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Knowing The Good Custom Notepads From The Bad Ones

Doing a little notepad printing for business or personal reasons? Do you know what really good custom notepads look like or are you just going to let the notepad printing service decide all the options for you? If you really want to get the best custom notepads for business or for personal use, I recommend that you should first learn and discover what is good and what is bad in terms of notepad printing. Here are some pointers you should know.

• Sometimes it is all in the binding – Sometimes the best and the worse notepads are determined by the binding. The fact is that good binding like those simple adhesives should always be not noticeable at all. If everything is clean and you do not even mind or think about how those notepad pages cling to each other, then you have a good notepad.
• However, if you always see a tear in the binding, or there are always those red rubber or adhesive residues on the top of every notepad page, then that custom notepad is bad. It looks bad, and if you want to use that type of notepad for business, then you might give off a bad impression. So always try to get the best binding method for your custom notepads.
• Paper quality impressions – Paper quality also says a lot in notepad printing. The better the paper is, the better people’s impressions are with the notepad, as well as the people who gave the notepads away. It is best to try using glossy paper for your business notepads, with certain special coatings like moisture resistant chemicals and tear resistant materials. As long as all notepad pages gleam with the light and looks clean and flat, then your notepad should look great and professional. Anything less than that, and it might just look like your average off the shelf notepad.
• Paper-wide design elements – A good notepad will also have some nice and subtle design elements on a paper-wide or page-wide scale. A common example of this would be a light watermark or maybe a decorative border. Adding these subtle design elements changes the nature of the paper. Instead of people looking at a normal pad of paper, people will definitely see that the custom notepad is more special because of these design elements. It will look better and of course be more interesting to write on. So make sure you have these in your custom notepads make them good.
• The all important letterhead – Finally all custom notepads must have a good letterhead. I recommend that you refrain from using those templates for letterheads in word processors and other desktop publishing software. It is best to create your own letterhead design for your custom notepads so that the notepad pages look more unique and of course customized. The best custom notepads always have letterheads in a particular distinctive style that is eye catching. Try to hire a professional layout artist to do it for you so that you can be sure that the letterhead can stand out and be noticed.

So more or less, you should now have a good idea of what bad and good custom notepads are. You should at least be able now to choose the best options that should make your notepad printing good and effective.

Keeping The Meeting Monsters At Bay — Preventing Personal Attacks

You remember these people for the wrong reasons.

They are the monsters who hurt others with insults, ridicule, and sarcasm. They bully. They threaten. They attack.

And that ruins your meeting.

Personal attacks are unacceptable because if one person is being hurt in your meeting, everyone else feels it. As a result, the participants retreat into making safe and generally useless contributions.

So, how do you respond to attacks?

First, take a big breath. Grab your courage. And then use one of the following approaches.

Approach 1: Speak to the group

Respond to a hostile remark by making a general comment. Look at the middle of the group and say:

«Just a moment. Let’s pause here to calm down. I can tell we’re upset about this. And we want to find a fair solution for everyone.» (Take slow deep breaths and relax to model calming down.)

After saying this, pause a moment to let the group respond. Often, someone else will support your request. Then continue as if everything were normal.

Avoid looking at the attacker when speaking to the group. Making eye contact acknowledges and returns power to the attacker.

Approach 2: Explore for the cause

Sometimes people throw insults from behind an illusion of presumed distance. You can respond by calling for an explanation. In this case say:

«Pat, you seem upset with that.»

«Tony, you seem to disagree.»

«You seem to have reservations about this.»

I realize these statements may sound like naive responses to an insult. However, such understated responses improve the situation because they sound less threatening, feel easier to deliver, and preserve the other person’s self-esteem. Realize the attacker may have viewed the attack less seriously than it sounded.

These statements also transfer the focus from the target to the attacker’s feelings. And this is what you need to talk about in order to resolve the dispute.

After you speak wait for the attacker to talk about what caused the attack.

If the attacker continues with hostile remarks, interrupt with:

«Excuse me, we need to respect each other. And I wonder what makes you feel upset over this.»

«Excuse me, we heard that. Now, what makes you feel that way?»

«Excuse me, I’m interested in hearing what your concerns are.»

Approach 3: Call a break

If the first two approaches fail to end the attacks, then call a break or end the meeting. This will give you a chance to meet privately with the attacker, rewrite the agenda, rebuild communication, and (if appropriate) schedule another meeting without the attacker.

You could say,

«We seem to be at an impasse. I want to take a break so we can calm down.»

«This hostility makes it impossible to get any work done. So, I’m adjourning the meetings. We’ll work on this later and then reconvene at another time.»

«We need to work on this outside of the meeting. So let’s adjourn.»

Note that some people use anger to intimidate others into cooperating with them. If you adjourn the meeting, you will have to meet with the attacker to resolve the conflict.

Meetings are a forum for finding solutions, making decisions, and reaching agreements. When you apply these approaches to disruptions, you will maintain the productive environment necessary to accomplish your goals.

This is the seventh of a seven part article on Monsters in Meetings.

