No Spec Work - Rewarding Creativity Properly

Honor stoles are stoles that can be used with graduation caps and gowns to give special recognition to students of excellence. Many students deserve special recognition even if they are not the valedictorian or salutatorian. Although I touched on this briefly in another post, I feel that this is of such importance it bears further discussion.

In fact, many students who have contributed greatly to their schools do not feel that they have received due recognition. Most schools neglect to denote honor stoles to students who are not a member of the student council or top of their class. This is a huge mistake that Gordon International has tried to correct by offering simple stoles that simply state “Honor.” This gives schools the ability to provide honor to students who went above and beyond academics.

Honor stoles should be provided to any student that contributed to the school or community in an outstanding way. President of clubs such as Students against Drunk Driving should receive these stoles, because their efforts and hard work affect the lives of many. This recognition should be followed through with an expression of why the student is receiving the honor at the time that they are presented with their diploma.

If you are one of the many people this Christmas season who have absolutely no idea what to buy for the people in your life that won’t end up returned after Christmas, this is the article for you. Learn how to buy something they want, or better yet, get them a gift card and spend the rest of the day enjoying time together.

Christmas gets more over-blown and expensive with each passing year. Everyone says that Christmas will be different next year but it will be the same boring holiday. Sure it was fun to get gifts when we were kids; but now that we’re adults do we need to continue the crazy mall shopping every year?

The problem is that most people don’t know what everyone wants. According to theory, you increase the odds someone will be pleased when you buy a large amount of stuff for them. Do some research prior to choosing a person to date. Check with people who know what they want and need. Over the course of the year, a mild interrogation with in depth and probing questions will aid in identifying a suitable gift. Hopefully, this will keep you from buying them useless trinkets and gadgets. When these ideas fail, there is nothing wrong with gift cards. You can personalize these with a few home-baked cookies or ornaments, or with a personalized card that lets them know that you wanted them to have the last say about their gift. The gift of getting to spend time with family and friends is way greater than any gift can give you.

Though many people agree that gift cards are impersonal, isn’t it more impersonal to buy someone a gift they don’t need or want? When you cannot determine the perfect gift through any means, gift cards are the ideal solution. Musch of the time people won’t admit to what they want even if they know. This group can also be pleased in a variety of ways. Here is a great site for some Christmas Gifts for everyone.

Online sweepstakes and actions are proscribed from needing a purchase to enter. You can win marvelous computers now every 18 weeks even if you live in Campbell California or in New Britain Connecticut, isn’t that realy terrific. That’s why there are great plasmas to be won at funny online contest and internet sweepstakes this month. Online promotions advertised as funny online contests, thus far, can need an entry fee or testimonial of buy.

Translated in Dutch it means: Woon je in Simpelveld of Asten en wilt u een prijs winnen’ Met Win de prijsvraag.nl winnen is nog nooit zo eenvoudig geweest. Fijne prijzen winnen met een abonnement op windeprijsvraag.nl‘ Op zijn minst 463 prijzen per maand. Van Bernisse tot Delfzijl, winnen met Windeprijsvraag is hier geen enkel probleem. Een mevrouw van 61 heeft een maand geleden nog een plasma TV weten te winnen.

7 hours ago also a Europe based web company started a fun website and is also legally indifferent. It will be terrific to win MP3-players worth 751 euro and that simple. Cyber sweepstakes are for the most part much more promiscuous and faster to enter than fun websites. Entering easy sweepstakes by mail is turning down in well known popularity this year. Many more online contests are choose up to enter online sweepstakes. Online sweepstakes are also legally totally different from the contest websites in Bismarck North Dakota. Online game contests are hardened much more different than the winners who are not chosen by hazard but by an good piece of skill.

Web logs, commonly referred to as “blogs,” came into the mainstream about 2 years ago.

Not really a newsletter or traditional html page publishing, blogs resemble more of a web-based diary where the creator records their thoughts, posts links, or responds to questions.

