Oh Sagas

The Great Locomotive Chase

Kennesaw, Georgia is a town of just over 21,000 residents in Northern Georgia. It is now considered to be a suburb of Atlanta. The town has been named one of the ten best to live in the United States by Family Circle Magazine. But Kennesaw has an active and sometimes brutal past due to its role in the Civil War.

The most famous Civil War event linked to the Kennesaw area is the Great Locomotive Chase, also known as Andrew’s Raid. In 1862, one of the Federal army’s goals was to take Chattanooga, Tennessee to control the water and rail reinforcements to the Confederate forces. Major General Ormsby Mitchel knew that the best way to seize Chattanooga was to cut it off from Atlanta, another major supplies transportation site.

A civilian named James Andrews proposed a plan to damage the rail link between the two cities. Along with another civilian and 22 Union soldier volunteers, Andrews arrived in Marietta on April 11 in civilian clothing. The next morning, a passenger train stopped at Big Shanty (now, Kennesaw) so that the passengers and crew could eat breakfast and take a break.

Andrews and his men hijacked the locomotive with a few cars, including the fuel supply, and headed towards Chattanooga. The goal was to rip up track, cut telegraph lines, and burn covered bridges behind them, thereby making the rail line unusable by the Confederates. Telegraph lines were cut to prevent news of the escapade from reaching Chattanooga.

The conductor of the train, William Fuller, chased after the stolen train, at times on foot, then by handcar, and then by commandeering other locomotives. He picked up Confederate soldiers on the way. When the men came across broken track, they once again resorted to chasing the locomotive on foot.

The train ran out of fuel just a few miles out of Chattanooga and all of Andrews’ men fled on foot. All were captured, including Andrews, and put on trial. Andrews and seven others were found guilty and were hanged in June of 1862. Eight of the raiders escaped from custody and made their way back behind Union lines. The final six were exchanged for Confederate soldiers in 1863.

What is remembered most about the incident in Kennesaw is the daring nature of the plan. The plan itself was never going to work. The rail system at the time was too strong and had too many branches to effective destroy by such a small group. Also, many of the branches were single line only. The Confederates sent orders to all trains to stop in their tracks to halt the progress of the runaway train. This ate up precious time and fuel trying to route around the blockades.

Today, Kennesaw is the site of the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. The locomotive used in the Great Locomotive Chase resides there and visitors can see a piece of history for themselves.

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Nashville, Tennessee – The Origins of Country Music

Nashville, Tennessee - The Origins of Country Music

Country music has been a part of the United States almost since Europeans first set foot in the country. Country music (originally labeled “hillbilly music”) began simply as the common folk music of the South. It was what was heard on front porches, at community gatherings, and what mothers sang quietly to their newborn babies.

In the 1950’s, country music began to garner a following outside of the South. Recording artists like Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Carl Perkins created new sounds from traditional music and it caught fire.

Nowhere has country music been more entrenched than Nashville, Tennessee. In the mid-50’s, producers like Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins made Nashville their home and began producing a softer, more melodic style of country music that became known as the “Nashville sound”. Artists like Patsy Cline and Eddie Arnold turned this genre into a multi-million dollar enterprise and new country artists gravitated towards Nashville.

The most famous country institution in the world is located in Nashville. Starting in 1925 as the Nashville Barn Dance, the Grand Ole Opry got its current name in 1935. The Opry was a weekly radio show broadcast locally at first and then nationally when the technology allowed in the mid-1930’s. The show featured country singers and musicians and even included square dancers for the benefit of the live audience. In 1955, the Grand Ole Opry became a television broadcast, reaching audiences in ways it could not do before.

Over time, the Grand Ole Opry has debuted the biggest country recording artists in the United States. Membership in the Opry is offered to those elite who have made a name for themselves in the genre.

Another Nashville institution is the Country Music Hall of Fame, born in 1967. The purpose of the Hall of Fame was to honor those without whom country music would not have been commercially successful. The first three inductees were Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and Fred Rose. In 2001, the Hall of Fame opened a new museum in downtown Nashville at a cost of $37 million. The museum’s purpose is to tell the story of country music with videos, tours, and memorabilia.

Nashville will always remain the childhood home of country music. Its recording studios still attract the best of the best and recording artists still create new country sounds in Nashville. It is a popular destination for fans of country music, whether they come for live music, a glimpse of the history surrounding the music, or just to spend time with fellow country music fans. And, as country artists are recording regularly in Nashville, fans may just catch a glimpse of their favorite country star.

