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Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE:HTZ)
Q4 2011 Earnings Call
February 23, 2012 10:00 am ET
Leslie Hunziker - Staff Vice President of Investor Relations
Mark P. Frissora - Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Member of Executive Committee, Chairman of Hertz Corp and Chief Executive Officer of Hertz Corp
Elyse Douglas - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President and Treasurer of Hertz Corp
Unknown Executive -
Scott P. Sider - Executive Vice President and President of Car Rental & Leasing The Americas
Brian Arthur Johnson - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Michael Millman - Millman Research Associates
Richard M. Kwas - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division
Christopher Agnew - MKM Partners LLC, Research Division
Emily E. Shanks - Barclays Capital, Research Division
John M. Healy - Northcoast Research
Adam Silver
Fred T. Lowrance - Avondale Partners, LLC, Research Division
Yilma Abebe - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Bobby Jones
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Hertz Global Holdings 2011 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Conference Call. The company has asked me to remind you that certain statements made on this call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and, by their nature, are subject to inherent uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Any forward-looking information relayed on this call speaks only as of the date -- as of this date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update that information to reflect changed circumstances.
Additional information concerning these statements is contained in the company's press release regarding its fourth quarter and full year results issued yesterday, and in the risk factors and forward-looking statements section of the company's 2010 Form 10-K and quarterly reports. Copies of these filings are available from the SEC, the Hertz website or the company's Investor Relations department.
I would like to remind you that today's call is being recorded by the company and is also being made available for replay starting today at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time and running through March 8, 2012. I would now like to turn the call over to our host, Leslie Hunziker. Please go ahead.
Leslie Hunziker
Good morning. You should all have our press release and associated financial information. We've also provided slides to accompany our conference call that can be accessed on our website at www.hertz.com Investor Relations. Today, we'll use certain non-GAAP financial measures, all of which are reconciled with GAAP numbers in our press release and at the back of the slide presentation, both of which are posted on our website. We believe that our profitability and performance is better demonstrated using these non-GAAP metrics.
Our call today focuses on Hertz Global Holdings Incorporated, a publicly traded company. Results for the Hertz Corporation differed only slightly, as explained in our press release. With regard to our Investor Relations calendar over the next couple of months, we'll be presenting at the JPMorgan High-Yield Conference on February 29, the Auto Rental News Show in Las Vegas on March 12 and the BofA auto summit on April 4.
This morning, in addition to Mark Frissora, Hertz' Chairman and CEO; and Elyse Douglas, our Chief Financial Officer; on the call, we have Scott Sider, Executive Vice President and President of Vehicle Renting and Leasing in the Americas; Michel Taride, Executive Vice President and President, Hertz International; and Lois Boyd, Executive Vice President and President of Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation. They'll be on hand for the Q&A. Now, I'll turn the call over to Mark.
Mark P. Frissora
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir when I say the stock's performance over the last week has been extremely disappointing, especially when you consider that 2011 was a great year for Hertz.
Let's start on Slide 6, and I'll show you what I mean. As you can see, records were set on many fronts. We achieved the highest full year consolidated adjusted pretax income and margin in the company's history at $680.5 million and 8.2%, respectively. This exceeds the previous peak in 2007 of $656.4 million and 7.6%.
While our record earnings were supported by the early-stage recovery in the equipment rental market, the contribution was most evident in our worldwide rental car business. To be specific, in the worldwide rental car, we achieved the highest volume level and record volume growth year-over-year for both the fourth quarter and for 2011.
On the earnings front, on both a GAAP and adjusted basis, worldwide rent a car reported record pretax income and margin for the fourth quarter and full year. On an annual basis, the new peak for rental car adjusted pretax margin is 12%, up from 9.9% in 2010, the previous peak, and even the prerecession level of 8.7% in 2007. Corporate EBITDA for global rental car also set new historical highs from both an actual dollar and a margin perspective in 2011.
Moving to Slide 7. Clearly, our year-over-year performance was significant. The incremental upside to earnings came from the successful execution of our strategic initiatives to grow and diversify our revenue streams, increase efficiency and productivity and improve our capital structure. We made substantial progress on the actions we outlined last year to build out our value brand, expand our insurance replacement network and further penetrate equipment rental end markets for incremental organic growth. We also completed several strategic acquisitions that enhance our product and service portfolio. These assets position us as a new entrant in the leasing market, they expand our geographic coverage and increase our exposure in the fastest-growing markets for industrial equipment rentals.
