21st Centry Forum

There’s rumor that President-elect Barack Obama plans to tear down the White House’s bowling lanes when he takes office. Apparently, his low bowling score during the campaign was something of a unsatisfaction. He’d prefer to stick to b-ball. Better known for his basketball skills, Obama recently rumored on the Jimmy Kimmel show about his plans to put in a basketball court to replace the Presidential bowling lanes.

Noting that Obama shamefully scored a 37 for 7 frames at a bowling event during the Presidential campaign, the Pro Bowlers Association is offering to give him free lessons from a veteran. PBA stars like Billy Oatman and Norm Duke are offering their services.

What’s next? Free bowling shoes? Give the man his own ball? What does it take to keep the future president of the United States from tearing down the same Presidential bowling lane that was first installed by Harry Truman? The same lanes that Richard Nixon is bowling in the infamous poster above the Dude’s living room in the Big Lebowski? Should we bribe the president with free lessons and free bowling equipment, just to give bowling another chance?

Bowling is an American sport. It’s affordable, accessible, and intensely social. It brings families together, keeps the kids, mom and dad entertained. Perhaps if Obama got just a taste of that magic, could really feel the launch of the ball off his fingers as it flies into the pins, then maybe he’d change his mind. Maybe he’d just put the basketball court in next to the bowling alley and leave the Presidential lanes alone.

I’m sending our future president his own bowling shoes. He needs to get hooked. Let’s give him his own ball, and make sure it fits his hand. Then maybe he’d give bowling a try. Basketball is American too, but bowling keeps on giving. Americans of all ages can enjoy, from six years old to 90.

Although the thought of Richard Nixon turning over in his grave at the sight of a basketball court in place of his bowling alley is rather appealing…

The advent of the PBX phone system in the early 1990s made it possible for businesses large and small around the country to save tremendous amounts of money on phone services. With centralized numbers and internal calling made through the internal network, the costs formerly associated with companies’ internal calling were greatly reduced, while the need for thousands of unique phone numbers was practically eliminated. Yet for all its use in reducing costs, PBX requires expensive hardware and someone who knows how to use it, distracting business resources from the core competency areas of business execution.

The proliferation of voice over IP technology has made it possible for businesses to instead have their PBX networks hosted remotely. A voip pbx system has all the features and characteristics of a traditional pbx system, except that because voice is transmitted over data infrastructure (the internet) instead of phone infrastructure, the cost of making calls is a fraction of what it is over the conventional phone infrastructure. As a result, businesses who switch from conventional phone service to a voip pbx solution are able to extract significant savings not only from the combination of branches and extensions in the pbx system, but also from the reduced cost of voice transfer over the internet infrastructure.

Businesses who switch to voice over internet protocol private branch exchange systems from traditional phone service will find their phone bills reduced by at least 50%. In addition, they will realize the additional benefits of newer, state-of-the-art phones that will make their employees more productive and more organized.  

As financial markets change, investment aptitudes that worked great a few years ago during the housing expansion are now a blubbery whale beached in the recession of economic downturn. Stay the course, and you will lose everything in this changing sea.

What’s the alternate for failing investment strategies? A different approach. It’s time to specialize in providing institutional and individual investors with alternate investments through managed futures. These allow the buyer alternate flexibility in a rapidly changing economic world. These investments make the most of this global world by taking advantage of multiple global market sectors such as currencies, energies, short and long-term interest rates.

Adjustability allows the investor to change as prices and properties rapidly rise and fall in a chaotic economic sea, effectively allowing investors to swim through these dark waters and protect their properties in the ocean of the global market. Declines will be inevitably incurred in choppy market conditions, but the ability to adjust to the changes will minimize your losses.

These are adventitious times, but business is business. Staying afloat means degrading risk. Unlike stocks and bonds, investing in managed futures reduces volatility and risk while accruing a healthy robustness without negative impacts and loss.

Rather than allowing you and your investors to be casualties of these economic times, we utilize adjustability to make the most of them. We use a consultative portfolio approach that takes advantage of the rises and falls of the changing economic market, making the most of your dollar through a healthy range of choices. We offer access to the best of breed managers through a well-aligned network working for your assets.

