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Today is Australia Day and although I swam at the Iceberg for the Irish team ( we came 5th) I would like to give a plug to a wife of an iceberger who swam for the Ausie team, Mick Malley. Monique helped hundreds of brides to look beautiful on their wedding day, she has also worked with several TV celebrities. Beauty Boutique shares make-up secrets with anyone keen to learn: The Beauty Boutique Makeup Academy

Burning Brides The Beauty Boutique - Kiss and Make Up
At Beauty Boutique make-up is applied not only to create a pretty face, but is also a way for the artists to bring a natural definition to your facial beauty. The beauty of philosophy is the total commitment to making everyone feel good about who they are, not who they aren't.

Beauty Boutique is a professional mobile makeup artistry and hair styling service that specialises in beautiful bridal makeovers.
The Beauty Boutique team are bridal industry specialists who are fully trained, qualified and experienced in bridal makeup artistry and hair styling. Our professional mobile service is available throughout Australia. We cover the general metropolitan areas of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth and Adelaide. Sometimes our service can extend outside of these areas when special arrangements are made.

• This "über-unique" little beauty boutique offers highly personalized service Beauty Boutique - All you need to do is to slip into your wedding dress! [Anoint yourself in a beautiful fragrance and sense the possibilities! Perfect canvas for makeup ; History of Makeup ; In the olden days, makeup artists were primarily responsible for making ordinary mortal look like Demigods ]

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Heard of Cold River yet? You will ;-) Cold River: The Cold Truth of Freedom , is out Czech out the Amazon page for it.

Yes, I do get a tiny royalty if you buy the book.

The True Blue Antipodean Robert Lorraway and Kristy-Lee Lorraway might proof that Cold River, more that Gorbachev’s perestroika, may be the real cause of the collapse of the Iron Curtain ...

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#1 at Technorati as at January 2006: Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

Here comes the virtual book by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel .. . I have made no mistery that I am a fan of these two, and of the book. So go ahead and order it here. Next milestone: the Silicon Valley launch party in February! Naked Conversations : How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, is out or will be shortly. Check out the Amazon page for it.

• · Naked Conversations passing a million little pieces/lies, a get rich quick book, and the latest Harry Potter to be the most blogged about book of about book of the last 99 hours ;-) More buzz than a controversial Oprah Book Club choice, that's some good work guys. Congrats! A Small Virtual Key Open Big Door
• · Direct marketing still works. 2 out of every 100 people will always buy from you on the first meeting. Permission marketing gives people a chance to trust you by developing a relationship before they make a decision. But many of today's permission marketing strategies are still monologues. Naked Conversations demonstrates how an authentic dialogue is the best way to develop a business. The Media Dragon Loves us

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I was driven to writing because I found it was the only way a lazy and ill-educated man could make a decent living.
-Evelyn Waugh, "General Conversation: Myself" (1937)

Overhead: It's hard to know which is worse: a writer who acts as though there is no distinction between a novel and a memoir, or a publisher who does not care

Watching movies is like having sex, with the movie as the dominant partner.” A vulgar notion, to be sure. Is Colin McGinn serious? Films engage our emotions; movie stars are like the gods of ancient religion Philosophy for The Big Screen

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Soul-searching
One writer was a drug and alcohol addict who turned to crime, served time in prison and ended up wanted in three US states. The other was a rent boy who became an AIDS-infected drug addict. They both wrote bestsellers that were published around the world.

Now it seems the low-life credentials of American authors James Frey, whose memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was No. 3 on the Australian non-fiction bestseller lists last week, and J. T. LeRoy are being scrutinised to the point of exposure

Book slut: Do author photos affect how books are perceived?
• Authors' low-life status at risk [Cliché from hell. There’s nothing new about attacking the suburbs. A look at their history shows that their image as conformist prison is as old as the suburbs themselves Suburbs: A cliché from hell ; Today we’re seeing the pornification of public spaces, a mindless groping of our persons to goose profits and market share. Just don’t call it free speech Behind the Deluge of Porn, a Conservative Sea-Change Making music, particularly jazz, is much like making love: Desire, lust, stimulation, frustration, gratification, rhythm and climax Playing with sex ]
• · The Odyssey is the most wonderful fairytale ever written. In its world, you get something for something, rewarded for your love, your faith, your steadfastness... The wager was less on the two of us than on life itself. I would not let life be a thief. I would make it honor its debts to me. Like a desperate gambler, the greater these grew, the more I doubled my bets ; 7 wonders of the business world
• · · Is this all virginity is worth these days? Acting up just goes with the territory ; Soul-searching Cold War, by John Lewis Gaddis ; At etiquette class, 'tween debutantes learn how to hold their spoons -- and their tongues Lifestyles of the Rich and Prepubescent
• · · · Olga Grushin’s new novel is witty, ironic, multilayered, and elegant. Not half bad for a Russian writing fiction for the first time in English Divided Loyalties; In "The Last of Her Kind," history and fiction are intermingled in a fable it would be unwise to ignore Trapped radicals
• · · · · Fact or Fiction, It's His Story ; Charge: Memoir veers into fiction ; The real story behind Richard Wright's last novel The Island affair ; Do you ever get the feeling that your boss thinks he's better than you? I get that feeling. Every day. Firm makes light of motivation’s dark side
• · · · · · Even before the word was coined, philosophers struggled with the concept of altruism The philosopher’s paradox; New Study Examines How Role Models Influence Ethical Behavior