Business

PSP Hot Tips Game Downloads

PSP game downloads have swept through the PlayStation community like a storm in recent years. Sony PlayStation portable units have been a faithful companion for many children and teens today. In terms of popularity, it is almost synonymous with games, just like music is for the iPod. But before you start downloading games for your PSP unit, there are a few things you need to know about how to play those PSP game downloads.

Our computers run on an operating system, ie Windows or Mac. Unlike PCs, our PSP units run on PSP firmware. This is the core operating system of the PSP that gives your PSP the ability to play games, video, and audio. The firmware is installed on your console’s flash disk. Sony would occasionally release new firmware versions to add more functionality to its console or to fix some bugs that are inherent in older versions.

However, you may not know that only older versions of PSP firmware such as version 1.00 and 1.50 can allow you to play PSP game downloads. How do you check the firmware version of your PSP? Just take a look at the system software information in the system setup menu. Newer versions come with firmware versions greater than 2.00. If you just bought a new PSP, you don’t need to check if it is compatible with PSP game downloads.

This feature is a security protection feature to prevent any user from running unauthorized software on their PSPs. While it has its merits in expanding the functionality of your PSP, it can be crippling if you plan to play some older console games like Nintendo, Game Boy Advance, Sega Genesis, or PSP game downloads. You may not also know that Sony only allows you to update its firmware to higher versions. You cannot reverse the process once you have updated your PSP. This disability sounds more like a double-edged sword to many people.

Some software designers have been hard at work behind the scenes for years before coming up with ingenious ways to overcome this problem. The solution is in the form of PSP emulators. PSP emulators are software that can read and run game programs that operate on a different architecture, that is, a console unit like Nintendo. There are so many emulators out there, free or paid versions that can easily “convert” your PSP to play any type of console game and PSP game downloads, new and old, proprietary or non-proprietary.

Did you know that there are now plenty of PSP game download sites that offer you lifetime access to their huge vaults of games, music, movies, software, and more. of PSP? Learn more on my blog about how you can join the millions of online users who are downloading PSP games right now while reading this article, without spending more than the cost of a family pizza.

The content in this article is provided for educational and illustrative purposes only and is in no way associated with Sony, PlayStation, or any Sony company or subsidiary. This article may be reprinted or freely distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog, or website. Author’s name, biography, and website links must remain intact and must be included with each reproduction.

Business

Business listings improve local search

Business Directory Listing is one of the best sources of free advertising for local businesses, according to Silent Seller, an internet marketing company that can make your site stand out on the web. By doing business directory listings on various business directory sites, you can get more clients through website optimization. This should be part of your local internet marketing. Silent Marketer can provide you with uploads of photos, video testimonials, and viral videos featuring your business.

One of the best ways to get free advertising today is through listings on Google, Yahoo, Bing search engines that are fed by a Universal Business Listing for mobile information providers like Onstar, Telematics for In-Car GPS , 411 Listings, SuperPages. , Mapquest, FourSquare, Gowalla, AOL, and CitySearch, which provide basic business search listings that you can find on your mobile devices, such as Iphone, Blackberry, and Androids smartphones. The business-to-business listings in UBL are used as the basis for the underlying business directories. You can find local businesses when you are also searching the web at a variety of business directory locations, such as YellowPages.com and Google Places.

It is important that you maintain a consistent business listing on Google and other web properties. It is a good idea to have the content of the list EXACTLY the same everywhere as the one you have in your Google Places (Maps) List and UBL List to achieve consistency in spelling and punctuation in the Universal Companies List, since their linking and your ability to be found improves dramatically, especially for citations in local search which tend to allow you to get higher rankings, the more citations, testimonials and customer reviews you have.

Universal Business Listing gives your business the ability to include your business profile once, and UBL will submit your business directory information to various local search engines such as Yahoo! Local, YellowPages, Super Pages, Google Places, in fact all the major online directories, search portals, data aggregators like Acxiom and Info USA, and the national 411 database. Unlike traditional business listings that require A business phone line, UBL allows you to list your online or part-time business, your cell phone, your website, and your email. Getting your site listed in many business directories ensures that the information in your local business directory is accurate, timely, and all you need to make your business visible on the Internet.

