Monthly Archives: December 2016
Macabre Jewelry: Victorian Mourning Accessories
The next time you happen to come across antique jewelry auctions, make it a point to look at particularly interesting pieces from the Victorian era: hair jewelry.
Now, it’s true that jewelry is commonplace these days. AAA Jewelers, for instance, describes exquisite jewelry pieces as “wardrobe staples.” What, then, makes Victorian jewelry extra special?
Well, some of these Victorian baubles are not just made of diamonds and other precious stones – they may also incorporate skeletons, and little bits of a departed loved one’s hair.
Macabre Memorial Jewelry
People from the Victorian era wore mourning jewelry to pay homage to their dead loved ones. Queen Victoria inspired this fad, when for 40 years, she commemorated the death of her beloved Prince Albert by wearing a locket of his hair.
As a touchstone to remember deceased loved ones by, people started to embed parts of their dead loved one’s hair into their personal things. For males, they usually include hair in their cufflinks or the fobs of their pocket watches.
Women, on the other hand, wore more elaborate “hair” jewelry, weaving tufts of hair in the middle of pendants or brooches. They even make entire bracelets out of hair. In some homes, it is also normal to display wreaths and other home décor made with dead people’s hair.
Mourning Colors
While there are no known rules when it comes to the items they can incorporate pieces of hair into, color and materials are important. The color of jewelry moreover represents the various stages of grief.
Black enamel, for instance, is the hallmark of memorial pieces. Mourners also use white enamel to signify that their beloved was an unmarried woman and that she died a virgin. Different metals, meanwhile, hold different meanings. Pearls, for example, communicate the loss of a child.
While it is permissible to wear other jewels with mourning jewelry, for traditional Victorian mourners, only memorial jewelry is acceptable for the first two to three years.
Jewelry pieces go beyond simple accents to an outfit. Just like contemporary jewelry speaks volumes about the user’s personality and preferences, Victorian pieces conveyed the way people from this era comprehended family, love, and death.
4 Most Romantic Dinner Date Ideas in Cleveland QLD
Love is always in the air and what better way to savour this feeling than going on a dinner date with your special someone. The date could be adventurous, exotic, fancy, fun or even unpredictable. In any case, a dinner date is about love, enjoying each other’s company and basking in the warm glow of this feeling on a pleasant night.
If you are planning to go out with your special someone in Cleveland, Queensland, these ideas are sure to make your dinner date the most romantic you have ever been on.
Choose a romantic restaurant
Celebrate love and create memorable moments in a romantic restaurant. Gaze into each other’s eyes from across the table illuminated only by candlelight, with a relaxing violin music playing in the background. Enjoy great food matched with the perfect wine. Choose a restaurant located right in the heart of Raby Bay Harbour complex. Sit back and enjoy the views.
A Long Drive and a Romantic Dinner
Drive straight to Raby Bay Harbour, appreciate the sweeping view of the Marina, and have meaningful conversations along the way. You will end up in one of the restaurants around the business complex in the area. Cleveland Sands Hotel recommends finding a place that suits you and your special someone’s taste and personality.
Live Music
Dinner will be more romantic when accompanied by live music. Find a restaurant that features live entertainment by great musicians. Savour the taste of authentic and delectable dishes prepared by one of their best chefs. You will both feel relaxed and romantic in the subdued glow of the soft lights and the tender resonating music in the air.
Home-cooked Meal
If you have culinary skills, invite your date over for dinner at home. This gives you the chance to show her how special she is. You can find romantic recipes on the Internet or cook the favourite menu of your date.
Any one of these four scenarios will fulfil your concept of a romantic dinner date. Remember these whenever you want to spend quality time with your special someone.
Travel and Camp with Family Using Your RV
Road tripping or camping are fun activities that friends or a family love to do. They travel in their car, van, or they ride the bus to get to their destination. A city festival is another attraction that invites travelers to come and visit the place. Doing these activities together creates a bond among friends or family members and build them stronger relationships.
Get Your Family the RV for Camp Travel
If your family love to camp or travel to another city to attend festivals, maybe it is time for you to buy a new RV. The RV gives you the comfort of a home with modern amenities provided for sleeping, dining, washing, and cooking. You can unwind and relax on spacious beds and couch, cook a meal, dine comfortably, use the bathroom for washing, store your food and clothes in functional cabinets. You enjoy the view while you exchange nice conversations with everyone.