Country music has changed and evolved from that original Nashville sound. There are many popular sub-genres of country including country rock and “new country” but the basic Nashville sound is still there. Nashville continues to be the adopted home and birthplace of American country and roots music.

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Off-Camera Lighting

There’s no question that in the world of photography, lighting is one of the most important, as well as one of the most poorly understood, elements of making great images. As essential to photographs that achieve professional-looking results as keywords are to search engine optimization, lighting provides the basis for the ambiance and feel of a picture, no matter the subject or scope. And just as in SEO, a set of arbitrary decisions about essential elements can yield poor results. There are two primary ways in which photographers and web designers who make their own images interact with light; in favorable conditions, natural ambient light may be used, while a camera’s default flash or off-camera lighting are popular choices for a wide variety of applications.

There are several advantages to the use of off-camera lighting in contrast to both natural light and a given camera’s on-board flash unit. While shooting with natural light doesn’t require any extra expense or equipment, and can be used for satisfactory results by professional photographers, it often delivers less than perfect results due to the sheer variety and unpredictability of the sun and atmospheric conditions. Off-camera lighting ensures that you can achieve the precise kind and quality of light needed to get a great image no matter what the weather is like or where the picture is being taken. On a stormy day in Austin Texas, an outdoor shot of a company’s employees may turn out disastrous if taken with natural light alone, but with an off-camera lighting device, the image can convey a great sense of detail and impact even as the sky darkens across the Austin TX landscape.

Most amateur photographers are inclined to make use of their on-camera flash unit at night or in situations where a long exposure is difficult or impossible. Regular flashes can indeed help light a scene and make sure that the subject is included fully included in the image. But for the most part, any artistic aspirations beyond the abstract are lost when using this option. A continual problem with on-camera lighting is that the source is positioned awkwardly in relation to the camera’s lens, with the result that such pictures often feel unnatural or overexposed.

Off-camera lighting devices often consist of a simple mountable or stand-based flash that can create a suitable amount of light in a burst, and can be placed to complement the image a photographer wishes to create. Most modern dSLR cameras have special “hot shoe” mounts for these devices, and increasingly, less expensive point-and-shoot digital camera models are offering capabilities for supporting hot shoes. Beyond these basic items, many photographers make use of a complete lighting kit, which can include umbrellas, reflecting panels, and specially-designed custom lighting arrays. With a quality off-camera light source and a trigger that allows activation at a distance, web designers can achieve images for their sites that look professional and add to the beauty and overall value of a site.

For professional web designers in Austin, TX visit:

NuArtisan
7000 N Mo Pac Expy Ste 200
Austin, TX 78731
(512) 712-5359

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Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival

The Temecula Valley today sports the same rolling hills and beautiful views that it has for thousands of years. The only difference today is that the hills are covered in grapevines as Temecula Valley has become an emerging wine region. Temecula Valley winegrowers have garnered some of the world’s most prestigious awards and tourists flock to the valley to taste the bounty of its harvest.

While the world class wine draws many to the valley, there are many other tourist activities available in Temecula. One of the most famous is the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival held every year in June.

The Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival is a three day event that includes balloon rides, blind tastings, and live music. The Balloon and Wine Festival began in 1983, created by a commercial airline pilot and avid balloonist. The wine element was added in later years to reflect the changing nature of the valley. The festival has grown over the years and has highlighted entertainment acts like the Beach Boys.

The festival has lots to offer for everyone in the family. The Kids Faire provides rides, rock climbing and other activities for children under 14.

The wine and food pairing event is one of the most popular the festival. The pairing includes a four course meal with each course being prepared by a different chef. Each course is accompanied by a different complementary wine. Speakers from the featured wineries present a short dialogue on how the wine was made and why it works well with food being presented. The speakers will also answer questions from the tasters about wine and food pairings in general.

The Balloon Glow event and is undoubtedly the most magical of the entire festival. Balloonists vie for the championship title while the crowd watches. At sunset, the balloonists take flight and all fire up their burners simultaneously. Each balloon becomes a gently glowing orb in the evening sky. The balloonists then make the balloons appear to dance to a musical beat by firing off their burners in rhythm to the music.

The festival also includes a wide variety of food and souvenir vendors. Those who wish to become food vendors should apply early as the positions fill quickly.

