AFGE Local 607

Has someone gone out of their way to make your life better – personally or in business? Don’t let your karma get out of whack by forgetting to give back! Few things are more important in life than giving thanks and praise where they are due, and doing this properly requires thoughtfulness and creativity. Thankfully, it isn’t necessary for everyone to be a Martha Stewart to give a thoughtful and creative gift. Hundreds of companies have popped up on the internet that make saying thank you as easy as typing in your credit card and clicking “order.”

Indeed, the thought that goes into making a gift basket and the thoughtfulness of sending one is sure to win you points with its recipient in addition to points with the karmic powers that be. Gift baskets can be tailored to each recipients’ (or sender’s) taste. Whimsical wino? Send a wine gift basket with a notable wine from Napa, Burgundy, or Bordeaux paired with a cheese. Cheerful chocoholic? The best gift basket stores have baskets choc full (no pun intended) of chocolates made by some of the world’s premier chocolatiers. Even pet lovers will be pleased by baskets full of treats for Fido – bones, freeze-dried livers… you name it!

I was recently lucky enough to be on the receiving end of a gourmet gift basket. What a palate pleaser! Chocolate, cheese, jams, crackers, wine, vinegar, olive oil – all these came together in a flower elegantly decorated with flowers. It looked so good that I dreaded having to actually open it. That’s when I realized that the next time I needed to send a good thank you gift that I would send a gift basket online.

But what about the price? Some online gift basket stores are more expensive than others – that’s just the way things go online. And obviously, sending a gift basket from an online store isn’t going to be cheaper than assembling one yourself. But doing it yourself would require trips to dozens of stores to put together the same assortment of products, not to mention a keen eye for arrangement and expert skill at packaging and shipping. In the end, if you’re really looking to convey how thankful you are, the money you spend on a gift basket will offer a high return on your investment. And before you know it, everyone will be pulling strings for you in hopes of being thanked with a gift basket!

After my parents divorced, I decided that after college I’d prefer to move into my own pad than live with my parents. The family house is in Staten Island, which is where my mom lives now, and my father has moved to Florida. I, on the other hand, had been living in an apartment in Boston while I went to university. Now that I’ve got a job, I wanted to move into an apartment near work and the places I like to visit.

My first order of the day – this was three months ago – was to look for good moving companies and then select one. Some of my former classmates in school, who had done the moving bit too, were able to refer me to a couple of moving companies they had done business with. Here in Boston there are actually quite a lot; the Yellow Pages has endless pages of them. After consulting with several companies, comparing prices and services, I hired one. Being able to get recommendations from friends about which company to use is a distinct advantage, because since they had already done their research about the company’s background I didn’t have to do quite so much digging and investigation.

Moving – even though it’s only to another part of the same city – can be very stressful. The thought of having to pack every single item in your house and then unpack and organize them again after you move is something that is taxing to the mind. This is where moving companies come in; a good one would be able to help you get the task over and done with, with the least amount of stress.

Although the idea of having to pack and then unpack was semi-traumatic to me, it was the thought of finally being in my new home that got me excited. I had been able to find a fantastic 2-bedroom condo unit just a stone’s throw away from Fenway Park.

Built in 1912, Fenway Park is America’s oldest baseball park and home to the Boston Red Sox. Famous for its hand-operated scoreboard and the Green Monster – the left field wall, painted green, which at 37 feet is the highest among Major League fields – Fenway Park is a must-see Boston attraction for tourists and baseball addicts.

The guys from the moving companies were kind enough to give me advice on how to pack my possessions, especially the breakable ones, and how to organize my packing into categorized boxes. One of them, the company I hired, even gave me a blank form that they call a Pre-Move Inventory, which was something like a tick-off list. That was neat!

For two straight weeks – on weekdays after work and then the entire day on weekends – I  made lists, wrapped, and packed. Finally it was all done. The moving company took care of packing the big items, like my refrigerator, washing machine and furniture. After the last box was loaded into the moving truck, I made one last inspection of the apartment to make sure nothing got left behind, and then I was off to my new home.

Right now I’m taking a coffee break. I’ve unpacked half of my boxes, and have around ten boxes more to go. The apartment is great – it’s new, spacious, and airy. Unpacking and organizing has been quite easy too, because my moving company made it a pleasant experience for me. I can now officially say that I love moving companies – especially those that give me a blank pre-inventory form!

