02.24.07
Preparing a house For Sale
1) Perform a house inspection. Repair the major items that may put questions in a purchaser’s mind. By having an inspection done prior to the sale you’ll be prepared. Don’t forget to repair those little items that have been left undone such as painting the trim, patching cracks and oiling squeaks.
2) Clean and pack. Clear the house of as much clutter as possible. A new purchaser will be looking at how the rooms will fit into their lifestyle and not how you have used them. Too much stuff can make a room look smaller and having personal processions, such as family pictures and mementos may take the purchaser’s attention away from the assets of the house.
3) Organize the rooms for the best impact. You will want to place the furniture to highlight the focal points of the room.
4) Make the floors as attractive as possible. Even spotless floors may look bad if they are dated or worn. Replacing an old worn carpet with a newer one may be the best option. If that’s the cast use a neutral shade and style.
5) The outside of the house is just as important as the inside. It’s a good idea to clean the yard of all debris, trim the bushes and trees, and plant some nice flowers. Don’t forget to check the driveway and repairs cracks. Have this done before having the brochure picture taken. This many times is first impression that many buyers have and you want to make a good one.
6) Set a fair price. Look at the market values of houses that just sold in your area, compare them to yours and set a value that is fair for both you and the buyer.
02.23.07
Deciding on a move to a new job
1) Location – Is traveling involved? Is the job in a city and you are a rural person? Is it near home? All of these should be considered when looking at a new job. If you need to move is it to some place you would want to live.
2) Assignment – What kind of work will you be doing? Is it something you like? Don’t move to a job where the assignment is not something you enjoy, with hopes that you will be able to do something else later. It may never happen.
3) Relationships – It’s not uncommon for us to spend more time with co-workers than with our families. We need to be able to work with them. If possible meet as many of your co-workers as possible prior to making the jump. The working relationship at your current job may be better than the one you are considering.
4) Company value – How is the company you are planning to join doing? Are they financially strong or in danger of going out of business? Make sure that you do this research before jumping ship, or you may find yourself out of work due to job cuts.
5) Work Time vs. Private Time – Some people are perfectly happy working a 40 hour job, just so they can have the rest of the hours in the week to do what they want to do. Sometimes the statement ‘I work to live’ may be all you need.
6) Financial – How does the pay of the new job compare with that of the old. While sometimes you may move to a new position simply because of a great increase in pay. How does the pay relate to all of the above considerations?
02.22.07
About George Washington
1) George Washington was born on February 11, 1732. When England adopted the revised Gregorian Calendar in 1752, Washington honored his birthday on February 22 the date that February 11th would have fell had they adopted it before his birth.
2) The young George Washington made a list of 110 ‘Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.’ These rules were based on a 16th-century set of precepts compiled for young gentlemen. The rules mostly are concerned with details of etiquette, offering pointers on such items as how to dress, walk, eat in public and address one’s superiors.
3) Washington, at the age of 22, was involved in one of the first battles of the war known French-Indian War. During the war he raised to the rank of Colonel of the Virginia Regiment.
4) On January 6, 1759 he married Martha Dandridge Custis Washington. Together they did not have any children, but they raised Martha’s two surviving children.
5) When fighting broke out in 1775, Washington appeared at the Second Continental Congress, dress in full uniform, announcing he was ready for war. When they created the Continental Army, he was named commander-in-chief after being nominated for the post by John Adams.
6) Washington was elected unanimously by the Electoral College in 1789 to be President of the United States. He remains the only person ever to be elected president unanimously, a feat that he duplicated in the 1792 election. When he turned over the office to John Adams in 1797, he became one of the first leaders to volunteeringly turn over power to his successor.
02.21.07
Screen formats (Aspect Ratios) for motion pictures
1) 1.33:1 – Standard television screen.
2) 1.37:1 – Movies made prior to the 1950’s when widescreen formats were introduced.
3) 1.66:1 – Popular widescreen format in the 50’s and 60’s.
4) 1.78:1 – Format of 16×9 that’s on HDTV sets.
5) 1.85:1 – Popular format for many movies.
6) 2.35:1 – Super widescreen format used by many movie ‘epics’.
02.18.07
About DTV
1) DTV stands for Digital Television. Broadcasters are able to deliver within their licensed frequencies sharp pictures and sound. In DTV you will either receive or not receive the signal so there will no longer be ghosts and fussy pictures.
