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The story of Diane de Poitiers should serve as a motivation to all of us who feel not-as-young-as-we-used-to-be. Diane was born in 1499, the daughter of Jean de Poitiers and thus a member of a very ancient line. A beauty from a very young age, at 13 she married into another distinguished line when she became the spouse of Louis de Breze who was 39 years older than Diane and a grandson of Charles VII.

When she came with Louis de Breze to the court of Francois I, she found herself immersed in the wonderful Renaissance atmosphere that she loved. This was a time when France was discovering the new wonders of architecture and art brought back to France by Francois I from his travels in Italy, where, of course, the Renaissance was in full swing.

In 1531, her elderly husband died, but Diane remained at court. Whilst there she not surprisingly managed to catch the eye of young Henri who later became Henri II. Although she was in her 30s by then, and surrounded at court by many women who were much younger, she was considered to be one of the dazzling court beauties. Before Henri’s arranged marriage to Catherine de Medicis in 1533, Diane became his mistress. Henri was 14. Incidentally, at the time of the marriage, Catherine was herself something of a looker and she was 18 years younger than Diane.

Despite Henri seemed to try to shun Catherine as much as he could, continuing to pursue his interest in Diane. [Spin] |You might guess that [/spin]Catherine de Medicis did not take nicely to her husband’s pursuit of Diane, especially when Diane was officially acknowledged as his mistress three years after the marriage. The age dynamic added insult to injury, and things just seemed to go from bad to worse for Catherine.

As Henri’s wife, it was of course her duty to produce an heir (or better yet, several of them), preferably male, since, a daughter could not succeed to the throne in France. Catherine appeared to be incapable of fulfilling her duty in this respect. Of course, this failure may have had something to do with the fact that Henri seemed resolute to spend all his time, day AND night, with Diane.

Now this is where the story gets really good.Diane appreciated that there was no love lost between her and Catherine, of course, but she was also conscious that if Henri’s marriage were annulled because there was no heir, he might have to marry someone even less accommodating. Being something of a pragmatist, she made a deal with Catherine, agreeing that on some evenings Henri would spend a few hours in Diane’s bed, then go to Catherine’s for a while, then return to Diane’s bedchamber. We are told that Diane also gave Catherine some practical hints which we guess were not directed toward how she could cook a better pot roast.

This apparently did the job, because the future Francois II was born in 1544, followed by the future Charles IX in 1550, and the future Henri III in 155l, plus several other children..

So Diane did not exactly marry a younger man. She did come close, managing to retain Henri’s interest and love until his demise in 1559. Although Diane did present an enduring distraction, Henri II managed to enjoy some other interests. One of them, unfortunately, was jousting.

Often Henri would host a huge fete, which would customarily involve consuming copious amounts of wine, eating the French equivalent of a bar-be-que, and enjoying, as entertainment, a sort of recreation of a medieval tournament. Now this would have been fine, as long as the King just sat in the stands and barracked for his favorites. But that was not the sort of man Henri was.

So, on one of these memorable tournaments, Henri, always the life of the party, mounted his horse and prepared to have a go at his opponent with what we believe were tipped lances. This did not turn out to be a good idea. Although the sport was aimed at simply knocking your opponent off his horse, something went horribly wrong. Henri zigged when he should have zagged and the next thing he knew he had been nearly run through by a lance, which pierced deeply into his eye.

Henri should have known better than to intentionally expose himself to such danger, because there was really no able heir ready to succeed him. In spite of his heroic efforts to produce children by his wife Catherine de Medicis, not one of his sons was yet of age to assume the throne. This meant, of course, that when he succumbed to his injuries subsequent to the tournament in 1559, he left France in the hands of at least one minor children.

In any case, witha new king on the throne, Diane suddenly found herself persona non grata at court. Since Catherine de Medicis was now in a better position to exact her revenge, being the mother of the king instead of simply an out-of-favor wife, she began to pressure Diane to hand over one of the most important presents she had been given by Henri II - the castle of Chenonceau, something of a sore point between the two women.

Diane loved the castle of Chenonceau. In 1547 Henri II had made her a gift of the castle and in 1551, she had become the Duchess of Valentinois there. If the accounts are correct, she ran the castle with an iron but artistic hand, turning the already lovely area into a garden spot with plants and trees personally selected by her, including such exotic offerings as artichokes and melons. The balls and hunts given by her at Castle Chenonceau became legendary.

By 1552, Henri was spending most of his time, frequently without Catherine, at Chenonceau. It was probably expected that Catherine would want Chenonceau returned if anything untoward ever happened to the man in both women’s lives. But when Henri died, Catherine discovered that Henri had not simply given Diane the use of the property instead, the title to the castle had been given outright to Diane, in spite of legal restrictions which specified that such royal property could not be alienated.

Since it was potentially no longer part of the royal estate, it would be difficult for Catherine to assert a claim to Chenonceau on purely legal grounds. On her side, Diane had not been naive enough to trust that all would be well forever between her and Henri, and she had sensibly set about to make her own castle of Anet quite comfortable just in case.

A period of sparring ensued, but since Catherine’s power was clearly on the ascent, Diane did the sensible thing and decided to yield, however painful that may have been for her. There is some reason to believe that Catherine offered to provide her rival with the castle of Chaumont in exchange for Chenonceau, but in the end, Diane retired to Anet, where she died in 1566, seven years after Henri’s passing.

