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There was a commercial run years ago about some schmuck stuck in a dead-end job.  His boss, throughout the commercial, cries something like, “Get to Omaha!”  Poor birthday boy, on the big day, gets a call in the middle of his cake – “Happy Birthday, get to Omaha!”

I felt the same way.  Heidelberg?  I’m going where for the next three years?  Heidelberg??  My company had transferred me.  A single guy, they thought I’d have no objections.  So I’m looking around at my stuff, my car, my life.  Is there such a thing as an international moving company?  I was assured there was.  Don’t worry, they said, it’ll be an adventure.

Now adventure is all well and good, but my car is important to me.  I can’t afford another.  Who does international auto shipping, anyway?  How does one connect with them and make sure that my baby gets from here to there, safely and well?

I finally connected with an international auto shipping company recommended by a friend who had been put through the same flame.  And thus began the document chase from hell.  Where is my passport?  Where’s my pink slip; this international auto shipping company wanted proof that solid that I actually owned the thing.  I was drowned in a V.A.T. of taxes, quoted to me in one long stream of accented English.  Thank heaven they had it written down.  I was a glazed donut half-way through explanations on customs procedures.

I have always bought American.  Several times, while sitting in a mechanic’s office hole listening to the litany of repairs that I was looking at, watching imports without injuries stream by outside, I wondered if my patriotism was being adequately rewarded.  In this instance, however, I was the one watching smugly from the other side of the desk, avoiding a tax that import owners were screaming about.  It paid.  Maybe it didn’t pay off, but it finally paid.  The advice from the international auto shippers’ office was golden here.  That tax could have paid my electricity bill three times.

I filed my forms with the international auto shipping company, notarized, stamped, and signed in my blood.  Then I took the extra key that I had created, checked for loose change in the back seat one more time, and said good bye for a couple of weeks or so.  I had paid for insurance that would have bought two new fillings, and had sprung for a covered car transport.  (The international auto shipping company had the opportunity here to fill the air above us with horror stories about cars shipped just any old way, unguarded and unprotected.  I felt like my firstborn was being sent out into a tornado, the way they talked.)

Now, I’m an American.  I’m accustomed to slipshod service in some industries and I’ve lost my luggage twice on airlines.  I’m no rookie.  So you can imagine my shock and relief when my car appeared almost at my doorstep, only 3 minutes past due and as healthy as an ox.

Well, they weren’t delivering a pizza, so I guess I can let that go.

International Moving

While we have to deal with water every single day in some form or another, it can be a nightmare for anyone who has a cell phone or a blackberry.  Getting these items wet by rain or dropping them into a sink of dish water is the last thing any owner of one of these wants to do and most of the time, they think that if this happens, they have to get a completely new phone.  While this is sometimes the case, it is not always true. 

If you have one of the newer cell phones on the market, odds are good that if you get it wet and it stops functioning, your warranty will not cover it and you will not be able to cover up the fact that the phone was in fact damaged by water and not some other means.  This is because most cell phones and small electronic devices whose warranties do not cover water damage now come equipped with small stickers on the inside of the phone’s battery compartment that trigger when they get wet.  There is a powdered dye on the underside of the sticker and when it gets wet, the dye coats the sticker and changes its color.  This is good for the manufacturer to keep people from claiming that there was a problem with the product originally and that it was not submerged in water.  This is bad for the consumer, however, because these stickers have been known to trip and change color in areas with high amounts of humidity.  This means that if you live in such an area and your phone stops working for some hardware or software-related reason, you cannot get a new phone under your warranty because they will say that the phone was water damaged, often without even doing any real looking at the phone components for signs of it.

If you do drop your phone into water, get it out as quickly as you can.  Do not leave it under the water for more than 20 seconds, but if it is plugged into the AC in your house, unplug the adapter from the wall first.  Wipe off the exterior, remove the battery, and place both in a bowl of uncooked rice overnight (at least) and wait until the phone is dry before you try to use it again.  Try both the AC and the battery; if the battery does not work and the AC does, then you just need a new battery, which can be purchased for a small amount compared to the value of your phone.

