Crazy February weather

February 17th, 2011

It is that time of the year – crazy February! Winter still has hold on us, but spring is fighting to come around. Will it be freezing this week, or bright and clear? It is feeling warm and sunny today in Cincinnati when, just two weeks ago, a major midwinter blast hit much of the Midwest. Not only were many passenger flights canceled, but FedEx and UPS weren’t operating in some areas for a couple of days – which is very unusual. The groundhog saw his shadow, so as legend has it we should have an early spring. In case you didn’t know, the first ever American Groundhog Day was celebrated in 1886 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney Phil is my favorite weatherman, a great meteorologist descended from a long family line.

I don’t think spring will be this early though – we’re certain to get a little more snow this season. We’ll probably have a few more snowfalls in fact, but I expect in Cincinnati we’ll mostly just get a few dustings of snow. It will be enough to get chilly and perhaps icy, but not enough to do any cross country skiing or anything like that.

The public schools and parents will be happy to have no more snow. Whether or not to close schools for a day is often a tough decision. The school system only has a limited number of weather days built in and no one wants to exceed that, but at the same time the schools are responsible for getting the kids home safely once they’re in school. Waiting until the school day is underway and canceling schools early rather than canceling an entire day at first seems like it could be a better idea, but this can be not as simple as it sounds. First, the school system is responsible to get the kids home safely once they are in classes. Second, kids being returned home early may be going home to places with no adult present in the middle of the day. This is obviously a real problem for elementary aged kids. You can’t win for losing.

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Fun fitness equipment: Weight Bench

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iPhone tips and tricks

February 12th, 2011

Everyone with a iPhone wants to be able to use it and type or text on it quickly. Here are some tips and tricks to help you out.

1) Storing words in the dictionary: If you write a complete word out two different times, and then tap on them both times, the iPhone will add the word to its dictionary. It should take just two to three weeks to store your most used words into the iPhone dictionary. Once that is done, you will be a rapid fire typist firing off messages from your iPhone.

2) Rejecting a suggested word: If you want to reject a suggested word, simply continue typing out the word you do want. When finished, tap the finished word to tell iPhone to bug off. If you do want to accept a suggested word, you can do so by hitting return or the space bar.

3) Capitalizing the first letter of a word: When you want to capitalize the first letter of a word, select shift and tap the first letter. There is also a caps lock key if you want to type in all capital letters, or SHOUT as we say online. For doing all caps on one word, I just shift and tap each letter rather than going into all capital letters mode.

4) Correcting a typo: When you select a letter, it isn’t entered in a word on the screen until after you’ve lifted your finger off the touchscreen. Thus, if you find yourself on the wrong letter you can simply slide along until you get to the correct one and then lift your finger off the screen.

5) If you hit the space bar twice, the iPhone will cleverly add a period and capitalize the first letter of the next word.

6) Don’t download too many silly free or cheap apps! You don’t really need iFart, iPee, or iToilet do you? I flush my own toilet often enough – I never worry I’ll forget what it sounds like.

7) For more tips and tricks, read the iPhone user guide – right from your iPhone, of course. Learn how to add a shortcut to your favorite training or shopping website, such as Online LPN to RN or the Long Reach Hedge Trimmer store.

The iPhone is a great tool and a blockbuster seller for Apple. It’s functional, fun, and fits easily in a coat pocket or Wheeled Holdall when you travel.

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So you want to start a business?

February 11th, 2011

Owning your very own business has lots of appeal. Of course, you can flop so it can be scary – and in this economy, a bunch of businesses went under. The bright side is that if successful, you may be able to make more money that way than working for “the man” in a cubicle. It takes money to start out, you know “it takes money to make money”. A business you can start with little upfront investment is to work affiliate sales online. You sell products other people make to customers. These can be physical products, like asics wrestling gear, or information products.

Your referral link is how you get paid. This can be a nice way to start off to learn your way around the internet and learn more about your industry. You can also promote CPA or cost per action offers, which means things like referring a customer to call a local law firm or contact a school for heavy machinery training.

Website promotion is not free, but shouldn’t break the bank. Pay per click (PPC) can bring traffic fast, but these programs can get quite expensive if you aren’t careful and Google has gotten finicky about their terms of service with Adwords. It is generally better to stick to free traffic and marketing through forums first, then try PPC if you’re feeling confident and you have a test budget.

If you are knowledgeable about a topic that others are interested in, you might do great by adding a newsletter on your website. The first step is to gather a list of email addresses of subscribers. You’ll want an autoresponder for your newsletter. Subscribers who want the newsletter will opt-in, then you send the information. It isn’t hard to get people to sign for a free newsletter on industry news.

Once you have your list, schedule your email program so it is consistent and relevant to the needs and interests of your audience. Devoted advocates spread the word to their friends, relatives and office chums. And it doesn’t cost you a penny for all of this free advertising. If you do your job well, your reading audience will not only re-order they will become advocates.

Researching more about what all an affiliate program can do for you and for your financial growths is truly important, so dedication and remaining very determined is the key to your successful future. Once you’ve had some success, you can start marketing your services to others like Andrew Woo is doing.