If attending the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival, hotel rooms are available in Temecula itself and there are many camping grounds surrounding the event. Booking in advance is recommended due to the popularity of the festival.

Many visitors to the Temecula Valley schedule their vacations around this popular festival. The opportunity to drift high in the sky and see the incredible vistas of the valley and its grapevines is an experience not to be forgotten. The Temecula Valley is an easy drive from many major centers, including Los Angeles, San Diego, and Palm Springs.

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Misplacing a Favorite Handbag

It took only a moment of forgetfulness, a few seconds of paying attention to the conversation and not to the back of my chair where my handbag hung by its strap.

Of course, the conversation was engaging. My best friend and I were on a much-anticipated holiday on Ibiza. We had been planning the trip for months and were excited to finally be on the island. On this particular evening, after the resort’s immense buffet dinner, we were enjoying ice-cold margaritas by the pool and watched children splashing in the shallow end and adults trying to unwind in the lounge chairs. Two handsome young men strolled by our table with beach towels slung over their shoulders. In broken English, the taller of the two asked if they could join us. Three margaritas and a table covered in tapas later, and the four of us were discussing England, the weather, Marxism, and Argentina, where the boys were from.

Throughout the evening, my handbag quietly stood by on the back of my chair, waiting to be put into use again. It wasn’t just any handbag. I had purchased it the year I graduated from university. It was expensive compared to the accessories I normally bought. It was a rich buff-colored leather that had darkened and softened over the years. It had pockets inside for everything I needed from makeup to aspirin to an umbrella. It was the last handbag I had purchased. It fit my lifestyle so well that I couldn’t even think about buying another one.

But that evening, I left my beloved bag hanging lonely on the back of the chair as I went off with my best friend and our new Argentinean friends for a sunset walk on the beach. I didn’t realize my mistake later that night as I fell asleep as soon as we got back to our room from an overdose of sun, sand, and margaritas.

It wasn’t until mid-morning the next day when I reached for it that I realized my handbag was missing. A sick feeling developed in my stomach as I thought about credit cards, my passport and cash. But these were all things that could be replaced. My handbag, on the other hand, had been a friend for so long and I couldn’t imagine living my life without it. I ran down to the front desk but no one on the morning shift had seen the handbag or received a note from the night staff. I hunted around the pool area but no luck. I had almost given up hope when the tall Argentinean- Roberto- walked toward me with my handbag in his hand.

I still have that handbag today, a little worse for wear, but still my favorite. Roberto is still my hero. Our daughter likes to walk in high heels toting my handbag and pretending she is me. Walks on the beach are now a family affair and my handbag has never been left behind again.

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Digital Photography and Image Storage

Photography has evolved significantly since its inception in the 1820’s. The original photographs were imaged on rigid metal plates treated with reactive chemicals. The exposure time was close to ten minutes so nothing could move during the photography session, otherwise it wouldn’t show up in the final picture.

In the late 1800’s, cameras began containing film which made photography more accessible to everyone. The 1970’s saw the introduction of digital photography, although it would be another 20 years before the technology became accessible to non-professional photographers.

Digital photography has many benefits over film technology. Film is a poor storage medium. It is delicate to handle, can be instantly destroyed by exposure to light, heat or radiation, and needs a long and tedious process with specialized equipment to be turned into photographs. Film is also a very limited storage medium with a capability of temporarily storing less than 50 photographs.

On the other hand, digital photography uses digital storage media to capture and store a large volume of pictures. The digital storage media used is most often flash memory, which uses electronic circuits to store large amounts of data and allow it to be accessed easily. Flash memory is also erasable so pictures can be reviewed and erased right after capture. The memory card is durable, and, although it has a finite number of times that it can be recorded upon and erased, it is most often long enough to get the most use out of the camera itself.

The best benefit of digital photography, however, is the ability to store and transfer digital photographs for long periods of time. Digital photographs can be downloaded to a computer for long term storage on a hard drive. The picture file can also be emailed or uploaded to a website to instantly share with others. The memory stick in the camera can then be erased and more digital photographs taken. If traditional paper photos are required, they can be printed out on a color printer using either special photo paper or regular paper. Photos can be easily resized or altered using basic computer programs and many photo manipulation techniques that were once available only to professional photographers can now be used by everyone.