International Phone Numbers

Getting an international number with Callcentric is a good idea for multiple reasons, including the fact that you can get your first number for free. These services are available to virtually anyone in 35 different countries across the world and 800 cities. Callcentric is becoming increasingly popular all over the globe, and to save money on your daily phone calls and monthly bill, you will want to consider taking advantage of their many services. You will get amazing features that offer you a faster, more efficient way to make and receive calls from anyone in the world. One of the best things about having this carrier is that you can make free calls to anyone else who Callcentric. If you know quite a few people that do, then you will save quite a bit of money on your monthly bills.

When calling people internationally that do not have Callcentric, you wont have to worry about being charged ridiculous rates that you can barely afford to pay. This carrier makes calling around the world cheaper than ever before, so you can get the quality service you need while still saving money each month for other expenses. These international numbers are great for individuals trying to keep in touch with family and friends, providers, or anyone who needs to keep an open line of communication with colleagues or customers. The bottom line is that Callcentric is a reliable, consistent, and trustworthy carrier that you can count on to provide you with excellent service every single day.

Since this form of calling is a little bit different than what you might be used to, you will want to learn as much as you can about what you will need to make it work for you in the best way possible. Callcentric allows you to use VoIP technology to make calls right from your PC at home to normal land lines or cellular phones all across the world. In order to do this, you must first confirm a couple different things, including the kind of internet connection you have right now. A high-seed connection such as DSL or cable is required to make and receive calls this way, as well as a softphone. Softphones are available for you to browse through and purchase on Callcentric’s website.

A softphone is merely a software program which allows you to make and receive calls from your computer. You will be able to dial numbers and accept incoming calls just like a normal phone, only from a virtual key pad. These softphones are designed for both efficiency and simplicity, so you won’t have to worry about struggling to use it. Everything considered, Callcentric is the best carrier for international calling, wherever you may live on the planet.

How You Play Online Casino Craps

The online gaming world normally focuses on games like roulette, poker and blackjack. Slot machines are also popular, as is video poker. Not many people think of online craps as a game to play. I guess it is not quite so well known as the others, yet it remains an intriguing, exciting game to play.

I came across it by chance, and I have never played anything else since. It is played<a href=»http://www.mrcraps.com/»> Casino Craps </a>table, which is split off into areas, and this is where the brilliance of craps comes into play. This is where the scoring system comes in, and it I did find it a little complex at first, but after I picked it up, the game took on a whole new dimension.

To <a href=»http://www.mrcraps.com/»>play craps</a>, and online craps it is essential to find a good site. This is not as easy as it sounds as jackpots tend to be a little lower as there are less punters for craps than other casino games, so a rubbish craps site tends to have jackpots that it is hardly worth throwing the dice for. The dice are everything in craps.

The element of craps that I really love, is the strategies needed to win. It takes it a little bit further in my opinion than online roulette, online blackjack, and in many cases online poker, especially as there is not much scope to bluff.

Craps loses nothing when played online really, apart from the pretty girl on your arm, but don’t tell the missus I said that.

If you are like me and want to refine your game, finding a site that can give good, reliable tips is also very hard to find. When you do find one, they tend to contradict one that you have read on another site, and subsequently you find yourself with two strategies that contradict, and in my experience are useless. I do not see the point at playing games that are not very good or offer poor jackpots.  

My least favourite sites are ones where is it hard to see what is what and how to play them. What are the points of them?

That is the only downside to<a href=»http://www.mrcraps.com/»> online craps </a>really. To play craps, and make it worth while you do tend to spend a lot of time searching for a good online craps game. The worst of it is, when you spend all night looking, just not to find one. The whole night becomes a waste of time.
For details please contact at: http://www.mrcraps.com

How Texas Assesses Property Taxes

If you own property in Texas, the state will charge you a tax on the land and everything on that land. They assess taxes on January 1st for the year. But the methods with which they calculate the amount due are in question. Many people rightly demand to know how the state government calculates the tax on each piece of property correctly. There is a handy tool that will help you to accurately estimate the correct tax amount of your property. You need to know the value assessed on your home, land and any other buildings or improvements. This amount is not what you paid for your land and home, it’s based on what value the assessor says they have currently.

Add together the values of your house and land. This will give you a total figure that will make your calculations more easy to determine. Have in mind the exemptions that you are already qualified to deduct from the assessed value of your property. Every tax unit will allow different exemptions. Then determine the levy rates or the estimated levy rates for the current year.

Next, you need to multiply the amount you were assessed minus your exemptions for the unit of the city, and then multiply that by the city’s official tax rate percentage. Also, you need to continue calculating each unit as being separate from the rest. Then add up all of your unit’s amounts that are taxable. This will give you the amount due or the estimated amount due for the current tax year.

Always keep in mind that the estimation of property tax sent out at the beginning of every year is only an estimate. Your property values will remain the name, however, unless you dispute them. Tax rates are not normally finalized until closer to the end of the current year.

If you wish to appeal your tax bill, you should know that most appeals of property taxes are successful. The property value can’t be increased at your informal meeting, so you don’t have anything to lose. Most disputed accounts are settled at the informal meeting. The appraisal district almost never retaliates against homeowners who appeal their property taxes.