I may not be doing P366 but I am doing this – the February Photo a Day Challenge! I love the prompts – it doesn’t contain any prompt for capturing heated gloves or else I’d come up with a zero entry since I live in a tropical country.

I am in Day 5 and I am already thinking what to capture for the days ahead. It’s not too late join!

**I am doing all photos through my iPhone and processing it with Instagr.am, an iPhone app.

When business owners spend money on doing customer satisfaction survey and retention programs to please their customer base, they should also invest on employee surveys to find out the current level of their company’s employee engagement. Employees are what you can say the warriors of a company, going out to battle every single day and their engagement levels – satisfaction, loyalty and trust, among other things – should be high enough to make sure your business will be taken cared of and represented well.

Here are some communication tips to enhance the level of employee engagement in a company:

1. Use visual communication a lot – survey shows that 60% of people communicate better with visual cues. As an employer, if you would not be able to attend a meeting or convention, make sure your presence is felt either by a video message or representative.
2. Smaller face to face executive communication, such as brown bag lunches and skip level meetings, offer a more personalized and engaging format for leadership communication.
3. Make sure employees understand how the unit they work in contributes to the overall success of the organization. Expand their awareness beyond their own performance and extend it out into their team.
4. Highlight best practice. Include articles in your staff magazine that show how employees are modelling organizational values or supporting wider company initiatives.
5. Provide employee helpdesks. Set interactive online helpdesks to let staff ask questions about any aspect of the business and their role within it.

Today I am reminded to be grateful that I have chosen to keep only the best credit cards. We only use our citibank credit cards these days. I just learned from a blog friend that she was harassed by a third-party Collection Agency of her credit card company.

Apparently, her ATM payment for her card got lost and since the investigation takes so long and she didn’t want to have her card rake in interest, she decided to pay the card balance in full and just cut off the card. Yes, she paid twice! And what is more frustrating is that it happened on the busiest and most expensive time of the year – Christmas. Imagine her anger and disappointment.

But all that was supposed to be water under the bridge now. She was looking forward to starting the new year debt free. Imagine her surprise when she received a call again from the agency. She was so angry. Actually, her being angry is an understatement. To think she didn’t even get a credit card application from them, her card just came in free from the mail.
I really can feel her pain. The credit card company is the same one who gave me such a headache back then. To make the long story short, I paid the card full balance and closed the card. One year later, I receive a statement with a renewal fee! It turns out they cannot close my account because they OWED me 4pesos and 16 cents!! You can imagine how much I ranted to their customer service on the phone.

One of the things that you may have overlooked when purchasing a property in a certain community is whether or not the area has strong cell phone signal. You only are only reminded of it once you started living in that community and have started using your cell phone. There are several factors that may cause a weak signal for your cell phone. There are several types of building materials such as concrete or steel that may block or weaken the penetration of cell phone signals into your homes. It could also be that your community is outside of the coverage of your carrier’s cell tower.

If that is the prevailing situation in the community where you reside, you shouldn’t be surprised if you learn that some if not most of your neighbors would resort to using a cell phone signal booster to address this problem. A cell booster is a device used to boost the reception of your cell phone. And if using your cell phone while inside your house is a necessity and you do not want to go through the hassle of switching to another network carrier, using a cell phone booster may be your only option. They can be purchased in kits that may include external antennas, cables and mounting kits. There are even some retailers who offer them online making it more convenient for potential customers to shop for cell boosters. You can choose the most suitable cell booster that you can use in your own home to solve your problem with weak cell phone signal.

As a scrapbooker, I have a lot of gadgets that help me record my family’s memories. I have my computer that operates with a wireless mouse and keyboard, a camera, an iPhone and a video camera. All of these operate on different types, forms and sizes of batteries. I try and do my part and use rechargeable batteries if I can and dispose of old batteries responsibly.

