Three Excellent Audio Finds For Everyone in 2011

With the iPod being one of the most used audio devices, the audio industry has created many ways to play you music from your MP3, not just inside your headphones. Car audio systems now allow you to hook up an Mp3 via stereo or in car kit in the car, whilst docking systems let you play your music in your home or on the go. Here's a selection of our Mp3 docking station favorites that will let you party to your music in your home.

For The Budget Minded

Our top docking station for those on a budget is the trendy Logic3 IPS006PK i-STATIONGO in a variety of fashionable colours, from outrageous pink to a bright forest green. Not only does this docking station look good for under £20, its compact nature makes it easy to move about from room to room or even outside (only on sunny days of course!). This small and nifty design also has amazing output for such a small docking station, thus you don't have to compromise on quality.

What we really love about this docking station is that you can securely connect up Mp3's, iPods and phones in two dynamic positions with the secure vertical and horizontal holding feature, enabling you to place you digital media device in the best position for you.

For The Kid In You

Ever thought docking stations look boring? Well the new design i-Ghost will never bore you with its spooky design. Its ghostly image will certainly add a little fun to your living room, as two speaker eyes pop out of the ghostly figure. Moreover, the i-Ghost was designed not just with style in mind, but quality and design. With a total of 3 speakers, the i-Ghost can achieve surround sound specifications at 360 degrees, enabling your music to flow through the entire room.

Unlike most lower end market iPod docks, with the i-Ghost you can connect it up to game consoles and other music sources, enabling you to play from various sources in your house. Thus it can easily be moved around the house using portable and non-potable music sources.

Our favourite touch to this spooky docking station is the humanized touch volume control and the remote control, allowing you to control the dock in various ways.

For The Music Connoisseur

If bass pumping music is what you want, look no further than Kicker (model IK350)- the experts in the audio field. The IK350 from Kicker docking station has everything you could possibly want, it hooks up iPods, additional media sources, computers, iPhones and satellite radio units.

Four inch woofers and 1/2 inch tweeters give the perfectly engineered Kicker IK350 the power and energy your music needs to play clearly and precisely. Whilst the 4.5 inch subwoofers work accurately on the production of bass, creating the high quality deep and dynamic sounds of bass which the audio experts are well known for. Power is no problem with this unit, as a specially created amp powers this dock, making sure the dock gets the power it needs, and no less or more.

We love the Kicker IK350 simply because it combines high end audio quality within a device that is movable (it has handles to move). It is also the most adaptable device as users can fine tune their music using the bass and treble fine-tune options - perfect options for the music connoisseur.

Narcissistic Wordsmith - Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road

At the tender age of sixteen I was introduced to a band called Rush. The Canadian trio filled my ears as well as my soul and to this day Rush still rocks my world. Unfortunately, after the tour to support their album, Test for Echo, ended on July 4, 1997, the band disappeared. Rumors spread that one of the trio had cancer while others heard they simply broke up.

In 2002 the explanation about the band's hiatus was finally revealed to the world and the truth was exposed. Neil Peart, Rush's King of Kings drummers, lost his nineteen-year-old daughter to a car accident on August 10, 1997 and his common-law wife went into a deep depression and died of cancer ten months later.

So, on a rainy, late summer morning on August 20, 1998, just two months after his wife's funeral, without any reason to carry on and having no interests in his work or his life, the drummer of drummers secured his home, revved up his BMW R1100GS motorcycle and rode down the driveway of what used to be a happy home. He didn't know where he was going, but he would let his bike lead the way.

For fourteen months, Neil ventured 55,000 miles of highways and byways from eastern Canada to the American west coast and Mexico. All the while, keeping a journal of everything he experienced.

When he finally placed the kickstand down on his bike in early autumn of 1999, he began piecing together the notes from his journal and titled the book to describe how he felt about himself. Thus, Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road was born.

This book will warm the hearts of Neil's long-time fans as well as anyone who wants to read a sad, yet uplifting story. While Neil details out the events of his travel, he sprinkles in the memories of his once-happy life. By the time you finish the book, the entire picture is before you-and you understand.

Neil divides his piece into two books: Book One is titled Riding the Healing Road, which specifically records every rain drop and winding turn he experiences on his journey. Book Two Homeward Angel, On The Fly is peppered with his reflection and his determination to look and move forward.

The author brings humor and intimacies into the book and allows the reader to watch the dissection of his spirit, his mind, heart, and his "little baby soul." Neil introduces us to his best friend, Brutus, and his alter ego, Ellwood, which is actually his middle name. We also become acquainted with Carrie Nuttall, the woman who was "... the answer to a prayer I hadn't dared to voice, or even dream" and on September 9, 2000 became his wife.

The only frustration I had with the book is the amount of unnecessary detail to ad nauseam. I found myself many times in frustration screaming "GET ON WITH IT" and would rifle through pages of description-overkill of a rock or how the wine tasted on his tongue.

Many words the author uses such as nadir, majordomo, euphoniously, gelid, and vicissitudes were so unfamiliar to me that I found myself looking to Webster for clarification. The extremity of pointless detail became so exhausting that it took me quite a while to get through the book. I found his writing style arrogant and vain.

I've labeled Neil a narcissistic wordsmith as I now realize how much he loves his words. It is very clear to me after reading this book and listening to his lyrics for the past thirty years that he wants his readers and listeners to know just how much he loves his words and how well he can put a plethora of complicated words together to invoke a simple meaning.

