Torsey's Blog

Archive for the ‘Achievement’ Category

When it comes to personal web hosting, we are talking about using web space not only for keeping in contact with family and close friends, but also a promotional tool for your professional image.
A personal web site could be very useful in promoting your professional image to potential employers and business contacts. The look of a personal URL and e-mail would definitely benefit your image as a professional. Part of the image of successful professionals nowadays is a good personal website.
Another side of personal hosting is family website creation and hosting to stay connected with friends and family. In this day and age family members are becoming spread out around the globe. Going to college in another part of the country or taking a job on another continent, families become disconnected.
With a family web site, all members of a family can stay in contact with one another. Sure, there is email and telephones, but with family web site hosting you can stay connected with everyone at once sharing photos, videos, exchange messages or even chat live – anytime of day.
Some web hosts even have professional genealogy features to start your own online family tree.
With personal web hosting many face the dilemma of choosing between free or paid web hosting. Although the costs associated with paid web hosting is rather small, it’s still money.
If you are just starting your experience with the World Wide Web, or if you are setting up a web site with only close friends and family as intended audience, a free personal web host or a low cost web host might just do it for you. These are just a few of the examples of having a good reason to publish your web site with a free personal web-hosting provider.
Free personal web hosts or a good budget web host has helped thousands of people to be acquainted with the Internet experience, as first cradles for their web presence. This is one of the reasons free personal web hosts have contributed to the overall popularity of the Internet.
One good suggestion when researching a family web-hosting site is the site is easy to customize and manage. You do not want to spend time learning web publishing tools or becoming a web wizard – you want connection with your family – the most important reason for having this web site.
Get everyone in your family connected and preserve your family history with a family web site. A web host that offers security with your own private password protected web site is the way to go. Security with family website creation and hosting is important to keeping your memories safe.
There are many web hosts on the internet ranging from free services to paid. If you are looking at a paid hosting site, check to see if they offer a low family fee instead of a fee for each family member. Having a family web site created and hosted on the internet will enable your family and friends to create a lasting gallery of life’s special moments.

Since the TV series “Roots”, there has been a surge of interest in tracing family roots and history. Autograph collecting has been one of the avenues used to record this history. Now every other family seeks to have some kind of reunion once a year, every two years, or in rare cases every five years.Many exchanges are made at these reunions including autographs. Other items may be collected such as old letters, birth certificates, wedding documents, and baptism records. Some of these reunions and family affairs such as weddings, anniversaries, graduations, and other special programs provide many different ways for those who are autograph collecting to get autographs. There are planned programs with pictures of participants and those who are being honored or remembered. These printed programs and pictures can be items used for autograph collecting. Some families maintain a scrap book with these signatures and pictures for reference information on the family.How many times have you been to a family function and did not know all of the family who were present? Autograph collecting is a super way to get to know family and to have something to remember one by as a point of reference. If you are from a large family, autograph collecting may be the only avenue available to you to make some personal contact in a short period of time. Many collectors record information about the person on the back including date, place, and the relation.When the person dies, the death date and cause of death may also be recorded on the back or somewhere close to the picture. Even before death, if you can record tidbits of information about the person, it may prove to be beneficial down the road. These tidbits of information may include the person’s profession, health information, interests and anything else important to family. If you use autograph collecting to its fullest, you may just become the family historian and be contacted from time to time for some of this information that you have gathered. This kind of autograph collecting records a lot of health information about the family in most cases.Health professions have long known that the family blood line is the cause of many health problems. Rare diseases – like hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia may have been in the family at one time. If you let your autograph collecting reflect family diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes your time will be one of the best investments you could make. Tracing the illnesses suffered by parents, grandparents may help the doctor to predict your risk for having these diseases. In your autograph collecting some of this information can be recorded when it becomes available. Very few people take the time to look on the back of a photo. Nevertheless, in addition to the signature on the picture, you will find it worth while if you provide a tag under each picture with name, date, and activity. Again there is no doubt that this kind of autograph collecting is one of the most valuable and rewarding investments you can make as a collector. That information will satisfy the average browser.