Initially, blogs contained only text and pictures, but then came “audio blogging,” which entails the use of audio on a blog.

Audio blogging also gets referred to as “Podcasting” because of the ability to let people with iPods and other portable MP3 players download your MP3 audio.

The simplest form of video blogging, or “vlogging,” means putting a video file online, linking to it from your blog, and anyone subscribing to your rss feed (automatically created by your blogging software) will get notified about your new video.

They can then open up your latest blog post in their “feed reader” and view your video by clicking the link.

More advanced forms of video blogging include getting your “vlog” accepted by Apple’s iTunes so their subscribers can find and subscribe to your vlog (which gives you access to 19 million users at last count).

Vloggers use a variety of video file types (like Windows Media, Quicktime, Real Media, and MPEG) and there’s no restriction on which file type you use to be considered a “vlog.”

However, two file types stand above the rest if you want to reach the widest possible audience.

For video Podcasting, you must publish in either the FLV (Flash Video) or SWF (Shockwave Flash) file formats if you want people on both MAC and PC to view your video files.

FLV is better suited for full motion video, but they both work on smaller length video files.

For Video PodCasting, you must publish in the MPEG4 file format or Apple’s proprietary version of that format known as M4V.

Apple’s QuickTime Pro software rates the simplest and easiest way to convert your video files to the proper video PodCasting format.

To create a basic “vlog,” you need the following list of equipment and software: a web cam or digital camcorder; a microphone, production software; a blog; an rss feed to “syndicate” your content.

A webcam will work for a basic vlog, though a digital video camera will create much better results because they contain better optics.

Using a separate microphone instead of the microphone built into your web cam or camcorder will also produce a much better sound quality.

Once you shoot your video you need to produce it to display on the Web. At a minimum, if your computer operates with Windows XP, you can use the Windows Movie Maker software that comes free with XP.

Though you can’t save as an FLV or SWF, you can save as a Windows Media file (wmv) to get you started.

For a blog, you can use the free Blogger.com service. To create a feed to syndicate your site, you can use the free service at FeedBurner.com.

Though audio blogging received mediocre acceptance from the mainstream Internet audience, “vlogging” should do extremely well simply because of our fascination with moving pictures.

If you’re looking for a precedent, look how far TV has come in the last 50 years compared to radio.

Copyright 2005 Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards operates a Video Newsletter at http://www.IGottaTellYou.com - He specializes in helping non-technical people get the most out of the Web! Check out his Cutting-Edge “I Gotta Tell You” FREE newsletter now

You’ve heard of the online pros with the four LCD computer monitors arrayed across his desk, each running 5 different online poker tables of Texas Holdem, where he’s set it up so he can play 20 hands at once. If you’re a tight player who has gotten your game down to a science, a lot of players find that they can up their profit and their odds of making big hands by playing several tables at once. This narrows down your speculating and gambling as you have too much to do to mess around and gamble, plus your odds of seeing big hands go up so you can just float at other tables while on the other tables you click check/fold.

So if you have the proper bankroll to fund multiple buy ins at once, and you are a tight player who likes to play premium starting hands and go from there, it seems playing multiple poker tables at once can be a profitable goal. Adding one table at a time to see how many you can manage is probably a good idea, and you definitely want to get too far in over your head before you can control the action.

If you’re finding though that you’re getting slowed up and making the time clock go off every other time around, you’ve probably hit your wall. It’s nice to get a lot of action, and to vary your play, but not at the expense of slowing down the game for the other players. There’s nothing worse than the guy who times out every single time around. Try adding on a table now and then when you have the funds and see how it affects your game, and if you can manage to move up, you might find it is a profitable excursion.

For those that have never been on a wildlife safari in Southern Africa may find it hard to imagine the wonderful wildlife you might often photograph. The folks who come to a wildlife safari are regular people like you and me, some are into photography, some are into wildlife but all of them are interested in a new spectacular experience.