Document Drying

If you move into an apartment or a home and you sign a lease, some people might think that they’re stuck with that lease even if they discover that the property has a substantial mold problem.  This is not true. 

No matter who you’re renting from or what kind of property, it is the landlord’s responsibility to provide you with a healthy place to live.  If you or your children become sick due to the mold located in the home, apartment, or business you are leasing, your landlord can be held responsible.

The only thing that you have to do first is prove that mold exists in your rented space.  That burden or proof is on you because in most leases, mold testing, inspections, and removal are not covered by the landlord.  Landlords do not pay for these; you do.  If there is a problem, you have to prove it.  

If the rental property is infested with mold, the landlord might be liable for the damage to the tenant’s health, the medical bills associated with mold, loss of income due to sickness, and for the damage to clothing and other possessions.  Other possible liabilities include the expense it takes to move to a mold-free environment, the difference between the rent at the mold-infested rental and the new, habitable rental, and for any mold inspections, testing, and remediation of the rental that were paid for by the tenant before moving out.

You should mail a notice to your landlord via certified mail that there is a mold problem first and foremost and provide proof within the envelope.  An analysis and identification of the mold sample you collected using a mold test kit signed by a mold laboratory is a good way to prove that mold exists in the property.  Even better than this is to have a written report signed by a certified mold inspector along with the above mentioned laboratory report.  If notice is ignored by your landlord, you can choose to send a second notice stating that due to the failure to have the mold removed from the property, you are withholding your rent.  Lastly, if that is ignored by your landlord, you should send another notice via certified mail that you are vacating the premises and that legal action is going to be taken, especially if you have suffered health complications due to the mold.  You shouldn’t need a lawyer to draw up these notices for you, as long as you are clear and to the point that mold exists on the landlord’s property that you are renting and you want it removed and if you are suffering any health complications, these should be stated very clearly and with proof, as well.  Most landlords will respond promptly.

Flooded Basement 

King Tutankhamen was around the age 19 when he died and compared to the tombs of other pharaohs, his was modest at best. After his death, the enemies that he had in the state attempted to remove his name from all official documents, including where is name appeared etched in stone upon buildings and monuments.

A curse was placed on the entrance of his tomb and it supposedly read, “death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the king” and a few months after the opening of King Tut’s tomb, Lord Carnarvon, age 57, became seriously ill and was taken to Cairo to be treated. His son claimed later that on his estate back in England, the man’s dog howled and fell dead at almost the same time.

Some studies show that the cause of all the deaths connected with the opening of King Tut’s tomb are due to the dangerous kinds of mold that were growing in the tomb at the time. In the year 1999 a German microbiologist named Gotthard Kramer took samples from 40 mummies and noted that several different dangerous mold types existed on each one.

When mold spores enter the body through the respiratory system, mouth, or through wounds on the skin, they can cause many different medical conditions or even death in some cases, especially in those who have weakened immune systems. Archaeologists now wear gloves and respiratory masks when exploring these places that have remained untouched for so long, which is something the archaeologists of the early 1900’s did not do.

The health records of people who worked at the museum with the mummies had been exposed to a mold called Aspergillus niger, which causes fatigue, rashes, and fever and it has been suggested that this mold may have been able to live inside the tombs for many thousands of years and when the archaeologists entered the tomb to examine it, the mold was picked up and transmitted. Another mold that could have been at Egyptian archaeological sites is Aspergillus ochraceus, but this mold has not been known to be fatal.

So, was it the curse of King Tut that caused so many people to die after the opening of his tomb? Or was mold? Evidence suggests that mold might have been the cause, but it’s possible that we will never truly know the answer.

Article By: Water Damage Ohio

Ah, the finer things in life. Every once in a while, we all enjoy tasting life on the elegant side. The problem is, we do not get that many chances to. It’s expensive to enjoy the richer life. But with gourmet gift baskets, you can give a little taste of the nice life without breaking the bank. With gourmet gift baskets, it’s not about how much you can fit into a basket, it’s about selection. Choosing only the finest options to include in a gift basket is what gourmet gift baskets are all about. Here are some examples of how you can give the sweet side of life to someone you care about:

Gourmet chocolates: This is one of the most popular. These chocolates are smooth and divine. These are not grocery store checkout line candy bars. They are delicious and special to those who get to eat them.

