The Dart Maker Blog

Global warming and the recession, these dual perils have spared the Alps, at the least for this Christmas. However it could have been so entirely polar. In the weeks before Christmas ski resorts in the Bessans area were cut off when snow storms hammered down. Road cols such as the crowded Col du Les Menuires were closed. There was no electricity or telephone lines, residents had to be evacuated to temporary housing, it seemed like a repetition of 1999.

It seems that all promotion is good promotion. Val Cenis featured every evening on national French news. As soon as mains was fixed inquiries began to arrive, drawn in by the great snow.

Plateau de Beille and nearby Les Houches claim almost four metres snow on the top pistes at 2400 m elevation and 2.5 metres at the bottom of the runs. Presently the best in France. Araches-la-Frasse says there is six metres at the the highest point of the resort. Regrettably a snow drift has damaged a pylon of the chair lift that serves the domain. They are out of action till the middle of Feb.

Elsewhere in the Southern Alps bookings are up 18% in Luz Ardiden, Val Cenis and Bessans. Tignes-les-Brevieres has 99 tenancy and sold a record breaking number of lift passes on Sunday. This is good news for Ski France and the other big ski companies.

A long time ago a shopkeeper was opening a package of merchandise from England. He always admired the efficient way the British pack things as it was done with meticulous care.

When he opened it, there was a card on top. It said, “Expect a Miracle”. He almost threw it in the trash and thought, “What does that mean? How did that get there?” but stuffed it into his shirt pocket.

That night he was emptying his pockets and showed it to his wife, “Look at this, ‘Expect a Miracle’. What is that supposed to mean?”

“Maybe that is what we need”, she said. “Our problems seem so overwhelming. Wonder what would happen if started expecting great things instead of always expecting the worst? Could miracles take place?”

They decided to try it for a few days starting with small problems. “Maybe we will get some new ideas. Maybe there is a solution. Anyway, what do you say? Let’s expect a miracle, really expect it for a few days and see what happens.”

Then something changed for them. They began believing that not only could their problems be solved but that they would be solved and more importantly, the solution was even then being worked out. Miracles, little miracles, started happening. Strange coincidences began developing. All kinds of experiences began coming one after another. They became different. Hopeful, optimistic. The little problems began giving way and the big ones became less formidable.

When anyone starts expecting a miracle they become so conditioned that they begin actually making miracles happen. They get on the miracle wavelength. Abilities become positively focused rather than negatively. Creative forces are released in the mind. The flow away tendency is reversed and life now flows toward them. The negative expectations that drove away the good are replaced by positive expectations.

With a clear goal that is a sharply focused objective and embraces good not only for you but all of those around you, what you want to do, what you want to be and where you want to go one activates the law of successful achievement.

The law of attraction is activated positively and instead of sending out negative thoughts and activating the world around us negatively, the positive thinker with clear goals for good will activate the world around him positively. He works and keeps on working. He thinks and keeps on thinking. He believes and keeps on believing. He never lets up, never gives in. He gives the effort the full treatment of positive faith and action. Result? He can because he thinks he can. His dreams come true…he attains his goals…miracles happen.

Miracles come in all sizes: big ones, medium-sized ones, and small ones. Start believing in small ones and work your way up to big ones. Think and believe and work and treat people right and give it all you’ve got and you will find yourself doing the most amazingly constructive things in this life.

“Maybe there is someone you know that could use this story, too. If you would like, pay it forward as I am doing now to you.” Pat Hicks

* The title and much of the text is exerted from, “You Can If You Think You Can” by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Copyright 1974, Prentice-Hall International.

Pat Hicks is the Managing Partner for http://www.Iwantafreecreditreport.com, a web site providing competitive priced credit reports and scores with no tricks or misleading advertising. Reviews of and links to some of the top web based credit reporting sites as well as online shopping for educated consumers is also found there. A statement regarding the truth about free credit reports is provided which includes the link to http://www.annualcreditreport.com for any consumers eligible to receive a free report.

“I’m Capricorn, you’re Leo, my mother is Taurus and the neighbor is Aquarius.”

Does this sound familiar? I believe so.
Nowadays, most of us know our zodiacal sign and the interest we have for this subject is continuously growing. But how many of us actually know what a horoscope and a chart are?

The answer: few! This is why so many questions and interpretations get born, a thing that ultimately leads to the defamation of astrology. You don’t need to be an astrologer to know some things about astrology, some elements that will help you.

This article was made for the specific purpose of explaining briefly and without details, what a horoscope is and what are the main components of a chart.

First of all, what does it mean that I’m Capricorn and you’re Leo? The basic zodiacal sign we keep talking about is given by the Sun’s position at birth. Therefore, I’m Capricorn because the Sun was in Capricorn when I was given birth. You can identify this when you make a chart. The chart represents the astral map of an entity (individual, community etc.) at a certain time. It contains a lot of elements that help at making a horoscope or an astrologic analysis.

For making a horoscope or an astrologic analysis you need three elements:

- The zodiacal sign

- The planets

- The astrological houses

At all this you can add a lot of other elements that bring more information.

The planets

There are 10 planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) and they represent a certain characteristic of an individual, a certain type of energy.

For example, the Sun represents our basic personality, our ego, the conscious, while the Moon represents our subconscious and emotions. So when I say I’m Capricorn, I actually say that my basic personality has all of Capricorn’s characteristics. But the fact that I have the Moon in Pisces, for example, makes my emotions similar to the zodiacal sign of Pisces.
The same way, Mercury represents the mentality, the way we think and communicate; Venus represents the feeling and the things we like, while Mars represents our basic energy.

The planets form between themselves many angles and relations. These relations can be: harmonically (those of 60,120,0 degrees) and un-harmonically (45,90,180 degrees).

The zodiacal signs

There are 12 zodiacal signs (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces) and I’m sure you know them very well. They represent certain characteristics that have a strong influence on the planets. A Moon in Aries will be totally different then a Moon in Libra.

The astrological houses

The 12 astrological houses symbolize the activity sectors in every person’s life. These are being calculated according to the hour and the place of birth. These can have different sizes (in degrees).
For example, the 7th house symbolizes the partner, marriage, contractual relationships etc. The 10th is the house of carrier and social elevation.

About the houses, there is an aspect that was a mandatory role: the first grade of a house is called cusps (or cuspis). There are 4 big cusps: the Ascendant (1st house), the Middle of the sky (10th house), the Descendant (7th house) and the Bottom of the sky (4th house).
The one most known is the Ascendant, which according to the zodiacal sign it’s in, it symbolizes the qualities one must gain during this lifetime.

To make an astrological analyze, one must count all this factors plus a lot of others a thing that depends on each astrologer in part.

The idea of this article was to show you that each individual is unique in its own way and not all from the same zodiacal sign are the same. Also the prediction on TV or on the newspapers even thought they might be correct, don’t apply to all during that period of time.

My name is Dan Ciubotaru and I’m the author of this astrology software. I’m a romanian astrologer , member of Romanian Astrologers Association and I’m currently based in Bucharest, Romania. My websites are: http://ciuboda.blogspot.com, http://www.astrologydatabase.com and http://www.configurationhunter.com