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Tis the Season to be Bridal - Upcoming Bridal Shows and Wedding Season Kicks Off This Week in Cincinnati, Dayton and Southwest Ohio

DIVA and oneGoodLove.com present "Hearthrobs 2: Kiss the Pride", an LGBT Valentine's Day Mixer to Raise Awareness for Let California Ring, featuring works by Adam Bouska

DIVA (Diverse and Inclusive Visionary Artists) in collaboration with oneGoodLove.com will host an Industry networking mixer targeting gay and lesbian professionals. A portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit Let California Ring. The event will take place at The Purple Lounge in the Standard Hotel Hollywood on February 13th from 8pm to 11pm.

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Dubbed as "Heartthrobs 2: Kiss The Pride", the event will showcase the work of one of Los Angeles hottest photographers, Adam Bouska. Mr. Bouska will be generously donating a sample of his photography collection to the silent auction. The openly gay fashion photographer is known for capturing male models, most notably, for DNA magazine which featured Armani Exchange underwear model winner Ryan Barry (the boyfriend of Amazing Race co-winner Reichen Lehmkuhl), as well as Eating Out 2's Marco Dapper and America's Next Top Models.... (Continue reading)

LaBov's Supercar Launch Team Strikes Again: Works with Audi on Launch of its 2008 R8 and TT

The automotive experts of LaBov & Beyond's Supercar Launch Team are working with client Audi of America to internally launch and train the automaker's dealer network on selling its two new sports coupes: the all-new mid-engine supercar, the 2008 Audi R8; and the redesigned 2008 Audi TT.

For the TT launch, which began in Atlanta in mid-February, LaBov & Beyond created and facilitated a multi-day performance- and track-based learning experience for the entire Audi dealer network. Training took place in two-day sessions for groups of up to 150 dealers at a time, with a focus on ensuring a high individual level of interaction with vehicle trainers--and the vehicles themselves.... (Continue reading)

Publisher Celebrates Highest Ever Alexa Rating with Free Book Giveaway

The online news website StockInterview.com is giving away 1,000 hardcover copies of its soon-to-be published “Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market” to all first-time visitors to the publishing company’s website. First-time visitors can view the electronic version of this 200+ page book at http://www.stockinterview.com and offer their commentary and feedback on the first eight chapters of the book. To be published later this summer, the book will retail for U.S. $24.95.

“Existing subscribers and the first 1000 new visitors will be guaranteed a free copy of this book,” explained James Finch, Senior Editor for the three-year old news website. “We will even pay the shipping costs. There are no strings attached. We hope to gather the widest possible feedback and criticism about our research before we go to press. Our goal is to provide the most thoroughly researched and complete book on the subject of uranium mining and the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle.”... (Continue reading)

Squidoo Lens Building Service Now Offered By McRea Marketing Concept

In response to thousands of internet marketers trying to make online income happen in Squidoo, but fail due to marketing frustrations, a new service aims to sell SEO optimized Squidoo lens to anyone that are willing to get traffic quickly. This Squidoo Lens building service has been brought up by Bill McRea who is popularly known as the "SEO Ninja" representing McRea Marketing Concepts and Squidoo Queen.

Squidoo has become a popular online service and community website since it launched back in 2005 where anyone can create pages known as lenses to share content for marketing or non-marketing purposes. For online marketers, building several Squidoo lenses can raise the chances of earning money through its online income service and drive traffic to their website if their link is posted and the right content is supplied. It is the content where people usually fail, which results to lack of lens exposure despite Squidoo's high Google PageRank of 8. Bill McRea comments, "Success with Squidoo isn't easy. It's not enough to post your lens and hope to get traffic. That particular lens needs a reputation."... (Continue reading)

Crestock Launches the Annual Photoshop Design Contest

Crestock, the world's northernmost stock photography agency is now offering professional and aspiring designers the chance to put their creative talents to the test in their third annual Photoshop contest.

Crestock Photoshop Design Competition

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In four rounds of one week each, Crestock Stock Photos will present a selection of images to the contestants, who are challenged to turn it into something beautiful, hilarious or otherwise exceptional, using their Photoshop skills.

Starting off with an iPod Touch & iPod Nano in the first round, the prizes get gradually sweeter with a MacBook in the second round, a MacBook Pro in the third round, and 1675 to finish it off, the Holy Grail for any designer, the latest Apple Mac Pro with a 30" HD Cinema LCD display.... (Continue reading)

RFB Communications Group, Inc. Announces Social Media Services

RFB Communications Group, Inc.