On Slide 8, let me walk you through the progress we've made. We've completed the acquisition of the Donlen Leasing business in September 2011 and are in the midst of a very smooth integration. The integration team has discovered key synergies in the area of acquisition, remarketing and operations, to name a few. Our new integrated sales structure is in place and more than 100 cross-selling opportunities have been identified. Sales representatives from both companies are working together to build our combined brand in the marketplace and close deals.
We're also continuing to roll out our Advantage Network worldwide. 2011 revenue was about 21% higher than in 2010, with adjusted pretax income up 14%. Our value brand benefited from 35 net new locations last year. This brings the total to 81 locations, of which about 32% are positioned in Europe. In the U.S., Advantage offers rentals in 44 of the top 65 airports.
In addition to Advantage, you'll recall that in early 2011, we acquired ACE rentals, which now has 10 locations throughout New Zealand and Australia, that further expand our value leisure portfolio abroad. Offering a value brand enables us to attract new, price-sensitive rental customers at a lower cost without tarnishing our premium brand or its pricing structure.
We continued our success in growing our insurance replacement business by securing a co-primary position with one of the largest national insurance companies in 2011. We believe we added share in the $11 billion off-airport market over the last 12 months by increasing overall off-airport revenue nearly 11%, opening 247 net new locations and growing our position with 4 of the top 5 insurance companies by an average of 22%. With only a small market position today in off-airport, we have a huge opportunity in front of us to rapidly increase our position, and clearly, momentum's on our side.
Finally, our ability to share our fleet between the Hertz classic brand, the Advantage value brand and the insurance replacement operations helped drive worldwide rental car fleet efficiency up 35 basis points last year to 78.6%, the highest annual rate since becoming a publicly traded company. Worldwide rental car monthly depreciation reached a record low in 2011 of $265 per vehicle as a result of a more diversified fleet, our ability to share fleet between end markets and selling used cars into higher return channels. In 2011, gains on sales to consumers increased 43% over 2010, and direct-to-dealer sale gains were up 86% year-over-year.
As it pertains to rental car, I like where we sit. We're strategically positioned to drive the fastest earnings growth in the $22 billion U.S. rental car market with the #1 premium preferred brand, the fastest-growing national discount brand and an accelerating insurance replacement product with lots of room to grow.
I also like how we're positioned in the equipment rental market and the headway we're making there. This is on Slide 9. In 2011, total worldwide equipment revenue increased 13% over the prior year and was up 14.1% in North America, which represented 89% of total equipment rental revenue. National account revenue in the U.S. grew 15% year-over-year, making up more than 50% of total revenue. And corporate EBITDA improved 19.7%, with margin up 220 basis points over the prior year.
As we build a better company, we continue to invest in small, accretive acquisitions that improve our business model by focusing on fast-growing, less-cyclical, higher-margin businesses. As you know, the major industrial story of 2011 was the expanding oil and gas potential of the North America onshore, which created an intense demand for infrastructure. Last summer, we acquired WGI Rentals, which allows us to bring our industrial service expertise into a new region, while tapping into the growth of North Dakota's oil and gas industry.
And then in the fall, we purchased the offshore equipment rental division of Delta Rigging & Tools based in Louisiana. Oil and gas was about 15% of total North American revenue in 2011. By year end, we had acquired DW Pumps, located on the West Coast. Total revenue from our Pump & Power equipment rentals, which is used in a variety of areas like the entertainment industry, facility maintenance projects and oil and gas ventures, increased 22% worldwide last year and 32% in North America.
And earlier this year, we closed on the acquisition of Cinelease, a U.S.-based leader in lighting equipment rentals to the TV and film industry. This acquisition builds on our unique position in the $2 billion entertainment sector and contributes to a more stable revenue stream. We have plans to invest another $600 million in gross CapEx for fleet this year, possibly more if nonres construction recovers faster than expected. We'll also continue to make investments in strategic equipment rental acquisitions.
Now at the same time that we're growing our business, we're extremely focused on cost management. On Slide 10, through Lean/Six Sigma actions, we delivered cost savings of $458 million. Consolidated revenues per employee was up 1.7% from 2010. We implemented our global Lighthouse project throughout 66 operating locations last year and 84 locations since inception in mid-2009.
