This is my blog I set up to post some things that I enjoy. Also it's the home of marketing my future website that I sell products on.
future website (under construction)
www.sportkoozies.com
he Windsor Knot is a thick, wide and triangular tie
knot that projects confidence. It would therefore be your knot of choice
for presentations, job interviews, courtroom appearances etc. It is
best suited for spread collar shirts and it's actually quite easy to do.
While just about everyone can use this tie knot to tie
his tie, it looks especially well on men with longer necks as its wide
form shortens the perceived height of the neck a little bit.
To tie the Windsor Knot, select a necktie of your choice and stand in front of a mirror. Then simply follow the steps below:
1) Start with the wide end ("W") of your necktie on the right, extending about 12 inches below the narrow end ("N") on the left.
2) Then cross the wide end over the narrow end.
3) Bring the wide end up through the loop between the collar and your tie.
4) Then bring the wide end back down.
5) Pull the
wide end underneath the narrow end and to the right, back through the
loop and to the right again so that the wide end is inside out.
6) Bring the wide end across the front from right to left.
7) Then pull the wide end up through the loop again.
8) Bring the wide end down through the knot in front.
9) And -- using both hands -- tighten the knot carefully and draw it up to the collar.
Congratulations, you did it! You see, it is not rocket
science after all. Simply keep practicing the Windsor Knot a few more
times until you can tie this necktie knot within less than two minutes.
The Four in Hand Knot makes for a narrow, more
discreet and slightly asymmetrical tie knot. It is best suited for a
standard button-down dress shirt and works best with wide neckties made
from heavy fabrics.
While this tie knot can be worn by anyone, it looks
especially well on men with shorter necks as the knot's rather narrow
and elongated form stretches the perceived height of the neck a tiny
bit.
To tie the Four in Hand Knot, select a necktie of your
choice and stand in front of a mirror. Then simply follow the steps
below:
1) Start with the wide end ("W") of your necktie on the right, extending about 12 inches below the narrow end ("N") on the left.
2) Then cross the wide end over the narrow end.
3) Turn the wide end back underneath the narrow end.
4) Continue by bringing the wide end back over in front of the narrow end again.
5) Then, pull the wide end up and through the loop around your neck.
6) Hold the front of the knot loosely with your index finger and bring the wide end down through the front loop.
7) At last, remove your finger and tighten the knot carefully to the collar by holding the narrow end and sliding the knot up.
That's it! That is all there is to the Four in Hand
Knot. You will quickly learn to tie this necktie knot in less and less
time every time you practice it. Just keep going, my friend!
Coca-Cola made a name for itself in 1886 and PepsiCo
followed in 1898. These businesses have been at each others throats for
generations and will most likely persist in the years to come.
Coca-Cola generates an estimate of 20 million dollars more then Pepsi
every year. The reason being is that Pepsi has problems holding on to
products they create and only distribute their products to 60 countries,
where Coca-Cola is almost worldwide with 200 countries marketing their
products.
Plenty of Pepsi's efforts to rise to superiority were downfalls.
Mirinda, a beverage that had been originally founded in Spain, was
purchased by PepsiCo. Mirinda was to compete with Fanta and was thought
to be radically successful since they had bounteous flavors: orange,
grapefruit, apple, strawberry, pineapple, pomegranate, banana, passion
fruit, lemon, hibiscus, tangerine and grape.
Although Mirinda's prices were cut, it was not sufficient to
challenge the seven flavors of Fanta. This infuriated PepsiCo so they
dropped the product like a hot potato, years later assigned it a modern
name, Tropical Twister Soda, and decided they were going to discover
something to take Coca-Cola down.
In 1960, a gentleman from Marion, Virginia, William H. Jones, was
given a demand to test a fresh whiskey mixer recipe. The recipe was
unsuccessful so William decided to keep it to himself and tinker with
the ingredients. He failed multiple times until he finally caught wind
of one of the most cherished recipes today.
With Pepsi being so desperate at the time to invent something first
instead of remaking Coke products, they purchased the recipe from him in
1964. This is how Mountain Dew became legendary.
Today, Pepsi possesses that one product that Coca-Cola fails to
compete with. They tried with Mello Yello in 1979, and yes it's cheaper,
but it's not as satisfying to Americans as Mountain Dew. Coke tried
again with Vault (a drink that is really similar to Mountain Dew Energy vended in the UK) but the sales and the recognition summarizes it all.
Random Mountain Dew facts:
A ticked off Coca-Cola employee spread a rumor that goat pee was
an ingredient in Mountain Dew out of frustration and stupidity. But
surprisingly, many people assume that today.