With this layout, you can get the best possible exposure for your company’s public business information and contact points. This includes full product and service description, locations, website URL, email contacts, certifications, and awards. UBL is perfect for those who need to have cell phones on the local and national 411 directory assistance list.

Don’t waste all your time signing up for Search Engines, Portals and Online Yellow

Pages where you can get multiple business directory listings for free through an easily updated source. This is different from traditional printed yellow pages where companies are restricted in the type of information they can submit and, in turn, how it can be found (company name, address, phone number, fax number, URL and category) and restricted to annual publication. Success in local online search requires more multimedia and promotional and customer engagement opportunities to be provided.

Interactivity through reviews, videos, and photos is especially important when considering how online and mobile users search for local information and how local search algorithms work in search engines. Your ad becomes the information tool used by Yelp, City Search, Facebook Places, Zagats, and other location-based systems. That is the true value of a business directory listing.

Business

Best Company to Invest Your Money: Guidelines for Assessing Stocks and Financial Strength

First of all, it is never a good idea to put all your money in one investment. Always keep your portfolio as diverse as possible. It is very common to ask questions like “the best company to invest your money”. It is ideal for conducting research on a few companies or products at the same time and investing regularly. Be sure to join an investment newsletter that offers top picks from experts who really have an innovative approach to the stock market.

A beginning investor should never start with an individual stock. If you are new and just starting out with your portfolio, it is much riskier to buy an individual stock than it is to buy a low-cost mutual fund that includes a group of stocks.

Regardless of your level of experience, many people recommend that “FAANG” is a way to go, or at least used as a starting point. These are the “big 5” Facebook / Amazon Apple / Netflix / Google. These 5 tech giants have pretty much everything on their hands these days and they still have the potential to disrupt industries and the economy that they haven’t yet.

Do a little research on all the industries these big five are involved in to help you make a decision on the best company to invest your money in. Also consider competitors such as Disney, Microsoft, Yahoo !, Baidu, etc. Baidu (BIDU) has great strength in China and is growing slowly globally.

Is there a better company to invest your money in?

Always consider factors such as debt, price, and valuation when investing. Research the history and current financial situation of a business to find out if it has debts. The more debt a business has, the more money it has to spend on payments and interest. Also, look at the company’s dividends and payment history. Are dividends increased or not?

Don’t make the mistake of assuming a stock is going to be a bargain just because the price is too low. You need to understand why and how that price dropped and if it is going to rebound. Volatility is to be expected at times too, so don’t panic or be surprised by it.

Some classes or trainings can really go a long way, especially if you want to try and make a living by investing in the stock market. You won’t get rich overnight, but you are likely to be successful after a while if you learn about common valuation metrics such as price-earnings ratio, debt-to-equity ratio, dividend yield, etc.

One way to learn about the stock market and get some ideas on the best company to invest your money with is to join Capitalist Exploits. The newsletter is provided by professional money managers who track trends and capital flows to establish where the true value lies.

Business

Why do startups need business coaching?

If you think about it, a startup is like a football team at the start of the season. It takes the right combination of skills, talent, leadership, and vision for success to drive and outperform the competition. But even if you got all of that, there’s still a high chance that it won’t work without the right business advisor to catalyze it.

Many companies have been using business coaches for decades. With talent and creativity flocking to startups, it’s only natural that they turn to business coaches as well. An executive coach has the potential to help companies evolve outside of their business plan and truly prosper. Here are some ways an executive coach can help a start-up company reach the next level:

They are objective: Startups have an inherently obvious downside: Their leaders view their companies as their own children and are too emotionally involved and attached to the business decisions they make. Emotion and passion are important, but they can often cloud the perception, planning, and execution of business plans. The objectivity provided by an executive coach goes a long way towards improving startup performance. A leader of such a company can learn a lot from an objective coach.

Help leaders develop their personal style – Leadership qualities are essential to the success of any startup. That is why it is important to encourage them from the beginning and working with an executive coach can be of great help in that regard. Not only can they assess individual skills and see what needs improvement, but they can also work with leaders to do just that. Coaches bring out the best in people. Good coaches provide the right information on behavior and thinking that fosters a proper leadership style for the startup.

