Bankhead

So you decided to talk to the Scanner at the bar and found he's a really nice guy. You two have been seeing each other for six months, a year, two years or however long. You one day decide that he is the one for you. You want to spend the rest of your life with him but aren't sure how to broach the subject. After all, we all know men are afraid of commitment and the woman has to wait for him to pop the question otherwise you are going to scare him off, right? WRONG.

That is a myth and the truth is he decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you LONG before the thought or even the twinkle of the thought ever entered your mind. You two have been together how long? He's committed to you. Don't question that in the least. What he is afraid of, and I alluded to this in Part 2, is losing his identity.

Right now you both have your own apartments. Granted, you are probably spending most of your time at one place or the other but you both have your own space. That is what he is afraid of loosing. Think about this for a minute and you will understand. What happens when a couple gets married or they decide to live together? The woman will usually decorate the home. This is fine. Men tend to have a terrible decorating sense anyway. However, the home is decorated based on what the woman likes.

Say the guy has a favorite chair. It's not ratty and torn or stained; it's a nice chair but doesn't go with the decor the woman has decided on. I know, the woman asked if the guy likes this or that or the other. (Ok think back to Part 1 of the series) He says that what ever she picks is fine. He wants her to be happy so he lets her decorate how she wants. He knows his Goth style won't go with her country tastes and knows she will be miserable with the dark colors and pictures he has. So he lets her do her thing. His chair is relegated to the basement or another room in the house that no one goes in or it's trashed all together. Anything he had out for decoration is stored away. He's lost his identity.

A good friend once gave me a bit of advice. He said the key to a long and happy marriage is a garage. I had to have him explain it to me. His point was the garage is the man's space. It's where he can go to do his thing. He keeps it the way he wants, be it messy or clean. It's his space, his identity. He's still at home and readily available if his wife needs anything but he has a place to call his own. It can be a room, basement workshop, or anything that is large enough to do what he likes. In my friends case it was his garage. He liked to work on cars. It made a lot of sense.

Men need to keep their identity. Ladies think about how you would feel if he decided that the house was going to be Goth. Dark walls, dark pictures, all the Gothic decor you can think of. Would you loose your identity in that house? Of course the best thing would be to come to an agreement on the style. He may not like country and she might not like contemporary but somewhere in the middle there is something that is acceptable. If that agreement can't be made the man will normally defer to the woman and let her do her thing within reason. Again, this is because he wants her to be happy. Let him have his own space though. He needs to have some place that is his. Some place he can get away to and do the things he likes to do. If not, then he may find other places to go that are away from the home or he will stay home and quickly develop animosity.

Now the topic of sex; Sex to an average man is far more than just the pleasure. To him it is the ultimate way to show how much you love and care about each other. I heard a mother tell her daughter once that even if she didn't want to have sex, if he wanted it to give it to him. This to the average man is wrong. Sure we enjoy having sex to have sex. Most people do, but it is more often a way to show how much we love them.

However, there is a paradox. We like to have sex often. Long dry spells tend to get us edgy and make us wonder if you really care about us anymore. I would hazard a guess that when relationships end because the man cheated, it's because he felt she didn't care about or need him anymore. He needs to feel he is loved and is important. Reaching out and touching him is important. Snuggle with him, put your arms around him, lying in bed reach out and put your hand on him, run your fingers through his hair, just let him know he is important to you. Trust me, if you do that he will not stray and you will find the affection is returned.

Do little things for him. Greet him at the door in a sexy lace outfit, iron his shirts, make his favorite cookies or dinner, make him laugh. He'll probably do the same. Well, he probably won't wear your sexy lace outfit but he will do things for you in kind. They say you should treat others, as you would like to be treated. It's very sound advice especially if you want a long, committed relationship.

Jack R. Mason - Author, Armchair philosopher, scientist.
Email jackrmason@gmail.com
Blog (http://zigtag3d.blogspot.com)

In programming, a string is a sequence of letters, symbols, characters and arithmetic values or combination of all tied together in single or double quotes. For example, "I Love PHP", "10", '100.01', "", etc are all examples of strings.

Declaring String Variable in PHP

An example:

$my_name = "John";

In PHP, a variable must start with $ sign followed by variable name. The string value must be wrapped in double or single quotes.

Concatenate / Join Strings in PHP

Sometimes while working with strings in our code, we need to join two strings. In PHP, you can use '.' to concatenate two or more strings together to form a single string.

An Example:

$my_first_name = "John";

$my_last_name = "Doe";

//concatenate my first and last name

$my_full_name = $my_first_name. " " . $my_last_name;

echo $my_full_name;

The above example with output "John Doe".

Single and Double Quotes PHP Strings

Double Quotes:

Strings in PHP can be wrapped in double or singles quotes. Using double quotes is the primary method. Double quotes allow us to escape specials characters in our string. For example, when you use the $ sign within double quotes it is treated as php variable and will not show up in the output

An Example:

$str = "hello";

echo "$str everyone!";

Notice in the above code, we wrapped the $str variable in double quoted string. The above example will output "hello everyone" NOT "$str everyone"

Single Quotes:

Single quotes can be used to do things like...