The breathtaking thing about a safari is the fact it is so different from the usual holiday to France, there are very little kids. Each walking safari organisation will supply an English speaking safari guide to take you through the wonderful areas of Southern Africa. The most popular animals you will often see are giraffes. These eye-opening animals are not tame and of course do not play with them. If you are interested in taking wildlife photographs of the cheetahs you should make sure you turn off the flash as you do not want to scare the animals. The eye-opening animals in Africa may put a smile on your face.

If you would like to discover more about super safari holidays in South Africa you should use the search engines to notice a safari company that offers safaris from the UK, the prices might often range from five hundred pounds to eight hundred pounds. Safari Holiday, Kaingo is the consumers choice for quick, reliable holidays in Africa.

Riding is colorful, thrilling, dangerous and addicting. If you have started riding at an early stage by the time you reach forty you may have ample riding stories to tell. You may also have learned loads of riding techniques.

Riding is my outlet. It makes me struggle for more and it frees my mind from worrying too much of life’s complexities. So what have I learn?

You learn a lot from riding. What I am to tell you are just few of the things that I have known and cherished.

I have seen almost everything. Fatal crashes, traumatic incidents, ecstatic winning moments and other worth remembering instances.

One thing about motorcycle crashes is that they often leave many clues as to the cause of what has occurred. The appearance of the motorcycle, motorcycle accessories, the smithereens surrounding the scene, the victims and the likes are evidence of the incident. We call it crash because there is still time to prevent it nonetheless, it was not prevented just the same.

Most of the riders panic under this situation. As a result, they do not know what to do next. No action plan means trouble. It can cause further damage or increase fatalities which should not be the case.

Be selective of your riding peers. If you are a co-rider about the person you choose to ride with. In order to keep up with him, be sure that your skills are not far off. Otherwise your ride will not be the ride that you want to ride. Ride with those people who are responsible enough when it comes to their driving.

Drive defensively. Focus. Concentration gives you mental alertness in deciding how to avoid troubles. Stay away from risky road chases. They are nothing but invitation to lie on a coffin - lifeless.

Nothing compares to traveling prepared. Always wear your protective motorcycle accessories and apparel. You can save a life by doing so and that life can be yours.

Listen to your heart, what does your passion dictates? Are you really into riding? What do you mean by that? You should be riding safely and responsibly. Then you can conquer the road, track or terrain. Be good and return home safe and sound!

Please visit Motorcycle Accessories site at www.streetmotorcycleaccessories.com for more information

Join both of people’s uppermost leisure actvities and what you’ll get is a trend that’s termed a sportsbook betting website. And really, what could conceivably be more original. If you envision a large assembly of sports fanatics cheering their chosen favorite sports club, and almost all the time wagers are assured to be established accompanying the ruckus. Wishing to get their share of the exhilaration, on-lookers will typically aspire to anticipate who will prevail in the imminent fight. In the end, this boils down to a nice and friendly fight termed sportsbook betting website.

Yes, it is bound to sound compulsive but, instead, sportsbook gambling is essentially simply an amusing entertainment and to relate with one’s fellow fans. Here, you can bet a any trivial sum of lucre and nevertheless have an ultra cool time. Below, you’ll find a few select basic guidelines to get going sportsbook gambling.

To place your wager, you’d be well advised to visit a sportsbook betting website, which is a place that accepts sportsbook betting website. In the U.S.A., there’s currently a total of no less than four states where we can go for sportsbook gambling officially, but beyond legal you may attempt it everywhere provided you find a bookie AND you’re legally of age. The track-and-field events you can choose to bet on are pro and, naturally, college football & college league basketball, professional hockey and baseball, and, naturally, betting on both horse and dog racing. Visitors have a choice of betting on the complete combined score of a competition or game, on what round any given opponent will be defeated, and even if a coin toss in a competition or game will land heads or tails.