Help team building – Team dynamics is a tricky business. The reason lies in the fact that each team member brings unique experiences and it can be difficult to make it all work. A good coach can help identify differences and recommend ways to make the team better integrated. Team effectiveness is an important part of every startup project.

Point out weak links proactively: Did you know that 8 out of 10 startups fail in the first year and a half? The reason is that companies do not have an action plan for potential future problems. Even skilled leaders can have a hard time reading upcoming changes and reacting accordingly. A good coach can bring their experience in this regard and point out potential pitfalls before they manifest themselves.

Set Goals – A unified sense of growth is needed for a startup to grow successfully. An executive coach can work with the leader to align the goals and vision of the company. Not only that, but the coach can align the goals of the company with the personal goals of the leader for professional development and growth.

Clearly, an executive coach works wonders for startups. The business coaching experience they bring can make a big difference.

Business

A brief summary of contract law: key terms, common defenses and general recommendations

Many individuals and companies enter into contracts without fully understanding the terms. Often neither party is clear on what the contract requires in terms of performance standards, remedies for breach, and whether unwritten terms can supplement the written contract.

This publication is intended to provide a quick guide to some key terms and issues that are relevant in the area of ​​contract law.

What is a contract and how is it formed?

In general, a contract can be defined as a negotiated exchange. The typical process of forming a contract involves an offer, acceptance, mutual consent, and consideration of a promise to do or not to do a particular thing that can be done or omitted. In general, an acceptance must unambiguously agree to the terms and conditions of an offer for a contract to arise. Mutual consent is often called “meeting of minds.” If the parties did not agree to the same essential concepts of a deal, then there was no mutual consent because there was no meeting of minds.

What counts as consideration for a contract?

The consideration consists in that a party acquires: (a) some right, interest, profit or benefit; and / or, (b) any indulgence, injury, loss or liability. Consideration is a necessary element of a valid contract in part because its absence can help reveal that a party’s promise to do something was actually done for free. If a court finds that the contractual promises of one of the parties were given for free, then the contract is generally invalid and cannot be enforced according to its terms.

What if someone verbally promised something that is not written in the contract?

In such a case, one question is whether the verbal promise preceded the written contract. If the verbal promise preceded the written contract and the written contract was intended to be the final expression of the agreement, then the probation test rule generally prohibits the introduction of oral communications tests that contradict or supplement the terms of the written agreement. Therefore, oral promise testimony may well be inadmissible in the case of litigation related to a written contract. However, there are several exceptions and nuances that allow attorneys to devise a strategy to best promote a client’s interests depending on the nature of the dispute.

Another question is whether the statute of fraud applies. The fraud statute generally prohibits enforcing the following types of agreements if they are not evidenced by a writing signed by the party against whom it would be enforced: Agreements for the sale of interests in real estate, agreements that by their terms cannot be executed. made within one year, agreements to pay someone else’s debt, and other types of agreements that are listed in state law. For example, ORS 41.580 codifies the fraud statute under Oregon law. Again, an attorney can help you navigate the various nuances and exceptions that exist regarding the fraud statute.

What are the agreements, conditions, representations and guarantees?

These terms are often confused, but the general definitions are as follows: A covenant is a promise of action or inaction that applies with respect to future events. A condition is a future and uncertain event whose occurrence or non-occurrence can destroy, create or modify the rights and obligations of one or more parties to the contract. A representation is a supposed statement of fact related to the past or the present. A warranty is a statement or promise regarding the present or future quality of goods or services. The nature of a contractual clause has a great impact on the way that clause is interpreted and applied. Therefore, it can be crucial to identify whether a specific contractual clause is a covenant, condition, representation, guarantee, or some combination thereof.

What is a choice of law provision?