An example:

$quote_of_the_day = '"To be or not to be. That is the question"';

echo $quote_of_the_day;

Notice, we used double quotes around the text. The code will output "To be or not to be. That is the question".

Single Quotes vs. Double Quotes in PHP Strings

It is good practice when working PHP code to wrap stings in double quotes. Single quotes should be used when writing HTML code within PHP code since attribute values of HTML tags should be wrapped in double quotes as good coding practice.

See more examples of PHP Strings or go to Learn PHP for more tutorials.

Have fun coding!

Bicycles can be ridden just about everywhere outdoors, including the sidewalks, but before you try this, you must understand a few things. Sidewalk bicycle riding is different from riding on the streets because it is narrower and people walk there as well. Besides the people, there is also a risk of a car's driver not seeing you from the street; however, sidewalk bicycle safely varies depending on where you live.

Small suburb areas are the best places to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk for two reasons, fewer pedestrians and less traffic. A city's sidewalks stay packed with people, particularly during the weekends, so it will be tough to ride there. A sidewalk in the suburbs however will not have many people walking, so you will be free to ride without dodging as much. If you decide to ride on a sidewalk in the city or the suburbs, there may be times when you have to pass people, so you must know how to ride safely to reduce injuries. To ride safely on city sidewalks, you must maintain a slow speed so you can go around anyone you meet without falling. If the sidewalk is crowded, it is best to use the streets, unless you want to walk your bike around the crowd. In the suburbs, you can ride at a reasonable speed and if you see someone walking, you will still have a chance to slow down to dodge him or her.

The sidewalk is a great place for kids to ride their bikes in the suburbs because they would not have to worry about cars as much. Children should only ride on a sidewalk that you are familiar with; they should learn to stop and look both ways before crossing to another sidewalk. Children must also learn to respect anyone that walks there and they must slow down for them. Some kids may like to ride their bikes fast on sidewalks; they must know that elderly people sometimes use the sidewalks to stay out of the streets. Unlike younger people, an older person will not react quickly enough to dodge a fast moving bike. Kids must watch out for them and other things such as dogs, squirrels, or a broken bottle that causes a tire to go flat. Kids must also avoid sidewalks that have a ditch on one side and a fence on the other. If someone is walking on the sidewalk and the child's bike is moving fast, the only way to dodge that person is to drive into the ditch. The best kind of sidewalk to ride on is the type with a bit of grass between the sidewalk and the street.

If you ride your bike on the sidewalk in the city, you must make yourself be seen because most drivers' eyes stay on the street not the sidewalk. You should always ride on the sideway during the day, particularly in the city to remain safe. If you have to cross the street to get into another sidewalk, be sure that you watch out for cars and let them see you.

Sidewalks are generally intended for people to walk on, however if you decide to ride your bike there, be safe and respect the pedestrians.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Bicycles

Bowling has quite a few unique and special bowling accessory items to pick from. None of the bowling accessory items are really necessary but can make the sport more fun. Usually every bowling accessory can be found to borrow at your local bowling alley but, if you really are intent on making this a sport in your life, may want to spend some extra money on your own.

The first bowling accessory you might want to consider is your own pair of bowling shoes. Some may find it nasty to use a rental pair. This bowling accessory can be sized for your particular foot and also any problems you may have with it. You can also pick the materials this bowling accessory is made from right down to the bottom of the shoes.

The second bowling accessory you may want to get for yourself is a custom bowling ball. They come in all weights and colors. You can really be creative with this bowling accessory design. The holes of this bowling accessory can be drilled to fit only your fingers giving you a comfortable grip on the ball for better shots.

No bowling accessory is complete without having a shirt to match. Some of the leagues you may join have this bowling accessory as a required uniform. It may also be necessary to add the custom shirt bowling accessory to a special skirt or pair of pants to complete the uniform. Most of the time this bowling accessory is added to a loose pair of jeans or some other bottoms. The right bowling accessory for those wanting to look their best for the game will include all the shoes shirts, and balls in coordination with one another.

You might want to think of a pair of gloves as a possible bowling accessory purchase. They will protect your hands from blisters and also give you a firmer grip on the ball. The ball can be coated with oil used on the lanes so it might be a good idea to use the gloves to ensure that your hand does not slip. Out of all the bowling accessory items, this may be one of the most essential to the bowler.

The final and most needed of the bowling accessory items you can purchase for yourself is a bowling bag to carry the other entire items in. this bowling accessory also needs to be a coordination of the rest of the attire you have chosen. This special bowling accessory bag will have places for the shoes to reside, slots for gloves if you so choose, and can carry many bowling balls at once.

If you are serious about the game of bowling and want to enhance your game by purchasing extra bowling accessory items, make sure they are coordinated with the other. Each needs to be carefully customized to fit your personality and bowling style. It is so important for your bowling accessory items to be to your liking or else tour game will ultimately suffer. If you do not like your bowling accessory items, you will be less likely to use them.

Jordan Matthews is a work-at-home father with a 239 average who plays in local ABT tournament every weekend. His website offers some tips and tricks about all different facets of the sport of bowling, including bowling technique tips and more.