Starting up your small business at home may cut some overhead expenses, but once you start to set up those oh so important meetings that will make or break your new venture, you may want to reconsider inviting the execs over for a cuppa joe in your living/dining/bedroom.

There are office spaces popping up around town that cater to one-person operations. You obviously don’t need to rent out an entire office because you don’t have employees, but now you have the option of simply renting out one desk space, or one small room in a facility of many. The Network Hub is one such place.

Some benefits of moving your setup to the Hub include:

* Accessibility to meeting rooms
* Internet access
* Print/Copy/Fax facilities
* A business mailing address
* Live answering services provided by a receptionist
* A waiting area for your clients while you prepare for your meeting with them

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Self-defense is all about taking advantage of an attacker’s weak points. Last week we learned how empowering it is to know about vital point striking, and we’ll be building on that foundation in the weeks to come. In today’s video, Sensei Anthony Britton demonstrates how to easily slip out of a basic wrist grab. Our reflex when restrained in such a way is to pull away as fast and as hard as we can. But you’ll learn after just one experience that all this does is force the aggressor to hold even tighter. In a real life situation, you may be too panicked to realize a very logical way out of the problem. Check out the segment to find out how, no matter what weight and height your attacker may be, you can always break free AND leave him or her incapacitated enough for you to get away.

IMPORTANT: Please use extreme caution when practicing these moves. Remember that with the right amount of force, you can severely hurt somebody. These techniques are to be used for self-defense purposes only. All self-defense moves and tips are to be used at the risk of the user.

Don’t forget to check in next Monday! We’ll be learning how to escape a weapon attack.

What’s a comprehensive blog without a tech category!

In the first of many segments to come, technology journalist Akash Sablok of AndNowYouKnow.net will showcase the latest and the greatest in the ever changing world of gadgetry. Today’s feature covers a few of the fun new products in the entertainment department, as well as a couple of cool toys for kids. There’s something for everyone.

Akash is a regular guest on Citytv’s Breakfast Television and on G4TechTV’s Lab with Leo. Check in often for his tech reports!

For details on the featured items, read on…

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The theory is genius in its simplicity, but then again, isn’t that the basis of all great ideas?

It’s no great revelation that the mind and body are intimately connected. So if the mind is suffering, the body can’t help but share the pain. Doesn’t logic therefore dictate that equal attention must be paid to the body when releasing the mind? That is the idea behind Yoga Psychotherapy.

Danielle McDermott discovered in a yoga class at age 19, that certain stretches and poses induced unexpected emotional releases. Realizing that body movements can help release pent up feelings, she knew this discovery was worth exploring, and so began a path that would lead to her present career.

To get a strong footing in the understanding of psychology, she set out to get her Masters in the field, which she then followed with a certification in yoga therapy to develop her own unique approach to counselling.

What this entails is traditional talk therapy coupled with certain yoga techniques. When we experience emotions, we experience them with our whole body, so it holds a lot of tension. Think of how tight your neck and shoulders get when you’re under a lot of stress. Those with anxiety or anxiety disorders chronically hold a lot of tension in these areas and the buildup often manifests itself as indigestion, back pain, and other “psychosomatic disorders.” The benefit of yoga psychotherapy is that in addition to addressing the underlying emotional or psychological issues through talking, it also helps release the physical tension with concurrent stretches and poses.

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You don’t need a black belt or years of kickboxing experience to be able to defend yourself. As Sensei Anthony Britton explains, if you know what vital points to strike on an aggressor, it doesn’t matter if he or she is 200 lbs or 6 feet tall. We’re all human and have the same weak points. In this video, you’ll learn in three minutes all of the areas that can take down someone who is stupid enough to attack you.

IMPORTANT: Please use extreme caution when practicing these moves. Remember that with the right amount of force, you can severely hurt somebody. These techniques are to be used for self-defense purposes only. All self-defense moves and tips are to be used at the risk of the user.

For the entire month of July, Sensei Britton will share a new Essential Self-Defense Tip each week, so tune in every Monday!

If you have kids, you know that travelling with them is hardly a piece of cake. It’s simply not feasible to pack all of a child’s necessities, yet it’s just not possible to do without. Until now, there have been few options for parents, so to accommodate their needs, Wee Travel rents baby equipment to people visiting Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria.

Launched by Shana Cherry and her Toronto-based sister Lesley, Wee’s mission is to make it easy for parents to travel lighter by providing a full range of hard-to-pack baby equipment and supplies. In other words, they provide everything that parents could possibly need when travelling so that they don’t have to bring it all with them.

The idea was hatched after Lesley and her son visited Shana in Vancouver a couple of years ago. Shana’s son had outgrown his cot, stroller and other kid-size equipment, so Lesley had only to pack some clothes. But when Lesley and son visited a friend in New York, things weren’t so easy. Her hosts had assured her they had everything, but Lesley discovered that meant poorly maintained equipment that had obviously been in storage for some time. She ended up buying a new stroller.

