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It’s harder to be on an effective diet and lose weight in the Midwest than it is in Hawaii.

How come? Is it because we don’t have a big appetite during Honolulu winters? Not really. We have fewer chances to work out and to burn calories?

You know the answer to this one if you’ve shoveled snow, lately.

It’s tougher to shed those pounds in Milwaukee, Wisconsin because the town is less body conscious.

People who live there don’t tie up as much of their self-esteem into their dress sizes or waistlines.

This doesn’t pertain to the entire Midwest, and particularly to college towns, where fashion fitness requires sticking to more of a diet and exercise regimen.

And within states, there can be a lot of variability in body standards. For instance, in Santa Monica, California, where you’ll find more yoga studios than Starbuck’s, there is a lot of attention paid to fitness, but much less, fifty miles away toward Riverside or San Bernardino.

It boils down to peer pressures. Fitting in, in a given place, will require you to be fit, by that place’s standards.

When you look out your window near the beach and see most people jogging or
rollerblading or bicycling, it’s hard to resist jumping up and joining them.

But when you feel alone in your pursuits, as if you’re the only person in Muncie who isn’t munching, then it feels a lot tougher to lose those pounds.

This may sound preposterous to you, but changing your address could help change your physique!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Those beautiful red lanterns that hang invitingly outside so many establishments have come to signify a lot - in Kabul, of all the places. Kabul, embattled, bruised and bleeding is not quite broken. It’s attracting Chinese restaurants by the dozens.

I can imagine the tough Pathans as they make their way out of the restaurants, smacking their lips in delight, thinking, “Chinese tastes delicious”.

China Daily reports how many Chinese restaurants have sprung up in Kabul’s upmarket areas. But the police are cracking down on them because a Chinese meal there signifies more than just chilly chicken and fried wantons. It signifies food of a higher (or lower) nature, depending on where you’re coming from.

Scores of Chinese women have been arrested for allegedly feeding the lust of mostly expats and some Afghans too, thus unleashing moral corruption among its holy denizens. In China, women are often ‘afraid’ of getting too close to foreigners, though many do. There are size issues - how can the petite and tiny fit in what is large and ‘monstrous’? There are social issues, too. How can Chinese men accept a woman who is seen with foreigners? Some of the whys and the wherefores have hilarious explanations that I am not going to delve upon here but might some other time, elsewhere. Yet, many Chinese women end up in Kabul. These Chinese are amazing!

What is the allure that these women possess for men from different parts of the world? Men are drawn to them like bees to honey! Don’t ask me…I know! But, honey going to where the bees are?

Chinese women are very gentle and soft spoken. Men, too, are but less so! And very reticent. They don’t show what’s in their minds and hearts too easily. One needs to figure them out through little signs and indications. Life and everything in it is like a game of Mahjongg. You have your pieces and she has hers and the pieces are always moving as one throws some on the board and picks new ones. You must guess and outguess but never be outguessed or you’re dead meat. Why? I don’t know…perhaps, Confucius’s legacy lives!

Chinese women rarely speak the L word, except to a husband or a boyfriend/lover. At best she can say ’she likes you’. And, that too is rare. Once, when I was quite new here, I repeated ‘wo xihuan ni’ (I like you) at the instigation of a colleague to a young lady teacher. She ran after me - to hit me with a badminton racquet! It was in jest…but could have been worse. Ever since, I have never uttered even the ‘like’ word. Who knows, what might come after me next?

I wonder, then, how they make do in Kabul. And, how those little Chinese meals match those monstrous appetites! Foreigners in China, and there are quite a few, often privately accuse Chinese women of being passport-hunters. Perhaps, there are a few. European and North American passports have their own allure for many Asians. But, there are also women who couldn’t care a fig about the passports. They know ‘their China’ is on the way up. Yet, they land up in the ruins of a Kabul-under-reconstruction!

China is changing at a pace faster than appears to the eye. And, the Chinese are not losing the race. They will be wherever the action is - and if there is no action, they will create it, wherever that might be. It’s quite common to see a couple embracing, or a woman riding piggyback (a sure sign of the oven on fire) and kissing on the street. Yet, when you meet them face-to-face they will use the tag of tradition to tell you they’re in only for the long haul…no short-term measures for them. Dangle the carrot of marriage and you might be the proud partner of one of the creamiest-skinned creatures on earth. Sometimes, I guess, a hundred dollar bill works just as well…for the short-term. But, how can that satisfy a hunger that’s more recurring than that for chilly chicken or fried wantons?

Kabul’s calling! Wanna go? But, with the police there chasing all the honey and the honey chasing after money, it might be too much of an ask. I wonder if the crackdown there is because the police are jealous!

“Nobody is really sure how the Chinese came to dominate the market. But in Kabul, traditional Chinese lanterns outside a restaurant can mean more is on offer than just good food,” reports China Daily. I, for one, am quite sure!

Rajesh Kanoi (Jack) is a published writer, now living and working in China. Many of his short-stories, poems and articles have been published, including a book of short-stories, ‘Tales From China’ (Lipstick Publishing).

http://o3.indiatimes.com/kjack

http://www.writingup.com/blog/oneinabillion

When it comes to website design many people confuse usability with accessibility. Contrary to what some people think, they are in fact very different. Many people also view one to be more important than the other. It is true that they should both be viewed genuinely but a lot of the time, the ideas around them are similar.

Getting the most out of the usability of your site makes it more accessible, or at the very least provides a better framework to build on. If your site is difficult to use for the general population, then those with disabilities or learning difficulties will certainly find it problematic. Likewise, the thought that goes into accessibility is just as important as what goes into usability. With web 2.0 technology becoming more prevalent, accessibility is a key focus of many web design courses and schools.

Making the User the Priority: Ultimately, behind all of the bells and whistles of Web design, the pages are being built for people to use. Don’t try to show off with annoying Flash gimmicks or over-sized images; focusing on content and service is really what’s going to impress your users. You shouldn’t even consider using Dreamweaver until you truly realize the importance of usability, which is always to put the user’s necessities above all else. The fact that the final products performance judges the designing of anything from shoes to sites should always be remembered.