Buy a New or Used RV Based on Your Budget
Whether you buy a new or used RV for sale in Kansas, the vehicle should serve its purpose and satisfy your camping needs. It could be a motor home, travel trailer, fifth wheel, or toy hauler you dreamed of buying, get your money’s worth and satisfaction. The prices of these vehicles range from brands, type of model, and the sophistication of its amenities. Be ready with your budget if you want to acquire one. Arkansas RV dealers are everywhere.
Check for Parts, Service and Maintenance
RV dealers have service teams. Before you leave your place of origin, have the RV inspected for good condition to withstand long travels. They will check everything like the appliances, air-conditioning, water system, heater, generator, wheels, chassis, and the overall condition of the RV. Contact them and discuss payments and service warranties.
The next time you, your friends, or family plan to have that camping activity or attend a festival, remember that an RV could give you the comfort and convenience of a home you need for long travels.
Understanding Torque & Horsepower in the Context of Towing
Amongst the many things that car buyers look for when buying a car is the engine. A car’s engine is important because it determines how well the vehicle is going to perform on the road. The two things that matter when choosing a vehicle and its engine are torque and horsepower.
Torque & Horsepower: Differentiating the Two
Torque refers to the capacity of a vehicle to provide low-end power and the speed of acceleration after the vehicle stops. Horsepower, meanwhile, is the vehicle’s capacity to provide trailblazing power in a highway, especially when the engine is revving at top speeds. In a nutshell, torque allows the vehicle to work, whilst horsepower enables the vehicle to do the work at greater speeds.
The Power to Tow Vehicles
The actual value of both torque and horsepower translates well enough in racing, but people don’t really purchase cars with the intent to race. A practical application wherein these engine specifics do matter is towing. Ready Towing, for example, offers a handful of trucks and vehicles that serve this purpose. The use of a construction trailer or the transportation of vehicles requires the use of both torque and horsepower.
Since the measurement of torque is in pound-feet, or the amount of force on a given length, and horsepower is the measurement of an applied force and the movement of an object, can you figure out which is more important to towing?
Torque bears significance to towing because it allows a truck to pull heavy loads. Its towing capacity refers to the weight it can pull behind it, which means the towing capacity is relative to the torque of a truck engine. A truck can maximise the use of its engine’s torque by keeping the rpm low, especially in uphill situations.
However, it’s the horsepower that allows it to speed on whilst towing a vehicle on the highway. Cruising along and suddenly needing to accelerate to overtake or speed past a slow-moving vehicle requires horsepower. In hindsight, both torque and horsepower are quite necessary for efficient towing.
Take the Heavy Work Out of Light Trucking
Some truckers believe numerous applications call for the meanest and toughest work machine out there. On the contrary, you do not need the extra bulk to get the job done.
Other jobs, such as work done by smaller contractors (e.g., electricians, plumbers and painters), do fine with light-duty cars. All you need is a little help from productive truck accessories; these are enough to transform your light-duty truck into a massive workhorse.
The right accessory, for Mfiservicebodies.com.au, leaders in service body design, makes a big difference. Here are the must-haves for your truck:
Light Duty Service Bodies
One of the ultimate options for light-duty work trucks is the installation of service bodies. With Class 1 chassis, you cannot pick up standard service bodies due to payload restrictions and weight.
Some service body manufacturers, however, provide lighter service bodies for lower classes. Remember, it will not come with similar payload capabilities; lighter service bodies do come with other benefits their heavy-duty counterparts offer.
Handy Toolboxes
Full truck covers or caps can be overwhelming; tool boxes, on the other hand, offer increased storage with smaller spaced and similar benefits. With the wide selection of toolboxes in shops, you can easily configure storage options for your truck and its needs.
In-bed side boxes and cross boxes also provide deeper storage for tools and equipment. If you wish for a more convenient storage, above-body side boxes can rest on the bed’s rails for easy access; keep in mind, however, that this limits visibility.
Spray Liner
For most work trucks, the bed is where all the magic happens. To keep this fully functional, it is necessary to protect them from dings, dents and punctures earned from the daily grind.
Protect this overlooked area of protection by applying a thickness of colours to match the truck and its application. Apart from the added protection, spray liners also give that extra grip for more non-slip surfaces.
