Great fixtures

Yes, I know I'm meant to be on a slight pause from blogging, but I came across this great site that has Delta faucets which is what I will be getting put in my new home and I was so happy about it that I had to write about it immediately. Even though we might have a small home, the one thing I want is a great bath and kitchen. There can be no compromises there at all. So all my search focus in on finding apartments that have great fixtures in these rooms.

Slight pause

There will be a slight pause in the blog as I get my internet disconnected today. I will be trying to post from a wi-fi zone if possible, or will catch up with this blog once I am set up in my new home or from my cousin's place at least. Feels wierd to be signing off like this, but will have lots to blog about once I'm back.

Do you still write letters the old fashioned way?

Every time I see a nice mailbox, I wonder how many personal letters a person really gets. The mail seems to be only for coupons, bills and direct mailers and it seems such a shame for them to be put in such great Mailboxes. The kind of mailboxes that are available now are so great that it seems like a total waste for them to be only filled with junk mail. I am still in the habit of writing some letters and cards to specific people, and hope to continue doing so.

Microsoft buys AdECN

Microsoft has bought AdECN Inc, an online ad exchange company in an effort to compete more effectively with Google and Yahoo in online advertising. AdECN was formed in 2003 and is a place for ad networks to auction online ad inventory. Other major players Google and Yahoo are also following similar paths, with Google in the process of acquiring DoubleClick and Yahoo having bought out Right Media just a few months back. According to Microsoft, “AdECN market advertising networks trade on behalf of their advertisers and publishers. This means that AdECN supports, rather than competes with, the various players in the online advertising industry.”

The trick to finding apartments

Finding an apartment is much more work than it seems, and even though it is a fun job, it does require a lot of attention to detail and concentration. I like to work with a couple of real estate agents so I get a wider perspective of the different neighborhoods, since most deal only in specific areas. I also try to maintain detailed notes on each apartment and give it a listing, and even a floor plan, so one can distinguish it from the others later on.

The power of a plant

Since I seem to be only blogging about what's been going on in our lives, about finding apartments, packing stuff etc, I should add that I've also been searching for things to buy for our new home. I found these interesting looking silk trees that look like they will be nice to have. I have to leave all my plants here and that is something I want to replace as soon as we set up home. Going in for one of these will be a quicker way to make our house feel like a home.

Pending work

It's been a hectic few days and I haven't had time to sit down at all. We shipped our stuff yesterday and so now finally I have a bit of time before we leave to get the pending stuff done. What remains is some follow ups on the utility bills, checking some of the meters, returning my router on this internet connection and paying our cell phone bills, which we will do last of all, since they only take 2 hours to process disconnection and one can find out the outstanding bill amount just by sending a text message. Wish all my other utility vendors were this modern in their applications.

Finding a good apartment

Finding a place to live is not always an easy task. We're in the process of moving to a new city as well as a new country and have to still find an apartment, which is no small task to do. In any large city, just to find an apartment that one likes and one that fits in one's budget can be herculean. New York apartments are probably one of the hardest to find, since the competition for good apartments is so tough. When we lived in Providence, RI, it took us a good week to find a nice place on the Eastside, close to Brown University, but still secluded and quiet.

Avalon Communities offers lots of housing options in cities across the US, and is a great place to start a search for apartments. I find that when one lives in an apartment community that is present in several cities, it makes it so much easier when one has to move, since they provide the perfect place to find a new place to stay. The company has built its reputation as only offering the best of quality and construction standards and were even awarded a Builder of the Year award along with several other awards for their buildings.

Get to know your city again with eventful

Have you used Eventful yet? The site is one of the leading websites that lists events in the community and is a great way to really get to know what's happening in your neighborhood or in a city across the world. The company was founded in 2004 and now lists close to 4 million events. The variety of events listed in the site range from political, to sports or concerts; pretty much all kinds of social and community gatherings.

Eventful can also be integrated with other software such as iTunes and last.fm, which tracks all your favorite bands who are heading to town. It is also simple to export events using feeds or calendar widgets etc. You can sign up with a weekly email to get the latest information on local events or stuff you have selected on your watch list. And, of course, the system is completely free.

On decorating our new home

In the midst of all our packing and moving, I've been sneaking a bit of time out for checking out the kind of furniture and furnishings I want to set up in our new home. One of the things that I already decided is to get a set of faux wood blinds for the study, which is sure to give a really nice look. I am going in for a completely contemporary look and wood blinds will go with the look as well, adding a bit of warmth to the overall spare feel.

