magic tricks

Everytime time we go home with my family for a vacation in the province on Christmas sesasons, we always have a family reunion with my aunts, uncles, neices, nephews and apos. i entertained them with my magic tricks. They love it so much!!

I want to share some of them with you.

magic trick1

Effect:

Magician lays out 11 cards and asks a volunteer to move several cards over from the right side to the left side while the magician's back is to the cards so he/she doesn't see how many.

Then, when the volunteer is done the magician turns back around. He/she waves his hand over the cards and turns over one of the cards. The number on the card is the number of cards the volunteer moved.

(or have the magic puppet wave its hand over the card and then whisper to you to turn it over.)

Supplies:

11 cards from a regular deck of 52. Take 1 joker, an ace and all the numbers up to 10.

Secret:

Lay out the cards face down in this order: 6 5 4 3 2 A J 10 9 8 7 (A is Ace and J is Joker).

Then have someone move the cards one at a time from right to left.

Say they moved three cards (the magician wouldn't know it though) the position of the cards would now be

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 A J 10

Then wave your hand over the cards and silently count 7 cards over from left to right. Turn the 7th card over. It's the three!!!

It doesn't matter how many cards they move over, this will always work.

Always count 7 cards over (starting with the setup above) and it'll be the number of cards they moved.

If they decide not to move any at all the card will be a Joker and this tells you they didn't move any at all.

Card Trick 2

Effect:

The magician shuffles the deck and takes the top thirteen cards. Holding the cards face down, he proceeds to spell the first card name, Ace. "A-C-E," and for each letter, he puts one card under the packet of thirteen cards. He then flips over the next card (the fourth,) and it is an Ace. He repeats this process for each card number, Ace through King. At the end, he has all thirteen cards face up on the table, in sequential order.

Supplies:

~a deck of cards

Preparation:

Remove and arrange 13 cards in the following setup, top card down: Three, Eight, Seven, Ace, Queen, Six, Four, Two, Jack, King, Ten, Nine, and Five. Put these on top of the deck.

A magic teacher named Harold wrote to share a little story he tells his students to help them remember the setup for this trick: "Three hundred & eighty seven years ago there lived a Queen that was sixty four years old. She had two children. One named Jack, the other named King. Jack was ten years old and King was nine years old and the were both in the fifth grade." 3,8 7,A,Q,6,4,2,J,K,10,9 and 5 Thanks Harold! (Harold's Site)

Secret:

To start, pretend to shuffle the cards, leaving the top thirteen untouched (young children can skip the shuffling part and just begin with the 13 cards.

Remove the top thirteen cards as a group and arrange them like a fan, so that your audience can see their faces. Square up the cards, and hold them face down.

When you spell out each card, do it as follows: let's say you're spelling the word ACE. Spell A, remove the top card and place it on the bottom. Then spell C, and remove the top card and place that on the bottom. Next spell E, remove this top card and place it on the bottom. Flip the new top card and show that it's an Ace, and place it ON THE TABLE (not on the bottom of the deck).

Continue in this manner until all the cards are face up on the table. (eh: You spell the cards in order: Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K) Your audience may realize that the cards must have been set up beforehand, but this only adds to the mystery - and you can treat it as a puzzle for them to try to figure out.

Coin Trick

Thanks so much to Rita for sending this in!!

Effect:

The magician shows a glass, upside down, and a coin on a sheet of colored paper.

He puts a handkerchief over the glass and moves it over.

He pulls the handkerchief off and Abracadabra! the coin has disappeared.

Supplies:

A sheet of construction paper (1), a clear glass, a handkerchief and a coin.

Preparation:

Trace the glass onto the sheet of paper and cut the circle out. Then tape it to the glass so when you put it onto a piece of paper the same color it blends in.

Secret:

When you do the above put the glass onto a piece of paper and just basically move the paper covered glass over the coin while the whole thing is under the handkerchief so the glass covers the coin. Pull off the handkerchief. The coin will have "disappeared.

Magic Envelope Trick

Thanks so much to Shelly for sending this in!!

Effect:

The magician asks for a volunteer to write down four numbers on a piece of paper.

The magician asks the volunteer to TOTAL up the numbers.

The magician opens a sealed envelope and it has the same number as the TOTAL!

(or have the magic puppet pull out an envelope and hand it to the magician. Have the puppet "whisper" to the magician to open up the envelope.)

Supplies:

~piece of paper
~a pen
~an envelope

Secret:

Before the show, write down a four figure number that is 2 times the current year's date. For example, in the year 2000, the number would = 4000. In the year 2001, the number would = 4002

Seal the paper in the envelope.

