Awards for Everyone

Creating awards and recognition

Category

Traveling to trade shows

Posted in May 7th, 2010

When traveling to a trade show whether to participate in the conference or go for educational purposes you can use the services of Business Travel Agents to help with all the planning and logistics. While most travel companies will handle pieces of the trip many of the business travel companies will handle everything from ground transportation to making sure that you have your name badge and lanyard. It seems that most meetings I attend you are given some kind of id badge or name tag in order to help conference security and vendors to know who you are. While the most common use of id badge holders may be for identification at conventions or large trade shows there are many other day to day uses that we have uncovered.

* Medical Staff identification – in hospitals and clinics your id card needs to be visible to other staff and patients as well as protected from fluids that are common place in a hospital or clinic
* Federal and State government identification – staffers and employees of both state and federal government are dealing with sensitive information and having their id’s visible and possibly tagged with various colors to help security and others know who should be in designated areas.
* Conference attendee identification – These id cards are typically used to identify the participants and can help trade show vendors see who is visiting their booth so that they can follow up after the visit with possible prospects id cards at a trade show are more used as a name tag and introduction to who you are. This is where conference organizers will order wholesale lanyards that will then be customized with the conference name or the name of the platinum sponsor.

Popularity: 2%

Maintain your youth

Posted in May 7th, 2010

Celebrity use of plastic surgery has been well publicized for years. Celebrities are the cult leaders of the no-sag, no-bag, no-wrinkles people. More than 10.2 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States in 2009, up 11 percent from 2008. Stars such as Kelly Osborne are Barely in her twenties, Kelly Osbourne has already made up her mind and declared she would like to have plastic surgery because, you know, she wants to fit into the Hollywood mold of fake appearances. There is even the infamous dad Jon Gosslin that was given hair loss products early in the shows first years. This could have been a boon for hair loss products as stars and even every day consumers look to enhance their looks.

There are even sites that specifically follow the changes that many reality stars go through from the beginning of their new found fame to where they are today. Fans can follow along through popular sites like Twitter and facebook and then vote on the ones that feel have made the most changes and which ones that have gotten worse. It appears that more and more people are able to obtain their 15 minutes of fame thanks to simple changes in their looks.

Popularity: 1%

Boarding your pets

Posted in April 25th, 2010

Pet owners have a great resource when traveling either with or without their pets, to locate dog kennels across the country. For owners, a  boarding kennel can provide the surrounding it will need while their owners are away. Many of the providers can provide helpful tips on how to choose and locate the right “home away from home” boarding kennel for your pet. Many of them are able to take care of your pets medical needs if there are any while you are gone. Most of boarding facilities will have access to vets to help if your pet needs to take vitamins or supplements like cosequin DS which is used for joint health in older dogs. You value your pet, so why rely on some unknown, unqualified person to provide care while you are away.

retrieverWhen deciding on placing your pet in a boarding kennel, it is recommended when possible to visit the location unannounced to see the site and see how things are run. Look for the ABKA (American Boarding Kennel Association) membership plaque, and ask if you do not see one. How close are thedog kennels to the other animals? Ask when they clean and how often? Ask what types of playtime the dogs will receive? And very important to ask if the facility requires that all pets have their most current immunizations, as to not put your trusted pet in harmful situation. So a little homework, and research will help you relax and enjoy your time away knowing that your pet is in good hands.

Popularity: 3%

Top guitar players

Posted in April 1st, 2010
Published in Entertainment

kranks2A while back I was looking at Guitar World’s 100 Greatest Guitar Solos and it got me thinking about how far back these guys go. I was surprised that Money For Nothing by Dire Straight was not in the top 10 on that list. I think that is one of the best guitar solos I have ever heard. It starts at the very beginning of the song and that’s guitar playing to me. Another song I like is Sweet Child O’Mine by Guns N’ Roses and that guitar is at the beginning too. I like both of those songs in the way they take off right from the start with the guitar. You can picture the stacked Amplifiers that each one of these artists would use to mesmerize their fans and bring their music to life.