A “choice of law” or “applicable law” provision of a contract sets out the intent of the parties as to which substantive law of the jurisdiction will govern in the event of a dispute. For example, this type of choice of law provision indicates that, in the event of a dispute, the parties want the court or arbitrator to apply substantive Oregon law to determine the rights and obligations of the parties: “This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Oregon, without giving effect to any principles of conflict of laws resulting in the laws of any other jurisdiction that governs this agreement. “

As you can see from the sample language quoted above, the conflict of laws principles of state laws must also be considered. This is because failure to address such principles in the contract could mean that the substantive law of one state (for example, Oregon) ends up ordering the court or arbitrator to apply the law of another state (for example, Delaware) to finally decide the dispute. For example, under ORS 81.135, a contract that simply states that it is “governed by the laws of the state of Oregon” could eventually be decided on the basis of Delaware law whether the contract was for personal services that were performed primarily in Delaware. .

What is a layout of place?

A provision on the place of a contract establishes the intention of the parties as to where a dispute related to the contract should be litigated or arbitrated. The place may be different from the choice of law. For example, the appropriate place could be any state and federal court located in Multnomah County, Oregon, but the applicable law could come from the state of Washington. In such a case, the Oregon court that will decide the dispute will generally apply the Oregon rules of procedure, but the substantive laws of Washington to resolve the dispute.

What are some common defenses to enforcing a contract?

Contract defenses are often divided into two categories: defenses for the formation of contracts and defenses for the execution of contracts. For example, if a valid contract never arose because the offer and acceptance were not clear and there was no agreement of opinions, then there is no valid contract to enforce. Other examples of defenses to training include fraud in the performance of a contract, misrepresentation, concealment, error, duress, undue influence, and lack of awareness. All of these terms require a demonstration of specific legal and factual elements that your attorney can help you analyze.

If a valid contract arose but there are defenses to enforce, then a court or arbitrator could conclude that the contract cannot be enforced as written. Some examples of defenses to enforce a contract are prior material breach and termination of the contract, impossibility, frustrating purpose, non-occurrence of a condition, and unenforceability for reasons of public order. For example, if the obligations of one of the parties under a contract are conditional on the occurrence of an earthquake, but no earthquake occurs, the corresponding obligations should not be enforced. Again, any of these types of defenses require a specific factual and legal analysis before they can be asserted and used successfully.

If a contract is invalid or unenforceable, does that mean there is no legal recourse for a dispute?

Not necessarily. If there is no valid or enforceable contract, then the area of ​​the law related to “quasi contracts” or “implicit contracts” could still provide a legal remedy for the aggrieved party. Terms such as promissory handicap, unjust enrichment, and quantum meruit are frequently used legal principles that could allow recovery in this area of ​​law. In general, an aggrieved party may obtain restitution for quasi-contractual reasons if a benefit has been awarded, the recipient of the benefit is aware that the benefit was received and, in the circumstances, it would be unfair to allow the withholding of the benefit without requiring the benefit. recipient to pay it.

What should you do in a contract dispute?

For a high-value contract, ideally you would work with an attorney to prevent many types of disputes that could have been anticipated by carefully negotiating and reviewing the contract prior to execution. If a dispute is brewing (for example, wondering whether and how to get out of the contractual relationship), you should consult a lawyer as soon as possible.

How a party communicates dissatisfaction with a contractual relationship greatly affects where the chips will fall should the dispute reach litigation. An attorney can help you make the most of your communication with another party by researching applicable statutes and case law to recommend your strongest path forward. The attorney may recommend negotiating with the other party to reach an agreement, or the attorney may inform you that you have an immediate legal right to terminate the contract without liability for damages.

If you receive notice that the other party is dissatisfied with the contractual relationship or has already filed a lawsuit in court, then it is also important to obtain qualified legal representation.

© 9/18/2017 Hunt & Associates, PC All rights reserved.

Business

No budget is too small for PPC

Think you don’t have the budget for PPC? Think again. Play your cards right and you can achieve amazing results with a minimal budget. In fact, really focused and highly measured pay-per-click campaigns can be one of the most effective ways to spend a tight budget.

How much does a customer cost you?

The first consideration is how much your average customer is worth to you, either for an initial sale or for the lifetime value of the typical customer. Then you will need to determine how much you are willing to pay to acquire each of those customers, leaving you with your desired profit margin.