Whether you’re an industry veteran, a private investor, or a business looking to protect its resources, our services are here for you to stride above these difficult economic times. Our products and services have been always non-correlated with accustomed investment portfolios, the ones currently being swept away in the economic tide. Do you stay the course with tradition when accustomed industries are failing in the rise of a new age? Or do you invest in choices that build a future towards tomorrow, with a adjustability that changes with the times?

We offer choices to swim through these changing seas. Let us help you keep your investments afloat.

Custom picture frames make fantastic, one of a kind gifts.

Creating custom picture frames is a fantastic gift idea. Not only is it cheap, but it’s a fantastic opportunity to share your art work as an idea gift. Even those people who have everything can always use a quality picture frame, especially if it’s designed for a individual family photo or memory.

It’s especially ideal for the apprentice on your list. With a custom picture frame, your apprentice is not longer confined to mainstream approaches and can specially design a frame for their individual artwork. With a custom design, there’s no reason to half measures. You should never have to half measures your art, and that includes the frame you use to showcase it. The frame can be designed to encompass a individual piece, adding to the unique qualities of each.

It all starts with proper matting. Matting helps you figure out the final dimensions of the completed frame, so it’s an ideal place to begin. It helps you figure out the size and the scope of the frame, as well as your preferred stock. Although pre-matting services are available, matting your own work is more economical and creates an individual touch that’s much more personable than standardized matting. When making frames for friends and family, matting your own work can really cut down on costs, as well as give you quality control over the final product.

The next step is to accept a stock. Scrap piles are like gold at the end of the rainbow, virtual treasures of possibility. It’s critical to match the color of the lumber with the stock. They should complement the other, with neither overpowering the other’s existence.

Stock should be ripped to width, at least an inch to an inch and a half wide. Anything else looks like a shortcut. Just because you didn’t pay much for your own custom picture frame, that doesn’t mean it has to look frugal.

Frames can be made for particular art work. Sometimes an apprentice begins with the frame and then creates the perfect art to go inside it. The more you go with your own design, the more artisanship you have over how it aligns with your art. The choice is yours. Make it unique.

Inventory tracking was once a feat business owners only attempted quarterly. How would you like to tediously dissect a room stacked from floor to ceiling with palettes having to go through them like a kid at Christmas.

Now with EDI tracking software and barcode UPC interfaces read by handheld scanners to skim bar code labels, the effort it takes to get the job done is reduced to a mere fraction of the time.

During a busy season the last thing you want is to run out of stock on your top selling items. With so many options available for packaging and tracking solutions,  managing S.K.U’s is a breeze with the right model of hand held scanner such as Metrologic or Honeywell.

Just like the yellow pages is a thing of the past, taking inventory the old fashioned way (before RFID Labels) is a practice best left to your competition. In a fast paced business environment, don’t be a dinosaur, find the best resource for barcode labels and equipment to stay ahead of the bell curve or supply and demand.

Women wear makeup and cosmetics to express themselves. Cosmetics can highlight your best features, adding to your already natural color.

The problem is we’re all different. What’s beautiful about you might not looks as good on your friends. Eyeliners that might be right for some are totally wrong for others. Everyone’s colors, skin tones, lifestyles and desires are completely unique and all their own. Why wear someone else s’ shell?

Custom cosmetics let you break the mold, choosing colors that are completely perfect for you, glosses that shine and accentuate your natural gleam. You can design your cosmetics to blend with your clothes perfectly, choose the right color to match your favorite sweater. You are not like everybody else, so why look like it?

Be unique. Let makeup make you more of who you already are. Deep down, ladies everyone of us is shining, but its easy to get lost in the crowd. Makeup can make you bold to step out your skin and enhance your personality. Let them admire you for who you really are, bold, bright and beautiful.

Not that a girl doesn’t want to stand out on her own when she’s just going out on the town. Whether she’s at a fancy ball or dinner party, a lady likes to glam up a room, and custom or organic cosmetics designed just for her, bring out her natural essence.