Handling utility vendors

The last few days have been super hectic as now we're dealing with all our utility vendors as well as sorting, packing etc. I'm quite fed up with all of this already and can't wait to just move and set up our new home. We've got less than a week left now, and with a weekend in between, we don't have much time to take care of everything. I aiming to finish all my outside the home work by tomorrow and then finish up my packing, before the professional packers and movers arrive on 27th morning.

Installing a shopping cart software

Adding an ecommerce software to a site is one of the best ways to expand one's business. As online shopping is growing, it is important to offer online shopping facilities to internet visitors, so that they can make purchases online. Ashop Commerce is the leading provider of shopping cart software which is the essence of any online store. Their award winning system is easy to install and is one of the most affordable options available. With a full team of technical and customer service people to back you, it is a reliable way to introduce shopping options to a site. Its secure system is a great way to open up your market to visitors from across the world, which is the essence of eCommerce. Having a shopping cart on a site, makes it easy for search engines to find your site and its design is such that it can be completely customized to fit the style and look of your site.

Liz Clairborne's expansion plans

Liz Clairborne brands Juicy Couture and Kate Spade will are being targeted to be its main drivers of growth over the next three years. The company plans to invest around $400 million to open more stores, around 300 more stores in the next three years, in both the international and domestic arena. Japan and China are the hot markets that the company is keen on expanding to internationally. "It's about building powerful brands," said Chief Executive Bill McComb, who joined Liz eight months ago, in an interview at the company's analyst meeting in New York. "Power brands command high multiples and high multiple EPS growth."

Creating blogger buzz

There's a new service that connects bloggers and advertisers and its called Smorty, which is the latest entrant to the world of blog advertising, which is a system of consumer generated advertising, one that involves bloggers to review products and services from their personal perspective. The concept is great for those who are good at writing and have a clear style of evaluating a product or service, but if you're not dedicated to doing a good job, it's a short term job as you're not going to get any advertisers asking for you.

On the whole, I definitely think that to be able to advertise on blogs opens up an entirely new market and set of consumers for a marketer. Bloggers working together can create a buzz about a product, service or event in a manner than can rival even the best of marketing firms and this is where the power of involving the average reader and writes comes in.

Abercrombie sends its overstock to Israel

Abercrombie & Fitch announced that its overstock will be sold in Israel by One World Designers, who is an importer of surplus fashion labels. The store that sells Abercrombie overstock will be located at the Outlet Mall in Ramat Hasharon. Several people and companies have tried to bring Abercrombie to Israel, but have not succeeded, so this new venture is a highly awaited deal.

The focus on education

Online education is becoming more mainstream these days and one of the leading elearning institutes, Capella University has announced that it has introduced a new degree program along with eight new graduate and undergraduate specializations in the fields of psychology, education, business, information technology and public safety. Being an accredited university, Capella has always maintained the highest standards of quality and excellence. It's new degree program is a Bachelor of Science in Public Safety. The School of Education has also launched a Special Education Leadership specialization which is to be part of its PhD in Education. The need for training people in the field of education is acute and with this new program, Capella hopes ot encourage more students to join the field.

Pharmacies woo women shoppers

CVS Pharmacy is targeting women shoppers with its new look stores that are brighter and less cluttered. Shelves will also be lowered to make it easier for women to access products, and departments will be color coded to make it easier to shop. Besides cosmetic changes to the stores, the pharmacy is also creating ways to reduce errors in getting prescription medicines. The $250 billion pharmacy industry is on the upswing with the number of baby boomers increasing in age. The pharmacy sector is actually growing at a faster pace then the retail sector in general, at 8% compared to the retail sector's 5% per year growth. Other pharmacy chains such as Walgreen's and Rite Aid Corp are also wooing women customers, who make up 80% of total customers at their stores. Prescriptions and other medicines make up the huge chunk of sales, but cosmetics also add to the profits at these stores.

The world of high end watch bands

The fashion accessory industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the fashion industry and the watch segment is leading the way. Watches, especially high end watches are one of the first major purchases many people make and the watch band industry is also growing thanks to this surge in popularity in high end watches. Watchband.biz, is one of the largest watch band replacement companies for luxury watches and has brands such as HIRSCH, StrapCulture, Bionic and Argent available.