The odds maker establishment confide in mere figures to help you determine which sports club you trust will prevail. First, we have the spread, meaning specific points advantage given to a a disadvantaged side presumed to fail by x number points. This constitutes the betting establishment’s technique of enabling unprejudiced wagers for a Sports Book. E. g. a punter might choose to risk money on a contestant presumed to fail and and nevertheless profit from that bet provided the side loses by x number of points.

People can go for various breeds of wagers: straight bets, where you have to pick the team you feel will prevail or be defeated, parlay lays, teaser bets and many more, the straight bets being the dominating one in sportsbook gambling.

Why not just check it out and enjoy the recreation simultaneously. But be on the guard so that you won’t get overwhelmed and spend your complete retirement fund on a fancy… For you just might be caught filled with remorse for the rest of your life…

Nothing but the best online astra sports bet action at this site.

One of the key parts of motorcycling is making your ride unique to your taste. Motorcycling is all about the shared passion and individual style. Motorcycle customization has become big business driven by this need to take a showroom stock motorcycle and “Pimp” it out if you will. The demand for aftermarket parts has created a huge startup with ma and pa stores. Small time fabricators are designing custom pieces for their favorite motorcycles and offering them to the masses.

This is not to say that the major motorcycle corporations have not taken notice. Honda offers their very popular VTX motorcycle models in 13 different customization styles. You can mix and match to your heart is content. Victory motorcycle has also jumped into the customization game by offering customer a Custom Order Program. Victory basically lets the customer build the bike online the way the customer wants it by picking from the various custom options. Victory started this program back in 2004 and have been running it ever since. Most notibly with the Victory Hammer and now the extreme custom Victory Jackpot model. With the Ness team providing
styling input for the Victory line, the customer ends up being the real winner here.

Victory is a breath of fresh air on the popular V-Twin cruiser market. They offer sharp stylish looking machines that actually are well built and perform really well. Harley-Davidson needs to take note. While Harley-Davidson business model has switched to making dealerships have multi-acre showrooms selling nothing but clothing, Victory came in under the radar and listened to their customers and provided them what they want — a stylish reliable high performance machine. Harley Davidson owners are quickly trading in their motorcycles for Victory Hammers, Vegas, Jackpots, and Kingpins. You will find it very difficult to find many Victory motorcycles on the showroom. No it is not that they are now just selling clothing like Harley dealers, but that they cannot keep the Victory motorcycles in stock.

The beauty of Victory is that they offer a diverse styling package for their bikes so that they do not just produce a cookie-cutter clone bike like Harley Davidson did with their 100th Anniversary edition bikes. How boring. Everyone bought one thinking it would be unique only to find out that Harley had way overproduced these bikes and forced them down the throats of the dealerships. Now everyone and their mother own one. No unique styling. No with the popularity of the Victory motorcycle growing more each year we are starting to see more shops start to produce quality aftermarket parts and accessories for your beloved Victory. The best way that I have found to keep informed of the latest products and upgrades is to monitor the various Victory motorcycle enthusiasts sites like the Victory Kingpin Cruisers site at http://www.kingpincruisers.net — This site is Victory Kingpin-centric but it also discusses all late-model Victory motorcycles and touches on customization tips, products, and maintenance tips and articles. The manufacturers also monitor these sites to get an idea of what their customers are saying. It is a great way to keep informed and benefits everyone.