As you know, Lighthouse is a holistic program reengineering operations through the eyes of the customer. We're only about 40% deployed on this global program in terms of revenue, but its effectiveness is evident. In 2011, worldwide rental car's net promoter score was up 6.4% year-over-year, and locations that have completed the initial Lighthouse program in 2011 have an adjusted pretax margin about 250 basis points better than non-Lighthouse locations.
Another key initiative is our asset-light strategy, which revolves around franchising and employing technology in place of infrastructure. This is on Slide 12. We've identified roughly $600 million of global corporate revenues that could be appropriated to franchise. Capital required for fleet investments average about 120% of rental car revenue, so we could have a total opportunity to reduce assets by $720 million from fleet alone. At the same time, through royalties and new service and marketing agreements, the earnings upside could be substantial. Now we don't expect to capture this overnight.
In 2011, we franchised 10 locations in Australia and Italy. Our franchise network now represents 43% of total international revenue. Additionally, in the U.S., we franchised 4 locations. Franchisees in the U.S. make up 4% of total U.S. rental car revenue today. Last year, most of our focus was spent laying the groundwork for future transactions. In 2012, we have a goal of franchising 1% to 2% of worldwide rental car revenue.
Our asset-light strategy also includes replacing infrastructure with technology. We are more broadly rolling out virtual kiosks, which allow us to co-locate with body shops, maintenance facilities, hotels and other retailers without incurring the cost of opening our own facility off-airport. The cost savings between the kiosk and a fully staffed, traditional off-airport facility is significant. A virtual kiosk uses employees in our customer care facility to service a rental transaction quickly and without distraction from anywhere in the world. It's not only cost-efficient but customer friendly. Today, we have kiosks in 45 of the top 65 targeted airports nationally. And our first European virtual kiosk is live at Heathrow. Our goal is to more than double the number of kiosks we have in the U.S. before the seasonal peak.
Innovation also allows us to offer our Hertz On Demand hourly car-rental service without adding infrastructure. The Hertz On Demand vehicles with their self-service technology are either delivered to the customer from an existing Hertz facility or parked on the street or in public garages. It's a very efficient model.
So you can see that our strategies are paying off. We exceeded our 2011 financial targets. In fact, we grew adjusted EPS roughly 87% last year, and that's on top of a 79% increase in 2010. More importantly, we set new company benchmarks for profitability, and we strengthened our balance sheet, paying down debt and reducing interest expense. All of this was achieved in the midst of a challenging external environment that included global economic uncertainty, political turmoil, unusual weather disruptions and ongoing weakness in the worldwide construction market. We hope our performance gives investors more confidence in our ability to successfully operate under any macro circumstance. Now let me turn it over to Elyse, so she can give you some details around the fourth quarter and our capital management initiatives.
Elyse Douglas
Thanks, Mark. Good morning, everyone. Let me begin on Slide 14, focusing primarily on our fourth quarter financial results on both a GAAP and an adjusted basis. Consolidated revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% to $2 billion, with the rental car division growing 9.5%, including Donlen revenue of $107.5 million. The equipment rental division improved 11.1%. Consolidated adjusted pretax income increased 136.5% in the quarter to $165.1 million, driven by higher revenues as well as lower fleet and interest costs and lower operating expenses.
GAAP pretax income was $92.8 million versus last year's fourth quarter loss of $6 million, despite incurring approximately $5 million more in restructuring and restructuring related charges year-over-year to better align future costs in Europe with the weakening macro demand.
In the fourth quarter, we generated cost savings of $117 million. About half of the savings came from direct operating expenses, which declined almost 400 basis points as a percent of revenues as shown on Slide 15. This reduction was due to improved operating leverage in Hertz as the business continues to recover, gains on property sales and equipment, lower damage costs in the Rent A Car business, partially offset by higher gasoline expenses.
Let me spend a minute on the fourth quarter property sale gains of $38 million, which we highlighted in our earnings release. Each year, we open and close locations. In the U.S. alone this year, we opened 415 and closed 168 locations, incurring gains, losses as well as start-up and closing costs. Estimates for these costs and gains are always included in our guidance. These property sales are in line with our asset-light strategy to reduce our brick-and-mortar and move to a lower cost facility model. In addition, every year, we incur costs which are not specifically highlighted that are embedded in DOE that more than offset any gains on sales. This year, for example, there were roughly $90 million of costs offsetting these gains. Examples of these costs include unrecoverable concession fees and consolidated facility costs, unpredictable FX gains and losses as well as higher gasoline expenses. The last item alone negatively impacted yearly results by $22 million versus 2010.
