My boss is always putting off giving his employees their semi-annual evaluations. I’m going to suggest that he buy some employee software called Manager Assist that will help him evaluation, track, and control the performance and behavior of his employees. They have a free download he can try out, so he has nothing to lose.
Earlier this evening I was watching the rerun of last night’s The Colbert Report show. He had Crosby, Stills, and Nash on his show. Earlier in the show he was “ragging” on Neil Young, so it was cute how that led into having the rest of the group on his show later. He did a cute interview with them and then they all sang the song “Teach your children well” together. Whenever Stephen Colbert has the chance to sing on his show, I am always very impressed by how well he can sing. They did a great job, and I think Stephen Colbert should cut an album, with the songs he has done with his guests from his show! I’ll bet it would be a huge seller!
I don’t know about you, but I like to watch a lot of the television shows on certain home improvement channels that talk about arts and crafts, gardening, and home improvement. There are a lot of shows dedicated to redecorating a room, or renovating a home. A lot of shows talk about presenting a visually appealing exterior, so that when people see your house they are attracted to it. A lot can be said for first impressions, and the entrance way of a house is one of the most important first impressions a homeowner is interested in making.
The area around front doors is particularly focused on, making a pleasant entryway, with nice house numbering, some planters, maybe a bench, some lighting, are all important to the entryway. But the real focal point of interest, the most important part, is the front door itself. I really like the many different styles of front doors that can be found on the masonite.com website. They have a wide variety of wood, fiberglass, and steel doors to choose from. Although I really like the looks of the doors that have large glass windows in them, for security sake I think it is wise to choose one that has the glass area smaller and away from the door knob.
I like the idea of a pretty glass storm door and then a steel door behind it. You can paint the steel door any color you would like, and steel is harder for a burglar to penetrate. Having recently gotten interested in feng shui, I like the idea that I can paint my door with the right feng shui color to bring the right “chi” to the house. I also like the really cool magnetic hooks you can get to put on the steel door to hang decorations and wreaths so you don’t have to poke any holes in the door.
I was reading an article in the NY Times website about how global warming could melt the ice caps in Greenland, and how that could actually benefit Greenland in the short run. The fishermen are seeing the appearance of warm water cod, and the farmers are beginning to grow broccoli and potatoes, all things that were unattainable up until recently. When the ice continues to melt, more of the island’s mineral resources will be easier to get to, so mining will increase.
SEO optimization is the biggest and most important attribute to have for your website if you want to increase Internet traffic and sales. I was surprised to learn that many people don’t even know what SEO optimization is! So, if you are one of them, in a nutshell, SEO optimization is the procedure in which the natural search engine rankings of your website is improved such that your website will enjoy an increase in traffic.
ROI.com delivers unparalleled ranking results for their clients and has quickly become Australia’s front runner in the search engine marketing and optimization business. Their clients are based in the most competitive online businesses.
I was reading on the Time.com website that yesterday California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law, taking effect January 1, 2010 a law banning trans fats from the entire state’s restaurants foods! Way to go California! I think that all states should follow suit; there is no need for trans fats to be in any of our foods, they are very unhealthy for any and everyone!
Online Backup is an economical and easy way to continuously back up computer files. I’ve been doing a little bit of research on the subject ever since the office computers started acting up a few weeks ago. We’ve become concerned that the computers are going to crash and we are going to lose our data, so we have been backing up to local media every couple of hours, just in case. It has been a real pain in the neck trying to keep everything backed up on local media every couple of hours! Our “IT guy” has been on vacation and his “backup” is too overwhelmed to get to our office quickly, so we’ve been struggling with the situation.
Anyway, I’m going to suggest to my boss that we subscribe to the online backup services of IDrive.com. They provide online storage and backup solutions to small businesses and private individuals at very competitive prices. They provide services for Windows or Mac, and their system sounds reliable and easy to learn and to use. Their basic service starts at only $4.95 a month and includes 2GB of free storage. I don’t think that is going to be enough for the office, though, so I’m going to suggest that we subscribe to their IDrive Pro service which provides 150GB of storage. That should be enough storage.
This morning’s television news was showing a funny story about how a chimpanzee from a Japanese zoo escaped from his cage. Somehow one of his cage doors was left open and/or unlocked. The news story was showing video of the zookeepers trying to recapture the monkey, using tranquilizer darts. That didn’t work out very well, the chimp kept rushing the zookeepers, who were obviously quite afraid of the chimpanzee. They finally recaptured him, using bananas as bait. They should have done that in the first place! You catch more flies with honey!
It’s not too early to be thinking about Halloween Costumes, is it? My younger sister wants me to help her order one of the Teen Halloween Costumes that she found online at Incostume.com. She is planning on going to the big Halloween Costume party that her school throws every fall. Several of her friends are planning on going with her, in their costumes to the local mall first to go trick-or-treating, and then going to the party.
I can’t seem to recall a Presidential candidate ever going overseas to meet and greet and do foreign policy meetings and speeches with other countries. I find it very interesting that Barack Obama has gone overseas and is receiving such a glorious reception! The television news stories, and the Internet news stories are all reporting that he is being greeted with great enthusiasm every where he is going! It almost seems like he is being treated like visiting royalty! I am amazed at this situation. Seems to me that this is strengthening his chances of becoming elected President.
I have a friend who loves to go snowboarding frequently during the winter. Last winter I went snowboarding with him a few times and had a really good time. Last winter I borrowed one of his boards because I wasn’t sure if I was going to like snowboarding well enough to buy a board of my own. Well, he came over this last weekend and was talking to me about buying one of the Burton snowboards that is on sale right now at the christysports.com website. We were checking them out together over the Internet and saw that they have a lot of them reduced drastically, so I am going to have to make up my mind pretty quickly which one I want if I am going to buy one! I’m leaning towards the Burton Feather Snowboard, it is on sale for under $200, and it sounds like a good board for a beginner!