At the show, ask a helper to write down the year he was born.

Ask him to write down the year of an important event in his life (for example, the year he started school or the year he lost his first tooth)

Ask him to write down his age

Ask him to write down the number of years that have passed since the important event

(these numbers HAVE to be right *grin*... if it's been 4 years since the event and he writes down 3, the trick won't work)

The years have to be whole numbers (he can't say he's 6 and a half years old)

Have the assistant TOTAL the 4 numbers.

Open the envelope. The TOTAL will be the same as the number you already wrote down

siomai recipe

When I was in Manila for the first time in 1990, I tasted this food in my aunt's house with curiousity. "Masarap pala ito" i said to myself. I've never seen or tasted this kind of food before. Laking probinsya kasi ako from the northern part of the Philippines kaya we did not experienced to eat those kind of foods, We used to eat native foods like pinakbet and inabraw. And up to now still my favorite dishes. I will "die" if i cannot eat this foods in a week or two.

I want to share this recipe because when i got married in 1993 i found out that my wife's favorite food is SIOMAI! Maybe your favorite too. You may try to make it at home for your family too, as we occasionally do it.

So, here's the recipe:

Siomai

1 kg ground pork (suggested proportion of fat to lean meat is 1:3)
1/3 cup chopped water chestnuts or jicama (singkamas)
1/3 cup chopped carrots
2 medium or 1 large minced onion(s)
bunch of spring onions or leeks
1 egg
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
50 pcs. large or 100 pcs. small wanton or siomai wrapper
soy sauce, calamansi (lemon or kumquats), sesame oil and chilli paste (for the sauce)

1. Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl.
2. Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into each wrapper. Fold and seal.
3. Meanwhile, boil water and brush steamer with oil.
4. When the water gets to a rolling boil, arrange the siomai in the steamer and let stand for 15-20 minutes, longer for larger pieces.
5. Serve with soy sauce, calamansi and sesame oil. Chilli past is optional.

7 Ways To Profit From Other Peoples Products

If you don't possess the time, money or inclination to create your own hot selling product there is plenty of scope for profit by using other people's.

In this quick article I'll detail the best ways to take a third-party product and use it to fill your own bank account.

1. Resell Rights

Resell Rights let you sell a product and keep all of the money. It's an ideal way to start. Usually you'll need your own payment system to accept the money and your own webspace to sell it - but that's very cheap to do these days.

Resell Rights can be free, or cost anywhere up to $1000 and beyond. The free Resell Rights are usually not worth bothering with. You want to sell items that have LIMITED distribution - quite simply because you'll have less competition!

2. Master Resell Rights

Unfortunately these are bad news. With the Master Rights you can pass on Resell Rights yourself. This means one thing - thousands of competitors in a very short time.

3. Reprint Rights

These are sometimes confused with Resell Rights but they are usually used to describe hard-copy material. For example, printed books, tape sets, CD's or Videos.

You usually have to handle the duplication yourself but sometimes the company will provide copies, and even ship them for you, for a small fee.

These products usually cost more to acquire the rights but can be very profitable. As the old saying goes, it's easier to sell 10 copies at $1000 each than it is to sell 1000 at $10.

4. Affiliate Programs

When you enter into an affiliate agreement you are sharing the cost and effort of promoting a product. You will take a percentage of the sales in exchange, so you want at least 50% for it to be worth your while.

With an affiliate program you can usually join at no cost, but will make less money - and have more competitors!

One other advantage, the company provides the site and the collection of payments. All you do is promote and cash your check.

5. Drop Shipping

This makes the traditional form of selling easier for the information age. Profit = Cost - Selling Price , and with a Drop Shipper you merely take the money from your customer and tell the shipper to send them the product. You then pay the shipper their price. For example, you can buy a Widescreen TV for $1299 but you are selling it for $1499. You make $200 per sale but never get involved in the distribution at all.

This method is used extensively on eBay and in online shopping malls.

6. Joint Ventures

These blur the line between the other processors. Basically, you connect those who make products with those who sell and promote them. You can acquire resell rights, or create your own product, or be part of an affiliate network. You then contact possible sellers, for example Ezine Owners, who may be interested in selling the product for a cut of the profit.

This way you can connect BIG sellers with BIG products and slice of some of the profit for yourself!

7. Branding Rights

These can be combined with Resell Rights but sometimes are offered as an extra. With Branding Rights you can make some or all of the links within a product possible money-spinners for yourself.

For example, you can take a book on copywriting and give it away, or sell it. But within this book are other links to further services, all that could make extra back-end sales for you.

As you can see there are plenty of ways to make money WITHOUT the expense of time of building your own product!

by Stuart Reid