Article Source : http://blogatme.com/2008/08/26/all-about-autograph-collecting-and-family-history/

There are many things that bring joy (and sometimes chaos) about The Holiday Christmas Season: friends, coworkers, crazy shopping days, religious celebrations, and Holiday Parties. But, above all, the thing that makes Christmas so special is the time we get to spend with our families. As a retailer, the Holiday Christmas Season is the busiest time of the year for me. However, come Christmas Eve day, I finish my work and spend the entire week with my family. Thus, I am dedicating this week’s column to great Family Christmas Gift ideas. When you are buying a gift for one person, you can think about their individual likes and dislikes and buy accordingly. However, buying Christmas Gifts for the Family is a whole different ballgame indeed. For example, I have one very studious son and one very athletic son. Their interests have virtually no overlap. When we add my daughter and my wife into the equation, we now have many disparate tastes. So, how do we come up with a gift idea that the whole family will love? My wife and daughter enjoy clothes and jewelry. My one son values interesting books while the other finds contentedness in the latest Wii Sports Video game. I find that most of you out there share my situation. So what should we do? Are there gifts out there that the whole family can enjoy together? Fortunately, the answer is yes. I have compiled a Top Ten Family Christmas Gifts list (see below) but I have two primary recommendations for Family Christmas Gifts this year. The first Family Christmas Gift recommendation is Trivial Pursuit Family Edition. Unlike some of the Trivial Pursuit Editions, which contain very difficult questions that alienate many people, the Trivial Pursuit Family Edition seems designed exactly with my Holiday intentions in mind: Spending quality time with the family that is enjoyable by all. This game touches on all facets that my family enjoys: sports, fashion, and academia to name a few. They even have some retailing questions which “old dad” does pretty well at. You should buy the Trivial Pursuit Family Edition soon as Christmas supplies often run low. My other Family Christmas Gift recommendation this year is board game called Blokus Classic. This game has been touted as one of “the most celebrated games of the 21st century”. I have to admit that I am not generally a huge fan of Board Games but Blokus Classic really captured me. My whole family enjoyed it as it can be played by those as young as 5 years old. What is Blokus Classic? Well, it’s a board game that requires lots of spatial type of thought. As such, it is not biased towards any age. In fact, sometimes my kids are better than me! We play it as a group of 4 but it also can be enjoyed with as little as 2 people. The game typically takes about 30 minutes and ends when one player gets rid of all of their pieces. It can be so addictive that immediately after you finish, you will want to play again. With Blokus Classic and Trivial Pursuit Family Edition under your Christmas tree, you are sure to enjoy wonderful times with your family over these Christmas Holidays–and that is what Christmas is all about!

A close knit family is a source of great joy and fun. To keep the source perennial, family bonds need to be forged and strengthened over time. And the best way to achieve this is through family fun activities. You can carry out several such activities in the form of family games, travel, outings and cooking together. Importance of Family Fun Activities Family fun activities help build several sweet and lasting memories. Your children will carry these pleasant memories into adulthood. They will also learn a lot about the values of bonding.  Elderly members will love such activities as it will bring them out of their slow and dreary existence. When you enjoy activities with them, they will feel less forlorn. The Best Way of Having Family Fun If you keep your family fun activity cheap, simple, and together, you can enjoy it the most. With inexpensive family fun activities you can look forward to have more such activities within a short span of time. However, an expensive activity, once in a while, will add spice to your bout of activities. Types of Family Fun For frequent family activities, you need to look for opportunities, around your community. You can look for annual events or visit to community parks.  Also keep note of school or church activities. These may range from concerts to plays and musical programs to exhibitions.  Take your family out to any one of these and help them enjoy the outing. When you plan activities with your family, you can also include friends. Together you can partake in kickball game or backyard treasure hunt. Dividing the participants into father’s team and a mother’s team, and watching one over triumph over the other can be great fun in your own back yard. Elders can sit and have fun watching young ones in action. A trip to the amusement park can be highly entertaining.  Here you can have wild, bold and daring fun with your children. A great and simple way to involve seniors in your fun activity is to take them out for a walk to the park. You can sit and have a chat with them, while your children play around. This can do a world of good to drive their loneliness out. When you play indoor family games, you can also get them involved and help them have a chuckle or two. Once a while, take a leave and plan a vacation with your family members. Choose a place where both young and old can enjoy alike. Nothing can keep you and your family happier, than having few fun filled activities often.

The first step to any kind of family financial peace is the creation of the family budget. With today’s go-go-go lifestyle keeping track of income and expenses is a necessity. Too many families get into financial messes simply because they do not have any idea where their money is going until it is gone.When you first build your family’s budget plan you may be met with a certain amount of resistance simply because a lot of people have an aversion to the word “budget”. The thing to remember as the builder of the budget that you need to pass along is that this new way of dealing with money is not a set in stone law. A budget is simply a tool that allows you to see where your money is going and how you can better manage it. There is a certain amount of give and take, or fluidity, to a budget because it is constantly changing with the needs of your family.The first thing you and your family need to understand is that a family budget is a long term solution to many financial problems. It will give your family a solid financial future which will benefit all members.The best way to do this is to talk to your family about what type of financial goals your family should have and any budgetary constraints you are facing at the moment. Lay it all out for everyone to see, from mortgage payments and other bills to long term financial goals that include retirement and college funding. If you can help them see the whole picture and how they fit into it your chances of successfully building a family budget are much greater.If build an environment in which your entire family is working together for one common financial goal a budget will be much easier to incorporate. A good way to do this is to have each family member create their own mini-budget so they can better understand how their spending may be affecting the big picture. If they can find places to cut back on this can be translated into the overall family budget.One way to rein in an over exuberant child who thinks money just magically appears out of the ATM machine is to have them budget their own allowance. If a child has to use their own money to buy the things they will soon learn the value of money. Not only will this go a long way to helping the family budget it will start to teach them how to manage money which will stay with them into their adult life.As you build your family budget you will see patterns of spending start to emerge. Pay close attention to these and see if some of them are really necessary. Often times the things you are taking most for granted, such as eating out, will eat up a large portion of your monthly income. For a regular sized family eating out for one night could often buy enough groceries to last for almost a week.Building a family budget is the first step to taking control of your financial future. Only when you know where the money is going can you take control of the situation and make your money work for you.