For example, if your typical customer spends about $ 500 over their lifetime, in the first year or whatever time period you have chosen to define, and you spend $ 100 to acquire that customer, you have a profit margin of $ 400. – minus other costs, such as operating and material costs. To simplify the calculation, you can start with your average profit per customer, if you have that data.

Once you’ve calculated those values ​​and determined how much you’re willing to spend per customer acquisition, you can start planning your PPC campaign.

Conversion rates are a key metric

Then your conversion rate comes into play. No company has a 100% conversion rate, or if it does, you must have an epic sales and marketing team, so you need to consider both the leads you receive that don’t convert and those that do. Let’s say that, on average, you convert one lead out of every 10 you receive. If you spend $ 100 per customer, that leaves you $ 10 to spend per lead.

Of course, if you are analyzing your first results and find that your conversion rates are much lower than expected, you will need to recalculate your cost per lead or reconfigure your campaigns to increase your conversion rate to where you need it to be.

That’s the beauty behind PPC – you can calculate all of this down to the dollar and you have a pretty good idea of ​​what you will need to spend to acquire a certain amount of business and therefore what your ROI will be. The alternative? You could spend thousands of dollars on, say, a radio ad campaign and have far less data to determine how effective your creativity or your true conversion rates are.

Segmentation produces exceptional ROI

Beyond great measurability, PPC offers much more precise targeting capabilities than many advertising mediums. Consider the example of the radio. You can target an audience based on the main demographic a particular station is reaching, but you can’t force certain listeners to tune out and reduce the amount you’re spending by removing a subsegment of your potential audience.

But with pay-per-click, you can use negative keywords to eliminate a subset of search engines that are likely to have a different intent and precise targeting methods to really drill down to the ideal customer. It’s not hard to see how these capabilities result in smarter spending and higher returns for every dollar spent.

Seasonal approaches and buying cycles

Even if your budget is extremely limited, you can use this calculation and determine a spending amount for a short-term promotion. If you sell items for patriotic holidays, for example, you could run a PPC campaign in the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, July 4, and even Labor Day. Similarly, a company that makes custom Christmas decorations can run a campaign in November and December only, or whatever lead time makes sense for their customers’ typical sales cycle.

Additionally, you can use tight PPC targeting to reach customers at a specific point in the buying cycle. By bidding on keywords that indicate that customers are ready to make a purchase, rather than in the initial research phase of the buying cycle, you can often increase your conversion rates by reaching customers when they are. ready to make a purchase.

Targeting options for smart spending in PPC

Best practices for PPC generally apply across the board, but there are some helpful tips that are especially beneficial if you’re working on a tight budget.

Don’t run too many campaigns. In fact, if you are on an extremely tight budget, you may want just one campaign or a few very focused campaigns. In any case, running too many campaigns at once just means you’re over-spending your budget and may not see the results you want. It’s better to focus your efforts on a few key areas than trying to spread your budget across dozens of potentially less profitable campaigns.

Be vigilant and eliminate slow performance. Monitoring your campaign analytics is even more crucial for low-budget campaigns. Careful monitoring allows you to quickly identify the keywords that are not working and remove them from your campaign, shifting your spend to the best performing ones to increase conversion rates and ROI. Likewise, if your landing pages are getting mediocre results, you can jump in with a few alternate iterations and run some A / B tests to improve performance.

Stay away from broad keyword match. Keyword broad match is useful for branding campaigns and marketers with large budgets. But when your budget is tight, you can’t afford to spend money on advertising in irrelevant terms. Stick to the exact match and you’ll get better results.

Use geographic targeting to your advantage. Even if your business is service-based, you may have better brand recognition in certain areas. Targeting your most profitable locations can produce better results in a shorter period of time.

Identify and use negative keywords. There are variations on almost all keywords that essentially disqualify a search engine from the target audience. Using exact match helps prevent this kind of problem in the first place. But if you use broad match, identifying negative keywords means you won’t pay for clicks that will rarely, if ever, convert.

Don’t let a small budget deter you from PPC. By making smart decisions and using the full capabilities of Google AdWords, you can create well-targeted campaigns that guarantee a positive ROI.