Mountain Dew Baja Blast is said to be recreated by with a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bottle of Mountain Blast Powerade
Apple's upcoming iPhone
6 has created enough curiosity especially following predictions and
leaks. Patent sightings of Apple's inventions have also created hype
suggesting how revolutionary the smartphone could be. This time, a
leaked video shows what Apple's next generation iPhone
will look like when compared with Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 phablet and
Google's LG-produced Nexus 5. The video also provides new insight on the
possible size of the device.
According to a report by Apple Insider, images of iPhone 6 cases were
spotted in the second week of April. YouTube channel Unbox Therapy
featured one of the products and offered a close up look. Based from the
clip, people can see that the iPhone 6 case appears larger when
compared to the present iPhone 5s. The current iPhone 5s features a
4-inch screen.
Lewis Hilsenteger from Unbox Therapy suggested that the dimensions of
the product were evidently for a bigger screen. This can fit will with
the reported 4.7-inch variant. When compared to the Galaxy Note 3 and
the Nexus 5, the suggested iPhone 6 measures closer to the Google
smartphone. This is in relation to the overall dimensions and the screen
size. The Galaxy Note 3, on the other hand, still wins over the iPhone 6
in terms of height and weight.
The leaked case also hints at the possible thickness of the device.
Considering the iPhone 5s, Hilsenteger pointed out that the whole case
appears thinner. The present design for iPhone 5s features a
7.6-millimeters chassis.
Other interesting features include a sleep/wake button on the side of
the handset instead of the top. This is a major overhaul from Apple's
design tradition or layout. The volume buttons also appear to follow a
similar format in the iPad compared to the previous iPhone models. The video suggests that Apple wants to create an iPhone with more rounded edge. This is similar to the iPad Mini
The next Google Nexus smartphone, as the rumors suggest, might be
based on the yet-to-be-launched LG G3 handset. However, the new twist
lies in the piece of information which hints the next Nexus to sport a
fingerprint scanner as well, following the likes of Apple iPhone 5s and Samsung Galaxy S5.
The news comes from Android.gs who reports that Google, after its Nexus 5,
is again in talks with LG for making the Nexus 6, and is additionally
negotiating deals with several Asian fingerprint sensor suppliers.
While
the upcoming Nexus 6 is said to be based on LG G3's design, it is speculated that
Google might not include a 5.5-inch screen (said to be in LG G3) as
there is a fingerprint sensor involved and hence keep the screen size
lower than G3. The firm is likely to give a 5.2-inch screen on the Nexus
6.
Moreover, the rumored Google Nexus 6, as per Sundar Pichai, Senior
Vice President at Google in charge of Android, Chrome and Google Apps,
would arrive in the second half of 2014.
This means that the smartphone might be powered by a Snapdragon 805 SoC
processor as those chip sets have already been introduced in November last year and are said to arrive in first half of this year.
Last week, it was reported
that Google might launch a new low-budget Nexus smartphone powered by a
MediaTek chip set
priced as low as $100 (roughly Rs. 6,000).
Furthermore, it has
been reported that speculated Nexus smartphone powered by the MediaTek chip set will be a brand new entry in the Nexus lineup and not a
replacement of existing devices like the Nexus 5.
Weebly has been valued at $455 million in a new round of funding from
investors eager to cash in on a recent boom in website-creation
services.
The eight-year-old startup raised $35 million from Chinese Internet
giant Tencent and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, Chief Executive
David Rusenko said in an interview.
Internet-publishing tools have been around since the early days of
the Web, when services like GeoCities and AngelFire offered free sites
with easy-to-use publishing tools. The newer generation of website
builders, including Weebly, Squarespace and Wix, use drag-and-drop tools
that require no coding chops and are geared toward the millions of
small businesses flocking to the Web to set up their first online
storefronts.
Weebly, founded by three Penn State students in 2006, now hosts more
than 20 million sites that are seen by 175 million visitors every month.
Many are entrepreneurs who pay Weebly monthly fees for extra features,
like e-commerce. They include Ceasar Chu, the inventor of a popular
ice-cube mold called the Whiskey Ball, who built his site on Weebly and has expanded the business through a distribution partnership with Amazon.com.
The company doesn’t disclose its revenue but is profitable and has been cash-flow positive since 2009, Rusenko said.
The new funds will help Weebly expand globally and compete with
several well-heeled rivals. Squarespace said last week it closed a $40 million growth round
from General Atlantic. Automattic, the creator of the popular WordPress
blogging platform, is seeking to raise up to $150 million in funding,
Fortune reported this month. Israeli company Wix held an initial public offering late last year.
“The Internet is changing the future of business and
entrepreneurship,” said David Wallerstein, chairman of Tencent USA, in
an emailed statement. “Weebly is driving this transition to a
mobile-driven e-commerce world with a platform that is just so simple
and intuitive to use,” he said.
Tencent is expanding its portfolio of fast-growing U.S. startups. The
Chinese company has backed mobile-messaging app Snapchat, e-commerce
site Fab and mobile game maker Plain Vanilla.