We incur gains and losses on property sales each year, and it is our policy to record them in our regular operating income when they are not part of a restructuring event. Just to put the gain in context, our global DOE expenses are $4.6 billion, with the gain representing less than 1% of these costs.
Now I'd like to shift gears and talk about our EBITDA improvement. Consolidated corporate EBITDA of $335.2 million was a 25.3% improvement over the 2010 quarter, and the margin improved 200 basis points to 16.6%. Worldwide HERC corporate EBITDA margin of 44.3% was 420 basis points better than the 2010 fourth quarter, and it is the best margin reported in the past 13 quarters.
Worldwide rental car fourth quarter corporate EBITDA margin of 11.9% was the best fourth quarter result we've reported since becoming a public company. Mark highlighted many of the full year financial results, including the record adjusted pretax income of $680.5 million and adjusted EPS of $0.97, up 86.5% over the prior year. I'll only add the GAAP diluted EPS of $0.40 per share improved from a loss of $0.12 per share in 2010. This occurred in spite of 8% higher diluted shares outstanding related to the impact of the convertible notes and stock options.
Now, let me give you some more detail on the quarterly performance trends by business unit. Starting with U.S. rental car on Slide 17. Total revenue improved 2.9% in the fourth quarter, driven by 8.6% higher volume and 5.6% longer rental transaction. Breaking this down on Slide 18, airport volume grew 4.3% on 4% longer rentals. Advantage volume was up 15.8% on 1% longer rental length, while off-airport volume increased 15% and transaction length was 6.5% longer, reflecting the growth in insurance replacement, which was up 15.4% over the prior year.
Slide 19 outlines our progress in expanding the off-airport and Advantage businesses during the quarter. We opened 87 net new off-airport locations and recorded same-store revenue growth of 8.1%. Our U.S. Advantage brand revenue grew 11.4% due to a larger footprint and greater consumer visibility. The growth in insurance replacement and leisure rentals, which averaged 13 and 6 days respectively, resulted in fourth quarter U.S. fleet efficiency of nearly 80%, an improvement over 2010.
We continued to see negative RPD trends in the fourth quarter, in part due to some industry overfleeting coming off the summer peak. But longer rental length, reduced fleet cost and improved efficiency more than offset the impact on profit. In fact, U.S. Rent-A-Car adjusted pretax profit was up 45.1% in the quarter, reflecting an improved -- a margin improvement of 440 basis points. The growth we're seeing in lower-priced channels is making a strong contribution to profit.
Let's look at Slide 20. In the fourth quarter, while the total revenue per day variance improved 100 basis points from the sequential third quarter, it was down 5.3% year-over-year. Of the decline, the shift in rental mix accounted for 2.2%, so from a pure price standpoint, U.S. RPD was down 3.1%, with leisure pure price down 2.7%. Other factors impacting rates include competitive pricing for corporate accounts and fewer one-way, high-RPD rentals in the 2011 fourth quarter due to milder weather year-over-year.
In terms of car costs on Slide 21 and 22, you can see monthly depreciation per unit in the U.S. declined 12.2% versus the fourth quarter of 2010, as we remained focused on our purchasing and remarketing strategies, and the residual market continued to benefit from a low supply of off-lease vehicles. For the full year, worldwide rent a car monthly depreciation per unit was down 11.9%.
Now let's move to Europe on Slide 23. Excluding the impacts from foreign exchange, revenue in European rental car was up 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Volume increased 1.2% over the prior year, offsetting a decrease of 2.1% in revenue per day. However, if you exclude the negative mix impact from the lower-priced Advantage brand, pricing was relatively flat. Remember, 85% of the total Advantage Europe locations were opened in 2011.
Moving to Slide 24. I'd like to provide some information to help you understand the impact of the Donlen Leasing business on 2011 and 2012 results. Donlen was acquired on September 1, 2011, so in the first column, you can see the 4 months of actual results generated. In the middle column, we've calculated the pro forma results for Donlen for the full year 2011, consistent to the reporting you will see in the 10-K. In the last column, you can see that this year, based on the pro forma results, we expect a revenue increase from Donlen of 12% to 14% and the adjusted pretax margin is expected to be approximately 9% for the full year 2012.