Business

What You Should Know About Promissory Notes

The promissory notes are used to provide a written promise to pay with personal loans and bank financing. If the borrower defaults on his loan, the agreement is used to provide evidence that money is owed to the lender.

The promissory notes can be used with almost any type of loan. They are always attached to mortgage notes and loans that use collateral to secure financing. Promissory notes are also used with unsecured loans, such as credit cards and health care financing plans. They are necessary when personal loans are granted between friends, family or business partners.

Individuals can prepare their own promissory note by using templates included with word processing programs or downloaded from the Internet. Another option is to use online legal services like LegalZoom to create loan agreements. Whenever people prepare their own notes, it is advisable to hire an attorney to review the form and make sure it is legally binding.

Individuals who sign promissory notes should read the fine print before signing the agreement. Almost everyone skips reading the legal jargon, but it is imperative to understand what is written. Otherwise, a person could end up agreeing to something that has financial or legal consequences.

The promissory notes include specific terminology that describes the people involved and the circumstances of the loan. The five most important terms are: Promoter, Promise, Debtor, Obligation and Mutual Consideration.

Promising refers to the person who borrows money and is responsible for repaying the loan.

Promisee refers to the person or entity that provides the loan.

Debtor refers to the person responsible for paying the loan installments. In most cases, the Debtor is the same as the Promoter, but there are times when someone else takes responsibility for the payment.

Obliged identifies the person or entity to which the Debtor is contractually bound. This is normally the fiancé, but certain situations can make it a different person.

Mutual consideration describes the value that those mentioned receive for the conclusion of the contract. An example might be when banks provide financing for real estate loans. The mutual consideration for the Promised would be the interest received on the loan, while the real estate would be the benefit for the Promoter.

As long as it is owner-financed real estate contracts, it is a good idea to work with a law firm. These include: the seller returns deeds of trust, for sale by the owner, and any other contract that involves financing provided by the owners.

Real estate notes and land contracts are often secured by negotiable notes. This type of agreement must comply with the conventions of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

Notes are necessary whenever people raise business capital and start-up funds. Investors and banks issue investment notes to acquire a guaranteed repayment date. Investors sometimes sell notes to another private investor and use the funds to invest in other notes or financial products.

A simple promissory note is often used between family and friends. The agreement is ideal when short-term loans are granted. People often forgo having loved ones sign a promissory note, but this can be a big mistake that leads to damaged relationships.

Each type of note should include details of the loan agreement. These include: loan amount; interest rate; amounts and dates of payment; maturity date; and acceleration clause.

Acceleration clauses are almost always included in bank loans. They include legal jargon that holds the Promoters responsible for the costs associated with defaulting on the loan, such as court filings and legal fees. Again, it is vital to read everything on the promissory notes before signing. If necessary, hire a lawyer to explain the content to you.

Business

Norman Rockwell Urban Connection

Although his home was rural Vermont, Norman Rockwell knew of the integrated urban neighborhoods that thrived in America in the 1940s. Long before interstates, Levittown, and the “white flight,” working-class neighborhoods in Troy, New York, and Los Angeles, California attracted the famous illustrator. He drew sketches and took photographs of their homes and their people, and these sketches served as the backdrop for two of the most memorable covers of Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post. Homecoming GI (1945) and Road block (1949). And true to its urban theme, both illustrations include African Americans.

Troy, known as “The Collar City,” was home to Arrow Shirts, whose “Arrow Collar Man” was made famous by advertisements created by Rockwell’s friend and mentor, JC Leyendecker. Troy was a booming industrial city, making four million necklaces a week during the 1920s. Another source of industrial fame for the city was its hardware stores, which, by the mid-19th century, were second only to those of Pennsylvania.

From his Vermont home, Norman Rockwell traveled frequently through Troy on his way to Albany, New York, where he caught the train to New York City. When the artist decided to create a Post cover commemorating WWII veterans returning to their hometowns, he decided to turn that hometown of Troy, New York, into the working class.

Homecoming GI appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on May 25, 1945. Among the people who welcome home with glee (or timidly, in the case of his young girlfriend), the young soldier is not just Norman Rockwell himself ( standing in a doorway of the house), but also two young men recklessly hanging from a tree they have climbed, waving savagely. One of the two boys is black.