International Moving 

Water damage is something that no homeowner wants to have to deal with, but many times it is just a fact of life.  Whether it is a flood, excessive rain, or even something as devastating as a hurricane, sometimes water damage cannot be helped, but what about the water damage that occurs to our homes that are simply accidents?  Or something that we have just overlooked for far too long?  There are quite a few things that you can to in order to keep water damage from impacting your pocketbook, but for them to have any affect, you have to remain vigilant.

Cleaning out your rain gutters as soon as the leaves stop falling in autumn is a pretty good idea.  What your rain gutters do is keep the rain that falls on your roof from simply falling to the base of your home and settling there.  Allowing water to settle around the base of your home will eventually cause it to sink into the ground, doing damage not only to the structure of the house, but also to the home’s value, as well.  Another way to prevent this kind of slowly occurring damage is to make sure that the soil around the foundation of your home is piled up against the house at an angle so water drains away from the foundation naturally.  Keep downspouts clear of leaves and sticks, as well, and make sure that the bottom of the downspout has gully that drains the water coming out of it away from the home. 

Making sure the plumbing that leads to your dishwasher or to your clothes washer is of good condition.  You should not have to replace these hoses very often, maybe around every 4 to 5 years, but hoses of poor quality can rupture and leave you with a huge mess, especially if you happen to be out of the home at the time it bursts.  Clean up any spills as quickly as possible, but if the floor in your kitchen is hardwood, the best thing to do is just soak up whatever water you can with towels.  If you have a vacuum used to draw water up, such as a carpet shampooer, you can use this to get some more of the water out.  Do not use artificial heat to dry your floor, because this can cause the floor to buckle or cause what is called “cupping”. 

Something else that you can do is install a vent in your bathroom and kitchen.  This allows the steam that builds up from cooking or bathing to escape the house and not be absorbed by your walls and ceiling.

Fire And Smoke Cleanup

If you are looking to buy any kind of vehicle, whether it is a car, truck, or a piece of farm equipment like a tractor, one of the things that a lot of people do not think about checking into is whether or not it has been flooded before.  Even if a vehicle has been flooded, a record of the flood may not be obtainable from a vehicle history report.  If the owner of the car did not report the flooding of the vehicle to the insurance company, then it will not appear on a vehicle history report, such as one obtainable from Carfax.com.  There are, however, other ways to check to see if the vehicle you are considering buying is water damaged.  It is not as difficult as it might seem to detect whether a vehicle has been water damaged or not, although if you do not know what to look for, you can be duped in a New York minute.  How can you tell if a car has been water damaged?  Here are a few tips. 

The first thing that you should do is check and see if there are any signs of rust in the trunk, dashboard, glove compartment, and under the seats.  Check also for silt and mud.  These are dead giveaways that the car has been flooded.

Also take a good look at the upholstery in the car.  If it does not appear to match the interior or if it fits loosely, then it might be a replacement for the original material that was in the car.  

Open the car door and put your head inside and inhale deeply.  There should not be a musty odor in the vehicle and you should also not smell any air fresheners.  Air fresheners are usually used by car dealers and individuals who have something to hide.

Test all the electronic components of the vehicle and make sure that they work.  The turn signals, heater, windshield wipers, and etcetera should be checked several times to insure that they work correctly and are reliable. 

Check underneath the dashboard and move some of the wires back and forth.  Bend them.  If they have been wet before they will be brittle and will probably crack as you flex them.

Last, but not least, have a mechanic that you trust do an inspection of the car.  Always do this before you purchase any used vehicle to make sure that there is nothing wrong with the car that the owner did not tell you about.

Document Restoration From Water

We’ve all had mold in our refrigerator at some point or another, but most of us just accept that this is going to happen and there’s not much that we can do about it. Food ages in our refrigerator whether it’s a piece of fruit, a vegetable, or a jar of grape jelly and becomes moldy over time. This mold spreads to the other items in our fridge and contaminates them, as well. What can you do about it?

Well, storing your food in your refrigerator properly is one of the most important things that you can do. Mold, bacteria, and mildew will start to grow in your fridge if you don’t. Check your food items in the fridge regularly and if anything is showing signs of mold growth, remove it immediately.