I was surprised to discover when I stepped on the bathroom scale this morning to discover that I had lost ten pounds over the past month. No wonder my clothes don’t fit me anymore! I am going to have to go shopping and buy a whole bunch of new clothes for the fall and winter coming up. If I don’t, I will look pretty stupid with all of my clothes hanging off of my, being held up with a belt!
So, as much as I don’t like to think about buying new clothes, I will be having to be hitting the Internet sales and see what I can come up with for good looking clothes that won’t cost an arm and a leg!
One of the things that I really enjoy hearing about, or reading about, is when people use reclaimed building materials to either build their new homes or to renovate their older homes. For example, every now and then I hear about old barns being torn down and the wood being used to build and decorate new homes. Barn board is very in-demand and expensive! Who would have thought that the wood used to house livestock would be valued later by people in their own homes!
There is a company that is dedicated to helping consumers to get reclaimed wood flooring in their homes. There website is snheartpine.com. They sell beautiful reclaimed heart pine, wormy chestnut, reclaimed barnwood, and a large variety of native American hardwoods. These folks are true craftsmen, and their work is beautiful.
Our family shops at Wal-Mart. When the news about Wal-Mart considering building a store in our town first hit the papers years ago there were a lot of unhappy people. Folks were saying that it was going to kill the small businessman. Then there were articles in the newspaper talking about how to survive the invasion of such a large discount supermarket, advising the “little stores” to focus on servicing products. Well, let me tell you that before this Wal-Mart came into town, there was only one shoe store in town, and I could never find any shoes there that fit my feet. I had to drive over two hours to find shoes that fit! Now, with the Wal-Mart in town, I can buy shoes that fit! And at less than half the price of the shoes I’d been forced to wear for so many years! So I’m glad that Wal-Mart came into town! I DO wish that they had not closed the fabric department recently, however, that made me sad! I like to sew and now there is no fabric store in town to buy fabric and I have to drive long distances to get fabric!
I know it will be a while before I get so old that I will need a walk in tub, but I think that whenever anyone builds or renovates that they should be planning ahead for all of the limitations the geriatric years will bring. The remainactive.com website sells a large selection of different types of walk in tubs to choose from. My favorite one is the “Encore” tub, but I saw a different tub that has a door that swings outward that is supposed to better for senior citizens and disabilities, so I am going to have to give some thought to that before I order.
I think that walk in tubs are the coolest thing since sliced bread. Especially the ones with jets and heaters in them so that you can walk into the tub, fill it up and have a nice warm massaging soak to relax your muscles after a long hard day. What I like the most about a walk in tub is the fact that you don’t take the chance of losing your balance and falling down while having to lift your foot/leg up high over the side of a standard tub. As people get older, doing things like that are more difficult and dangerous.
Did you know that you can hire a Freelance Web Designer using the LimeExchange.com website? The LimeExchange is an escrow-supported service that helps match up computer/Internet freelance experts with consumers that need to have projects done. This is a unique service that charges no fees to the buyer. The buyer registers with the website and posts information about the project that he wants to have done. Then he searches through the provider list and invites some providers to bid on the project. After the providers bid on the project, the bidder picks one and sends the payment to an escrow account. Then the buyer and provider work together on getting the project done. Once the project is completed to the buyer’s satisfaction then the provider gets paid. I think this is a great way to do business - putting the money in an escrow account; that way no one gets cheated!
LimeExchange gets their highly talented and skilled providers from all around the world. In our global marketplace it is getting easier to work on computer and Internet projects with others that are far away from where you are. By getting providers from around the globe, they can tap into a greater talent pool and ensure the cream of the crop!
I was reading in the time.com health and science section that an accidental discovery by scientists have left them with new knowledge that may prove helpful in predicting future earthquakes! They were measuring how barometric pressure effected underground changes and discovered that there were changes shortly before a couple of earthquakes happened! So the scientists are thinking that they may be able to use this technology to help predict earthquakes and give residents advance warning to get to safer places. This is really big news and I’m surprised that I didn’t hear it on television news!
I’ve always taken great care to only put charges on a credit card if I know that when the bill comes in I will be able to pay it in full. I’ve been fortunate enough to always been able to live within my means. Having said that, I know that there are a lot of people out there who are struggling through no fault of their own. Some are victims of accidents that have left them unable to work; some are people who have been laid off from work and can’t find new jobs, and some are people who have just finished their college education and can’t find a job in their chosen field. So a lot of people are struggling right now, and I know that I am one of the fortunate ones. So far. As you may recall, in a recent previous post I mentioned that our office is going to be laying off people so I have started a job hunt to protect myself from financial distress.
There is a clever website called bills.com/iq/ that has been designed to help people learn how financially sound they are. The website does not charge you any money to use it at all. You answer a series of questions about your finances (without having to give any information like your name or address or social security number.) After you answer the series of questions it gives you a “report card” grade of a percentage and a letter (mine was 91%, an A!) and then it gives you hints and tips on how you might be able to improve your financial position, such as Consolidate debt. I like this website; it was easy to use and very informative.
The FDA has lifted the salmonella warning on tomatoes, saying that it looks like the salmonella outbreak has slowed down enough for the ban to be lifted. That’s good news for us tomato lovers! The bad news is that they are warning against eating jalapeno and serrano peppers! Now I don’t eat a lot of hot peppers – I love them but they don’t like me at all, so that warning really is not going to affect me personally, but I do think it is a real shame that we seem to be having so many problems with the quality of our food lately! It makes me want to only buy from the local farmer’s markets. I would love to buy from the farmer’s markets, but sometimes the farmer’s markets are not open when I have the time to shop!