Their top 10 list goes as follows:

1. Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeplin

2. Eruption by Van Halen

3. Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

4. Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd

5. All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix

6. November Rain by Guns N’ Roses

7. One by Metallica

8. Hotel California by the Eagles

9. Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne

10. Crossroads by Cream

Those are 10 great songs and its hard to deny that any of those songs don’t belong on the top 10 list too. They are some really great guitar players that are playing those songs above and I think a lot of us would consider them the best of the best. You know you have to include people like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix when the word guitar is just mentioned. Eddie Van Halen is certainly someone that can hold his own and is a hero to a lot of guitar players. You don’t drop too far down the list when you start naming guys like Slash from Guns N’ Roses, Jimmy Page from Led Zeplin, Kirk Hammet from Metallica, Randy Rhoads with Ozzy Osbourne, and David Gilmour with Pink Floyd. Some bands have two great guitar players and you usually have to talk about both if you talk about one. Joe Walsh and Don Felder are both great with the Eagles. I know many people love Gary Rossington from Lynyrd Skynyrd, but you have to include Allen Collins too from Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Popularity: 3%

Improve your storage

Posted in December 19th, 2009
Published in Entertainment

It’s handy to have a storage shed or some type of building at your home. I think we all need a little extra space and it’s just not possible to just keep sticking everything in the basement or attic. I seen some sheds that are actually steel buildings and these would be perfect at my house. A great place to store extra tools and I would like to stick a boat in it too. I don’t have a boat yet, but I am looking for one. I was wondering where I could store one at for the winter. I do know that you want to make sure that drainage around the building needs to be done correctly or you could end up with some water issues. You can find a french drain company that can help in the installation and design of a system that can help carry water away from the structure and hopefully avoid water in the shop. One of these steel buildings would be perfect for a boat and I would still have room to store my tools and things I wanted to keep out of the rain. If anyone has one of these steel buildings, I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on them. They seem like a good value if they will last a long time. They look very sturdy and the way they are built, makes it seem like they would be around for a lifetime.

Popularity: 2%

Printing labels that work

Posted in December 18th, 2009
Published in Entertainment

Article provided by MaverickLabel.com, providing online label printing quotes, online proofs and online ordering to make quick work of your label projects. Ordering barcode labels, stock labels or fully custom labels has never been easier. This information and active links must be included with any placement of this article.

Material Specifications:

Dome: This top layer of the Dome Label consists of polyurethane that is poured, as a liquid, over the ink, onto the material. The Dome takes a period of time to cure to the material and harden into a crystal clear protective coating that gives the decal the high-end look that customer’s notice.

Ink / Color: Dome Labels and Decals are digitally printed, four color stickers. They are usually built with spot colors and Pantone® colors from CMYK. When requesting pms matches, request a sample proof to verify color match.

Adhesive: Most dome sticker and decal materials come with a 2 or 4mil acrylic permanent adhesive. Versatile and general purpose, it has excellent adhesion to a wide range of surfaces including metals and most ABS plastics. Excellent initial tack. Minimum application temp is 60ºF; service range is -40º to +180ºF.

Liner: The liner holds your dome decal flat and protects the adhesive until it is ready for use. Most dome labels ship flat on a coated paper liner or clear poly liner. Also available: a specific liner, domes supplied on rolls or domes that have a built in curve to be applied to rounded surfaces.

What types of shapes can be domed? Any shape without square corners or without corner radiuses less than 0.10″ can be produced. Complex construction is available as well. There are many other shapes that are available with cutouts, embossed domes, shapes containing transparent windows and others.

Transparent and opaque domed labels: Transparent inks can give your dome label an attention getting “pop” that your customers will notice. Transparent inks allow the sheen of the label material to show through the inks, making the inks look like they are shiny. This is most apparent with the silver chrome material.

Printing Process Description:There are many components that come together to form a crystal-clear, full color, three-dimensional (3D), flexible Dome Label. The components are bonded together to form a high quality decal that will last many years. They are listed below.

Popularity: 3%

Findg the right stuff for your wedding

Posted in December 11th, 2009
Published in Entertainment, Lifestyle

The wedding planning and catering industry is a multi-billion dollar business. If you could find a special and unique way to cater to some part of the wedding or maybe even the whole wedding, I think you could make good money. There are companies like the Orange County Catering company called the Bashful Butler who specialize in larger events and weddings. Competition in sections of a wedding is competitive, but with a little thinking, I believe it would be easy to make money out of people getting married.

Maybe you could combine a couple of things that would make planning easier with you, instead of hiring several different people to do it. You have a baker for the cake and you have the rehearsal dinner, right? Now those are two separate things that 2 people or businesses get to take advantage of. Now if you make food and could serve it for a large group of people, you might as well learn how to make a few cakes too. I wouldn’t stop with just these two portions of a wedding. Maybe adding in a 3rd service, like a band, dj, music, or entertainment area? You have a restaurant, what’s the harm in adding a stage or sound system? Let your customers listen to music while they enjoy their dinners. You could find a way to put your music sound system on wheels and be there for the bride and groom for their party after the ceremony. Now you have a company that can bring in the music, supply food, and bake the cake as well. So you could have your cake and eat it too, if you were in the wedding business!

