Breckenridge Ski Resort

Breckenridge Ski Resort is located in Breckenridge, Colorado, where there is no shortage of amazing snow. The ski season runs from early November to late April.

Twenty-eight lifts service 2208 acres and 147 trails. The mountain is 12,998 feet tall, which makes for long trails and more time on the slopes. The longest trail is 3.5 miles long and is a combination of intermediate and beginning levels. 15% of the trails are for beginners, 33% are intermediate level, 32% are advanced and 20% are expert level. Many of the advanced and expert level runs feature bumps, glades and are often almost deserted.

For 20 years people have snowboarded at Breckenridge. The resort offers four terrain parks, four halfpipes, and a Superpipe with 18.5 foot high walls. The Freeway Terrain Park was ranked one of the best by Snowboarder, Transworld Snowboarding, and Freeze magazines. For their 20th anniversary as a snowboarding pioneer, Breckenridge will update and revitalize their already amazing terrain parks. The resort also offers terrain park classes so you can take your skills to the next level.

If you are an intermediate or advanced skier, Breckenridge is a good place to take lessons. As well as offering highly skilled instruction, the ski school has free video analysis to help you discover subtle imperfections in your technique, so you can improve as quickly as possible.

Besides skiing and snowboarding, the resort also offers ski blading, dog sleding, snowshoe tours, snowmobile tours, Nordic skiing, ice-skating and hockey. Another feature you shouldn't miss is the free, guided mountain tours.After playing in the snow all day, check out the recreation center. It has free weights, cardio equipment, aerobic classes, basketball courts, two climbing walls, and separate pools for adults and children. Relax in one of the two hot tubs, the sauna or the steam room.

Close to the mountain is the 136-year-old town of Breckenridge. With over 100 restaurants, 6 spas, 39 bars and clubs, 258 boutiques and 501 hotels and inns, there is something for everyone. On the mountain, there are also a variety of restaurants, pubs, and grab and go options so you can always get fueled up quickly, even if you don't want to go into town.

Perhaps the most unique and refreshing thing about this resort is their environmental policies. The people at Breckenridge Resort consider themselves to be stewards of the land and the resort makes a concerted effort to promote renewable energy, resource conservation, recycling, wildlife habitat preservation, and environmental education. Part of the energy that runs the lifts is generated by wind turbines. They offer free bus service to reduce pollution and they close certain sections of the resort during elk calving season. The ultimate goal is to move the resort towards complete sustainability. To learn more about this project go to http://www,naturalstep.org/.

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Super Bowl XL

This is it: Super Bowl Sunday! The old adage You win the turnover battle, you win the game, is especially true come playoff time. Looking back at last seasons game, we find that the Patriots won the turnover battle 4-1, largely because of three Donovan McNabb interceptions. The Pats won the game 24-21, though they failed to cover. The year before, the Patriots and Panthers were even in the turnover department, 1-1. New England won again, 32-29, but failed to cover. Before that the Bucs had a huge edge in turnovers and destroyed the Raiders as a dog, 48-21, and before that the Patriots were a 14-point dog but won the turnover battle 3-0 in upsetting the Rams, 20-17.

Overall, the turnover department is huge. So who has the edge this Sunday? The Steelers are +7 on the season in turnovers, and the Seahawks are +9. Not much of a difference. In the payoffs, the Steelers won the turnovers battle +2 in their win at Cincinnati, and repeated that in a 34-17 rout at Denver in the AFC Championship game with a +4 edge in turnovers. However, they were minus-2 against the Colts, yet won the game 21-18. Seattle won the turnover battle in the NFC Championship rout of Carolina (+4), but were actually minus-2 against the Redskins, but still prevailed, 20-10.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this weeks Super Bowl preparation has been the war of words. Seattle TE Jerramy Stevens made the cardinal sin of dissing the enemy this week, saying about RB Jerome Bettis, "It's a heartwarming story and all that, but it will be a sad day when he leaves without that Super Bowl trophy. Oops! Big mistake. Seattle coaches no doubt took him aside and told him to keep his trap shut. The last thing anyone should do before a big game is give verbal fodder to fire up the opposition.

Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter responded by saying that the Steelers will be so physical in the Super Bowl they will try to make Seattle quit playing. Them sounds like fightin words, pardner! Porter said, "We're going to try to tap out as many people as we can. We're going to try to send as many people to the sideline as we can." Someone is going to look like a hero on Sunday night, saying the opponent fired them up.

Rest assured, players and coaches seize on stuff like this. I recall five years ago when the Steelers were a double digit favorite in the AFC Championship game over the Patriots and made comments about how they already had their bags packed for the Super Bowl. After the Patriots' 24-17 upset win, the New England players all spoke about how they were incensed that the Steelers would talk like that.

Added Porter, "Tell him he's soft. He's a tight end and I've never, ever been afraid of a tight end. They better not make him block me on Sunday. I bet they're not going to make that coaching mistake. Wow! You dont usually hear trash talk like that the week of the Super Bowl.

Perhaps the most important thing to assess before this game is that the Seahawks have been outstanding at home the last few years, but mediocre on the road. Even this season they were 5-3 on the road, winning both playoff games at home. They have a significant edge at home partly because its a long road trip for opponents to Seattle, and also because of their 12th man -- their raucous fans. That home field caused more opponents to be called for false starts than at any other venue in the NFL this season. Thats also an edge the Seahawks wont be bringing to Detroit on Sunday. And theyll be facing a tough, Pittsburgh team that just dispatched Cincinnati, Indy and Denver all on the road! If Seattle wins this title, they will have to earn it without those edges. Good luck, as always...

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Homemade Projector Screen - The Principle & How to DIY

Projector screens are generally divided into two types base on their functionalities: reflection projector screen and transmission projector screen. It can be also divided into soft and hard screen base on the materials they are made from.

Home theater generally uses soft reflection screen. My brother-in-law originally wanted to buy a 1000 (~$150) so-called "import screen", but a friend of his who sells projector screens told him that it is hard nowadays (in China) to distinguish the genuineness of an import screen, it is hard even for himself. Some of them that are labeled with 'import' or 'joint capital' were actually manufactured somewhere in the south of China. He felt that he'd rather to buy a 300 domestically manufactured screen with good feelings than buy this kind of "import screen". What this friend said makes perfect sense. But after doing some research, my brother-in-law found that all screens on the local market are made from high gain Bolivian bead that is used for projecting newspaper clips, they are simply not suitable for video frequency.

Theoretically speaking, a white wall with one smooth side actually is the best "screen". Because its gain is 1, meaning that the light projected can be completely reflected out, which is an ideal state of being "no absorption, no gain". Unfortunately, for the purpose of absorbing and proliferating the sound wave, he already made the wall a background wall with sound-absorbing material and plywood installed. making it impossible to serve as a "projector screen', he had to find another solution.

You might be wondering at this point: why do people still bother purchasing expensive screens if we can all use white walls?

Well, there are always benefits and advantages of using a professional screen: convenient, artistically beautiful and dignified, good screen can also make up the insufficiency of a projector and improve visual effect. Among the expensive screens, one type is "gray screen" (cost about 15,000, roughly $2000). This kind of screen probably was originally designed for liquid crystal projectors. The biggest problem with liquid crystal projector is that the color appears dark and grey, insufficiently calm. This is its "congenital defect" that is caused by its liquid crystal board and path of rays.