Now let's turn to the results of our equipment rental business on Slides 25 through 28. For the fourth quarter, worldwide HERC revenue increased 11.1%, reflecting strong performance in North America, where growth in total revenue was 12.9%. The equipment rental acquisitions contributed about 2% to the fourth quarter revenue increase, with the balance driven by strong growth in the industrial oil and gas area as well as specialty services, Pump & Power, and entertainment services.
Volume growth of approximately 8% in the fourth quarter was led by industrial projects and rental penetration as more companies turned to renting versus buying equipment. Pricing improved for the quarter by 3.4% worldwide and 3.6% in North America. On an apples-to-apples basis, using competitor methodology North America pricing was up 5.7%. As Mark mentioned, we made investments to refresh and enlarge our fleet offering. The average equipment age was 47.9 months, a slight decrease from last year. Sales of used equipment continued to improve as retail residual values are approaching prerecession levels.
Slide 28 shows we delivered strong earnings performance in the fourth quarter for worldwide equipment rental. Corporate EBITDA of $140.7 million was a 22.8% improvement over the prior year. Corporate EBITDA margin of 44.3%, a 420-basis-point improvement.
These results reflect the focused effort on productivity, process improvement and tightly managing other operating costs. Also contributing to our pretax profit improvement was a 390-basis-point increase in time utilization. For the full year 2012, we've already indicated that we expect corporate EBITDA flow-through to be roughly 60%. We plan to make investments in people and facilities and incur maintenance costs associated with the older fleet and increased delivery charges as we grow the business. The construction market still awaits a full recovery, with industry forecasts showing only modest growth in 2012.
Moving to Slide 29. Interest expense for the fourth quarter was $167.7 million, a decrease from 2010 of $33.6 million, and cash interest expense declined $18.2 million, reflecting lower rates from refinancing and the absence of the negative carry related to prefunding a portion of our high-yield debt last year. These results were partially offset by higher fleet levels, negative currency translation and incremental debt for the Donlen business. Total interest expense and cash interest expense for the year were down $73.7 million and $21.5 million, respectively, versus 2010, reflecting the results of the improvements made to the capital structure over the past 18 months.
For the full year 2012, we are expecting cash interest expense to increase $10 million to $20 million over 2011. This is due to an anticipated increase in fleet size to support planned revenue growth and the impact of a full year of funding the Donlen fleet, partially offset by additional interest savings.
Restructuring and restructuring related charges are shown on Slide 30. In the fourth quarter, these charges were $19.3 million compared with the prior year's $14.4 million, reflecting our continued effort to streamline the business and rationalize our global workforce, primarily in Europe. As Mark mentioned, 2011 was a year of investments as we capitalized on acquisition opportunities, purchased more rental car and equipment rental fleet to meet the demand recovery, refreshed our facilities, rolled out new technologies and refinanced high-cost debt, all of which impacted 2011 cash flow.
On Slide 31, you can see that cash flows from operations improved by $105.7 million in the fourth quarter, compared with the same period in 2010. For the full year, cash flow from operations was $2.2 billion, an improvement of $25 million versus last year. However, overall corporate cash for the full year was negatively impacted by several items, including acquisitions and investments of $209 million, debt refinancing costs of $166 million, planned increased year-over-year Hertz equipment cash outlays of $215 million and a year-over-year increase of $88 million in net nonfleet capital expenditures to invest in technology to support our growth strategies, as well as to expand and upgrade our facilities. For 2012, we expect cash flow before acquisitions to be at more normalized levels.
At the end of the quarter, we had approximately $2 billion of corporate liquidity available to fund growth initiatives, as outlined on Slide 32. And in spite of higher debt balances due to cash flow and the negative impact of foreign exchange, our corporate leverage ratio improved to 2.6x, down from 3.1x in 2010. And while we no longer have a leverage covenant as part of our credit facilities, the ratio illustrates the progress we're making toward investment grade status. With that, I'll turn it back to Mark.
Mark P. Frissora
Thanks, Elyse. I'm going to pick up on Slide 34. So you've all seen our initial guidance. It reflects our best estimate based on today's global economic and operating environment. As we get more visibility and if things change, we'll update our forecast as appropriate. But right now, the IMF is projecting 1.8% real GDP growth in the U.S. in 2012, but only 0.2% growth in the Eurozone countries. Some economists are even forecasting a year-over-year macro decline in Europe. But with all of our growth initiatives they brought a recovery in equipment rental and a full year's contribution from Donlen. We believe we can overcome the near recessionary environment in Europe to generate 7% to 8% global revenue growth this year. In the short time we've been working with Donlen, we've discovered that there are more opportunities to leverage each other's strengths and competitive advantages than we originally thought. We currently have 9 new products and programs in various stages of development, from early conception through beta testing. These products leverage the best technology and expertise from both companies and give our customers the industry-widest range of offerings from a single mobility provider. Not only are we developing new and innovative products, but we're enhancing several of our existing products to create an even more expansive offering that will improve efficiencies across all areas of vehicle and equipment rental and leasing. As Elyse mentioned, we're planning for roughly 13% top line growth in our leasing business this year.