So now you have your new Victory Kingpin sitting in your garage, you receive heaps of compliments and love to ride the machine. But after awhile you start thinking about upgrades and customizations. Maybe these came to you in your sleep or by looking at someone else’s motorcycle or by reading the aforementioned Kingpin Cruisers website. So what types of upgrades are out there you ask. At first it is best to do the cosmetic upgrades. Bolt on chrome pieces, custom mirrors, swap out the stock turn signals for chrome LED turn signals, upgrade to some PIAA driving lights for better night visibility. You could also get some stock pieces chromed. This takes lots of time and money and in my experience it is far more cost effective to just buy the piece new already chromed from the manufacturer. Again, the best places to find what is out there is to browse your favorite Victory enthusiasts site. The main reason to focus on the cosmetic bolt-on pieces at first is that you do not want to be making performance modifications while your new shiny Victory Kingpin is still under warranty. Any such modification may void your warranty. Now having said that, the first major scheduled service for Victory motorcycles is at 20,000 miles while Harley Davidson motorcycles is at 2,000. Yes I said two thousand. Ouch, give me a Victory any day.

So you now have your motorcycle all covered in expensive chrome pieces. You have had your bike and the warranty is about to expire. So now you should start looking into some performance modifications. Performance modifications are great if you enjoy wrenching on your motorcycle and doing all of the work yourself. If you buy these upgrades and have the dealership service department do all of the work, you will find that you will quickly go broke. Think of it this way, if you do your own wrenching, the money you save in labor can be used to buy more goodies for your beloved Victory. Now you may ask, what if I do not know how to install a certain component. Well, to keep the theme going, I suggest you consult your Victory enthusiasts web site. The Kingpin Cruisers (www.KingpinCruisers.net) offers free membership and has a volunteer certified Victory Technician there to answer questions and write technical articles on your Victory motorcycle. Plus there are heaps of others on this site that most likely have done the modification you are about to attempt.

Let us discuss a little more about performance modifications. When your Victory motorcycle is assembled and shipped to the dealership, it is tuned to run on the lean side. What does this mean? Well to satisfy EPA standard, manufacturers lean out their motorcycles so they run hotter and by controlling the air/fuel mixture. In this case a lean condition has more air in the mixture than fuel. This will cause your bike to backfire and rob you of a few horsepower. Related to this lean running condition is the design of the stock air box. On the Victory it is shaped like a coffin and does not allow for direct airflow into the throttle bodies for maximum performance. Instead the air has to go through a couple ninety-degree turns, through some velocity tubes and take another ninety-degree turn downward into the throttle bodies. Not too efficient. So you ask, what can I do to optimize this airflow? The following is a list of options:

1 - Upgrade your Victory to a Stage-I kit. This provides you with performance slip on exhaust, a K&N air filter with a vented air box cover. Victory also re-maps your ECU EFI computer to handle the new performance modifications.

2 - Once you have the Stage-I, you can drill 1″ diameter holes in the front of the stock air box in the direct line of the airflow. This provides a nice ram-air effect forcing more air into the throttle bodies. Before I forget, be sure to clean the soot off your throttle bodies at every oil change. The little maintenance you do here will make your Victory motorcycle run like new.

3 - Upgrade your stock air box to an aftermarket custom air box. One of the best upgrades that you could do is to install the Eaglecat Custom Victory Air box. This custom air box for Victory motorcycles both looks great and provides a lot more air flow into your engine. This is very high on the upgrade list for Victory motorcycles.

4 - Instead of being at the mercy of the Victory dealership, you can install a custom fuel-control module. The best one on the market is the Lloydz Victory Control Module (VFC). This little control module comes with plugs that connect right into your Victory’s ECU computer. Then you have some dials on the unit to better control the air/flow mixture. This modification works best if you have at least the Stage-I upgrade kit installed. Also suggest you install the Eaglecat Victory air box for maximum gains.

Once you have spent your money and installed these parts, I strongly suggest you have your motorcycle fine-tuned on a dyno. Most service shops have a dyno machine and charge from $40 on up for tuning. You may possibly see an additional 11 horsepower gain with these modifications. Not too bad for a Victory cruiser.

The performance modifications mentioned above are a very cost-effective solution for increasing the performance and horsepower of your motorcycle. There are more expensive routes that are available. These include: Upgrading to a Stage II performance kit and upgrading your exhaust system.