With more than 5,000 high end watch bands in stock, Watchband.biz is based in Germany and the place where you can get the most variety for replacement Watch Bands. The company has made a mark for itself by offering only the highest quality watch bands and from the look of the testimonial page, places a lot of importance on customer service as well. The company really is a perfect example of how a retailer should focus only on what it excels in and perfect it's offering so that customers never even think of going anywhere else. As a retail analyst, I have been quite impressed at their single minded dedication to their craft as well as taking care of their customers.

Compare and shop

Comparison shopping sites are one of the most popular types of sites along with social networking sites. With the variety of sources to buy an item increasing to such an extent, that most consumers spend time online getting feedback from other users and checking prices to find where the best deal is available. Compare4.us is one such site that has prices for a huge variety of items, from computers, to clothes and garden accessories. There are also listing for special deals, discounts and coupons that are available from leading retailers. It's a great source of information of where to buy a product.

JuggleMyStuff: a new site to plan and manage projects

One of the most important things one can do is to organize our lives, both professional and personal, so that we are able to maximise and optimize our time. Calender management and organizational tools are all the rage these days and JuggleMyStuff is one of the latest entrants to the arena. The company is currently in beta and from what I have seen so far, promises to be one of the most user friendly and effective systems.

Using their system, users will be able to access their projects from anywhere with an internet connection, and does not require any downloads or updates. Whether it's a huge professional deal you hare handling or simple to-do lists, JuggleMyStuff will be able to make life simpler. The dashboard lists all that you need to know in one spot and so you can save time and effort by hunting for things, and focus on completing the tasks.

eCommerce Solutions from the experts

Most small and medium businesses underestimate the power of the internet and the online world. For a small company to get a boost on sales it is imperative to have an eCommerce system with shopping cart set up, which will open up sales from all across the country and even the world. It's like having stores all across the world, really and the simplest and most effective way to do it is to go with an expert such as Garry Egan who is a reputed Internet Business developer and consultant, with a specialization in Pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization.

As a highly ranked Internet Consultant, Garry Egan is able to offer a complete eCommerce Solution for small businesses starting at $1800, which includes setting up a shopping cart with VISA integration. Just imagine opening up the doors of your store to customers from around the world, who shop while you sleep! It's a great way to improve on sales from a brick and mortar store and you don't even need to spend time and money stocking and displaying these items. If you're going to set up an eCommerce solution for your company then it's best to go with the best and Garry Egan is one of the experts in the field. He is also on the Board of Directors of the 'Internet Business Developers Franchise' and manages around $10,000 worth of Google Adwords and also a Google Certified Adwords professional.

eBay integrates its content with social networking

Online reseller eBay is making plans to create a social networking forum with its eBay To Go service that allows registered users to add eBay.com content in blogs and other social networks online. The company will be testing eBay To Go at ToGo.eBay.com, where you can create a widget in just two minutes and can add it to your blog. eBay will also be making other changes to its site, such as making it easier to shop and add content. Meg Whitman CEO of eBay, stated that “EBay To Go is exactly the kind of product we think demonstrates the innovation we’re putting against our goals of reengaging our users and making the auction experience fun.”

Searching for an apartment

I've been looking at apartments online to speed up the process of finding a place to stay and the first thing I look for is a great bathroom. If a bathroom is nice and has extras such as bathroom vanities etc, then its definitely worth checking out in person as well. I've always been picky about the kind of place I stay in and unless it has a really nice bathroom and kitchen, I'm just not interested at all. If the rest of the house is not that great, it can always be improved upon but these two rooms are the deciding factors for me and must be only the best quality and style.

Are you listed in PeekYou?

Searching for someone? Try out a new site to find people called PeekYou.com which already has over 50 million people and is steadily increasing. Usually the first thing one does at a people search site, is to put one's own name in, and that's just what I did. Unfortunately, it did not find any results. If I key in my name in Google or Yahoo, I generally have accurate results for myself for the first two pages, but nothing came up here. So, is it just a question of going in and entering details about myself or do I need to brand myself more to be found them them?

In essence, PeekYou is a site where people can find you and your websites, social networking pages, pictures or anything related to you in the online world. While other sites like LinkedIn are for business, this site seems to offer a bit of both, although I would not join for business purposes here, rather just for fun and to get some publicity for my sites.