I hope that more households do the same. Many batteries contain harmful metals and chemicals that can leak into our air and water supply when they are dumped into the trash. Single-use batteries (like the kind you pick up at the drugstore or the supermarket checkout aisle) are usually alkaline batteries. They do contain some mercury, but the amount has been steadily reduced since 1984. Though they’re not as hazardous as they used to be, single-use batteries should still be recycled and not thrown out, as there are potential hazards that can arise from leaks. Many rechargeable batteries, on the other hand, contain cadmium, which can be particularly hazardous to the environment and to people should it leak in a landfill or go through an incinerator.

Thanks to the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act, we now have better options in recycling batteries. Nowadays, you can drop off these batteries at most Staples or RadioShack locations. These and other retailers have partnered with Call2Recycle, a free rechargeable battery and cell phone collection organization. Recycled batteries are melted and broken down into their component metals, which are then repurposed into new batteries or steel.

The same thing goes for motorcycle batteries or any discount batteries bought from a battery store. Proper and responsible disposal is a must!

I know you won’t believe me but yes, you can actually control project costs and resources through the IT Cost Management solutions. These days, IT managers are faced with a dilemma to keep the project costs down and use the resources well. So it’s important to do the IT Financial Management before the project starts. In this way, you can lay down everything from unit costs, infrastructure and application development costs, and the unforeseen costs.

In my experience, these unforeseen costs are the cause of project delays that would sometimes lead to end of the project without even deployment. We definitely don’t want this to happen. Because one goal that we want to achieve by each IT project is to deploy and let the users feel happy and satisfied. These are all possible with the IT cost management that I came across this morning. It looks promising since it can help you proactively manage the Business of IT. It also has the ability to know the positive ROI for all the IT investments. In my company, we would need this because there are still managers who are not fully convinced on allotting a huge budget for the new servers and applications. But if we present the ROI for all these IT investments, I’m positive that they would be convinced.

Toys, and its proper use, can greatly benefit children of different ages, even adults too! They can help children through out various stages of their development and help them learn skills. The most important consideration is to choose toys that are appropriate for a child’s age. You should determine the child’s current developmental needs, emotionally and physically and then look for the right kind of toys that will help them during that stage of development.

Playing has proven to play a part in a person’s growth – in intelligence, creativity and cognitive/logical skills. It is the most natural activity that a baby does.

Examples:
1. Infants would need to learn to focus and grasp objects. Toys that develop hand-eye coordination would be perfect during these times.
2. Toddlers would need to learn to walk and develop their gross motor skills. Toys that focus on stacking and pulling would be great.
3. Pre-schoolers would need to master their language basics and develop fine motor skills. Coloring activities, toys that introduce basic colors, shapes and the alphabet would be appropriate.
4. Adolescents now focus on playing on a higher level as they aim for intellectual growth. Logical and cognitive skills are developed at this early stage.
5. Adults play for relaxation – this keeps their bodies physically fit, active and young. It is not surprising that some also use adult toys such as a rabbit vibrator to have activities on the sexual aspect of their beings.

Want to give flowers to special someone but want to make the most out of your money? You can click here to find some latest coupons when you order from ProFlowers.com. They have the best flower arrangements I have ever seen and have the perfect flower arrangements for any occasion. I am guilty of dropping hints to my husband every now and then

A lot of professional nurses, especially specialist nurses, consider taking up travel nursing jobs and signing up with a travel rn agency. Travel nurse assignments are becoming more frequent these days, mainly because of a shortage on qualified medical personnel.

Here are some reasons why many professional nurses want to be travel nurses:
1. Monetary reason. Travel nurses are paid higher than regular nursing staff, on top of housing, allowance and relocation benefits.
2. Travel Perks. It gives you the chance to travel for free and unlike flight attendants who only get to stay in a country for days, you get the chance to explore your location since assignments usually last 13 weeks, ranging from a few weeks to a year.
3. Boost to Portfolio and Experience. You are going to be exposed to a lot of cases that would look good on your portfolio and can be a bargaining ground for higher salaries in future employment opportunities.
4. Burnout Prevention. You are exposed to different areas, culture and patients (and even environment work area) every few months. It will keep you on your toes!

If you are decided on becoming a travel nurses, make sure you go through travel nurse companies like On Assignment Nurse Travel.