At nearly a half-billion dollars, Weebly is one of the most valuable
startups to emerge from the Y Combinator tech incubator, which Rusenko
and his co-founders attended in 2007. That was the same year as Dropbox,
the online-storage company now worth $10 billion.
SAN
FRANCISCO — The auction site eBay has settled a federal antitrust case
that accused it of having a secret deal with Intuit not to try to hire
each other’s employees.
The
deal, announced by the Justice Department on Thursday, follows the
pattern of the department’s 2010 settlement against Google, Apple,
Intuit and other Silicon Valley companies over similar accusations. Like
those companies, eBay is prevented from entering into anticompetitive
hiring agreements for five years.
A
related case against eBay filed by the California attorney general’s
office was also settled. EBay agreed to pay $3.75 million to the state, a
sum it said would cover civil penalties, lawyers’ fees, administration
of the settlement and compensation to those who worked at eBay and
Intuit.
Secret
deals not to hire a competitor’s employees were common in Silicon
Valley in the latter part of the last decade, and Steve Jobs of Apple
was a major instigator and enforcer of the agreements. EBay is not a
competitor of Intuit, which develops tax preparation software, but both
embraced a hands-off relationship.
“The
behavior was blatant and egregious,” said William J. Baer, assistant
attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust
Division.
In
one email, he noted, eBay’s senior vice president of human resources
wrote to Meg Whitman, then the company’s chief executive, complaining
that while eBay was adhering to its agreement not to hire from Intuit,
“it is hard to do this when Intuit recruits our folks.”
Intuit,
it seems, had sent a recruiting flier to an eBay employee. Ms. Whitman
forwarded that email to Scott Cook, Intuit’s founder, and asked him to
“remind your folks not to send this stuff to eBay people.” Mr. Cook
immediately apologized.
Mr.
Baer said in a statement that the eBay-Intuit agreement “served no
purpose but to limit competition between the two firms for employees,
distorting the labor market and causing employees to lose opportunities
for better jobs and higher pay.”
EBay
said in a statement that it “continues to believe that the policy that
prompted this lawsuit was acceptable and legal, and led to no
anticompetitive effects in the talent market in which eBay competed.”
The suit was filed in late 2012.
Ms. Whitman is now chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. An HP spokesman declined to comment.
Last week, a tentative settlement was reached in an antitrust class actionfiled
against Google, Apple and other Silicon Valley companies for their
no-poaching deals. A trial was slated to begin in San Jose at the end of
the month.
The
seven companies that were sued, three of which settled last year, have
agreed to pay a total of $344 million to 64,000 of their engineers.
After the lawyers take their cut, the engineers are likely to get only a
few thousand dollars each.
Mr.
Baer cited the private suits as “examples of the important roles that
the federal, state and private enforcers together play in protecting
U.S. consumers.”
Carlos Boozer. I fully understand that Carlos
Boozer has been a popular punching bag for multiple years now, to the
point where some Bulls fans tried to put a positive spin on Chicago’s
early playoff exit by pointing out that each passing day brings the
32-year-old power forward that much closer to a possible amnesty this
summer. Even within the context of those lowered expectations, Boozer
was disappointing, averaging just 9.6 points and shooting 42.6 percent
for the series, nearly 10 percentage points below his career average.
Chicago, owners of the worst offense in the playoffs, needed all the
punch it could get, and Boozer loomed as a possible x-factor in that
regard. Instead, he was invisible for much of the first-round
series against the Wizards, and he shot just 4-for-12 in the closeout
Game 5 defeat. A Bulls team that entered the playoffs with an outside
chance at making a run to the conference finals instead was one of the
first teams to go home. You can’t blame Windy City fans who look at
Boozer’s non-production side-by-side with his $15.3 million salary and
immediately want to gouge out their eyes. That Tim Duncan and Vince
Carter have been able to perform at a high level, even though they are five years older than Boozer, only sharpens the pain.
James Harden.Got to go with Harden,
who has been staggeringly inefficient. Harden hasn’t shot better than 43
percent in any games this series, has cracked 40 percent just once and
was a dreadful 5-15 (including 1-7 from three-point range) in the
Rockets Game 5 win. Couple that with some uninspired defense and
Harden’s second playoff series with Houston has been a nightmare. Part
of the reason Harden left Oklahoma City was because he wanted to be the
face of a franchise. But with the money and fame comes accountability.
Harden can still salvage his series by leading the Rockets back these
next two games. But if he doesn’t, a lot of fingers are, rightfully,
going to be pointed at him.
Terrence Ross. Odd though it might be to
tab a 23-year-old role player for this dubious honor, I’m struck by just
how absent Ross has been from the Raptors’ entire first round series.
His eight points on 33 percent shooting in Game 5 made for his “best”
outing yet; in no other game had Ross topped either that scoring output
or shooting percentage, a fizzling combination that leaves him glaringly
irrelevant in a competitive series.