Organize your life

With our busy schedules, it is absolutely essential to have a foolproof system of creating a calender system that synchronizes with your computer or mobile or ease of access and reminders. As a freelance writer, I get assignments from a number of different sources, each with their own due dates and details, and to keep track of all of them without messing up can take up quite a bit of my time. I did some research on the best calender service that I could install that would easily synchronize with my Google Calender and the answer was SyncMyCal, which has lots of really great features and is really simple to set up, as it uses an automatic zero-click synchronization system between calenders.

How it works is that is adds a toolbar to Outlook from where you can easily coordinate between Outlook and Google Calender. Using the GCal Outlook Sync system, you can create events in your Outlook or Google Calenders and synchronize them using SyncMyCal so that you can access it from anywhere. Even better still, it is possible to publish your calender so your friends and family can see specific events or dates. It's a really great way to simplify your life and free up time so that you can spend it enjoying yourself rather than organizing and scheduling events.

Retailing and social networking: a winning combination

Borders found that its book sales for Harry Potter sharply increased when it invited customers to comment about the book in Gather.com, a social networking chat room. Around 1,000 customers visited the site to leave their comments which led to an increase in books sales. According to Michael Tam, Borders CMO, any titles that are discussed at Gather.com have a positive effect on book sales. Borders has been mailing out a "short list" of books, movies and music titles to registered members of its Borders Rewards loyalty program every week, asking questions like "Who is the biggest Harry Potter fan?" to create interest.

“Social networking and e-mail is helping to get people involved with their passions for reading and watching movies,” Tam says. “Our whole mission is to be the headquarters for knowledge, and by getting people engaged in books and movies they come back to Borders to find out more about them.”

An easy way to be healthy

The trend towards being health conscious in growing and a greater number of people are getting involved. Where at one time the trend was mainly followed by a niche segment of consumers, now it has become more mainstream and has attracted even the regular consumers. There's a new way to ensure that you get your daily dose of nutritional supplements and its called Drink My Daily Veggies, and if you're interested in a try, you can get a free sample of this drink mix from www.drinkyourveggies.com for a limited time.

I think it's a great idea and a real requirement based on the way we live our lives, we're rushing and stressed all the time and it's usually our food that suffers most. To get the most of your day, it is essential to eat the right things, but who really has time to cook at ease these days. My Daily Veggies takes care of this problem in one easy effortless solution. Besides using it as an addition to your daily intake, it's also a really great idea to take it along on camping trips and organic food enthusiasts are simply going to love it as well. There is no added salt, sugar or preservatives and the juices are made from whole dried veggies. They come in packets and all you have to do is to add room temperature water and seasonings of your choice.

A new way to share music

There's a new way to listen to music now. Simplify Media has created a system so that people can access and listen to their digital music and see their digital photos and videos with friends and family. Using their system, it is possible to connect directly from desktop applications, without the need for uploading or downloading files or software. Simplify Media's first version is free and can be configured to any computer from iTunes. So effectively, you can check out your friend's music when they are online and add to your own music collection. The system is completely safe and only people within your group can access files you are sharing and will not have access to other files. The process is also completely adaptable to PCs and Macs in any music format.

Answers.com plans to buy Dictionary.com

Answers Corp. announced that it was planning to buy Dictionary.com for $100 million, which is owned by the Lexico Publishing Group. Lexico also owns Thesaurus.com and Reference.com and in June its sites got traffic of 11.5 million unique hits in the US according to comScore Media Metrix. Answers.com feels that the purchase is worthwhile as Lexico's sites receive three times more page views than Answers.com, while they earn only one third of what Answers.com earns. According to Steve Steinberg, chief financial officer for answers, "The bottom line is -- with three times the traffic and one-third the monetization rate, together with our monetization expertise -- the upside potential is compelling. We will also offer cross-promotion to other Answers sites. For example, this acquisition will allow us to introduce our WikiAnswers property to Lexico's 11.5 million monthly unique users."

Marketing to niche segments

The market for niche products is really picking up and pretty much anything targeted at kids such as kids curtains or bedding easily becomes a hit if marketed right. Most marketers are experts at marketing products and services to children and the kind of marketing campaigns and advertisements is getting really interesting. I love watching new advertisements that are kids centric as it a a great commentary of sorts of the way kids are today.