With various options available, it’s no wonder light-duty pickup trucks are viable options for different right-sized jobs.
Choose the Right Estimate Software with These 4 Criteria
Civil engineering is a profession that involves not only a large amount of money but also a large amount of construction materials that range from small to giant sizes.
As you deal with all the funding and the materials, you will inevitably need an effective estimate software for civil engineering. Finding the right one is another story altogether, however. How can you choose the right one?
What do You Expect?
You can consider certain factors that experts believe are important. You can first identify what end result you want to receive from a software. This includes the type of reports you want to see and other features. In this way, you can gain a rough understanding of the software you want. Afterward, you can compare your expectations with the actual features of software choices.
Integrated Programs
When you are working alongside other professionals in a firm, you can choose enterprise-based software that features a shared platform with other applications or software. Such programs can work together without data being re-entered. They have a reduced margin of error since data is shared, too.
How Was Your Experience?
The second factor that you can consider is your user experience. You can check and see if the interface is user-friendly and if the software has an integrated database. You can see how well customer support works as well as if the program is cloud-based and compatible with multiple devices.
How Much Is It?
The last factor is pricing. Before looking at the price, you can first check if the vendor offers a free trial. Unless there is a free trial where you can judge the software based on personal experience, you are better off with another software. When you deem the free trial worthy, you can now take a look at the total price of the program.
As long as you judge an estimating software for civil engineering with these factors, you can get the right one that you need. Start your search now.
Practical Hacks to Stay Safe During Rodeo
Rodeo is one of the most challenging sports in the world. It does not use just one part of your body, but you have to use the strength of your whole body to play this sport. Many people will come to watch whenever you play rodeo, but it is also a dangerous activity.
You have to fight with the horses, bulls and other livestock to prove your strength and ability to the audience. This is popular especially in Mexico and Central America since it was invented after cattle herding in Spain.
Kinds of Rodeo
There are many activities involving rodeo. Apart from the famous bull riding, there are also events lie tie-down roping, steer wrestling, bareback bronc riding, and many more that you would enjoy. Because this involves a fight between a human and an animal, many people come to watch these events to witness the strength of each of the players. One of the most intense rodeo sports you can watch is the bull riding. In this event, the player needs to stay on the back of the bull as long as possible as the bull tries shrug the player off.
Safe Bull Riding
Since bull riding is one of the most dangerous rodeo events, you need to wear those rodeo protective vests. Bulls can be unpredictable and may chase you down until it catches you. Furthermore, you can fall hard during bull riding because the bull can throw you hard enough on the ground. Rodeo vests can help prevent accidents during a rodeo.
Playing these sports can be a lot of fun. But at the same time, they can be very dangerous. In order to prevent accidents and trips to hospitals, it is important to remember to take precautionary measures to avoid physical injuries. No matter how good you are in bull riding or tie-down roping, you must wear rodeo protective vests to ensure your safety.
Car Breakdown? No Problem
Car breakdowns are far from enjoyable. Your car can break down anywhere here in Brisbane — it can be in your garage, just as you are about to bring it to the mechanic or in the middle of the highway. Breakdowns are a hassle and can be stressful and frustrating situations to be in. They can even be dangerous if your car breaks down on the freeway and other drivers weren’t able to step on the breaks immediately. Not to fear, however, you can simply practice the following guidelines for a stress-free car breakdown:
In the First Place
First, you can avoid most car breakdowns by practicing preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance can detect issues before they become severe. It also keeps your car in great condition.
Pull Over
In times when your car breaks down even with preventative maintenance, you have to prioritise safety. You can try to reach a service station if you already feel that something is wrong with your car. Otherwise, you can pull over at a place you deem safe, and park far to the left as possible.
Call for Help
When your car slows down instead, you can turn on your warning lights to alert surrounding motorists. Keep them on, and pull over onto the hard shoulder as soon as possible. Once you are stationary, you can call for roadside assistance or tow trucks serving in Brisbane. You can use your cellular phone or an emergency roadside telephone.
Sit Tight
Car breakdown in a tunnel is a little different. You can still pull over to the left (if you can) and turn on your hazard lights. Tunnel monitors will send assistance when they can. For the meantime, sit tight and keep your seatbelt fastened.