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Ideas for gift baskets

February 11th, 2011

Gift baskets are marvelous presents for virtually everyone on your list for any type of occasion, be it a birthday or an annual business event. Although you might think of gift baskets as impersonal, in fact they can really be a creative gift for anyone to receive – especially if the giver has personally prepared it. Prepackaged gift baskets often seem impersonal or something that your recipient won’t want to receive because they may only include generic items, such as hot tea packets, chocolate candies, and other types of food or candy that your friend may not even like in the first place. However, if you make one yourself and include things you know the person likes – because you actually do know them – then you’ve got a good shot at a home run with your present. After all, you want to be sure that it is well received!

However, the typical problem with gift baskets lies with the fact that many folks are simply stumped over what items to choose to put in their gift basket for whomever they’re buying. On the other hand, if you are buying for a friend then presumably this person is not a total Scrooge and will be reasonably easy to please. Nevertheless, since there are so many people who find themselves at a loss for ideas once they start making their own gift baskets, here are a few suggestions that you might be able to use:

DVDs can be great. You probably know if your buddy likes science fiction or war movies or nature documentaries. If your friend likes a particular actor or actress, try to find one featuring that person that he doesn’t already have. Use common sense, though. Don’t offer a DVD about a fat loss solution as a subtle hint that your bud needs to lose the beer gut. If he does, he knows it already.

Tickets to local events or restaurants are another prime choice. If your friend likes live theatre, you could include tickets for the two of you to attend a special show. You could also make custom tickets for a night out to a nice restaurant.

Pet gifts can also be fun. If your friend is a pet lover, be sure to include his special buddy in your gift basket. Remember though that if your friend is an organic/granola nut person then he probably also wants foods for his animals that don’t have certain preservatives or are “all natural”. In this case, for eats you might be able to get something like Marvalous supplements they can both enjoy! Toys are usually safe, too. Squeakies for dogs that like toys are good and things with feathers on them for cats are almost always appreciated by their recipients.

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Making web videos is easy

February 5th, 2011

I’m sure you’ve seen some web videos you thought were pretty amazing. People have recorded their vacations, Hot Air Balloon Flights, trips to the zoo, their cats playing, and more. Getting started making web videos is easier and cheaper than many people think. Screen capture software to make Powerpoint based videos is inexpensive and have trial versions available. Cameras, like other electronic gizmos, are getting cheaper every day. Choosing the right type of camcorder is important, so it is best to invest in a decent one with good resolution, an acceptable on board microphone, and simple exporting options. The Flip and Zi8 have been two very popular ones costing less than $200.

Cameras with separate SD cards, like the Zi8, are great because you can add more memory by just changing the card. SD cards for cameras range from about $20-$100 for 4-32 Gb capacity these days and can be bought online or in any office supply store or electronics shop. Camcorders with SD cards allow you to record stunning images, however, it is how you get the videos onto your computer for editing that makes them so handy. After recording everything that you need, simply attach the camcorder to your computer through a USB connector and your computer will upload the videos into its own hard drive. After completing this step, you are ready to begin editing. Software like iMovie for Macs works well. Many cameras include some simple editing software with them that works on a PC running Microsoft Windows. The equipment is all straightforward to use, but if you have difficulty you can always keep a troubleshooting guide handy on your best ereader.

Another piece of equipment you may want to add is an external microphone. While every camcorder comes with a built-in one, they are not all created equal and an external one with some wind shielding is usually preferable if you film anything outdoors. You do not have to buy a $300 microphone in order to get good audio quality! I’ve heard that sight and sound makes up for 85% of the information that we absorb around us. I don’t know about that, but I do know that web videos with wind and other background noises in the audio are annoying. The Flip actually has a pretty good built in mic system and the one for the Zi8 is okay, too. The Zi8 mic works best in a quiet, indoor environment.

What are you waiting for? Book your trip through monarch holidays, take your video camera along, and show us all the sites!

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Learning to cook

February 4th, 2011

Learning to cook at least a little is a necessity once you move out of your parents’ house. Luckily, one can start with simply boiling water to make a hot dog. You can microwave heat a bun. You can also whip up spaghetti like this and use a microwave to heat the sauce. You can heat precooked meatballs in a microwave, too, and sprinkle some cheese on top of the sauce to make it look fancier. Fondue can be a next nice step up. As with other things in life, start simple and work your way up!

Once you get more brave and decide to buy a cookbook for newbies, look for one where the recipes have a rating for their degree of difficulty plus a quick table showing what cookware you need to make the dish and how long it takes. A new chef guide advertised for starving students, aimed at those recently out of the nest, should be ideal. Rome wasn’t built in a day and it will take quite some time to build your kitchen and your culinary skills.

The good news is that once you’ve learned the basics of cooking it is unlikely that you will ever need to relearn them. This means that you can constantly build up and expand your cooking skills. As you learn new recipes and improve your culinary skills and talents you will discover that preparing your own meals from scratch is much more rewarding than preparing prepackaged meals that are purchased from the shelves of your local supermarkets.