Ross is too wild and too inexperienced to yet be reliable on a
game-by-game basis. We knew this much based on his erratic regular
season performance. Even still, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect
Ross to shoot better than 23 percent from the field given all the
defensive attention devoted to DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, to manage
an assist to turnover ratio better than his atrocious 1:7 or to make
some kind of tangible difference with his defense. Ross is, at the very
least, a capable player. He doesn’t have to do everything. He just has
to do something.
Kevin Durant.OK, I’ll be that guy! Calling
him “Mr. Unreliable” is pretty harsh, but Durant has been an undeniable
disappointment in the 2014 playoffs. That’s largely due to the standard
of exellence he set during the regular season, which will likely earn
him the 2014 Most Valuable Player award. In six playoff games against
the Grizzlies, Durant is shooting just 41.2 percent from the field (50.3
during the season), 25 percent from 3-point range (39.1) and and 77.8
from the line (87.3). He’s topped 30 points in four of the games, but
only shot above 50 percent in one of them. For anyone else, Durant’s
performance against Memphis would be respectable. But for the eventual
MVP and a player in the discussion for best player on the planet, his
performance in the first round simply hasn’t been up to snuff. A lot of
the credit should go to Tony Allen and the Grizz’s defense, but some of
the blame also has to fall on KD’s shoulders.
During the regular season, Noah posted
impressive averages in points (12.6), rebounds (11.3), assists (5.4) and
Player Efficiency Rating (20.0) while leading the Bulls to one of the
best records in the Eastern Conference after the All-Star break and
winning Defensive Player of the Year. But he wilted in a first-round
loss to the fifth-seeded Wizards, as Nene repeatedly outmuscled him in
the paint. Noah matched or exceeded his season average in points only
once (in Game 2), and it came in a Bulls loss. What’s more, Noah reportedly got into a shouting match with a security guard after a team shootaround at the Verizon Center. It was a banner year for Noah as a whole, but it ended on a disappointing note.
Couple weeks ago I completed a feat that plague 8 months of my life searching for. Buying a car. I didn't think that it would take so long but as the hours, days, weeks, and months went by I knew it had been almost forever since I set sail on finding a car and getting the one that I wanted that fit my needs as well. After many failed attempts to try and buy from dealerships with ended mostly in me realizing that I would not be able to get a brand new car but something mediocre and not worth my investment. Also going through several disappointments both from me and my family and my girlfriend. Well let me tell you some of the cars I thought I was going to buy. Here's a list of my dream cars as well as the cars that I will buy after I've paid off my current one and I'll also share a little bit about my current car!
1. Ask yourself this question. Is your idea better than or different from what is already out there?
Is your idea different than what’s already out there? If the answer is yes, you’re off to the races. If the answer is no, which for most it will be, consider this. The fastest way to success is either in doing something differently or doing something BETTER than what is already out there.
2. Be willing to take the leap.
Not everyone is ready the minute their great idea takes form. Some say you need to have 6 months worth of savings in the bank to go safely out on your own. I don’t really know what the answer is financially. But I do know this. Dreaming doesn’t ever equal doing. I know so many people who have these incredible ideas for business, that simply never find the courage or time or something, to see them to fruition. Sometimes, it’s the desperation that comes from actually taking that scary leap, that fuels the most passionate of successes.
3. Leave your perfectionist self at home.
Your logo may not be absolutely perfect, you might not have (or need) all of your business stationery, you may be a little foggy as to what your business plan looks like in the long term. Who cares. Just start doing. My father said "He who has self worth is more valuable than he can imagine or dream". No one ever made any money sitting on the couch planning. They got off their tail and started making things happen.
4. Get scrappy.
I can’t tell you how many people I have met that say they have no idea how to even start a blog – or a business. Neither did I, friends. I’d never laid an eye on the makings of a website or a blog and I certainly had no clue how to modify or edit code to make said site look like my own. Full disclosure, Overtime with a job I got during the winter of 2013 I learned how to do some coding and web designing and with a little help with a place called the Library I was able to read some books about web designing and word texture. I learned the VERY basics of HTML so that I could tweak layouts in my blog templates, I relied on the offerings of Type-pad to make simple changes – updates to my logo, color palette etc. I researched permalinks and link sharing and social media. I didn’t know much, but I was willing to find answers and get done what I needed to get done. The way that I wanted it to be done.
5. Ask for help. And be willing to help others.
The number one question that I get from those dreaming of starting their own blog is this: how did you get your initial surge of traffic? The truth is, there wasn’t ever a surge. It took time. I remember seeing our traffic stats when I first started out and thinking that I would never be able to climb the mountain to reach the success that she has found. But instead of sinking into my own insecurities, I put my nose down and worked. Really hard. Every day.