Nothing is more fun and exciting than getting together with family on a Friday night and having a great time. Order a pizza, pick up some pop and a movie, and settle in for a great evening of family activity! There are countless options that can make for a wonderful family fun night, too. Let the kids pick an activity for a change or schedule it so that a different family member gets to pick the activity for each different family fun night.
There are several things you can do to ensure that family fun time goes off without a hitch and becomes a planned activity for the whole family, each and every week. The first thing you need to do to accomplish this is to plan for it, of course.
Plan Ahead
Most people have extremely busy lives and are juggling soccer practice with piano lessons and homework. For today’s busiest families, the prospect of family fun time might seem like a distant fantasy instead of a reality. With a little bit of planning and dedication to family, however, family fun night can become a reality and can be a functioning part of your family’s schedule. The first step to making this happen is setting aside some time for it.
Set aside a weekend night, preferably. Family fun nights work best on Friday nights or Saturday nights, as most people are home from their work week and their school week. Kids and adults alike are ready to unwind and relax for the weekend, making Fridays the ideal night for ordering takeout and playing board games.
Setting aside one night a week is a good first step, but that night needs to be effectively reserved for family fun night. Yes, there will be scheduling conflicts and there will be situations that will come up and interfere with family fun night. Treat family fun night like it is the most important part of the schedule because, in many ways, it is. Schedule time with friends, piano lessons, karate practice, and other events around family fun time and make your family’s time together a top priority in your weekly planning.
Get Creative
There are several activities that you can plan for family fun night. Sometimes the activity may be simple, like pizza and a great movie. Other times, you may plan something a touch more intricate, like rock climbing or miniature golf. Regardless of the planning, it is important to ensure that each family member has a say in the activity. For this reason, scheduling the “activities coordinator” is a great idea. Let your son pick the activity for the upcoming family fun night, followed by your daughter’s plans for the following week and your husband’s plans for the week after that. Scheduling the planning process gets everyone involved.
Family activities can be anything from watching a movie to putting together a dollhouse or building something cool. The sky is the limit in terms of ideas for family fun, so get creative and involve the whole family in putting aside great family time!

Family Asset Protection Survival Guide:Courts know Asset Protection and Asset Management and it’s allocation can protect you.That’s why it’s very important that an individual or a family know Asset Protection is there to protect rights over there asset’s.Some people and familys are fooled into thinking there is nothing they can do to protect themselves.Be well informed and know that by receiving help it will protect the asset’s of you and your family’s finances.Don’t make mistakes when it comes to protecting yourself and your family’s finances.It’s very important that you be in the know of your rights, Also the rights of your family.Learn to use your rights, Also use Asset Protection to protect your familys precious property and finances.Some familys will loose there rights and everything to the legal system.Why?Because they don’t understand that they can protect there finances and asset’s from the court system.There are almost always laws in place in most states and countrys that will help you to protect your asset’s.You may need help to make the right choices to protect yourself.Don’t be the one family that has judgment entries and foreclosure against them.All because you didn’t know how to use your rights to protect your family and assets.Asset Protection can help you to allocate your familys asset’s.Be the safe family not the household that losses everything.Why do that when you can protect yourself and your familys well being now.Learn as much as you can about Asset Protection to protect yourself and your family and relatives.You can stand up and know that you know yours and your family’s rights.The courts don’t want you to know how to protect yourself and family.But you can fight all of these things without Court, If you learn the ways of the wise and protect your family.They are being paid to keep you in the dark.When they are receiving revenue from you loosing your family property.  They don’t want you to know that it can be avoided.That’s right, There making money when you loose your possessions and your home to foreclosure.There sitting at your knees foaming at the mouth to get at you and your money.Don’t be a statistic, Let Asset Protection help you and your family now.Please, Don’t let them take you and your family to the cleaners like they have so many before.Do something about Courts taking your family’s house,Cars and valuables.Use Family Asset Protection: to protect your family’s finances and asset’s today.