Many people have very old equipment which is inadequate and likely doesn’t meet current safety standards, so in addition to travellers, Wee also caters to local grandparents who have small children visiting. Hotels frequently use this type of service, as do big budget film and production companies, airlines, car rental companies…pretty much anyone who has a baby or toddler coming.

The rentals offer temporary solutions for newborns to children up to eight years of age. These include car seats, cribs, Pack ‘n Plays (fold-up playpens that infants can also sleep in), ExerSaucers, swings, bags of toys, high chairs, change tables, rockers, beach packages, strollers and joggers (double and single), backpacks for hiking and snugglies for newborns out for a stroll with their parents…virtually anything you require for your child when you’re away from home.

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You’ve all been waiting for this! Beau Nelson, Creative Director of Beauté Cosmetics, takes on Smokey Eyes and shows how easy it can be to achieve that smouldering look. Don’t be afraid to tackle this challenge. As Beau shows in Part III of his Essential Makeup Tips series, it can be done in just five minutes. What surprised me was learning that you don’t have to be too neat when applying the makeup. As long as you have the right tools and know how to use them, you’ll have no trouble achieving that perfect look. And you know Beau! He’s got all sorts of tricks from the trade. You’ll be working very close to your eyes for this so you’ll likely tear up the first few times, but our makeup artist has some useful tips to avoid that. Click on the image above to find out more!

For details on what tools to use, read on…

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Based on the funky dance that players do when they manage to advance a Football to the end of a field, everyone knows what the object is. What seems to defy explanation is everything else that happens during one of these games. Why do players only stay on the field for mere minutes before switching with other teammates? Why are there so many referees when there are only about a dozen players per team on the field at any given time? Why is it so damn hard to get that ball just ten yards down a field?!

To help me understand why so many fans voluntarily slap on the face and body paint, and why Football sends men’s testosterone levels through the roof, the man who does the play-by-plays for the BC Lions was generous enough to speak with me and give me some pointers before a home game. Team 1040‘s Rick Ball generally doesn’t have to deal with amateurs such as myself so needless to say, the introduction was much appreciated.

I don’t dare to claim that I know a heck of a lot more about the sport now but at least I’ve got the gist of it and can actually enjoy a game. I don’t know if it’s because I’m too preoccupied trying to figure out the rules to notice time passing or if I have a genuine interest in Football but I have to say, I was at the game for two hours and didn’t even notice. I had a good time and now understand why fans get so riled up whenever there’s a touchdown; they’re so rare! Read on to find out more about the game…
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As you learned in Part I: Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Cure for What Ails You, Chinese herbs are very rarely taken as single herbs. As Dr. Maryam Mahanian explains in this video, they are taken as combinations of many different herbs. Sometimes you’ll have up to twenty or so herbs in one prescription to treat a single ailment.

To give you an idea, we take a look at the common cold. In Western medicine, there’s actually no treatment for it, even though it’s the most common illness in the world. Western medicine relies on antibiotics, which don’t treat the virus and can actually weaken the immune system even further. It may surprise you to find that there are dozens of Chinese herbs with antiviral properties. This segment introduces some of them.

The second concoction Dr. Mahanian introduces is recommended for people with eczema and psoriasis. Those who suffer from such a condition know very well that finding a cure for this problem is very rare. If this is you, then you may be happy to find out that you don’t have to resort to taking cortisone (a steroid hormone) creams to relieve the symptoms. Click on the image above to learn more and read on for further details!

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Everyone’s passed a Chinese herbal medicine shop and wondered what all those bizarre ingredients were. Well, wonder no more! Dr. Maryam Mahanian from The Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Clinic of Vancouver took me on a field trip to the Sunny Day Herbal Store in Chinatown to help demystify them. In the first of a two-part series, Dr. Mahanian shows us some commonly prescribed Chinese herbs. She explains what they look like, what they do, their benefits, how to use them, and the disorders they are used for.

There are about 5,000 different species of herbs and of these, about 2,000 are used as medicines. Some are more frequently prescribed than others and a typical dispensary will stock about 500 herbs.

Chinese herbs are very rarely taken as single herbs. Dr. Mahanian presents individual ones in this segment to simplify the introduction of this type of medicine and will explain in Part II how they are combined together in a synergistic way to treat a specific ailment.

Safety Precautions: Consult a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor before taking herbs. It is advisable to get a prescription and not to self-prescribe. Even though it is “natural medicine,” it doesn’t mean that there are no side effects or contraindications. Don’t exceed the started dose for the herbs; start with a small dose and work your way up.

For a detailed summary of the featured herbs, read on… Read the rest of this entry »