Other ways to store and share digital photographs include a digital photo frame, a popular gift for parents and grandparents. A digital photo frame is a tablet with a small memory card that looks like a traditional photo frame but in which one can change the picture to another on the memory card as often as desired. Tiny versions of the digital photo frame are also now available that can hang on key chains.

Digital image storing has also provided opportunities to family genealogists to preserve current photographs and to restore and protect old ones. If a photo of your great grandmother has been sitting in your parents’ photo album for forty years, it can be scanned and digitally stored for safety. From storage, the image can also be shared with other genealogists or family members.

The advent of digital image storing and digital photography has changed the way people take and store pictures. With the ease of storage and processing, more photos get taken and more memories preserved.

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A Shotgun Start

If you are running a golf tournament, then the usual method of starting is to have each group of golfers wait their turn and begin from the first tee. This means that when the first group is finishing the course, the tenth group to start is just finishing up the ninth hole and still has nine more to go. Depending upon the number of groups in the tournament, this method can take a long time to finish.

Another drawback is that no matter which group of golfers the fans wish to follow , they all congregate at the first hole and the crowd there gradually gets smaller as some fans begin to walk the course following their favorite group. Early in the tournament, this can mean a very large crowd is gathered at the first tee, which can make it difficult to keep everyone in the spectator portion of the course and can make the noise level significantly higher for the first few golf groupings to tee off.

Another method of starting a golf tournament is known as the shotgun start. In a shotgun start , each group of golfers takes their place at a different hole and begins the tournament simultaneously (as long as there are 18 or fewer groups, of course). So group one would start at the first tee, Group two would start at the second tee, and so on.

The shotgun start can reduce the overall time it takes to complete the tournament to the time it takes to golf the eighteen holes. The traditional method takes that same amount of time plus the time it would take to shoot an additional hole for each additional group in the tournament. Remember that in the traditional start, when the first group has finished eighteen holes, the tenth group still has nine more to go.

The shotgun start also allows the spectators to be spread out over the entire course to see their favorite golfers at the start and throughout the tournament instead of forcing all the spectators to begin at a single hole.

One might assume that the term shotgun start got its name from the way the golfers are spread out over the course as the tournament starts the way shotgun pellets might be spread out over the surface of a target. Golf Digest Magazine, however, claims a different origin for the term. They say that back in 1956, the first recorded instance of this type of tournament, the tournament officials needed a way to alert all the groups scattered over the course that it was time to begin. Lacking a starter’s pistol, the noise from a shotgun blast was the agreed upon signal for the start of the tournament.

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Increasing Sales with Better Marketing

Every company wants to increase their sales. Even companies that do not want to grow in size understand that they need new customers and increased sales to offset the natural drift of customers to other suppliers. In today’s shaky business economy, companies that have ever-increasing sales will thrive where others will end up closing their doors.

Growing your sales takes costs money and spending money is something that most companies are trying to avoid right now. Without investing in advertising and marketing, growth is unlikely.

There are three main ways to grow your business: bringing new customers in the door, selling them more every time they come through the door and getting them to come through the door more often. Almost every advertising promotion or technique can be categorized under one of these three strategies. The largest increases in revenue occur when all three strategies are used simultaneously.

When you think about advertising, you likely most often consider phone book ads, or radio or television ads. These methods are focused on getting new customers in the door. This part of the trio usually costs the most because businesses do not know who are potential clients and who will never be interested in their product or service. New customers are also the most disloyal in general and move from supplier to supplier quickly unless trust is built. Getting your long term customers to buy more from you and buy more often takes less money to implement and achieves better results.

In order to accomplish any of the three strategies, you first must know who your customers are now and what their purchasing habits are. That takes a marketing process that can capture and report that information about your customers. Many companies that have started out small and have grown organically do not have marketing systems that have kept up with the growth of the company. It is one thing for the owner to be able to keep tabs on his customers when he’s first starting out but quite another to track thousands of customers and truly understand what they’re buying from you and what they want to buy in the future.

That’s where a company like Entiera comes in. Entiera specializes in helping companies mine their data and set up effective marketing campaigns based on their customer sales history. Entiera has the tools to pull together sales and customer data from your various systems and integrate them so that you can continue the monitoring and tweaking process.

The largest benefit of partnering with a company like Entiera is that you can narrow down your potential new customers and also find ways to let your existing customers know about your other or new products and services.

Spending marketing dollars carefully is a wise strategy in these rough times. Investing in obtaining the best marketing and sales strategies for your particular company ensures that every marketing dollar counts.