(http://www.rfbcommunications.com), a 10-year old public relations agency that provides services designed to drive sales inquiries and support client brand development, has announced the addition of a social media platform.

"Social media can open doors to build customer loyalty, often in an extremely cost effective way that can energize the company's staff, its clients and prospects while yielding solid results," says Suzie Boland, president of RFB Communications Group. "It enables businesses to connect with their target audiences, build a community around their brand and engage in direct conversations with their consumers and even business to business clients."... (Continue reading)

WeatherforYou.com Partners With AnythingWeather to Expand Personal Weather Station Program

WeatherforYou.com has expanded the exposure of personal weather stations featured on their site. Through a partnership with AnythingWeather, stations that send data to WeatherforYou.com and HAMweather will now have their information also displayed on AnythingWeather.com.

Since November, 2000, WeatherforYou.com and HAMweather has collected data from thousands of personal weather stations around the world. This information is displayed on WeatherforYou.com, can be used with the HAMweather scripts on other web sites, shared among personal weather station users and is distributed to the National Weather Service for research and educational purposes. The data will now be made available to AnythingWeather where it will be used on their web pages.... (Continue reading)

iXsystems Acquires BSD Mall

iXsystems announced today its acquisition of BSD Mall, a division of cyLogistics, that offers BSD-based CDs and DVDs for the FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Dragonfly and Darwin communities, as well as clothing, hats and other promotional items.

iXsystems intends to merge BSD Mall into FreeBSD Mall in order to provide a centralized location for BSD users to purchase BSD-based CDs and DVDs and support the BSD project of their choice. FreeBSD Mall, formerly Walnut Creek CD-Rom, is a subsidiary of iXsystems, Inc.... (Continue reading)

Software Best Practices Conference to be Held in Princeton, NJ on April 8, 2008

CAI's IT Metrics and Productivity Institute is hosting a one-day seminar in Princeton, NJ that will show CIOs and senior IT practitioners how to leverage software best practices to dramatically improve the productivity and quality of their software development and maintenance organizations.

The conference will include keynote presentations by Dr. Bob Charette, software risk management author and President of the ITABHI Corporation; David Garmus, former President of the International Function Point User's Group (IFPUG) and co-author with David Herron of "Function Point Analysis;" Dr. Tom Love, founder and CEO of ShouldersCorp and author of "Object Lessons: Lessons Learned in Object Oriented Programming;" and Bob Lawhorn, CTO of CAI. The event is a full day catered affair with breakfast and lunch included. The venue will be the Princeton Marriott Hotel and Conference Center at Forrestal.... (Continue reading)

Confused.com Offers Advice on Managing Winter Energy Bills

Confused.com's head of energy, Gareth Kloet, offers advice to domestic customers who may be worried about paying their energy bills after months of climbing gas prices and freezing conditions:

Save on your bills this winter.

Start to budget: making provisions for that inevitable energy bill is a wise move, not least since energy prices have increased by an average of 40%, over the last year. When this bill arrives, there are two choices: either pay the bill immediately, or make an arrangement to pay it, but it should not be ignored under any circumstances. If consumers are unable to pay the outstanding amount on their energy bills, it is important to contact the energy supplier as they will be able to spread any arrears by introducing a new payment arrangement which could involve paying back the outstanding amount in installments. If the problem is not dealt with immediately, the recovery process could be nasty; reminder notices may be involved initially, but proceedings could potentially even conclude with a court summons.

Switch to a better payment method: direct debit payments help consumers to budget, as payments come straight out of their bank accounts. These payments can either be fixed, spreading the predicted annual bill over 12 months, or the variable quarterly bill can be paid by direct debit, ensuring that payments never get missed. Suppliers also offer discounts for those who use this payment method.

Stay informed: to find out more about gas and electricity efficiency, reducing usage and saving money, it is worth contacting the Energy Savings Trust on 0800 512 012 for local information. There are also lots of energy saving tips on the Confused.com website.

Look into switching energy supplier or tariffs: last year, there was a huge amount of activity in terms of rising energy costs but, according to an ICM survey carried out on behalf of Age Concern, there was no corresponding increase in switching activity.* The survey found that 20% of consumers reviewed their energy supplier in 2008, compared to 18% the year before. This figure is all the more shocking when considering that those who have never switched could save, on average, nearly £240 over the course of the year.**

There are 14,000 tariffs on the market, so simply switching tariffs without switching supplier could also be a wise move.