2) HDTV (High Definition Television) is defined as high resolution programming in a widescreen format. HDTV has an aspect ratio of 16 by 9 (the older TV standard is 4 by 3) and having resolutions up to 1080 lines. STV (Standard Television) has 480 lines.
3) A broadcaster can offer one High Definition video programming or multiple Standard Definition programs within their allocated spectrum.
4) By March 2007 all televisions and other devices that can receive television signals (such as VCRs) will be required to have digital tuners.
5) DTV sets may not necessarily display programming in full HDTV format. Some integrated sets and monitors will display DTV in lower-resolution “enhanced definition” or “standard definition” format.
6) The US congress on February 1, 2006 passed a law setting Feb 18, 2009 as the target date that all broadcast TV stations will stop broadcasting Analog programming.
02.17.07
About Presidential Impeachment
1) Impeachment is defined as a criminal proceeding against a public official by a legislative body.
2) The United States Constitution in Article II, section 4 provides that “the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
3) Article I, section 3 of the Constitution give the House of Representatives “sole Power of Impeachment,”.
4) According to Article I, section 3, “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present.”
5) The penalties for impeachment in the Constitution in Article I, section 3 are “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.” The Constitution also in Article II, section 2 denies the president from granting a pardon “in Cases of Impeachment.”
6) Few federal officers have been impeached. The first was Supreme Court Judge John Pickering who was removed in 1803. Two United States President have been Impeached. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, both were acquitted. the house was in the process of bringing impeachment charges against Richard Nixon, when he resigned the office of President.
02.16.07
When developing a website
1) Take a trip on the Information Highway. Look at what others are doing to get an idea for your site. Determine the amount of pages that you may want and remember that users generally do not click through more than 2 pages to get the information for which they are searching.
2) Determine the price you want to pay. The cost for development will depend on the complexity of the website as well as experience of the designer. How often will your site need updating? You want your users to come back so you don’t want a static site. The cost for updates needs to be factored into the total cost.
3) If hiring a web designer, check the references. The references should include both, client satisfaction as well as site url’s. Look at the sites they’ve worked on. If they don’t look pleasing to you, you probably don’t want them to develop yours. Also have a detail written estimate
4) In the agreement determine who shall hold the copyright for the site. While all developers will agree that the text on your site is yours, the template they may want to keep as their own. All copyrights should be yours. Make sure you receive from them a disk with the source code for your site and an agreement that after their contact expires you can go to another developer and use the same template.
5) Determine where will the web site be hosted. Some developers also offer web hosting. You may also want to consider having your own web server. If you don’t own your domain name and the developer is registering for you, make sure it’s registered in your name and that you have the information required to go to the registration site to make changes as needed.
6) Consider using a student. Many high school and college students are developing websites for personal or use. By hiring them to do your website, you may be able to pay less and get the same results as having a professional develop it.
02.15.07
More Good Four Letter Words
1) Home – shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household.
2) Luck – the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person’s life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities.
3) Warm – having or giving out a moderate degree of heat, as perceived by the senses.
4) Cold – having a relatively low temperature; having little or no warmth.
5) Rain – water that is condensed from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and falls to earth in drops.
6) Good – satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree.
Definitions from dictionary.com
02.14.07
Quotes of Wisdom from Star Wars
1) Episode I: Yoda: “Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.”
2) Episode II: Anakin Skywalker: “I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, rough, irritating and it gets everywhere”
3) Episode III: Padmé Amidala “So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.”
4) Episode IV: Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Who’s more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?”
5) Episode V: C3PO: “The city’s central computer told you? R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer.”
6) Episode VI: Obi-Wan Kenobi: “you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”
02.11.07
About Abraham Lincoln
1) Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hodgenville, Hardin County, Kentucky. His father, Thomas, was a Kentucky frontiersman, his mother Nancy, died when he was ten.
2) He marries Mary Todd after a long courtship on November 4, 1842. They have four boys, but only one lives to adulthood.
3) On May 22, 1849 Lincoln is granted U.S. Patent No. 6,469 for BUOYING VESSELS OVER SHOALS. He is the only president ever granted a patent.
4) In the 1860 election he receives on 40% of the popular votes, but is awarded 180 of the 303 electoral votes. The other candidates were Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge.
5) The Portrait used as basis for the Five Dollar Bill was taken by photographer Matthew Brady in February of 1864.
6) On April 14, 1865, while attending the production of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre, he was shot John Wilkes Booth. He dies at 7:22 the next morning.