Don’t leave cracked egg shells in the carton. Bacteria exists on the outside of the egg shells and once on the inside, even if you’ve removed most of the egg, some of it still remains on the inside of the shell and bacteria will feed on it.

There are some general rules if you find food that has mold growing on it. There are some kinds of cheeses that are made with mold, but sometimes we see a spot of it that shouldn’t be there, like on a block of cheddar cheese. You don’t have to throw the whole block away, just take a clean knife and cut off the moldy part. It’s best to cut about an inch around and an inch underneath the spot to make sure that it doesn’t contaminate the rest of the block and don’t touch your knife to the mold. Don’t bother trying to save any soft cheeses or individual slices or sour cream.

You should follow the same rule for things like country ham and hard salami. If it’s covered with mold, though, toss it.

Any fruits and vegetables that are showing mold can be treated this way as long as they’re hard natured. Soft ones like plums or tomatoes should be thrown away if you see mold.

Any grains that you see with mold on them should be thrown away immediately. Be careful about any organic food that you buy; these don’t contain any pesticides or preservatives, they’re more likely to have mold growth.

Any tissue in potatoes that looks black or discolored in any way should be cut off.

Flood Damage Cleanup

I talked to a friend recently about the renovation she is undertaking on her new Brooklyn brownstone. She mentioned that she was gutting the kitchen and extending it a bit into the backyard. While the house itself is a classic Park Slope brownstone – soaring ceilings and original, 19^th century moldings – she is looking to jazz it up by creating a loft of the first floor by demolishing half of the second floor. In this way, she hopes to create a sleek, modern look in a classic home.

As far as the kitchen itself is concerned, she is looking at installing contemporary kitchen cabinet. NYC itself being a mix of the old and new, she thinks – and I agree – that the custom contemporary look will reflect well the city she loves so much. The cabinets are as full-featured as other cabinets – clever floating hinges and slide-away doors offer all the accessibility that one might find in the cool, new, more traditional-style cabinets – but the exteriors are either high-gloss lacquer or acrylic, or else some kind of light wood with pale glass, complete with hardware fixtures that emphasize the lines of the overall kitchen, making it a work of art in itself as well as a great working kitchen.

In addition to the contemporary look created by the cabinetry, my friend will be installing new appliances that are easily concealed: dishwasher drawers, an induction stovetop, and sleek European ovens from either Miele or Electrolux. Concrete, granite, or petrified wood flooring will complete the look. I have to say that I’m a little jealous, but then I should also be jealous that she is moving to such a mammoth of a house while I cling to my rent-controlled shoebox on 92^nd street. Some things in life aren’t fair, but I’ll make sure not to complain about it at her kitchen-christening party.

Poorly setup guitars really make playing the guitar a bigger challenge. As if it is not an endless challenge itself. But why make it more difficult? As you probably know by know, the faster you learn to play brings you more personal gratification and desire.

What is ‘guitar setup’? Basically it means to have the specifications adjusted to the actual factory standards or your personal specs. Simply put, a set-up includes:
#1. adjusting the height of the strings over the neck
#2. making sure your frets are level or the same height all the way up the neck
#3. intonation
#4. adjust and lubricated all remaining components, in general.

The purpose here is to help you to have a guitar you can play to it’s max potential. Hopefully without confusing anyone or using unusual terms that don’t really mean anything to you. As a matter of interest, I have rarely handled a new guitar, especially Gibson Guitars, that are really poorly set-up from the factory. Realistically speaking, it it a real mystery as to why more time is not spent setting up the guitars at the factory.

The Fender and Squier line of guitars seem to be the best set-up guitars from the factory, especially the Artist Series and Custom Shop series, and sometimes they leave a lot to be desired. I don’t really want to beat down any brand of guitar, it is not personal.

That being said leads me into the fact that every guitar a guitar store unpacks should be set-up before it is shipped or sold. Due to many conditions, it is not realistic for guitar retailers of any type to set-up every guitar. With the low profit levels guitar dealers are saddled with, it is not economically possible.

Regardless of whether it is new or used, once your guitar is properly set-up and adjusted, you may not recognize it in terms of how well it plays and just as important, how excellent it now sounds. It does not matter what your feelings were in term of playability and tone, your mind will be changed and blown.