Gourmet popcorn: Freshly-popped and sometimes flavored, this popcorn makes for a treat that you don’t get to enjoy every day.

Preserves: Grandma would be proud! Fresh preserves are a sweet and wonderful alternative to your standard jelly.

There are others as well: cheeses, nuts, and little candies. Giving gourmet gift baskets is giving a delicious and relaxing time for anyone who wants to sit back and dream about the “good life.”

It’s important for job seekers to understand, if they can get news that a company is about to launch a new product, for example, or recently enjoyed a lot of growth in a particular division, or just won a big contract, these news items are signals that the employer will likely be seeking a lot of qualified people to help them take advantage of their opportunities.

Our online, real-time Emerging Jobs SuperSearch scours the major wire services to find emerging jobs in the “incubation stage” where events like these signal a near-term need for key talent. When you make contact in these early stages, there is little or no competition. SuperSearch puts them all at your fingertips for immediate action, with new entries every day.

Job seekers can specify the state and industry they are interested in. If they get too many entries, they can focus only on the most recent events or, if they wish, they can go back and select only certain types of events. Some other examples of this kind of news Emerging Jobs SuperSearch gives job seekers would include new financings, real estate purchases, relocations, startups, and new CEOs being appointed. There are literally thousands of events every day that might signal opportunity.

Out of millions of articles and releases scoured, only those that fit the criteria of the job seeker are selected. Most people would not know where or how to find news of these event, because a lot of it never is published.

At Jobmarketaccess.com, we give our job seekers access to as much as 85% of the advertised openings, including those from newspapers, recruiter openings, job boards, employer sites, and trade magazines. We also provide access to the unadvertised job market among employers, recruiters and growth companies. 

Additional information: pr@jobmarketaccess.com or contact Steve Madden at 1-866-664-7440.

Article By: ITS 

As far as real estate franchises go, there are lots to choose from. Century 21, Coldwell-Banker, and Prudential are a few of the biggest. The biggest in the Charleston area is definitely Carolina real estate. They sell more houses than anyone else in the area – condos, single family, apartment, historical homes, restored mansions, plantation homes, even light commercial, restaurant, and retail real estate. I highly recommend checking them out!

Looking for a vibrant community in which to retire, one with that feels more like home than heaven’s waiting room? Instead of the usual suspects – Arizona, Florida, California – why not check out historic Charleston. Real estate prices here are a fraction of what they are elsewhere, the cost of living is lower, and the medical facilities are on par with if not better than what you’ll find elsewhere. Old historic beachfront mansions, restored plantation homes, and a history of real estate price increases all paint the picture of a Charleston that has historically been and will continue to be a good place to live and to invest.

There is one aspect of global warming that’s worth considering when making real estate investments, especially if you live on the eastern coast of North, Central, or South America: namely the warming of the Atlantic. Beach real estate is going to be a more precarious investment because insurance is going to run much higher as water levels continue to rise, owing to the melting ice caps. This means that in Florida, Palm Beach and Miami could be cities protected by levies if no gradual shift inland takes place. It also means that semi-coastal communities like Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, and Atlantic beach will become prime beachfront real estate, making them a good investment now, as long as you don’t have to shell out for the expensive flooding and hurricane insurance premiums paid for beachfront properties.

Last week, I flew to a real estate brokerage to see about a job in Jacksonville, FL. Real Estate isn’t necessarily my top career choice but a job with the best real estate broker in southern Florida wouldn’t be so bad. I learned that this brokerage is getting some of the highest prices for sellers while also managing to sell more property than other brokers who would short-sell their sellers’ homes. What’s more, Jacksonville is poised to see a big recovery in housing prices following a bit of turmoil, which only means that commissions will be going up, up, up. The company specializes in Jacksonville and the surrounding areas, especially Ponte Vedra and Atlantic beach. That bit of diversity would probably keep things interesting enough for me to stick around.