Hey all, because of what happened to the forums on Tuesday we've lost all the posts on the board and we've had to reset everyone's password. Your username remains the same.

Click the link below to reset your password.

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This is a pain and sucks, but was unavoidable. I apologize for the inconvience and look forward to seeing you all back on!

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Jason

how come i can't see all the posts even though i'm logged in?

How come I can't post pics?

Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling's life has the luster of a fairy tale. Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a cafe during her daughter's naps — and it was Harry Potter that rescued her.
Joanne wow power leveling, Kathleen Rowling entered the world in Chipping Sodbury General Hospital in Bristol, England, a fitting beginning for someone who would later enjoy making up strange names for
Rowling remembers that she always wanted to write and that the first story she actually wrote down, when she was five or six, was a story about a rabbit called Rabbit. Many of her favorite memories center around reading—hearing The Wind in the Willows read aloud by her father when she had the measles, enjoying the fantastic adventure stories of E. Nesbit, reveling in wow power leveling, the magical world of C. S. Lewis's Narnia, and her favorite story of all, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.
At Exeter University Rowling took her degree in French and spent one year studying in Paris. After college she moved to London to work for Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual wow power leveling, secretary. The best thing about working in an office, she has said, was typing up stories on the computer when no one was watching. During this time, on a particularly long train ride from Manchester to London in the summer of 1990, the idea came to her of a boy who is a wizard and doesn't know it. He attends a school for wizardry--she could see him very plainly in her mind. By the time the train pulled into King's Cross Station four hours later, many of the characters and the early stages of the plot were fully formed in her head. The story wow power leveling, took further shape as she continued working on it in pubs and cafes over her lunch hours.
In 1992 Rowling left off working in offices and moved to Portugal to teach English as a Second Language. In spite of her students making jokes about her name (this time they called her "Rolling Stone"), she enjoyed teaching. She worked afternoons and evenings, leaving mornings free for writing. After her marriage to a Portuguese TV journalist ended in divorce, Rowling returned to Britain with her infant daughter and a suitcase full of Harry Potter notes and chapters. She settled in Edinburgh to be near her sister and set out to finish the book before looking for a teaching job. Wheeling her daughter's carriage around the city to escape their maple story mesos, tiny, cold apartment, she would duck into coffee shops to write when the baby fell asleep. In this way she finished the book and started sending it to publishers. It was rejected several times before she found an London agent, chosen because she liked his name--Christopher Little, who sold the manuscript to Bloomsbury Children's Books.
Rowling was working as a French teacher when she heard that her book about the boy wizard had been accepted for publication. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in June 1997 and achieved almost instant success. With the publication of the American edition, retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in 1998, Rowling's books continued to make publishing maple story mesos, history. Harry Potter climbed to the top of all the bestseller lists for children's and adult books. Indeed, the story of the boy wizard, his Cinderlad childhood, and his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry caught the imagination of readers maple story mesos, of all ages. In Britain a separate edition of the first book appeared with a more
Jo Rowling lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her daughter Jessica and continues to work on writing the seven-book saga of Harry Potter. 4

J.K.Rowling

Many business books are heavier on jargon than on wisdom, executives often complain. But among this year's titles are some that can sharpen managers' thinking about technology, management and careers. Other simply offer pleasure, as the holiday season gives some respite from meetings and business trips. (wow power leveling)

The exchange of ideas on the Internet, for example, is bound to keep proliferating, which is what makes 'Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything,' by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, worthwhile reading.

The book highlights how traditional collaboration among employees in meeting rooms is fast being superseded by collaboration on a much vaster scale. Thanks to the Internet, masses of people beyond corporate boundaries can exchange thoughts and innovate to produce content, goods and services. Web sites such as Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, MySpace and even the Human Genome Project encourage this interaction, which spurs growth.

Some corporate executives still lament the competition this poses to their proprietary marketplace offerings, Wow gold but Mr. Tapscott, a proponent of open sourcing, argues that the more you share, the more you win. He and Mr. Williams outline ways to exploit the power of online collaboration. They describe how companies from Flickr to the more traditional Procter & Gamble have benefited from inviting in ideas from customers and others browsing the Web.

For a trenchant view of business and business advice, take a dip into 'The Halo Effect . . . and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers,' by Phil Rosenzweig. The author, a former manager turned professor, asserts that a great deal of analysis offered by consultants, academics and the media is simplistic and often 'deeply flawed.'