I got lucky, my teacher of many moons is not just a brilliant teacher, he is a bona-fide Guitar Hero. He has 51 years of playing, including a music education at Berklee School of Music. FYI, that is one of the top two leading music schools in the world. Period. Richard Mac plays at a level only achieved by guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson and other players in that class, although he clearly has his own vibe.

Back to the subject, my score from Richard, other than teaching me to be a pretty good player (always getting better) is all about guitar set-up. He is sick about having every one of his many guitars set-up before he even plays it. Since I am his disciple, I now set-up every guitar I own immediately upon arrival. Believe this, I bought an Eric Clapton Custom Shop guitar a few years ago and set it up immediately. Actually it was well set-up from the Fender Custom Shop, but It had to checked and set-up perfectly.

The point is that if you buy a Mexican Standard Stratocaster and set it up properly, you have a guitar that plays as good as an American Standard Strat at four to six hundred dollars less. Same thing with an Epiphone guitar. Why buy a poorly set-up Gibson Les Paul for a few thousand bucks when you can buy an Epiphone guitar for less than half that price and have a better playing and sounding guitar?

Lets get down to brass tacks. A good guitar set-up is less than a hundred bucks. Believe me, that is a steal. A lot of precision work along with some expensive tools go into a set-up. Not to mention the ‘love’ built in by the luthier or guitar maker. I spent a lot of my life rebuilding automotive transmissions, and anyone in the know, knows they are precise and delicate. Guitars take the same delicate precision and time to make right. Don’t take my word for it, cough up the bucks and at least try it.

Not mentioning the many upgrades possible would be a disservice to you. If you had designs on upgrading your pickups or adding a TBX active tone control, locking tuners or whatever you can imagine, this is a great time to do it. Like I said, you can change the entire vibe of your guitar by locating a well trusted guitar maker/luthier.

For more information and ways to get a good set-up, and latest guitar releases or modifications contact Guitar Players Center for a competent luthier who has the experience. Point of importance, don’t just shop by price, not every guitar maker/luthier is the same. Get a reference first, it’s the ‘love’ that counts most, not the cost.

The number 1 rule is to compete in all eight segments of today’s job market. ITS is best known for providing all the openings, leads and contacts a job seeker will need, but in our advanced strategies section we instruct job seekers in all 15 Rules for Success. Here is a summary of some of the key points:

·     Use all segments. For best results, use all five segments of the published market… and all three segments of the unpublished market.

·     Pinpoint goals. With 30 million resumes in circulation, you need to pinpoint your job goals and use a multiple resume concept.

·     Broaden your appeal. You can dramatically expand your appeal to employers with a communication strategy that see’s transferable skills.

·     Uncover emerging jobs. You can uncover emerging jobs and make contact with employers before there is any competition. ITS makes this easy and fast with “Emerging Jobs Super Search.”

·     Create a job. Many people have had jobs created for them. There are proven techniques for doing this.

·     Convert interviews to offers. There are five proven rules for interviewing that can give you a competitive edge.

ITS offers Personal Marketing Services that goes far beyond Outplacement Career counseling. ITS uses its own unique technology to give job seekers access to as much as 85% of the advertised openings, including those from newspapers, recruiter openings, job boards, employer sites, and trade magazines. It also provides access to the unadvertised job market among employers, recruiters and growth companies.

For additional information: pr@changingcareers.com or contact Tom Mortenson at 800-320-1277.

Article By: ITS 

I am looking for a good personal injury attorney. Chicago seems to have many of them, and I am wondering who is generally able to obtain the largest average settlement or judgment. (It would be awesome if these kinds of statistics were released!) My case is extremely complicated, and pertains to ‘injury’ caused by day-in and day-out wear & tear on my knees caused by a cement floor and a “no sandals at work” policy. Anyway, if someone could please pass on their recommendations, I will be sure to give a call to whomever you recommmend.

Few law schools are better than the one at the University of Chicago. Medical malpractice attorney Jason Kroot is at the head of the class when it comes to teaching how to litigate and settle complicated cases involving questions of medical malpractice. An industry veteran, he maintains that the most important thing an individual can do to receive proper attention from a wrongdoer is to seek legal representation early. He cautions, “Many people come into my office six months, a year, or even two years after a medical mistake has impaired their health. While we are generally able to help them seek settlements from employers and malpractice insurance companies looking to save on costly litigation, we do a lot better with patients who know from the get-go they are entitled to compensation and will seek out.”