Great pizza

It has been a while since I have gone to a restaurant for pizza. What has become my steady favorite, whenever I get a jones for a good pizza, is the frozen pizza available from DiGiorno, their spicy chicken. It heats up in 27 minutes and is excellent, thick crust with a just the right mix of chicken and veggies, well spiced with just the right amount of cheese and tomato sauce.

At the local supermarket, it runs from $5 to $8, depending on what sales they are running.

Gotta check the spelling on the name!

Internet Marketing Center seminar

I attended a seminar this weekend sponsored by the Internet Marketing Center, one of the older and more established online marketing centers. They are based in Vancouver, Canada.

A $97 deposit was required, which they did return as promised at the end of the seminar. Of course they did pitch their products while they were providing information, but they did not overdo the sales pitches, and in fact their software and consulting services are so obviously worthwhile that I did not feel offended.

I mean, come on, you get invited to a "free" seminar you know there is going to be some strings attached. But on balance, it was well worth. They presented a lot of juicy, useful information.

There were 250 people there; it was held at the Sheraton in Arlington Heights, IL. They gave out nice free goodies too; a tote bag, notebook and pen, and plastic drinking cup, all plastered with their logo of course.

We were even given a chance to present our little enterprise on stage to the group.

They had a large number of staff on hand too, maybe a dozen mostly young folks with various areas of expertise who were very friendly and available for help.

Derek Gehl, the pres. and CEO did most of the presenting, but there were other very competent folks including Brandon Dupsky, a eBay hotshot who provided all sorts of useful hints.

There were plenty of opportunities to network and set up joint ventures, etc. Altogether a very worthwhile weekend. In fact, I was so impressed with the IMC that I decided to become an affiliate.

Insomnia solutions

I have had issues with insomnia for a long time. I have found several things that work:

Probably the biggest factor is just getting enough exercise during the day. If you have been sitting around all day and you still have a lot of energy left when you go to bed, you will toss and turn.

If you get physically tired by taking a really long walk, it will be much easier to sleep.

Other stuff that has helped me: Melatonin and Valerian are right at the top of the list. I used to drink the Valerian as a tea: my kids called it dirty sock tea because of its matchless fragrance:) I switched to taking capsules. I also drink sleepytime tea, easy now is also good.

Doing a spiritual exercise is frequently helpful. I chant HU, which is an ancient name for God. I also have a CD of a group HU chant that I play that is great.

I have also used a CD of running water like a brook, and surf which can really be helpful. Pee before putting this one on :).

Reading always relaxes me. Of course you have to pick a soothing, uplifting book. Not something exciting or that will make you worry more.

Don't stay in bed if you can't sleep. Get up and occupy yourself until you are tired.

Obviously a topic with which I have had some experience:) Note: this post was inspired by a question from someone at judy's book. I am still working on getting my posts there published here: www.judysbook.com

Posting reviews to my blog

I have written a bunch of reviews on judysbook.com and yelp.com. I would love to publish them on this blog but so far I haven't been able to get it to work even though both sites have procedures set up to do just that. Any body know how to help me get this done?

I recently shaved my beard. This is the most recent picture I have of myself clean shaven, taken about a year ago.