In 1945, the children just went out to play. No “helicopter parents”, no play dates. Black and white children frolicked and fought together on the streets of America. Think of “our gang”. Elsie Wagner Fenic, in her moving memoirs White girl in Harlem, offers a beautiful look at this time. Fenic, a second-generation Polish-American, can still jump a pretty bad double Dutch, thanks to spending her first nineteen years enjoying 1940s New York City street games with black and Latino friends.

Norman Rockwell gathered black and white playmates Homecoming GI, not to make a civil rights declaration, but because, on the streets of Troy, New York in 1945, they really were there.

Another urban setting for Norman Rockwell was Los Angeles, California.

During the winter of 1948-49, while on vacation with his in-laws in Los Angeles, Rockwell visited Mrs. Merrill, a widow and owner of a women’s pension. He wanted to borrow his entire house.

Located in the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, 719 South Rampart Boulevard was a three-story dwelling flanked by similar structures and the “Pacific Telephone and Telegraph” building, the workplace of many of Ms. Merrill’s guests. . Rockwell sought Ms. Merrill’s permission to host a photoshoot in front of her building. Capturing the street and some of its residents as models, he would later use these photos to create one of his famous Saturday Evening Post covers. But Mrs. Merrill said no. Apparently, even in 1949, not everyone loved Norman Rockwell.

The middle-aged home fighter felt that the famous artist did not adequately “enhance” his female role models in his paintings. However, Rockwell persisted in his request and Merrill finally relented: for the payment of $ 50.00.

The camera crew appeared at South Rampart while one of the members of Ms. Merrill’s tenants, Antonia Piasecki, was doing laundry. In a letter to the Norman Rockwell Museum, he writes: “Mr. Rockwell asked me for fancy underwear for the clothesline. I gave him nylon stockings, black lace-trimmed panties, and a bra that he hung up …”

A moving truck arrived, complete with California license plates and two moving truck drivers. Many photos were taken. The result was Road block, the character-filled illustration that appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on July 9, 1949.

Norman Rockwell put himself in the painting: he is the violin teacher looking out the window of what was actually Mrs. Piasecki’s bedroom. Mrs. Piasecki also became a Rockwell model: she is the young woman who looks out the window below Rockwell. The red-haired lady standing in the cellar door? That’s the model of resistance turned Rockwell, Mrs. Merrill. Models of other figures in the painting have also been identified: Joseph Magnani, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a friend of Rockwell, is the artist hanging from the window of a building across the street, accompanied by a barely covered young lady. Peter Rockwell, the artist’s youngest son, is the boy with glasses and the violin just below them. But Ms. Piasecki does not recall that “there were all those children (at the scene of the shooting) at that time.”

“All those children” is probably Ms. Piasecki’s polite code for the two little black children perched at the bottom of the scene. They stand solemnly with their backs to the viewer, studying the impasse created when the big red truck meets a white puppy.

Norman Rockwell apparently did not meet any black children on South Rampart Street that day. But given his knowledge of similar neighborhoods like those in Troy, New York, he knew they were there, somewhere. So the intrepid artist went out looking for them.

***

They are poignant in elegance, innocence, and simplicity. Two black children, a girl and an older boy, in profile from behind. The black-and-white photo in the archives of the Norman Rockwell Museum shows the boy’s shirt neatly ironed, the girl’s braids impeccably arranged. They are both standing holding their hands behind their backs, gazing into an invisible horizon.

The names of these two little models are unknown. There is nothing written on the back of the photo. Rockwell’s meticulously kept receipts do not reveal who was paid to pose for this shot. The location of the photograph, although it appears to have been taken in Los Angeles, is also not known with certainty.

But this is known: In 1949, Norman Rockwell went out on purpose and found two black children to model for him so that he could place their figures in his illustration. Rockwell knew they were supposed to be in the picture.

The house at 719 South Rampart Boulevard has disappeared. Where the building once stood there is now a parking lot. In the 1950s, integrated neighborhoods began to disappear from the United States. Consequently, people of color also disappeared from Norman Rockwell’s paintings in the 1950s.