Popularity: 3%

Share your hunting stories

Posted in November 26th, 2009
Published in Entertainment

Elk and deer season is starting to get underway here in the Pacific Northwest. There are multiple hunting forum sites like at outdoorbasecamp.com where you can read and share stories on location and what gear you should be taking on your trip.  Most of the game is back up in the woods and underbrush so being able to see and identify your targets is tougher earlier in the season. You can see them much better after the big maple and hickory nut trees lose their leaves. I have the best luck during the early morning hours or just before dark. They aren’t too active during the middle of the day, but right after the sunrise and just before the sunset you can find them jumping and running from tree to tree. I think a small shotgun is the best way to go, but you can challenge yourself and use a .22 caliber gun. Shooting squirrels with a 22 will help get you in practice for the deer, so it will seem easier when you break out the  rifle scopes. I think all hunters are glad to see the cooler days finally getting here and we can start strolling out into the woods more and enjoy some fall hunting.

Sharing your hunting stories around the campfire is something that most will remember for years to come. It is interesting reading about those same stories online and then have people comment on your post with similar types of events. I do look reading through some of the forums to see what wild and wacky things happen when you are out on a hunting trip.

Popularity: 3%

Playing poker with the guys

Posted in November 24th, 2009
Published in Entertainment

How I miss my days of playing Texas Hold’em with the boys. Me and a friend use to go out and play poker at a restaurant. It was pretty fun to do and really didn’t cost a lot either. You would pay $10 to get in and they would let you buy more poker chips for $5 up until 9 PM. Once that time came, they would make an announcement about the last buy-ins. Most of us would usually buy more chips if we needed them or not. Just so we could play Texas Hold’em in the wee hours of the morning. Most of these poker tournaments would last past midnight.

facebook_chipsSince it is illegal to gamble online here in the state of WA, like it is for most states in the U.S many people are turning to online sites like facebook to compete against their friends for free.  We have started to play some of the free games like Poker on Facebook. There are basically two ways to increase your chip count and that is buy facebook poker chips through one of the authorized sites, or win them at the table.If I remember correctly I think they just paid the top 2 players and the final prize to the winner would be based on the number of people that played in the poker tournaments. Sometimes we would start these tournaments with only about 5 or 6 people playing and sometimes we would have as many as 25 playing. I won a few of these tournaments, but really only one big one. There was 24 players in the one big tournament I won. This might not seem that big to you, but for an amateur poker player like myself, it was quite an accomplishment to beat 23 other players out of a poker game. I couldn’t miss that night and my hands were just really good and I had no part in the tournament win. There was no bluffing or magical bets I made to pull off the win, I just kept getting good hands over and over. There was always someone that would stick with me and that was key to me winning it all.

Popularity: 2%

Awards for best online savings

Posted in November 22nd, 2009
Published in Business, Entertainment

First checking with the Coupongurus.com first!

guruOur first stop on the holiday tour will be Halloween, then the fixings from Thanksgiving, that big shopping Friday after Thanksgiving, and then Christmas and the New Year to finish out the year. This is the time of the year retailers love, because they all know people are going to be buying lots of candy, food, and gifts for their friends, family, and co-workers. If you take just a little time to look online , you can save so much money over the next 3 months and that’s money you will have in your pocket to start off the New Year with or to buy more gifts for everyone!

I think electronics will be the topic in my household this Christmas. I will be looking to see who has the best deals in electronics and right now I think I am leaning toward the AT&T coupons s to make most of all of my electronic purchases. I really like some of the things they are offering and the prices are the cheapest I have found. It even gets cheaper when I can use those promo codes I can get from coupongurus.com.

Popularity: 2%

Can you be rewarded online

Posted in November 3rd, 2009
Published in Business, Entertainment

The advertisers are always looking for a new way to promote something or trying to find a new market for their product or service. One of the things that has really been hot over the last couple of years is advertising in blogs. This is a great way for advertisers to get extra links from blogs and get them pointing toward their websites, so they can achieve higher rankings in the search engines. People that use search engines are looking for something specific and being listed high on related search terms is a good way to get a target audience. For example if you take Samuel Foti who received the Huebner Gold Medal in recognition of his service and contribution to The American College. This is just one accolade in a long career in the financial and insurance industry where Mr. Foti is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer of The MONY Group. The advertisers have been taking advantage of this for a few years now and they know the value of blog ads for helping them promote things online.