Are mobile ads viable?

According to a new study by research company Knowledge Networks/SRI called How People Use Mobile Video 2007, it was found that while mobile users are quite willing to watch ads, most mobile ads have nothing to really say to them. An estimated 80% of consumers who use phones and iPods with video capabilities, said that they are open to watching mobile ads if they are able to access free content. Less than 30% of respondents felt that ads were relevant to them.

According to David Tice, vice president and managing director of Knowledge Networks/SRI, “While mobile can indeed be part of larger campaigns, we need to recognize its differences, as well as the ways that different target groups use the medium.” The thing is that most consumers don't really differentiate between mobile video ads and those on the television and ads seen on personal video products are not more influential on users.

Google launches low cost search tool

Google announced that it will be introducing a low cost search tool for small and medium businesses which will cost only $100 a year. The new service will be called Google Customer Search Business Edition and will allow users to search up to 5,000 webpages; while for access to 50,000 webpages the price will be $500. The service takes just 10 minutes to set up and is easy to follow even for those who are not tech savvy. The company had introduced a customized search service late last year which sent ads along with search results. The new system has the ability to turn off the ads and also has a search box that matches the look of the site for improved results.

“Millions of businesses have a web presence but offer users no ability to search their site,” says Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of the Google Enterprise unit that provides the site search services. “As Google continues to make search technology more accessible to businesses of all sizes—first with our appliances and now with hosted search services—we are reducing the hurdles of cost, complexity and time so that small businesses can help customers find what they need every step of the way.”

Losing sight of the focus

It has been a up and down couple of days regarding posting here and even when I do get to post here, I just realized that I haven't been posting much at all on the main focus of this blog, which is technology and communication. So now I need to work extra hard at bringing the focus back to what it should have been. As much as I love to blog and update my blogs regularly, it is a lot of work and what usually happens is that I end up focusing on one blog and the other one gets slightly neglected. Well, hope not to let that happen here and will try to maintain the blog focus.

Get your own news

There's lots of interesting ways to get news and information these days and this is one of the more interesting ones. Thoof is a way of personalizing the kind of news, sites, videos and photographs that you are interested in, information that is automatically sent to your home page for you to read. All items can easily be improved upon and edited by readers. The system behind Thoof is a sophisticated algorithm that anticipates a readers interests and offers information that suits their tastes. Readers will get stories and video clips that they are interested in on their personalized page and read the ones they like.

Thoof will keep track of the kind of stories you are reading and send you similar information in the future. It's a great way to get the kind of news that you want, without having to search for it through hundreds of pages or subscribe to feeds or newsletters that are not really catered to your tastes but have a little of everything in them. Thoof's personalized news seems to be the perfect balance of user generated content sites and news sites, where there is lots of information on offer, but not any information that is specifically catered to your interests.

Internet woes

I was not able to post yesterday and the day before thanks to my ISP, which created total confusion themselves and could not figure out how to solve it. The place where I drop off my bills each month for my ISP, ICICI ATM drop box has suddenly decided to withdraw its facilities and has not informed any customers, so everyone who paid there, has lost their cheques. After talking to several people, I finally found this out and thankfully I was talking to a person who was proactive and said he would immediately connect my internet and send someone to pick up my cheque. Wish there were more people like him in the company.

Generating specific lists

How does one go about creating a reliable list of clients and potential clients? Direct Marketing is the way to go about it and now is the best time to start working on it. The entire approach to direct marketing has changed in the past few years and it has become a central part of every company's marketing initiatives. One of the most popular ways to start off on direct marketing is using Martin Worldwide's ResponseCom system which combines data from several databases using demographic and psychographic factors and creates an entirely new list that will be suited to your product or service. So, if you are in the travel business and need some Travel leads, ResponseCom will be able to get the list for you. It's really as simple as that, and once you have the specific lists that you need, your business is sure to show positive results.

Catching up finally!

It's been quite a day for blogging, and I've been able to update my blog like this after a long time. It sure does feel good to be able to catch up on blogging, since I've really missed it these past few weeks when I have been busy catching up with work and sorting our house out. All that is still going on, but I have been able to take time out today somehow and do some fun blogging. Here's to continuing the trend!!