Business

How Inspirational Quotes Demotivate You

The other day I was doing a little market research. I took the top sites in the broadly defined “self-improvement” sphere and took a look at how people find them.

With the right tools, you can see what keywords people are using to find a certain site.

Each site was unique, with its own brand, personality, and target audience.

What surprised me was how common ‘inspirational quotes’ (or variations) appeared.

In fact, one site, which was supposed to be a blog about success, only attracted people who were looking to be motivated in the form of dating.

If that’s what you’re looking for, keep walking. Rarely trafficked with them, for a very good reason:

Motivational quotes can be awesome. If you dive deep into personal development and research in psychology, influence, religion, politics, sociology, collective intelligence, history, language, neuroscience …

And so on …

All with the goal of improving yourself, then the correct quote may be exactly what you need. An old wisdom suddenly triggers the correct epiphany, and you see what you’ve learned (and what it means to you) in whole new ways.

Secondly …

If you spend all day at an unstimulating but strangely exhausting job, spending your free time on social media or watching YouTube, motivational quotes won’t be enough.

In fact, they might even hurt you.

They create this false sense of inspiration. Inspiration is fantastic, one of the best things in history, if it guides it towards some result. If you feel it just to enjoy the buzz, then that replaces your need to do anything.

Sure, you could be proud of yourself completing your master’s degree or creating an app.

Or you could read something great Einstein once said.

If it’s a neurochemical solution you’re looking for, they get the job done. For a while, that is. This is why some people spend so much time flipping through these quotes – they are literally addicted to them.

But if you want real inspiration, you have to work harder.

You have to find a level of clarity and honesty in yourself that goes beyond what you currently have. Yes, yes, I know how wonderfully aware you are. Even so, it is necessary to go deeper.

Ideas inspire you when they align with your unconscious values. You probably already have an idea of ​​some of these values. However, we all need more than a “sense”. What we need is a photorealistic 3D special effects model of them.

Find them, study hard, and then see what quotes you like.

Not the other way around.

Business

Pros and cons of data entry jobs

There are more ways to earn extra money than you can imagine, so what is special about data entry jobs? Let me first explain what data entry work is, for those of you who don’t already know: a company has a ton of data that needs to be entered into a database or spreadsheet, but the work cannot be done automatically. The company hires someone, perhaps you, to do the work by hand. Mainly this means writing or copying / pasting data to the right place. This type of work used to be done by in-house secretaries in most companies, but since outsourcing work has become increasingly popular over the years, many companies choose to outsource these types of tasks as well and concentrate their own energy in what they do. Better, whether it’s running a law firm, doing marketing, or something else.

So what’s so great about data entry work?

  • Great job for beginners. You can get started quickly, with little or no training. All that is required, in most cases, are basic computer skills and normal reading skills.
  • Work from home, whenever you want. Much of this type of work is offered online, as is the data you will be working on. This type of work is really good for stay-at-home moms (or stay-at-home dads) as they can work whenever they want. Take the kids to school, turn on the dishwasher, and sit down and get some work done.
  • Little or no investment is needed to get started. There are no fancy outfits to look good at work. No travel expenses. Just a computer with an internet connection, which, if you’re reading this, you probably already have it.

All good reasons to get into data entry typing jobs at home, certainly enough to seriously consider. But, to be fair, let’s see what can be blamed for such work. There are certain circumstances that could be considered negative:

  • Getting paid for the amount of work you do means you won’t make a lot of money if you’re a slow typist. The good news is that your speed will improve a lot as you get the job done. You may not see a lot of money for your time at first, but most people who stick with it will see a change for the better.
  • It can be tedious on the verge of downright boring. Much of the work is very monotonous in nature, so you need to be able to deal with that. But not having to travel for hours to do so tends to help a lot in that regard.
  • It will never turn into a high paying job. In this line of business, you are considered to be on the lowest rungs of the ladder, due to the simplicity of the work. The fact that it is also very boring, does not help in the salary.

So there you go: the pros and cons of data entry work. You can try it and see if you like it; It’s certainly a nifty way to work, if all you need is extra money. Ideal for housewives or students alike. Even if it’s only temporary.