On Slide 35, you can see that we're targeting volume growth of 5.5% to 6.5% in worldwide rental car. The incremental growth will be driven by the strategic initiatives I outlined earlier on the call, along with the rollout of Advantage abroad and our expansion in emerging markets. On the equipment rental side, we're looking for volume to grow 9% to 10%, on top of the 11% volume we captured last year, and the continued recovery of the overall industry are the drivers.
Now on pricing, we're anticipating worldwide rental car revenue per day to be slightly negative as we continue to shift our business mix towards our longer length value brand and insurance replacement offerings. Europe's weakness will also weigh on price, especially in the leisure market and as Advantage expands. On the competitive front, our corporate business continues to face pricing pressure, with more than 65% of the Fortune 500 companies' business, we're naturally going to be a prime target. But our corporate business is contributory and provides a steady stream of revenue to cover fixed costs. It's clearly an important piece of our business, so our strategy to invigorate pricing is to offer business customers a greater value proposition. In the past year, we've introduced new technologies and services like eReceipt, Gold Choice, mobile alerts, eReturn and counter bypass, all that enhance the customer experience. It's early, but so far, the customer feedback on these services has been overwhelmingly positive.
For equipment rental, we expect pricing this year to reflect our inventory of higher rate new equipment, increasing demand and generally strong industry fundamentals, partially offset by weakening pricing in international markets.
On Slide 36, for corporate EBITDA and adjusted pretax income, we're estimating 14% and 26% growth, respectively, at the high end. The top line growth and an estimated $250 million of incremental cost savings will be only partially offset by investments in both rental car and equipment rental fleet, higher depreciation per vehicle in the U.S. as we overcome last year's tsunami benefit and, as Elyse mentioned, incremental investments in staff, facilities and advertising in the equipment rental business.
Now while the bottom line gets us to a healthy 30% increase in adjusted diluted EPS, there's definitely more conservatism baked into earnings guidance to hedge against any further European weakness. And we'll keep our -- we'll be keeping our eye on how the presidential race in the U.S. affects consumer confidence later this year. Regardless, we feel good about our plan and are optimistic that we'll see some upside before the year's done.
Let me tell you what we're seeing so far in the first quarter. In spite of soft conditions in Europe, we're encouraged by industry trends across businesses in the U.S. In rental car, the total revenue per day variance seems to be improving compared with the sequential fourth quarter. Right now, volume growth looks like it could be up double digit versus a year ago, and rental car residual values continue to be very strong. In equipment rental, the operating environment remains positive. The Architectural Building Index above 50 in January, which is a positive sign. And our current U.S. rental revenue is tracking up roughly 15% to 16% on the base business, and our recent acquisition of Cinelease, our first this year, is expected to deliver an incremental 4% to 5% rental revenue in the first quarter. We have a robust acquisition pipeline for equipment rental and expect to close on another acquisition within the next few weeks.
And finally, before we open it up for questions, as is consistent with our previous call, we won't be really taking any calls on Dollar Thrifty -- or any questions on Dollar Thrifty as our Dollar Thrifty acquisition strategy remains the same. We continue to work forward constructively with the FTC on getting a consent decree, and once we get that consent decree, our intention is to work with Dollar Thrifty board in order to try to consummate a transaction that makes sense to both companies. So with that, operator, let's open up the call for questions.
Question-and-Answer Session
[Operator Instructions] And first, we go to the line of Brian Johnson with Barclays Capital.
Brian Arthur Johnson - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Would like to just drill down a bit more, especially in light of some of the reports from competitors, on the leisure pricing environment in north -- in the U.S., how that's -- is that seemingly getting any better? Your fleet grew exactly in line with your rental base, so maybe want to understand a bit of how you're managing that. And then -- so that's sort of an Elyse-more question. Then for Mark, maybe, we talked after first quarter about your utilization management focus in on issues. Maybe you could update on that because I think this 80%, I don't know if it's close to a record but maybe getting there.