Fine tuning product needs

I am constantly fascinated by the kind of technological products that are available in the market. Well, not just by the products but by the amount of specialization that we are going into these days to arrive at extremely specific products such as these EMI Shielding products by New England Die Cutting (NEDC). Earlier it was quite acceptable to produce something that was alright for several purposes, but now each product must have something specific in mind or fix a specific problem.

Bearing costs of education

As important it is to get a college education, the loans pile up rather quickly and with payments on the principle amount starting as soon as you graduate, it can seem like an insurmountable effort to keep up with student loans. A good option then is to go in for a school loan consolidation where you can organize and consolidate all your loans and keep the monthly payments at a manageable level. It's a simple way to reduce your total payments and there isn't even any charge to get started, or any application fee or a credit check. It just makes sense to combine your loans and lock in a fixed and lower interest rate than you were earlier paying.

What happened to the rain?

When will it start raining again? It's as if the monsoon has just dissapeared all of a sudden. The last couple of years we've been here, its been simply wonderful weather all through from mid June to September, but this year besides a couple of days of torrential rain, we seem to be getting rain just on and off and the sun shining brightly in between. It would be wonderful to get some of the misty and rainy days back again like the last few years.

Do I hear a vacation calling me?

Now that we're in the middle of a move, nothing sounds better than taking off for a fun vacation and leaving all our work behind. There's no better fun vacation than being a kid again and going to Disney World and all the other 51 theme parks in the Orlando area. Yes, there really are 52 theme parks in and around Orlando, which makes it a dream destination for theme park lovers. The only drawback usually is the high cost of theme park tickets and that problem has been solved by getting tickets at Orlandofunticktes.com, which has the best rates for Disney Tickets as well as all the other theme parks in the Orlando area.

Love the Ikea style

Been checking out furniture items on Ikea online since we have to equip our new home from scratch and I have been able to find lots of really nice stuff. I've always like Ikea for their clean and simple lines in furniture, a refreshingly contemporary look and lots of utility features like hidden drawers and cupboards which are also a huge plus. I've always been keen on the Scandinavian school of design and always tried to buy things that have a modern yet warm feel to them. Ikea gets its just right for me by design book!

Test everything: a great tool to have at hand

I came across a site a few weeks back that I have been wanting to write about. It's called Test Everything and that's pretty much what it does. The system has been created by Jonas John and is an innovative way to fix problems for your site. You can plug in a url or an IP address and test it out for errors. Using this system you check errors for CSS and HTML, SEO tools, web proxies, networking and social service tools, text and image tools and several other aspects as well. It's a great way to get to know of problems that you might have overlooked and can make a difference in how your site appears and definitely worth trying out. I plugged one of the free blog services I use, thinking that since it is all automated I shouldn't have any errors, but it still found quite a few things that needed to be worked on.

Comparing credit cards

Searching for a good credit card to get? Take a look at CreditCardSearchEngine that compares all the most prominent credit cards so you don't have to search for information individually. Their listing of credit cards includes low interest cards, reward cards and even Credit Cards For Bad Credit. Some of the leading credit card companies have credit card offers here, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and major brands such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and the Discover Card. The site is especially useful to compare exact interest rates, annual fees, late payment charges, cash withdrawls and other charges etc.

busy busy busy

Been super busy with work and sorting out stuff at home before our move. I didn't think I would be working at all during this period, but since I keep getting assignments that I can handle by working just 3-4 hours a day, I am taking them on. I have planned to keep my internet connection right till the end as well so I can stay connected with work and family. More on our move later on.

ambitions

Some quotes from Quoteland.com on ambition. It's a topic that has been written about umpteen times but still attracts lots of attention and discussion. I especially like the quote by William Faulkner (the third quote) about competing with yourself rather than contemporaries or predecessors. One often forgets this important fact that one just has to try to improve on oneself and forget about all else.

"We are told never to cross a bridge until we come to it, but this world is owned by men who have 'crossed bridges' in their imagination far ahead of the crowd."
-Anon.

"No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings."
-William Blake

Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.
Try to be better than yourself.
-William Faulkner

"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do."
-Henry Ford

lack of posts

Lack of posts here due to our hectic schedule of sorting, selling, organizing and tying up details. Hopefully it should be sorted out in the next couple of weeks, but the amount of work there is pending is enormous and I'm not getting any time at all to blog at all. So, it looks like until I get settled, it's all going to be quite chaotic and hectic.

We're moving!