"For the millions of people who have a bank account, it is wise to pay energy bills by direct debit, at the very least. As well as the discounts that apply, it will ensure that customers never miss payments, and will help them plan for that shocking winter bill - the impact of which will have been heightened by time off over Christmas and freezing weather conditions. However, as discounts vary, depending on the supplier and tariff, it is always wise to shop around for the best tariff for consumers' particular needs. Energy comparison sites enable consumers to search for the most comprehensive tariffs on the market, with quotes delivered in a matter of minutes."... (Continue reading)

Apparel Magazine Names Centric Customer INTERSPORT France 'Top Innovator 2009'

Apparel Magazine has named INTERSPORT France, product lifecycle management (PLM) customer of Centric Software, Inc., a "Top Innovator" for 2009.

INTERSPORT is receiving the recognition for its innovative work in implementing and leveraging the Centric 8 suite to lead the company's effort in doubling turnover of its exclusive brands (private-label) business in the next four years.

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Apparel Magazine profiles INTERSPORT France in its May issue as a "truly innovative" organization in the apparel industry, according to the publication. Apparel's Top Innovators are selected for having "demonstrated exceptionality through an IT-related implementation, product launch or some other outstanding business strategy."... (Continue reading)

75 YEAR OLD RETIRED TEACHER WRITES PARENTING BOOK

parenting. After decades of life lessons on this topic, shes written a book of advice called Parenting Pearls: Gems for the Puzzled Parent."

Verlenes expertise on family matters began when she was a child. As one of three children, she grew up in inner city Buffalo, New York in a very poor household where she became painfully aware of how hard poverty was on children and families. Her family strived to overcome the tough times and encouraged her to do well in school.

After high school she married Cephus McGee, a steelworker. They had three daughters and struggled financially, although strength was arising in them to improve their lives for the sake of their children. When Verlene was 30, she had the opportunity to attend State Teachers College in Buffalo tuition-free.... (Continue reading)

Holiday Travel Tips to Help Ease the Hassles

Hopefully you booked early, got a good rate and are traveling with some flexibility. If not, you'll be like most of us. You may have already checked in and printed out your boarding passes. Many airline websites let you do this at home. If not, try to find a kiosk at the airport to check in and avoid the lines. If you don't need to speak with airline personnel, don't sweat the lines. Try to use public transportation or get a ride to the airport. Parking lots tend to fill up quickly around the holiday travel season. To reduce the airport shuttle fare, see if you can leave your car closer to the airport, with a friend or even at your workplace.... (Continue reading)

New Guide to Private Home Care Services Released

As the elderly population grows increasingly larger, so do the number of families confronting difficult care decisions for their loved ones. To alleviate this issue, the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, a non-profit association of home care providers, has released the "2009 Guide to Private Home Care Services: A Directory of Private Home Care Agencies in Massachusetts."

The directory offers residents a listing of reputable, professional home care providers by town and county as well as valuable information on how to both choose and pay for home care.... (Continue reading)

TrueDelta's Car Reliability Survey: Redesigned Audi A4 Requires Few Repairs

The all-new 2009 Audi A4 has required fewer repairs than other recently introduced upscale sedans, according to new results from TrueDelta's Car Reliability Survey (CRS).

TrueDelta's CRS updates quarterly, not annually, to quickly provide reliability information on new car models. Today's update includes owner experiences through March 31, 2009. With this update, TrueDelta is about a year ahead of other sources.

According to TrueDelta, the 2009 Audi A4 has required 37 repair trips per 100 cars per year--similar to the benchmark Honda Accord. The implication: most of these cars will not require any repairs in their first year. Among other new-for-2009 upscale sedans, the Hyundai Genesis has required 67 repair trips per 100 cars per year and the Jaguar XF has required 147.... (Continue reading)

Poet and Former Advertising Executive Ron Vazzano Publishes Shots from a Passing Car", His First Poetry Collection

Poet and former advertising executive Ron Vazzano has published Shots from a Passing Car", his inaugural collection of poems, which celebrate lifes defining moments, both ordinary and extraordinary.



After more than a decade of duality, a high-powered advertising executive by day and an impassioned poet by night, Vazzano quit the business world to write full time. And to compile his one-of-a-kind and poems into an inviting collection, complete with original drawings and photographs.