Mark P. Frissora
Yes, so on the fleet utilization number, it is a record, and we still think there's upside as we mature our strategy around off-airport growth, which drives a longer rental length, 13 days on average versus airport, which is roughly 3, 3.5 days. And then as we continue to grow Advantage, that also has a longer rental length, typically 6 days to 7 days and, again, beating the Hertz classic brand on-airport, which is, again, about 3. So as those strategies mature and get more traction, we expect our utilization opportunity to improve. I mean, long term, I think I've told investors in the past, we think we could get to 85, 88, kind of percent kind of numbers as both of those strategies begin to mature more and more over the next 2 to 3 years. Elyse, I don't know if you want to talk about the first part of the question. I'm not sure if...
Unknown Executive
Leisure RPD.
Mark P. Frissora
What's that?
Unknown Executive
Leisure RPD.
Mark P. Frissora
Yes, leisure RPD, which -- in terms of -- I mean, I guess in that, in the press release as well as in the -- in our script this morning, pretty much we said what we saw, which is an improvement from fourth quarter levels, so we're seeing sequential improvement on that, and that's about all we can say. I mean there's really not a whole lot else to talk about. We don't want to -- we want to make sure that we're consistent in our comments in what we said in the script and what we say now, which is that we feel that things have improved from what we're seeing today.
Elyse Douglas
The only thing I would add is that we are being very flexible in terms of how we acquire the fleet, so that we can acquire to meet the demand and not be in a situation to be overrun [indiscernible].
Mark P. Frissora
Yes, Brian. We typically will buy only about probably 70% of what we really need for the year. And so we have about 30% of our capacity that's flexible, and we're able to flex up or down on that by either buying or selling cars. And so we're pretty good at being able to kind of judge where we need to be and be at the right place. We're pretty accurate on that. We've not had many problems being too loose or too tightly fleeted. We're usually right where we need to be based on the demand planning model we've had in place now for over 1.5 years.
Next, we'll go to a question from the line of Michael Millman from Millman Research.
Michael Millman - Millman Research Associates
You mentioned, I think, 2.2% effect from mix. Is that something we can use going forward to assume mix will cost you that amount roughly each quarter?
Mark P. Frissora
I think, Michael, I think that's a good number. It may -- any given quarter, it may get higher or it may go a little lower, but I think it's about right. We've had it go -- like, in a month, we'll have it go to -- we track it every week, but it's gone 2.5%. We've seen it even gone 3%. I mean, the month of February -- I mean, it can go high depending on the month and the quarter. In general, it's probably not going to go lower. If anything, if our strategies work, it will go higher. Okay?
Next, we have a question from the line of Rich Kwas from Wells Fargo Securities.
Richard M. Kwas - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division
Mark, on the guidance for worldwide price, what's embedded for leisure on-airport for the U.S. market? In recent months, you've been a little more constructive on the potential for year-over-year performance in 2012. How should we think about that relative to what you've provided for guidance on a worldwide basis?
Mark P. Frissora
Yes, we don't break that out, Rich, so I can't give that to you. I guess, again, for us -- do you have another question about this that you want to ask? Because I want to answer a question for you, so.
Richard M. Kwas - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division
Okay, so on the -- just a bigger picture question, Mark. On franchising, pretty big increase expected for 2012 versus 2011. As we look out longer term, is there a bit of a snowball effect? You said you've laid a lot of the groundwork in 2011, so if you think out 2013, '14, I know your goal is to get to investment grade down the line, franchising is a big piece of that, but I mean, should we expect '13, '14 even bigger increases on the franchising front?
Mark P. Frissora
No, I mean, I certainly think on longer term -- I think we gave you a number here of $600 million to $700 million in kind of U.S. Rent A Car. I mean, that number could be larger. I mean, it could be $1 billion kind of longer term. And in Europe, certainly, I mean, there are -- it takes -- again, when you're talking about a whole country or a whole region of the country, these are big agreements that we're negotiating right now, and yes, we try to be conservative when we give you the numbers. $600 million and $700 million, I mean, it could be as much as $1.2 billion. It could be double that if our strategies work and if we're able to work out the agreements the way we want to with potential franchisees. We have a lot of interest right now. We have a lot deals under consideration. So again, I think the strategy is a good one. We feel really good about our ability to control quality and still buy the fleet and still be able to have our leverage and, at the same time, provide a very high quality customer satisfaction experience as most of our franchisees actually develop NPS scores that are equal or better than the scores that we have. And they're all in our NPS system. So again, we have very good control of quality. But I think this strategy can get us to investment grade faster. Obviously, when you're looking at taking $1 billion out of your capital number, that throws a lot of free cash flow our way and would help us get to the right ratios faster.