Our lives are revolving only around the logistics of our move to a new city and country later on this month. I have started selling things that we will not be taking and have contacted a packing and moving company to take care of shipping some stuff to our destination as well as to my in-laws for storage. Moving home is a tough enough task, but throw in some international shipping and it makes it quite complex. Since we're not taking a lot of our things, as in most of the furniture, our vehicle etc, we have to sell these things as well.

The most important thing you can do is to select the one of the best moving companies that you can afford. A company like Relocation.com can easily reduce your work as well as your stress levels. On our last move we used our packers and movers for auto transport as well, and they put our car in a container to ship it to us. This time since we're moving overseas, it doesn't make sense to take our car and we're just going to buy a new car once we get there. Now that the process has started, I just want to get everything done as quickly as possible and move to our new home and set it up, so we can get back to our regular lives.

And so it starts...

So, we finally started the entire process of putting ads in online classifieds to advertise our things. I put the first ad in the morning and by4pm, I had sold my first few items to a lovely young couple who are getting married this Saturday and will be moving into their own home next week. They have been kind enough to let me keep the items for a while longer as I'm still using them. While these were smaller items, I'm hoping some of the larger ones start going as well, so that we can reduce our headache and stress,

Its all about the marketing

Marketing is what it all comes down to these days. For any product to be successful, it needs to be marketed well and only then there is a chance that it will reach its full potential. LA Management provides exactly this kind of expertise and know how to such an extent that it has gained quite a following. This Multimedia Company Produces Online Videos for small Businesses and shows that it is possible to get it done right even on a small budget. With their range of services such as online marketing, advertising, video production, website design and multimedia production, LA Management is fast emerging as one of the best known companies to take care of all aspects of online marketing.

Having been in the field for over 30 years and have experience in specialized fields such as medical practices, LA Management has become one of the companies taking care of cosmetic surgical practices across the nation. It's definitely a good time to be in the industry as there is no other more vibrant and dynamic industry as are the advertising and marketing industries. The power that resides in these sectors is what controls how products and services ultimately fare. With clients such as the Make A Wish Foundation and Koch Entertainment International, the company is well on its way of creating a reputable name for itself.

Blogs and the shrink!

Another classic from Blaugh.com, this one is simply priceless!! The concept of blogging has really quite become a rage for those who are involved and are not able to step back from constantly posting and feeding the appetites of their readers.

Big Apple to invest Rs 45 crore in retail stores in NCR

Delhi based Grocery store chain Big Apple announced that it would be investing Rs 45 crore. The company will be doubling its stores in Delhi and the NCR area by 2008-09. According to Munish Hemrajani, managing director of Big Apple, "We would invest Rs 45 crore to set up 65 new stores in Delhi and NCR to take up the total number to 100, which would be further increased to 140 by the end of this fiscal." The company plans to expand to other locations such as Karnataka and Gujarat in the next financial year, with 200 stores in Gujarat and 50 in Karnataka.

Bharti and Wal-Mart getting closer to finalization

The long awaited deal between Bharti and Wal-Mart is getting closer to being signed, and is likely to happen “as early as next month”, according to Sunil Mittal. He added that, "There has been a delay, as there are multiple agreements and legal issues we have to deal with, but I don't see it taking longer than that. This also has had no impact on the work in progress. We are hiring people, locations are being identified and work is on through Bharti. We are also working on finalising the formal agreements at the same time."

What's your idea of luxury?

Since we'll be moving soon we've been spending a lot of time thinking about what kind of home we want to have eventually, kind of an exercise in wishful thinking of sorts. While we're not into having a luxury home in the conventional sense, what we do want is a home that fits our lifestyle and offers us comfort and amenities that are on a high priority for us. We're not interested in having a huge fancy chandelier in the foyer, just because all luxury homes should have one as dictated by a decor magazine, but rather we want to have a world class kitchen with the best of equipment; a study/library with lots of space for our books as well as room for our collection to grow. In essence, we want a home that suits our needs, rather than a luxury home that we have to adjust to.

Resurfacing again

Been out of commission since coming back home due to a bad case of the flu. I don't ever remember feeling quite this miserable when I've had the flu before. Finally after 4 days I'm feeling better and able to even consider coming back to the computer to do some work. How I'm going to catch up with almost a week's backlog of work I have no idea but that's what I'm going to have to do somehow. Well, what needs to be done, must be done and that's all there is to it!!