The Northeastern University Center for Family Business Announces Larry Rubin, of Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture, to speak at the 2009 Massachusetts Family Business of the Year Awards

The Northeastern University Center for Family Business (Boston, March 23, 2009) 

The Northeastern University Center for Family Business is pleased to announce that Larry Rubin, of Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture, will speak at the 3rd annual Massachusetts Family Business of the Year Awards.  The Massachusetts Family Business of the Year Awards program was created two years ago in a partnership between Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business and The Family Firm Institute New England Chapter to promote and highlight some of the great achievements of Massachusetts-based, family-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.

Ted Clark, Director of the Center for Family Business notes, “We are excited to have Larry Rubin as a speaker at the 2009 Massachusetts Family Business of the Year Awards program on April 29, 2009.  Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture represents what the best of family businesses can be all about, solid management, business growth, generational success and community service.”

“We were very excited to be recognized by the Northeastern University Awards program for our contributions as a family business,” said Larry Rubin of Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture.  “Being in business with your family is rewarding, but it does, like every business, have its challenges.  The key is to learn as you move forward, and the Awards program is a great opportunity for family business members to identify challenges, learn and create great businesses.  We are looking forward to being at the program again this year to support family businesses.” 

“Given the importance of family businesses to the economy it’s fitting to recognize the contribution of these great companies,” commented Thomas E. Moore, Dean of Northeastern College of Business Administration.  “In addition to Bernie & Phyl’s, other past winners of the Massachusetts Family Business of the Year Awards include Sal’s Pizza, Camp Thoreau, Crescent Ridge Dairy, Avedis Zildjian and New England Coffee,”  Moore continued.

Any Massachusetts-based, family-owned business that includes or included more than one generation is eligible for the award.  There are three award categories: companies with less than 50 employees, 50-250 employees, and for businesses with more than 250 full-time employees.  The awards will be presented at Northeastern University’s Henderson House in Weston, MA on April 29, 2009. 

About Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture

Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture is the largest privately owned furniture retailer in Massachusetts and one of the largest furniture retailers in New England.  Started by the Rubin family in 1983, the company has grown into one of the fastest growing furniture retailers with six stores and over 500 employees. In 2002, Bernie & Phyl’s was named national “Retailer of the Year” by the National Home Furnishings Association – the highest honor in the retail home furnishings industry.  Bernie & Phyl’s has been listed as one of the “Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores” by Furniture/Today for each year since 2000.  With a focus on high quality furniture at great prices, the family-run business has created a successful niche in a competitive marketplace.  Bernie & Phyl’s was named the 2008 Massachusetts Family Business of the Year, winner in the large company category and was a finalist in the 2007 program.

About Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business

Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business is a membership organization that provides education, networking opportunities, and support to business families.  The Center helps its members identify and avoid potential pitfalls, solve complex interpersonal and family business issues, and plan for future family business success in an increasingly more competitive environment. 

About Northeastern University College of Business Administration

The College’s BS in International Business is ranked 13th in the nation for international business programs by U.S. News & World Report.  BusinessWeek ranks the undergraduate business program 26th in the country and number1 for internships.

Katelyn Husereau

Northeastern University

Center for Family Business

617.373.3718

k.husereau@neu.edu

SOURCE  Northeastern University Center for Family Business

Katelyn Husereau, 617-373-3718, k.husereau@neu.edu

Human beings have the longest dependency on others than any other living creature. We spend our lives in relationships, either toxic or nurturing. If the family of origin was not supportive and loving, we either repeat that pattern or look for other mentors and teachers.

Can you visualize a closed fist as opposed to an open hand? That is the difference between a closed and dysfunctional group and a learning, sharing and supportive one. The closed one is turned inward and harsh in judgment and expectations. The open one is welcoming and willing to help others as well as receive help.

Closed or Open Families

When we look at families, either of birth or deliberate connection, we admire and wish to emulate, there are usually a number of variables present in the makeup. One or more are usually absent from a closed or dysfunctional family organizations.

Can you and your family change, even if negative patterns have been established over a long period of time? The answer is a resounding yes. The more we know, the more we grow. If your family or group would like deeper assistance than is offered in articles and books and yet not as expensive as therapy, please Google the phrase “Discipline Yes Punish No.” This can assist you in your journey.

Thank You for Your Important Work

I applaud you for seeking help with improving your relationships. Enhancing the bonds of understanding between individuals is the first step in building better families, neighborhoods, communities, areas, nations and a world of peace and harmony. Isn’t that what we all want?

I don’t exactly know what I want to major in but I really am worried about college. Okay, this might be long but bear with me please! I don’t necessarily get the whole entire college process. I want to know as much as possible so I can get into a good college. I probably need a scholarship because my family can’t really afford to pay. Please answer my question. I need as man as possible.