The final performance modification I suggest for the Victory motorcycles, especially the 2004 models with the 5-speed transmission, is the Overdrive drive sprocket pulley by TurboTec. For the 2004 5-speed transmission Victory motorcycles, this will make it so you will not have to down shift as much at highway cruising speeds. Giving you lower RPMS at speed and thus a smoother ride. The pulley is slightly larger than the stock pulley, which is why the shifting pattern changes for the better at speed. For standing start bursts, this overdrive pulley will shed some of that initially blast, but the benefit is smoother highway shifting. This is an inexpensive performance modification that you can install yourself. And if you have doubts about the installation, be sure to read and post questions on your Victory Kingpin enthusiast’s site (www.kingpincruisers.net).

In summary, I hope this article has given you some sense of the various cosmetic and performance upgrades available to the consumer. I am very pleased with the products that Victory is producing and think they are going to continue to become more popular each year. So stay tuned for more articles on upgrades to make your Victory motorcycle unique.

Contributing author to Cycle Solutions
http://www.cyclesolutions.net

Technical research for this article was performed on the Victory Kingpin Cruisers site. http://www.kingpincruisers.net

Mountain bike maintenance can become an obstacle course, if you don’t have some basic skills.

Owning a mountain bike - whether you are a serious rider or simply enjoy it as a sport - is an investment in time and money. Protect that investment by learning a few tricks of the trade as far as mountain bike maintenance is concerned.

The first important thing in mountain bike maintenance is very simple: keep your bike clean! Wipe off excess dirt once a week, using a dry cloth or a damp soapy sponge. During wet weather, or with frequent use, it is a good idea to wash your bike after every ride. If you don’t do this, you will find that there are a lot of sticky stuff out there that may become unwelcome, permanent fixtures.

Another regular habit you need to adopt as part of mountain bike maintenance, is degreasing the chain and drivetrain. How often you do this depends on how often you ride. It should be done once a month at least, and up to two or three times per month if you ride on a regular basis.

Lubrication of the chain is essential. There are many excellent lubricants on the market. Choose one that suits your needs. Keep in mind that newer lubricants such as White Lightning are self-cleaning, which minimizes mountain bike maintenance.

It is best to apply lubricant the night before you ride. Doing it ten minutes before, prevents it from getting into the chain properly.

As part of mountain bike maintenance, it is vital to maintain the correct air pressure in the tires. Taking care of this small detail will protect your expensive tires. It also prevents frequent tube problems.

Gear cables tend to stretch over time, which makes gear shifting less effective. Gear and brake cables should be checked regularly, and replaced more often than most people realize. New ones should be put in every six to nine months as part of general mountain bike maintenance, and the cable housing should be replaced at the same time.

Another item on you mountain bike maintenance list, is your brake pads. These wear extremely fast. You need to check the alignment of the brake pads against the rims. They should sit squarely on the rim when the brakes are applied.

When relaxed, they should be clear of the sidewall of your tire as it turns. Replace the brake pads when they get to the wear line. Allowing them to go onto the metal casing, will damage your rims.

Check all the nuts and bolts in your monthly mountain bike maintenance routine. Invest in an Allen key or spanner and tighten the loose bolts, such as crank bolts, seatpost bolts, and headset locknuts.

Lastly, one simple way to look after your bike is to keep it under cover, preferably indoors. Don’t expose it to the elements any more than necessary.

Be careful when using a bike cover outside. These tend to trap moisture between the cover and the ground, and will cause the steel parts on your bike to corrode more rapidly, giving cause for more mountain bike maintenance than you ever had in mind!

Take good care of your bike and it will take good care of you!

For more information visit Best-Mountain-Biking.com

Rika Susan of Article-Alert.com researches, writes, and publishes full-time on the Web. Copyright of this article: 2006 Rika Susan. This article may be reprinted if the resource box and hyperlinks are left intact.