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Walking the Path to Success

There are few companies today that can say they have taken an age-old craft and made it new and relevant. NuShoe.com is one of those companies. While many companies are focused on selling new products to customers and encouraging them to throw out the old and embrace the new, NuShoe understands the timeless value of renewal.

NuShoe’s business model is to encourage customers to repair and renew their favorite shoes rather than just buy new ones. NuShoe takes the well-respected art of cobbling and brings it into the internet age by offering the services online to a national audience.

Restoring shoes, although a historic profession, resounds with new meaning in today’s economy. Repairing old shoes is frequently less expensive than buying new. With the deep recession currently blanketing the United States, saving money has become fashionable once again.

Eric Neuner, the president of NuShoe, started in the industry in 1993. He was captivated by the craftsmanship and the traditional values that went along with the trade. But shoe repair was a dying industry. With the advent of cheap shoes at big chain stores, having one’s shoes repaired and restored was a concept that was quickly losing meaning. He believed, however, that he could bring the industry into the 21st century by adding accessibility and customer service. He was right.

The new focus on the environmental impact of landfill sites is also giving new life to services that result in less garbage ending up in the waste stream. Restoring shoes rather than just tossing them in the trash and buying new ones not only keeps the old ones out of the landfill but cuts down on the environmental impact of factories making new ones.

The third new trend that gives NuShoe a boost is the trend towards healthy living. The link between proper footwear and back health is being made more clear every day by physicians and chiropractors. Having to find new shoes to replace proper well-fitted and comfortable ones can be a challenge and consumers are recognizing that keeping the old is easier and better than buying new.

This perfect storm of frugality, environmentalism, and health has been embraced by NuShoe and has made it stand out in its industry as being on the cutting edge.

Neuner built NuShoe around traditional principles but ensured that everyone had access to these services by introducing shipping. Having a pair of shoes restored is a simple matter of shipping them to Nushoe.com and having them delivered back to your door when they are restored. NuShoe uses materials in its repair and restoration services that rival or are better than the original materials, giving shoes a chance at even more than double their original life.
NuShoe’s motto is: “To provide the highest quality craftsmanship and best customer service possible every day, with every customer, and with every pair of shoes”. They have already proven that they have met this goal and more.

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Where does Cork Come From?

Cork has been harvested and used in many applications for over two hundred years. Cork comes from the inner bark of the cork oak tree, grown mainly in Portugal, Spain, and Morocco.

Cork harvesting does not permanently damage the cork oak tree. Its bark and cork layers regrow over time. Cork cannot be harvested for the first time until the tree is at least 25 years old and then can only be re-harvested every 10-15 years after that.

The cork layer is stripped from the tree in long swaths and then boiled to remove it from the tough outer bark and make it softer and easier to work with. The main use of cork is for use as stoppers in wine bottles. Cork is the perfect material for the job as wine needs to “breathe” as it ages, meaning that a very slow, controlled entry of air into the bottles over time breaks down the tannins in the wine to produce a more mellow, rich flavor with complex overtones. Wines that especially benefit from cork aging over years (or even decades) include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Bordeaux.

Wine stoppers are punched out of the cork slabs in different lengths depending on the intended use. Longer corks are used for longer-aged, more robust wines and shorter corks are used for wines that are meant to be enjoyed in the near term. The rest of the cork scrap is ground up, fired in ovens and used in other cork products such as floors and message boards.

Cork’s use as wine stoppers have increased the demand for cork to the point where existing cork oak trees cannot support the industry any longer. Because of the long time between planting and harvest, the renewal of the trees cannot keep up with the rate of harvest. This has led to a massive increase in the cost of cork wine stoppers. Wineries have met this challenge by only using real cork stoppers in their best premium storage wines. Everyday wines often have corks made from chipped cork that has been glued and compressed into the traditional cork shape. There are also rubberized synthetic corks on the market for short term wines. The downside of compressed corks is that they off-gas some of the glue fumes and can produce off-flavors in the wine over time. The downside of rubberized corks is that they do not allow the wine to breathe and therefore should only be used for wines that are to be enjoyed within six months or less.

Cork has been a valuable commodity in the Mediterranean for two centuries and will continue to be so in the future. It has unique properties for storage of wines, vinegars, and oils. If managed properly, cork oak trees can provide a sustainable and renewable source of stoppers for centuries to come.

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