Regarding gray screen, we all know that gray is merely a lighter black, and black absorbs all visible light. Gray can only partially absorb visible light, it is like brightness of the picture is reduced. If you have used any picture processing software's "brightness / contrast gradient" option, you should certainly have noticed such phenomenon that reducing brightness is equivalent to increasing contrast gradient? Same concept, since the brightness has been reduced, it in turn increased its contrast gradient. The black effect gets improved due to the bigger contrast. We can also experience the same effect when we look out through the sunshade glass of our car. In fact, there are many ways to just reduce the brightness, you don't have to use gray screen. There are magazines recommending putting the light gray filter of a photographic camera to the projection lens, the principle is the same. You can even use more simpler method, namely you need to adjust the projector's output brightness or increase the contrast gradient. No need to spend a cent, you may achieve the similar effect, but the premise is that showroom must be dark enough.

Back to the bottom line, if a gray projector screen cost you $2000, definitely it is not just because the screen color is changed from white to gray. Speaking from the optical principle, I'm afraid there's a lot more behind. I'm guessing probably certain chemical compositions have been added to the material of the screen that changed the reflection or absorption intensity of different wavelength of light, thus changed the luster and the contrast gradient of the entire image, that, makes up the inborn flaw of liquid crystal board after all. In addition to this, what other tricks do you think they can play? It doesn't seem to be possible with the meager knowledge of physics that I have.

It sounds more like it to throw in a 150,000 screen if your projector cost you 15,000. But adding a 15,000 screen to a 15,000 projector doesn't make much sense at all. If I have to buy a 15,000 screen, then it would simply work better if I put the money together and buy a 30,000 higher level projector to achieve better effect without any extra effort. A 15,000 screen is a crazy price to my brother-in-law (imagine his monthly income is merely 3000). Also if he buys a name brand Japanese gray screen, then he actually spend most of the money to pay for the labor which he personally doesn't feel comfortable.

The ideal screen for the DLP projector that my brother-in-law purchased should be like a white wall, just let the project light reflected completely without any "reservation". He figured that he really didn't need such costly screen. So he finally decided to make one on his own.

Exactly how did he do it? You may not believe how simple and inexpensive it really was! He spent a bit over 10 (about $1.50) in a home decorating store on a self-adhesive pure white matted formica PVC panel with dim grains, cut the right size, pasted to his original background wall, that is it, flat and smooth! With such PVC screen, he doesn't need to worry about the 'curl-up' phenomenon that may occur to a regular projector screen after around 12 years of use, he also doesn't need to worry that it would turn yellow one day due to natural oxidation. But remember it requires some pasting techniques to make it work perfectly for you. The result? Great!

Here are couple of self-made projector screen photos from my brother-in-law as 'evidence':
www.news-blogs.com/_images/entertainment/diy_screen.jpg
www.news-blogs.com/_images/entertainment/diy_screen2.jpg

Note: You may freely republish this recipe as long as author bio and active hyperlinks are kept intact. Thank you.

Super Bowl XL

This is it: Super Bowl Sunday! The old adage You win the turnover battle, you win the game, is especially true come playoff time. Looking back at last seasons game, we find that the Patriots won the turnover battle 4-1, largely because of three Donovan McNabb interceptions. The Pats won the game 24-21, though they failed to cover. The year before, the Patriots and Panthers were even in the turnover department, 1-1. New England won again, 32-29, but failed to cover. Before that the Bucs had a huge edge in turnovers and destroyed the Raiders as a dog, 48-21, and before that the Patriots were a 14-point dog but won the turnover battle 3-0 in upsetting the Rams, 20-17.

Overall, the turnover department is huge. So who has the edge this Sunday? The Steelers are +7 on the season in turnovers, and the Seahawks are +9. Not much of a difference. In the payoffs, the Steelers won the turnovers battle +2 in their win at Cincinnati, and repeated that in a 34-17 rout at Denver in the AFC Championship game with a +4 edge in turnovers. However, they were minus-2 against the Colts, yet won the game 21-18. Seattle won the turnover battle in the NFC Championship rout of Carolina (+4), but were actually minus-2 against the Redskins, but still prevailed, 20-10.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this weeks Super Bowl preparation has been the war of words. Seattle TE Jerramy Stevens made the cardinal sin of dissing the enemy this week, saying about RB Jerome Bettis, "It's a heartwarming story and all that, but it will be a sad day when he leaves without that Super Bowl trophy. Oops! Big mistake. Seattle coaches no doubt took him aside and told him to keep his trap shut. The last thing anyone should do before a big game is give verbal fodder to fire up the opposition.

Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter responded by saying that the Steelers will be so physical in the Super Bowl they will try to make Seattle quit playing. Them sounds like fightin words, pardner! Porter said, "We're going to try to tap out as many people as we can. We're going to try to send as many people to the sideline as we can." Someone is going to look like a hero on Sunday night, saying the opponent fired them up.

Rest assured, players and coaches seize on stuff like this. I recall five years ago when the Steelers were a double digit favorite in the AFC Championship game over the Patriots and made comments about how they already had their bags packed for the Super Bowl. After the Patriots' 24-17 upset win, the New England players all spoke about how they were incensed that the Steelers would talk like that.

Added Porter, "Tell him he's soft. He's a tight end and I've never, ever been afraid of a tight end. They better not make him block me on Sunday. I bet they're not going to make that coaching mistake. Wow! You dont usually hear trash talk like that the week of the Super Bowl.

Perhaps the most important thing to assess before this game is that the Seahawks have been outstanding at home the last few years, but mediocre on the road. Even this season they were 5-3 on the road, winning both playoff games at home. They have a significant edge at home partly because its a long road trip for opponents to Seattle, and also because of their 12th man -- their raucous fans. That home field caused more opponents to be called for false starts than at any other venue in the NFL this season. Thats also an edge the Seahawks wont be bringing to Detroit on Sunday. And theyll be facing a tough, Pittsburgh team that just dispatched Cincinnati, Indy and Denver all on the road! If Seattle wins this title, they will have to earn it without those edges. Good luck, as always...

How to Avoid Christmas Debt Overload

The Christmas season is truly the season of giving. There is no other time of the year when peoples hearts are as open or their hands are as freely generous as they are during the Christmas holiday. I mean, even our favorite Christmas motto states, It is better to give than to receive.

While giving does fill your heart with joy and help those who are less fortunate than us, many have taken this motto to extremes when it comes to buying Christmas presents for their children, spouses and other family members.

It is not uncommon for families to run up tremendous high-interest credit card debt to buy their children elaborate and expensive gifts such as computers, stereos and designer clothes as Christmas gifts.

Just take a look at the commercials that air constantly during the Christmas season. They all have one goal in mind: to motivate you to spend as much money as you can during the holidays.

I can remember one commercial in particular that advertised a leading high-end car manufacturer. The husband opened up his gift from his lovely wife to reveal a set of keys. When he went outside to look in the drive, there was a very expensive, sleek and seductive sports car. Seriously, who has been good enough all year to deserve a $50,000 luxury sports car? But the message is clear, give the very best. The same angle is used on men when it comes to buying expensive jewelry for their wives. Its never ending.

Now, Im not saying that advertisers are to blame for our ballooning Christmas debt. They are simply armed with the knowledge that more consumer spending takes place during the holidays, and they want a piece of the pie.

The fault then lies with our own inability to curb our holiday spending. It seems that even if we do not have the money to finance a lavish Christmas, we will still purchase one using our high-interest credit cards and worry about paying it off later. And worry we do.

If this scenario sounds familiar, it doesnt have to be that way yet again this Christmas. You can take a few simple steps to alleviate Christmas debt altogether.

Heres how:

Spread your holiday spending throughout the year. If youre one of those people who love to lavish your family members with expensive gifts during the Christmas season and you dont want to stop the practice, you can avoid a debt hangover by spreading your purchases throughout the year instead of all at once a few weeks before Christmas.

Set a holiday budget. Decide what you can reasonably afford to spend during the holidays and do not go above that amount even if it means sacrificing gifts along the way.

