Archive for February, 2008

Of All the Weird Things I’ve Worked On

I’ve had a few weird jobs in my lifetime. I’ve worked for fisheries, synagogues, fast food restaurants, and the park service, each time doing oddball tasks that were seemingly pointless, but nonetheless highly valuable in the grand scheme of how the business operated. Since then, I have worked more conventional jobs, but I still have a summer gig working with New Haven pool builders that my father manages. It’s a great little gig that I spend about four or five weeks winding down doing. It might seem a little odd to spend the hot summer days laying tile when I’m supposed to be on vacation, but these guys are great.
 
If you’ve never worked with the Hartford pool builders or any of the other Connecticut pool contractors out there, then you have no idea just how much fun they can be on the job. You spend the whole time working but, the kind camaraderie that you develop with five other guys tearing up sod and dirt in someone’s backyard will never develop with the five men and women you share an office with who you can rarely, if ever, get to go to lunch, let alone say hi when you show up in the morning.
 

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Starting a Wholesale Diamond Jewelry Business

 

These days, it’s fairly easy to start a business from home. However, you’ll need to put some work into identifying what kind of business is going to be both fun and profitable. You’ll also need to put some effort into getting started.

For example, let’s say that you enjoy jewelry and want to start a wholesale diamond jewelry business. You might find that it’s difficult to locate diamond jewelry at a price low enough for you to make a profit doing wholesale work online. Instead, you might decide to work with other wholesalers to get products that you can resell at retail value through an online storefront.

You’ll need to make many decisions about what items you want to sell online. For example, your diamond store may specialize in a specific brand name product such as JoJo Watches. Alternatively you may sell a variety of brands of one specific product such as diamond stud earrings. This decision will be made based on the jewelry you like as well as what you can buy at a low price.

Once you’ve gotten your product, you need to set up and promote your online store. Make sure that it has high-quality pictures of the products. It should also have a shopping cart for people to easily make purchases through the site. And you’ll probably want to include a blog so you can get traffic to the site quickly. If you enjoy what you do, you should find that it’s not difficult to set up a moderately successful online jewelry business.

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How to Select Guest Chairs

It’s easy to know what type of furniture you want to buy for yourself. What’s not so easy is trying to purchase furniture that is going to be used in your home or office but is designed for guests. For example, you might spend a lot of money on a nice massage chair or office chair for yourself but you’re not going to want to spend that type of money on chairs for guests.

Here are some tips for selecting guest chairs and other items that are intended for use by guests:

  • Consider who your guests will be. You might need reception chairs for office clients that will only be seated in them for a short period of time or perhaps you need living room chairs for houseguests. The type of guest who will be using the chair helps determine the style you need.
  • Stick with one design. Don’t stray too much from the design of your other furniture or the guest furniture will look too out of place.
  • Try to find furniture that can be used in mutliple ways. For example, perhaps your guest furniture can double as home office furniture when you have no guests. This reduces the cost of buying furniture because you’re only buying one item to meet two different needs.

The general rule of thumb to follow is to get guest furniture that is nice but not extravagant.

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Alcoholism Treatment

Is it just me or are there more drunks on the streets? I don’t mean old-time homeless drunks. I mean kids out for a night-out getting drunk and being obnoxious. No wonder there has been more publicity about alcohol rehab programs recently.
 
Alcohol treatment takes the form of some type of rehab program. This is usually built around the twelve-step program introduced by Alcoholics Anonymous in the 1930s. This can either be done in an outpatient or inpatient setting. The goal of this treatment for alcohol abuse is to get the individuals sober and give them the tools to lead a productive life free from addictions of any type.
 
I don’t know what it is that makes people get drunk and indulge in anti-social behavior. I do know that these people should receive alcohol treatment before it becomes a problem in their lives. Before their world spirals out of control and falls apart. I’m tired of having to avoid with drunk people when I am on a night out. How would you deal with this problem?
 

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You Know It Is Time To Quit Smoking When…

My mom is a smoker and has been for years. Despite all of us begging her to quit, despite her chronic asthma, she carries on with her two-pack a day habit. So for my mother, and for any of you other smokers out there, I’ve compiled a list.
 
Here they are, in no particular order, the top five signs that it’s time for my mom (and you) to give up that nasty habit:
 
1)       Instead of getting a really cool Mother’s Day gift (because she loves to cook) like Smartware Bakeware or the Miracle Blade set of new knives, she gets an Ionic Pro Air Purifier. Because her house STINKS!
2)       Because her senses of taste and smell are shot, her cooking isn’t even as good as it once was.
3)       Her grandchildren hold their breath when it’s time to kiss her. She has become the dreaded Smelly Grandma.
4)       Last Christmas, she practically got frostbite on her fingers because she kept sneaking out in the freezing weather to light up.
5)       She complains that food has gotten “too expensive”, but won’t bat an eye to plunk down over 50 bucks a week on smokes.
 
And, of course, there’s the whole cancer and emphysema stuff too.
 
So, to you Mom, and the rest of you smokers… it’s time to be a bunch of quitters!
 

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