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Were you aware that affiliate marketing was in existence even before we really had internet affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is income sharing at its best, but to be exactly honest with you this concept has was in existence for many, many years. Revenue sharing is not more than giving other entities a commission for referring people to this business. By no means is this new to the world.

Think about it, how long have firms such as Mary Kay or the many of other similar firms that exist been around? The concept, though minorly different, is essentially the same. They pay their affiliates or consultants as many of them like to be named, a commission to get the word out about their firms.

To be honest with you, these firms were around before I even even knew what the web was all about or even had my first personal computer. Affiliate marketing on the web was first used with the adult industry. Those doing business in the adult industry would pay a commission to marketers as a pay per click type of deal.

online affiliate marketing started outside of the adult industry with the first non-adult website in 1994 with CDNow. With their program, web site owners were able to market various artists and their CD’s linking directly to CDNow and earning a commission on those sales.

The next stage in the Affiliate Evolution came when Amazon entered the scene. By allowing website owners to place text links or banners on their web pages, Amazon could boost profit and pay a commission to the website owners at the same time. Of course, these are the big names, but there were many others who had implemented differing forms of affiliate marketing.

In the following several years, you would find many firms jumping on the affiliate marketing train. Everyone from those with products to adult sites and even to gambling sites began to leverage the power of affiliates. They quickly learned that where others recommended their products or websites, profits were certain to follow.

At the same time, not only were they paying commissions to their old affiliates, but they were finding that other people wanted to join in on the fun as well and wanted to become affiliates themselves. This allowed the affiliate marketing industry to grow at an quick rate.

Today with blogs, communities, and the various technologies available to the world, affiliate marketing is growing and continues to change. To be honest, the Affiliate Evolution will likely continue for a long time, it will continue to growand realize better opportunities and methods. Now, we have the mobile phone which allows for greater exposure and business.

stop any time soon. In fact, look for it to take off in different directions as the world itself continues to change as well. The Affiliate Marketing Evolution continues.

One of London’s two World Heritage Sites, the Tower of London has predominate the south-eastern branchoff of the City of London since 1078 when William the Conqueror laid the first stone of the White Tower to deputizefor the earth and timber castle he’d already built on the site.
William 11 over his father’s avail on the White Tower and between 1190 and 1285 two fortification with towers and a ditch were built around it. A riverside wharf was later added and since then the medieval defences have almostnot been altered.
Until the reign of Henry, the magnate had been content to live within the White Tower itself but as well as strengthening the Tower’s defences, Henry had a palace constructed between the White Tower and the river. He also started the Royal Menagerie, London’s first zoologicalgarden, after King Louis presented him with an elephant in 1255.
In the early Middle Ages. the Tower acted not just as a royal place but also as a store. a mint, an armoury and a prison. After Henry VIII moved to Whitehall Palace in 1529, the Tower’s role as a prison became moreandmore important, with Sir Thomas More, queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Archbishop Cranmer, Lady Jane Grey, Princess later Queen, Elizabeth and Sir Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, just some of the most famous Tudor prisoners.
After the monarchy was restored in 1660, a large garrison was stationed in the Tower of London and the armoury was expanded. For the first time the public was confessed to see the coronation regalia and the armoury.
When the Duke of Wellington became Constable of the Tower in 1826 he was fretful that revolution might spread across the Channel from France and so set about reinforcing the Tower’s military strength. The Royal Menagerie was closed and the public record moved out. A new barracks quickly deputizeford the Grand Storehouse when it burnt down in 1841.
Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, saw things very differently and oversaw the wrecking of some of the newer buildings and the makegood or reconstruction of the medieval towers. From then on the Tower’s gruesome and sometimes ferocious history became little more than a tourist attraction although prisoners were still everyonceinawhile housed here right up to WWII, most notably Rudolf Hess in 1941.
These days the Tower of London is visited by more than two million people a year, with impressive concourse even on cold winter afternoons. With hour-long queues to see the Crown Jewels in summer, you’ll do yourself a endow if you visit out of weather.

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• 2004: I will get my weight down below 170.
• 2005: I will watch my calories until my weight is below 200.
• 2006: I will follow my new diet until I get below 220.
• 2007: I will work out once a week.
• 2008: I will drive past a gym at least once a week.

—–

• 2004: I will read at least 20 good books a year.
• 2005: I will read at least 10 books a year.
• 2006: I will read 5 books a year.
• 2007: I will read some articles in the newspaper this year.
• 2008: I will subscribe to a good humor e-mail list this year.

—–

• 2004: I will pay off my bank loan promptly.
• 2005: I will pay off my bank loans promptly.
• 2006: I will be totally out of debt by next year.
• 2007: I will try to pay off the debt interest by next year.
• 2008: I will try to be out of the country by next year.

—–

• 2004: I will sponsor a disadvantaged foreign child this year.
• 2005: I will sponsor a disadvantaged domestic child this year.
• 2006: I will sponsor one kid for lunch at McDonald’s this year.
• 2007: I will sponsor one of my kids for lunch at McDonald’s this year.
• 2008: I will endeavor to remember my children’s names this year.

—–

• 2004: I will cut my smoking down to no more than one pack a day.
• 2005: I will cut my smoking down to two packs a day — OK, three.
• 2006: I will try to stop smoking pot this year.
• 2007: I will try to stop smoking crack this year.
• 2008: Now that I’ve quit smoking, I’ll try to stop shooting heroin and meth this year.

Source: Jumbo Joke

I thought they were quite funny anyways

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

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