Buy only for those closest to you. Contrary to what you might believe, you do not need to buy gifts for all 27 of your nieces and nephews. Buy for those in your household first, and then, if you have any left over, buy for those closest to you. You should also avoid buying for everyone at work. Just because someone buys for you that does not mean that you need to return the favor. Simply send a Thank You card and remember to put them on your Christmas card list.

Remember that the best gifts come from the heart and not the department store. Likely many in your family would enjoy spending more time with you during the holiday season instead of watching you run from store to store trying to find the perfect gifts. Why not opt to spend more time together this year and keep gift giving to a minimum?

Homemade gifts mean more and are less expensive. Wouldnt it warm your heart to know that your beloved Aunt or Grandma baked your favorite Christmas treat especially for you? You wouldnt have to know that yours was just a sampling of a large batch that she also distributed to her beautician, neighbors and friends. It didnt cost her much money, and it wont cost you much either to do the same for your friends.

So, before you get caught up in the frenzy of Christmas consumer spending, take a moment to reflect on what is most important to you and your family during the holiday season.

What's in a Name? Part 1 - Surname Meanings

Do you know what your surname means and how it was acquired? To be sure, there is an intriguing history associated with each name. The challenge for genealogists and family historians is getting to the root of the name so that a true meaning can be determined. Simply put, the surname you bear nowadays may be considerably different than the original spelling your ancestors used centuries ago. Thus, it is the spelling inconsistency by which names were altered over the span of many years that presents itself as the obstacle to overcome in determining the true meaning of the name.

It's also important to understand that, until fairly recently in our history, surnames were optional, or didn't exist at all. Although the actual start point varies by region, prior to the start of the 17th century, researching individuals (unless royalty or families of some importance) becomes very difficult. It is at about this time when people, outside of towns and cities, only began to use surnames with some regularity. Before that, most people only had first names.

Surnames were established for a number of reasons. First, and foremost, they were needed to distinguish the multiple Toms, Dicks and Harrys from one another. Surnames were used to identify people with respect to their parents and grandparents. For Germans, such surnames may be prefixed with VON (of, or of the). Surnames were created to identify people by their occupations, such as BECKER (baker); FISCHER (fisher); KRAMER (merchant); and SCHNEIDER (dressmaker). Surnames also associated people with a locality or geographic region, with surname endings such as BURG (castle); BRUCK (bridge); FURT (ford); or BERG (mountain). You will find that the aforementioned surname circumstances applied in most countries and across most ethnical backgrounds.

My surname, now written as YAKEL, was originally spelled JCKEL and/or JECKEL by my Rheinish German ancestors over 3 centuries ago. The name JECKL (as well as JCKEL, JOCKEL and other variants) means coming from Jakob (Jacob), with the suffix EL added as a diminutive nickname form.

My oldest ancestor, Joannes JECKEL, was born about 1650. His name literally means, Joannes (John), coming from Jakob. It is not unreasonable to presume that one of his ancestors, perhaps his father, or grandfather, was simply known by family and friends as Jakob. In time, when Joannes was born, he may have been referred to as Joannes JECKEL literally, "Joannes, son of Jakob", to distinguish him from his father or other relative. Joannes, in turn, named his children, adopting the JECKEL moniker as his surname. Such was one common method for creating surnames. The rest, as they say, is history!

Even if you only have limited knowledge of your familys origins, it is quite possible to determine the meaning of your surname. An Internet search will quickly produce many websites and references to aid you in this quest.

Best of luck as you trace your history!

This is the first article, "Surname Meanings", in the 3-part series, "What's in a Name?" by Joseph Yakel. Please visit Ezine@rticles at http://www.ezinearticles.com for the second two parts of the series: Part 2 Surname Spelling Variations", and Part 3 "Surname Landmarking".

These articles are intended to provide some general knowledge about genealogy, tracing family history, and introduce the reader to the surname meanings and how they can be determined through the research process.