Prepare Yourself
In cases where your car breaks down in a remote place, preparation is the key to saving yourself and your ride. Always bring water, food, and other supplies with you. You can also bring a satellite phone or a different piece of remote-area communication.
Car breakdowns can be conquered as long as you know exactly what you have to do during these situations. With the previously mentioned guidelines, you can reduce the stress that a breakdown can bring.
These Qualities Can Land You a Job as a Test Engineer
When companies place job advertisements for test engineers, there are usually many applicants. Perhaps, the reason for this, aside from the good pay, is the job itself is exciting and engineers get the chance to prevent defective products from getting out. In a way, they are doing a service to humanity by ensuring that they get only quality goods from the manufacturers. What are the qualities that companies look for in individuals who want to be testing engineers?
Putting Great Value in Quality
This is usually the first thing that companies will be trying to determine among applicants for the position of a test engineer. If you are trying to become one, you need to place emphasis on quality above anything else. You must have that sense of purpose in certifying only products as having passed the stress tests because customers who will be buying them deserve nothing less than superior. In fact according to SoftwareQATest.com, test engineers, whether in the manufacturing or software development sector, must be able to take the point of view of their customers.
A Meticulous Eye for Detail
According to CareerRide.com, it is important for a test engineer to have attention to detail. They are known for their meticulousness when it comes to stress testing. While it is true that these tests are performed using state-of-the-art machines, it still needs your intervention.
Knowledgeable in HALT or HASS Test Machines and Processes
Obviously, you can’t land a job as a HALT or HASS test engineer if you didn’t undergo training. Although your professor back in college may have touched on the processes and mechanics involved in HALT or HASS testing, they may have only discussed the basics. Qualmark.com noted that there are companies providing special training and education, and some of them even manufacturer their own HALT, HADD and AST machines. Aside from the basic principles, they provide you with hands-on experience when handling these testing machines.
Naturally, companies would also be looking at your work ethics and how you deal with people around you. When you possess these qualities, you will definitely have a strong chance of getting hired as a stress test engineer.
There Goes the Opportunity: How Brands are Missing Out on Facebook
Facebook is a very powerful tool for brands, mostly because of the sheer scope of their user population. In fact, there are nearly 1.5 billion people on Facebook. According to John Lipe, with more customers going online and digital, it should not be surprising that many brands are using the tool to promote their brand and sell their product.
While most brands are on Facebook, only a few seem to be maximizing their use of the social media platform. Often, brands unwittingly make mistakes that prevent them from cashing in on the opportunity to be successful in the social media landscape.
Focusing on a Broad Fan Base
While there’s nothing wrong with forming a fan base, gathering a wide but shallow pool of online users won’t do much to boost a brand. A particular focus on numbers (particularly price and quantity) rather than quality means brands are throwing away marketing funds on individuals who are not likely to purchase the brand. A company’s marketing resources would be more profitably used in converting a small but highly targeted group of individuals instead.
Focusing on Reach
Another common online marketing pitfall is focusing too much on reach and making it a measure of their success. The problem with prioritizing quantity over quantity is that reach does not help brands cultivate a quality fan base. This method simply pulls in the masses rather than cultivate true fans who will appreciate their brand’s products and services.
Focusing on Engagement
When a wide reach isn’t earning the conversions a brand needs, the tendency is to move on to engagement. A weak online marketing strategy would allow the sharing of photos (perhaps memes) or videos loosely connected to them. This paper-thin approach will likewise fail because a brand can’t form a long-term relationship with their target market through mere shares, likes, comments, and clicks.
Focusing on Sales
Some brands completely bypass the last three strategies and care only about the bottom line. All they do is try to sell product and use that as a metric for their success. It is worth noting, however, that people hate being sold to, especially when done persistently. Furthermore, brands can’t expect much success if they try to sell their product or service to the wrong people.
What should be Done Instead?
Forming an audience who will find their brand product relevant should be the main concern. By creating lots of helpful content, investing in a website and driving traffic to it, brands can use website traffic to help form a Facebook audience. This way brands generate more traffic, more quality fans, and ultimately, more sales.
Brands shouldn’t rely on shallow online marketing strategies to drive their conversions. Instead, they should focus on investing in the future of their brand by driving quality traffic to something of their own.