You will also discover as your experience and confidence grows that you will find yourself more and more often improvising as you go and adjusting recipes to meet your personal preferences. If you prefer more or less of ingredients or want to make a recipe a little more or less spicy in flavor you can make simple adjustments along the way in order to achieve this goal. In other words you will begin in time to create recipes of your very own. And that is something you won’t necessarily learn when it comes to basic cooking skills for beginners but you would never learn if you didn’t master those basic cooking skills.

Before you know it, you’ll be cooking for others on road trips with your Coleman roadtrip grill and whipping up great desserts with your cuisinart ice cream maker.

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The 2011 Super Bowl is upon us!

February 4th, 2011

The 2011 Super Bowl will soon be here at last and it promises to be a great game. Cincinnati fans can forget the Bengals’ miserable season and put off until tomorrow the offseason of discontent with Carson Palmer. The Lombardi trophy will go to either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Green Bay Packers, two franchises with great winning traditions in the NFL. Both teams defenses are absolutely punishing. They are fast and can rip the ball away from you in the blink of an eye. At the same time, their offenses are quite capable thank you very much. Their quarterbacks and receivers are working well together and they’ll aim for the long ball. So, will it be a low scoring affair or a shootout? I think it will be low scoring in the first half and then open up in the second. Who will win? It is anyone’s guess at this stage, but I’m putting my money on Green Bay.

Fans will watch for the game, but the Super Bowl can be entertaining for commercials. There is lots of money at stake – and major bragging rights – for designers of leading Super Bowl ads. I’ve seen previews of some spots already and one of the best is probably going to be one made by an amateur crew. If you see a running pug on your screen, keep watching! The end is glorious. If you like kids, you might also like the cute little Darth Vader in one of the car commercials.

The Super Bowl half time show is also a great gig for a band. Black Eyed Peas will be the feature act in 2011 and we all hope for a good show. I know how I’m going to enjoy the show – I’m going to whip out my cuisinart ice cream maker and have some home brew ice cream!

I guess the organizers were ready to get a little more “hip” to younger viewers again. After the famous wardrobe malfunction that Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake shared during their halftime act, organizers next tapped Paul McCartney. They obviously figured he would be entertaining – he was – and also safe (he was that, too). Usher and Slash are also supposedly heading to Dallas. Speculation is that they’ll be special guests in the halftime show with Black Eyed Peas. We know they’re not going for the anthem, since Christina Aguilera is already set to sing it before the game.

Once the game is over, of course, we can all relax for a week and then start looking for miken softball bats, gloves, and balls as we get ready for slow pitch leagues in the spring.

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NFL season for Cincinnati fans

October 17th, 2010

Like many of us living in Cincinnati, I was anxious for this NFL season to start. The Bengals had high hopes that Terrell Owens would mesh with Chad Ochocinco and quarterback Carson Palmer to light up the scoreboard against opposing defenses, but the team has now lost two straight games. The AFC North is a rough division to play in this year. The Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers both look strong. Pittsburgh scored an important division win today against the Cleveland Browns and the Steelers currently lead the AFC North Division by a narrow margin over the Ravens. They’ve also got their starting quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, back in action after he was suspended for several games by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for his unsavory off-field activities. It is going to start looking like a very long season here in the Queen City unless the Bengals can score a win next week. We hope we don’t all have to just start looking for anger management activities to help us make it through the season and up to the draft next year!

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Update: Our beloved Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Atlanta Falcons by the score 39-32 on Oct. 24 and they are now 2-4.

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Animal Planet show DVDs

October 17th, 2010

Meerkat Manor was one of my favorite shows on Animal Planet. It has been discontinued, but you can get all the episodes on DVD. I had not seen the show its first season. In fact, I didn’t see it until the start of the 3rd season. I quickly fell in love with it, like many who watched did. Personally, I liked some of the ads for it too like the one featuring Zaphod as The Roving Male. This was after his mate Flower’s untimely death, an event that was crushing to many fans of the show. Flower was indeed a remarkable meerkat and should probably have continued to lead her mob for at least several more years. The show followed the real life existence of wild mobs of meerkats, though, and snakebites were – and are – a fact of life in Meerkat Manor.

Dog food comparisons, Puppy Potty Training

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Traditional toys at Entertainment Junction

August 22nd, 2010

Model trains o scale are the most popular type of electric toy trains and have been for years. They’re fun for kids and adults as well. Some adults just like to bring them out around Christmas time “for the kids” (right!), while other folks like to build elaborate indoor displays and run their trains all year round.

If you want to learn more about trains in Cincinnati, head over to Entertainment Junction to see the world’s biggest indoor train display. In fact, it is a whole family entertainment center built just around trains! They’ll host birthday parties and other large groups for special events. A special museum on site is dedicated just to the history of trains. You won’t want to miss the hobby store on site, Junction Hobbies. They’ve got big kid and adult model trains as well as the area’s largest Thomas Train toys for the younger set.

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