Vazzanos Shots from a Passing Car" embodies his freeze-frame takes on what catches -- and demands -- his attention -- from his reaction to a squirrel (Squirrels Making Bad Decisions") to a drawing his daughter mailed from Boston (Daughter Doodles While Away at College"), from a memorial to his grandfather (The Shed") to his thoughts on September 11 (One Red Rose" and The Third World War"), the anniversary of both his wedding day and the attacks on the World Trade Center.



Over the past 13 years, Vazzanos poems have been published in numerous magazines, including Icharus Falling" and Daybreak," and anthologies, including Line Drives: 100 Baseball Poems" and Standing on the Ceiling" (an anthology of parenting poems).



A native New Yorker who has lived in Los Angeles for 25 years, Vazzano is already garnering praise. Gina Barreca, editor of Don't Tell Mama! The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing," says, Ron Vazzanos collection not only introduces a new, strong voice to poetry but also gives us the wit, charm, surprise and intelligence of the impassioned, fiercely vulnerable contemporary Italian-American man. This is a terrific book -- it will make you laugh, think deeply and reconsider the universe. In other words, it does exactly what poetry is supposed to do.



Christopher Buckley, author of "No Way to Treat a First Lady" says Shots From a Passing Car" is a delightful debut, something for me, something for you...a really lovely volume."



Actor Elliot Gould writes, Hes obviously gifted and had his own individual vision."



Shots from a Passing Car" is available through Domenica Press at the company's website.... (Continue reading)

Hire a Concierge and Dream, Love, Laugh; Live A Life Uncomplicated

Announcing Cville Concierge & Errand Service. This new company offers a full range of personal assistant services to take care of the little ‘details’ busy people wish they had time to deal with. Overwhelmed moms get a helping hand picking up their dry cleaning, traveling salespeople need not worry about leaving Fido alone, a run to the market to make a dinner party complete is all in a day's work for Cville Concierge.

The National Report on Work & Family states that because most companies have work schedules that typically do not give employees time to do routine personal tasks-such as picking up their laundry, waiting at home for a delivery man or a variety of other miscellaneous errands- emerging work/life program employers may want to consider a corporate concierge.... (Continue reading)

VTI Gains ISO Certification for Its Quality Management System

President and founder Guillermo 'Wil' Fernandez of VTI Vacuum Technologies Inc., announces that its Quality Management System has been certified for conformance to ISO 9001:2000 standards by Perry Johnson Registrars, Inc. Located in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, the EMI/RFI shielding company received its certification on August 29, 2008.

VTI Vacuum Technologies specializes in coating plastic electronic enclosures by providing EMI/RFI (electromagnetic interference/radio frequency interference) solutions for design engineers in the medical device and military communications markets.... (Continue reading)

AlaVie Fitness Unveils 5K/10K Training, Fitness Retreats and Body Therapy

In addition to helping pioneer the boot camp exercise model in the San Francisco Bay Area, AlaVie Fitness (formerly Bay Area Boot Camp), has expanded its vision and service offerings.

The company continues to lead cutting-edge boot camp classes throughout the Bay Area under the PowerVie Boot Camp name. At the same time, AlaVie is spearheading additional fitness training and wellness programs to help people bring their bodies into balance -– and to enjoy themselves in the process:

5K/10K Training – AlaVie’s 5K/10K training programs start June 4, 2008 and are designed to prepare trainees for series of Bay Area races.... (Continue reading)

Tis the Season to be Bridal - Upcoming Bridal Shows and Wedding Season Kicks Off This Week in Cincinnati, Dayton and Southwest Ohio

January is the start of what wedding vendors across the Tri-State area call wedding season." During the next few months, brides-to-be from all over Southwest Ohio will attend bridal shows, meet with countless wedding vendors and ultimately walk down the aisle. According to The Knot, the nations top wedding resource, their average bride is 27 years old and Eighty-six percent of those brides, engaged for roughly 13 months, are getting married for the first time.

Kathy Piech-Lukas, a certified wedding consultant and owner of Your Dream Day LLC, says that November and December are the most popular months of the year for couples to get engaged. She adds that wedding planning is a stressful and detail-oriented process and that it is extremely important to get everything in writing. While some brides think that having a bridal consultant is a luxury, Piech-Lukas stresses that its a necessity that is more affordable that people think.... (Continue reading)