with Acquisition. Acquisition of a customer is difficult off the bat because you have no or little brand equity yet. They don't trust you, they don't like you because they don't even know you yet.
In relationships, it's the equivalent of some random person coming up to you and say "you don't know me, but marry me."
Now if you're asking to just have coffee, maybe. And that's a BIG maybe. Back in school, most people have seen you around, you might have caught their eye walking the halls every day (Attention), and you may have chatted a couple times between acquaintances before you even get a first date (a sales call.)
Now are their anomalies? Sure. But do you want to base your entire business on lots of anomalies? of course not.
That's why big business spends millions to capture your attention via billboards, sponsorships, and other branding campaigns to keep their name in front of you. I believe the ad world has gotten the terminology wrong all these years, or they are using it out of context for the most part. It's not brand awareness. It's NOT brand awareness. It's brand attention. It's only brand awareness if they already know what your product is or does like Coca-Cola or McDonald's.
This brand attention builds brand equity through the law of frequency and law of familiarity. Just like seeing that future date walking the halls every day in school.
Awareness begins when you bump into each other and start to talk. You may begin to find common beliefs, common interests and understand each other's traits an value may offer.
It's then that you might begin to explore the first date or in business terms, seek a demonstration or a first meeting.
So while there are plenty of one-offs, and plenty of salespeople who sell on the first knock of a cold call, it's more than not far and few between. It's usually the 6 or 7th call or solicitation before they even get a meeting with the decision maker. Particularly on larger or more complicated sales.
Can you start with Aquisition? Yes, but know you it may take longer and you may even invest more time into an acquisition.
In future posts, we will dive deeper into each stage and explore what to do and what to expect if you start with acquisition.
Do you follow this growth map? Let us know what has worked for you in the comments.
Please share this with someone who wants to massively grow their customer base.


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Through a partnership between First Tee and the International Junior Golf Academy (IJGA), teen participants are selected to attend a week-long training at the IJGA in Hilton Head, S.C.
Around 50 teens will be eligible to attend from chapters of First Tee at a discounted rate. Participants receive instruction on all aspects of the golf game from IJGA instructors, as well as:
- mental training
- fitness training
- college placement sessions
- components from First Tee Life Skills curriculum
Evenings include fun activities such as trips to the beach, laser tag, movies, kayaking and a dolphin cruise.
First Tee home office will not hold a formal application process for this event in 2018. Participants with the desire to attend, can register through the IJGA directly. For more information about attending, please contact your chapter.


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We've mastered the fine art of real estate.
Find Your AgentThis is a great market for Chicago-area home buyers but that doesn't mean it's an easy market to navigate. Now, more than ever, you need a real estate agent with the expertise to find the best properties and advise you throughout the entire home buying process. Every situation is unique, and whether you are buying a house or condominium in the city or suburbs, your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago agent has the local expertise to provide just the right insight and information to help you with your search.
Find a Buyer's Agent in Your Neighborhood or call 866.795.1010
Your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago real estate agent will take the time to explain the different kinds of agency relationships you may enter into when purchasing a home.
A dedicated buyer's real estate agent plays an important role in helping get the results you want. A buyer's agent represents the buyer during the home buying process. The buyer's agent has a fiduciary responsibility to represent only the home buyer's best interest in all aspects of the home buying process.
Unlike a seller's agent, a buyer's agent will:
- Listen to your needs, wants and desires and stay within the scope of delegated authority
- Solely represent your interests in any and all negotiations and transactions involved in the home purchase process
- Fully disclose all information about the transaction that might affect your best interest
- Actively work to assist you in achieving the best possible terms in the home purchase contract
- Keep your confidences even after the agency relationship ends