Once you have your target audience in mind then there are several avenues and social outlets where you can create content and buzz about your awards and recognition. The best way is to have bloggers pick-up your accolades then post to their blogs and then have that picked on Twitter where once it is re-tweeted can have the power of thousands of people looking at your profile and raising awareness.

Popularity: 1%

Award for your looks

Posted in October 20th, 2009
Published in Entertainment

You can find hair loss products that many celebrities use to help them maintain there current hair.

Popularity: 1%

Classic movies made new

Posted in October 7th, 2009
Published in Entertainment

Wizard_of_ozThe movie industry has found a new source of revenue in re-releasing classic movies and animated features in HD or Blu-Ray. Such classics as “Wizard of Oz”  which is celebrating it’s 70th year, “Snow White” , and the Shrek Series are just some of the examples. All of the Shrek movies do a nice job in targeting the adult and kid audience. Getting that fine line that will keep the kids entertained, and the adults interested is hard. The Shrek movies just keep getting it right, and there’s no telling how many more of these movies we might see. I would fully expect a part 4, after seeing the box office numbers from Shrek the Third. I wouldn’t rule out a part 5, and even a part 10, with the way these movies are drawing in audiences. There is a planned release of “Shrek Forever After” planned to be in theaters May 2010. Many of the studios are creating customized dvd cases in order to sell the added bonuses and clips that people will get when they purchase the newer copies. The popularity of the green ogre is going to be up there with Bugs Bunny when it’s all said and done. There might already be more kids now, that are familiar with Shrek better than the loveable wabbit with the “what’s up doc” line.

shrek4About 6 years ago on May 15th was when a Shrek Soundtrack CD was released, and it would eventually go double platinum. It was 3 days later in 2001 on May 18th when audiences around the world got their first taste of Shrek, through the Dreamworks view.  There is a star-studded cast in this latest release. Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Antonio Banderas, and Rupert Everett bring the cartoon to life for all to see, and seeing it they are. This movie might be hanging around the theatres for awhile, before anyone will have a chance to own it on DVD.

Popularity: 3%

Different types of pearls

Posted in October 2nd, 2009
Published in Entertainment

I’ll be the first to admit that when I think of pearl jewelry, I think of simple white pearl necklaces, but it turns out that there’s more to pearls than that.  Thanks to Museum Way Pearls, I learned that you can get pearls in different colors, like black, white, pink, and others, as well as different types of pearls.

Museum Way Pearls is a leading provider of all different types of pearls, like Akoya pearls and Tahitian pearls, as well as various colors.  No matter what type of pearls you’re looking for, Museum Way Pearls has something for you.  Check them out today and I’m sure you’ll be glad you did.

Popularity: 1%

Movie: A Christmas Story

Posted in August 25th, 2009
Published in Entertainment

One of my all time favorite movies is A Christmas Story. It’s the story of a young boy that just wants a BB gun for Christmas. All he does is think about the gun and how to convince his parents on letting him have a BB gun. The movie reminds me of my childhood and those days leading up to Christmas. We are right now in the middle of those days and there are so many kids that can’t wait until Santa Clause comes. Every house would put up Christmas Lights and some of our neighbors thought that they were competing with the Griswolds to see who could fit the most lights on their house.

christmas_storyRalphie did everything in his powers to get that Red Rider BB Gun and it’s great how the movie solves the problem at the end. This movie is usually shown on TNT for 24 hours during Christmas Day. I haven’t seen the advertisements for it this year yet, but I’m sure a lot of networks will make sure that everyone has a chance to see A Christmas Story. It’s one of the best Christmas movies ever and I can’t think of one that is better. Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman was two movies I love to watch as a kid, but now I think A Christmas Story is my favorite holiday treat.

I really like the scenes that take place in school and the little boy that touches his tongue to the metal pole. That was were really funny and should be a lesson to all kids to watch what they put their tongues to, when the weather outside is below freezing. It must be nice to have snow like that during the Christmas holidays. I live in Georgia and if we get a few flurries here at anytime, it’s like Christmas Day for us. I’m hoping this year we get a big snow storm in the middle of the drought most of Georgia and the Southeast is going through right now.

If you have never seen the movie A Christmas Story, then be sure to check it out Christmas Day. I’m sure TNT will once again host their 24 hour marathon on A Christmas Story. I just turn my television to that channel and leave it on all day, so I can watch this movie over and over.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Popularity: 8%