When a company reports that sales and profits are on the rise, for example, people say it has a visionary leader and a brilliant strategy. When performance then falters, they say the leader was myopic and had the wrong strategy. Yet little in the way of leadership and strategy may actually have changed. Sro Gold

The book illustrates this point by delving into good and bad times at big companies such as Cisco and IBM. It identifies nine common business delusions, including 'single explanations' for success or failure, and 'absolute performance.' Because company performance is relative to competition, following one formula can never guarantee results, Mr. Rosenzwieg asserts. Success comes only from doing things better than rivals do them.

'The Halo Effect' is for executives who aren't looking for a quick-fix prescription and who understand that winning depends on knowing one's own company and on executing smart decisions well -- with a little luck mixed in.

Managers who want to be better bosses may turn to 'The Three Signs of a Miserable Job' by Patrick Lencioni, the author's latest management fable, which uses fictional characters to illustrate what should be self-evident: Unhappy employees are those who don't feel valued or listened to, don't know why their job matters to others, or don't know how they are performing. All these problems can be fixed easily, as Mr. Lencioni outlines in his tale. The book is a quick read. Sro Gold

Executives concerned with their own fates should consider 'Firing Back -- How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters,' by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward. Using the accounts of dismissed top executives at companies such as Morgan Stanley, Home Depot and Hewlett-Packard, the authors show why some have been able to move on to new successes by, among other things, seeking help from old allies and acknowledging their failure.

For a colorful take on recovering from a personal and professional fall, read Michael Gates Gill's 'How Starbucks Saved My Life.' It tells of the author's unusual journey after losing a senior advertising job and his marriage in middle age. Lonely and unemployed at 63 years old -- and with no health insurance after being diagnosed with a brain tumor that wasn't malignant but cost him some hearing -- he landed a job at a Starbucks in Manhattan.

Aion kina,His fellow workers and boss are decades younger, mostly African-American and without the Ivy League degree he has from Yale. But rather than feel depressed taking orders for lattes and lugging garbage to the curb, Mr. Gill finds the job becomes a refuge, where he feels valued and makes friends among colleagues and regular customers.

His account of his year behind the counter at Starbucks -- which is slated to become a movie starring Tom Hanks -- is a moving reminder that having a community at work can be more rewarding than a big office or title.

No Christmas Eve column about books would be complete without mentioning some longtime Christmas favorites that are still relevant. 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens, the writer's 1843 tale of boss Ebenezer Scrooge's journey from a life of greed and miserliness to one of charity, still resonates, especially at a time when the super-rich are so exalted. And O. Henry's century-old 'The Gift of the Magi' still reminds us that love is the only gift worth possessing.

Interview God

"Come in," God said to me, "so, you would like to interview Me?"

"If you have the time," I said. (wow power leveling)

He smiled through His beard and said: "My time is called eternity and is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask me?"

"None that are new to you. What's the one thing that surprises you most about mankind?"

He answered: "That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they never had never lived..."

His hands took mine and we were silent. After a long period, I said, "May I ask you another question?"

He replied with a smile. Wow gold

"As a Father, what would you ask your children to do for the new year?"

"To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved.

To learn that it takes years to build trust, and a few seconds to destroy it.

To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives.

To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. There will be others better or worse than they are.

To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.

To learn that they should control their attitudes, otherwise their attitudes will control them.

To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them. Sro Gold

To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.

To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to show their feelings.

To learn that money can buy everything but happiness.

To learn that while at times they may be entitled to be upset, that does not give them the right to upset those around them.

To learn that great dreams do not require great wings, but a landing gear to achieve.

To learn that true friends are scarce, he/she who has found one has found a true treasure.

To learn that they are masters of what they keep to themselves and slaves of what they say.

To learn that they shall reap what they plant; if they plant gossip they will harvest intrigues, if they plant love they will harvest happiness.

To learn that true happiness is not to achieve their goals but to learn to be satisfied with what they already achieved.

To learn that happiness is a decision. They decide to be happy with what they are and have, or die from envy and jealousy of what they lack. Aion kina

To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see something totally different.

To learn that those who are honest with themselves without considering the consequences go far in life.

To learn that even though they may think they have nothing to give, when a friend cries with them, they find the strength to appease the pain.

To learn that by trying to hold on to love ones, they very quickly push them away; and by letting go of those they love, they will be side by side forever.

To learn that even though the word "love" has many different meanings, it loses value when it is overstated.

To learn that they can never do something extraordinary for Me to love them; I simply do.

To learn that the shortest distance they could be from Me is the "the distance of a prayer."