Clothing Prices on the Increase February 22, 2011

 It has been reported that we will see a 10% increase in clothing costs by the end of 2011. Going and soon to be gone are the retails we have come to expect and love. Sales at 65% off might become history. Cotton cost has doubled. It is the highest cost since the Civil War. Oh Scarlett what are we to do?

Some of the reasons for the increase are:

World economy is doing better so demand is rising

 Surge in labor costs

Surge in Raw materials

World- wide bad weather

Restrictions on exports

Chinese factories that shut down because of the recession are still not back up to capacity

What actions can we take before we are fashioning the drapes into clothes? Buy made in the USA is always a good choice. Budget your clothing allowance to functional, classic fashion. Quality lasts longer. Clothing does not have to be quantity but quality. Use your buying power to make purchases from stores that support your values.

As a small manufacturer, we have absorbed some raw goods costs increases with-out passing it on to our customers. Since we have our products made in the USA, our labor costs are supportive to the US economy and sustain a living wage. Our fabric is already very expensive, but we won’t compromise the quality on an inferior material. Other companies are moving production to cheaper countries and cheaper materials. Sooner than later the cost will be passed on to the consumer. Buying habits from this recession can still be applied with a 10% price increase with style.

How will the increase in clothing costs affect you? Will you change your buying habits? http://www.apparelandfootwear.org

Dancing at the Gym February 14, 2011

Do you do Zumba? Do you do NIA? How about Les Mills Body Pump or Barre3? Jazzercise, remember from the 1980’s is also making a comeback. Well if you say yes to any of these or any other dance exercise class, you are so in!

Many gyms about a decade ago thought that rooms devoted to exercise dance classes was too valuable of real estate and reduced their floor space  for more machines. Now gyms are moving out the machines and putting down floors and turning up the music.

Why the change? Why group exercise? Is it just the latest trend?

My opinion is machines are boring. Everyone is tuned into their own music or their own screen and not interacting. Exercising by yourself makes it easier to cheat on your work-out time. In a class there is a beginning and an end. In a class there is music you like or don’t like but you still exercise to the beat. In a class you can talk with people around you. In a class the instructor can instruct and actually help you from hurting yourself!

Yoga, Pilates or Spinning classes are wonderful, but give me a class filled with upbeat music, no machines, and I can forget that I am exercising. Hot flashes even merge into sweat! So are you working out with friends too?

February 11, 2011

Seesmic Logo Newsletter February 10, 2010
Greetings Seesmic Friends,

We’ve been hard at work creating the products you love, but we need your
input on what to build next!

When you follow this link, you’ll be taken to a short survey of about 6 to
12 questions. These questions are geared towards our current and future
product offering in hopes of helping us understand which features matter
to you, so we can begin implementing them into our products.

Everyone that completes the survey will be entered in to win a shiny new
iPad.

Thanks in advance for all of your help and input on this. Together, we’re
shaping the future of Seesmic.

Cheers,

The Seesmic Team

Note: if you are unable to access the link: please copy and paste the link
into your browser:
http://ping.fm/yCXWy

We’re looking forward to more updates coming very soon!

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No Flush or Bad Data? February 7, 2011

There was a recent story on the front page of my local newspaper. It culled an interesting fact from the recent census about indoor plumbing. Evidently the Portland Metro area has suffered a 33% decline since 2000 in “complete plumbing facilities” which means: hot and cold piped water, a flush toilet and a bathtub or shower.

The survey was conducted by the American Community Survey, a phone survey, and an arm of the Census Bureau. As commented by a local spokesperson collectively sums up what everyone thinks, “Wow”!

Here is the scenario we are all familiar with: you are fixing dinner or just stepped into the house and pick up the phone and somehow agree to a survey and then half way through stop listening to the questions and just answer? Or you agree to the survey but don’t understand the question or don’t understand the person asking the questions? Or you get bored halfway through the survey because it is taking more than the allotted time they promised and you just answer to get them off the phone?

 Another explanation is homeless people who truly don’t have indoor plumbing take the survey by phone. I have seen some folks I assumed to be homeless with cell phones, but would they be eager to use their minutes for a survey? Are there that many homeless phone users to tip the data so drastically?

 Lack of the correct building permits is another excuse given for the increase in no indoor plumbing. I don’t understand that reason but I toss it out there with the rest. A foreclosure with people selling off their bathroom fixtures and then continue living in their homes is another reason to consider. Really? These people then agree to take the survey?

Somehow I think people are enjoying indoor plumbing and this is a data glitch. We all remember hanging chads!





February 1, 2011

Seesmic Logo Newsletter January 31, 2010
Dear Team Seesmic Friends,

We’ve recently released some key improvements for Seesmic for iPhone which
you’ll find extremely useful in this 1.2 version.

With Seesmic for iPhone 1.2, you have the ability to:

* See and load the gap in a timeline if a lot of tweets have been missed
* Preview images with a message in your timeline and in detailed view of
tweets
* View all the Replies to a user from his profile and the correct
display of users that Retweeted a tweet
* Post to the Facebook Pages you’re admin of. Simply select a page on
the Composer account selector and send a post
* View the app in 5 more languages: Japanese, Spanish, German, French
and Korean
* Access your Settings from within the application, on the Spaces screen
* Change the text size of the timeline from the Settings and view a
tutorial at launch of the app to help you discover the main features
of the app.

Managing Gaps in Your Timeline

When managing your stream on Twitter or Facebook, you’re likely to miss
some of your friends’ updates. In order to make your navigation easier,
the timeline will load faster into a gap section. If you are interested to
see what you have missed, tap on the gap and the feeds will load in your
timeline.

Gap

Inline Image Preview, Retweets and Replies from Profile

Seesmic for iPhone now includes the inline picture view from your timeline
and the tweet itself. You can also see the list of users that retweeted a
tweet.

InlinePreviews TopNav_Previews_RT

Update your Facebook Pages

You’re now able to post updates to Facebook pages that you’re an admin of.
Simply choose the accounts and pages within the settings of the composer.

FBPages FBPages_Composer

Settings Within the Application, Tutorial and Available in More Languages

We made some improvements to navigate through your settings, which are now
inside the application itself. Go to the Seesmic for iPhone spaces
dashboard and press on the gear wheel to take you to the app’s settings.
For new users, once you start the app you will be welcomed by a helpful
and interactive tutorial.

Seesmic now adds language support for Japanese, Spanish, German, French
and Korean. A sincere thank you and appreciation to all the translation
team! As always, our team has done an outstanding job and we’re very
grateful for their help and support!

Japanese

Improved Placement for Ads in Timeline

After receiving feedback with our experiment with ads, we learned a few
things and the importance of providing users with a clear timeline. As a
solution, we provided a space for ads that are less intrusive, and you can
pay to remove them completely from the app from the Settings.

With all the updates noted above, we still have more. Other improvements
include:

On Twitter:

* Provide the ability to access the saved searches of your Twitter
account from the top of the timeline or when adding a search as a
Space
* TweetPhoto is now Plixi
* Provide a landscape mode when viewing a link from the application
* Bug fixes and improvements

On Facebook:

* Posts to a friend’s wall are now correctly displayed in the feed
* Like button has been moved to the bottom of the screen
* Improved performance for comments of posts
* Links posted on Facebook are now properly attached

Keep us posted on the Feedback Forum on how you appreciate the new update
and ping us on Twitter at @askseesmic and @seesmic – we’re always
listening regardless of the hour and the time zone!

We’re looking forward to more updates coming very soon!

Don’t forget to become a fan at http://ping.fm/wBq5j
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Feel free to ask http://ping.fm/LKaeE

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