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, although frustrating and sometimes exhausting, is a must read for any Rush fan, rocker, or those who like a complicated read with a good ending. Delightful and fun, yet heartbreaking, this book will not only give you a new outlook on life, but will motivate you to buy a motorcycle and "Take off to the Great White North."

Chicago's Very Own Haunted Cemetery

It was a cool fall evening. The wind blew just enough to take what was left of the leaves and shuffle them around on the forest floor, creating an eerie sound throughout the woods. There was just enough moonlight shining through the clouds to show me what I was about to get myself into. Definitely the perfect weather to do some ghost hunting. I stood at the beginning of the path that used to be known as Bachelors Grove Road. Now it is the start of the trail that leads you through the woods to Bachelors Grove Cemetery.

For some reason that spot was somewhat of a threshold for me. Looking down this dark path I debated whether or not I really wanted to do this. Half of me really wanted to explore this haunted place that I had heard so much about and the other half thought it wasn't a very good idea to be wandering around in the woods in the middle of the night. As I tried to come to terms with my decision, I couldn't help but notice the loud noises coming from the direction of the cemetery. It almost sounded as if someone was hitting a tree with a baseball bat. To this day, I still couldn't tell you who or what made those noises that night. You could only imagine my thought process now. My adventurous side wanted to go even more and my timid side said its time to run.

That's about the time I noticed the headlights approaching slowly from Midlothian Turnpike. Was this the phantom car I had read about? Nope, not quite. It was the cops! They politely informed me that if I were to go any further down the trail, they would have to arrest me for trespassing. Needless to say, they made up my mind for me whether or not I was going to see the cemetery that night. So I headed back to the car with my tail between my legs and my pride a little hurt, but at least I lived to hunt another day.

That doesn't end my story about Bachelors Grove though. I was able to research this place on two separate occasions in the daytime. Don't think that just because it is light outside there won't be any paranormal activity. There have been hundreds of reports of activity occurring in the daytime. Case in point would be the infamous photo of the " Madonna of Bachelors Grove ". Google it! I personally believe this picture single handedly put Bachelors Grove in the upper echelon of paranormal activity. It is one of the best examples of a ghost caught on film, but Madonna isn't the only ghost in the cemetery. There have been reports of ghost houses, phantom cars and even a ghostly horse and buggy. Quite a resume for any haunted place.

I'd like to tell you I have encountered all these things first hand and you will definitely have an experience if you go there, but the truth is my results have been inconclusive. On two separate occasions I have failed to capture or feel anything supernatural, unless you count some strange sounds. I don't. That's not to say that I think Bachelors Grove is not haunted. Ghosts don't perform on command and it all depends on timing I suppose.

All in all, this is an awesome place to check out for all the lore and for the history of our early settlers as well. Just do it during the day so you don't get busted and for goodness sake don't vandalize. Come on really, I'm amazed I have to say it, but GROW UP!

Bachelors Grove Cemetery is located on 143rd St. (Midlothian Turnpike). Between Ridgeland and Central Ave., in Midlothian or Oak Forest depending on who you ask. Parking is located across the street from the entrance in the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve.

Ghosts That Interact With You

Interactive ghosts are so called because they always purposely make their presence known to people. They communicate with the physical world by sending messages, and often the spirit is seen only by the recipient of the message.

The ghost is usually well known to the person - either a relative or a friend - and might predict some imminent news, like a birth or a death. Such a message is relayed by the ghost actually speaking to the recipient, or by some other method such as making some kind of noise.

You might think that all this is solid proof that such ghosts really do exist, but the chance of such dreams or predictions really happening is actually much higher than you might think. For instance, many is the time that somebody has imagined a happy event - like a birth or an engagement - and if that person subsequently dreams of this event, only to be told the next day that you are about to become an uncle or aunt, does that necessarily make you feel that you have some kind of inherent psychic power? It could be attributed to just sheer coincidence. The chances could be quite high of any one person in a large town having a predictive dream on a particular day.

But there is a difference here in regard to interactive ghosts: they always appear to the witness while he or she is fully awake. This begs the question: why does the spirit choose to appear only to one particular person?

If you take the example of deathbed messages - which have been reported many times throughout history - you could say that these are the work of an interactive ghost. In such circumstances, the apparition appears only at the time of trauma, and not some time afterwards.

There have also been many cases, over the years, of out-of-the-body experiences. During such incidents, the person concerned has found their 'spirit' floating up towards the ceiling and looking down on their apparently lifeless body. The hospital files are full of such reports of patients who have "temporarily died." These experiences usually occur when the person is in a traumatic condition, such as being close to death. When the person's spirit returns to their body, they often describe, in stunningly accurate detail, everything that was happening around them - even things taking place in rooms next door.

The phantom hitchhiker is another type of interactive ghost. These entities usually haunt quiet country roads, and are often seen by motorists as they drive along late at night. Resurrection Mary, who is said to haunt the lonely country lanes near Chicago, is the most famous roadside ghost of all. Drivers have reported that when they have stopped the car to avoid hitting the figure, it then mysteriously vanishes. On other occasions, when the motorist has stopped to give the figure a lift, it suddenly disappears completely from out of the car. These spectral hitchhikers are therefore a classic example of interactive ghosts, as they respond to the observer in quite a physical, realistic way.