Next, we go to the line of Chris Agnew from MKM Partners.
Christopher Agnew - MKM Partners LLC, Research Division
Question on vehicle remarketing, I was wondering if you could provide an update on your goals this year and maybe longer term for the direct-to-consumer vehicle remarketing strategy and whether this year, you start to see incremental cost savings increase as you scale that business? Or do you need to continue to invest in infrastructure? And then maybe very quick question for Elyse, on Donlen depreciation, is that above or below the corporate EBITDA line, and should we model that to grow in line with revenues?
Scott P. Sider
The first question was with respect to...
Mark P. Frissora
Yes. You're -- he's asking about the infrastructure, and I guess -- Scott's here with me. Scott, why don't you tell them how many states we're kind of licensed in and ready to set up to sell used cars and how many more will be in this year? And then talk about also salespeople. We added a few last year and where we are this year.
Scott P. Sider
Thanks, Mark. In terms of the number of states we're licensed for Rent2Buy, we're licensed in 36 states today to sell Rent2Buy. We're continuing also to open more retail car sales locations and we're combining those with our off-airport locations. So we feel comfortable that this year, our retailers -- direct-to-customers retail car sales will improve by about 50% on a year-over-year basis. And then in terms of dealer direct, we've added over a dozen dealer direct managers. We feel that the penetration will go up about 30% more dealer direct sales. So both of those 2 items will help us to improve our residual values.
Elyse Douglas
And then I think, Chris, your other question on Donlen depreciation, and it will be treated like Rent A Car depreciation. It will be in the worldwide Rent A Car results.
Next, we go to the line of Emily Shanks from Barclays Capital.
Emily E. Shanks - Barclays Capital, Research Division
I just have a question related to the way to think about cash flow, 2 parts. The first one is can you give us an update on what used car residual values are in Europe? And then secondly, can you please just expand, Mark, on your comments around the robust acquisition pipeline relative to HERC? What type of size acquisitions are you targeting and how are you thinking about that?
Mark P. Frissora
Elyse, why don't you...
Elyse Douglas
Sure. Okay. So U.S. car residuals. I mean, we are [indiscernible] plan a continued improvement in residual values, and I would say that on a age-adjusted basis, in the fourth quarter, we were about -- I'm just trying to get -- about 3 -- about 2.5 points above where we were a year ago. The residuals continue to be strong. And then in -- does that answer the question on residuals? Emily? Oh, she gets cut off. And so hopefully that -- if that doesn't, Emily, please dial back in. And then your second question was on HERC acquisitions. And I think they'll be kind of more in line with what we've been doing in the past couple of quarters in terms of size.
Emily E. Shanks - Barclays Capital, Research Division
No, I was curious specifically in Europe for used car residuals, what trends you're seeing there, what your outlook is?
Elyse Douglas
Car residuals in the fourth quarter were softer year-over-year, and we are still seeing softness in the first quarter, and we do expect the residuals to improve toward the back half of 2012, in the second half of 2012, I should say.
Next, we go to the line of John Healy with Northcoast Research.
John M. Healy - Northcoast Research
Mark, I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the off-airport business. I think you mentioned how many locations you opened in the quarter. Can you update us on where you are in terms of the number of locations across the country? Does that number need to keep increasing? And if not, what sort of benefit do we get in the cost structure? And how confident do you feel that you can keep growing at these double-digit rates, and do you see further share gain opportunity? It sounded like you mentioned a big insurance company that you're doing business with this year, but are there more of those out there? And if so, what's the upside if you can capture some of those?
Mark P. Frissora
So I'm going to let Scott Sider answer that, since he's very intimately involved in it.
Scott P. Sider
To answer your first question, we feel very confident that we can continue to grow double-digit off-airport in the foreseeable future. In terms of additional locations, we do anticipate a net increase in locations of 250 to 300 locations per year. And that will probably be at least over the next 3 to 5 years. We continue to improve in the insurance replacement. You saw that in the top 5 companies, we grew over 20%, and we see that continually going forward. So we don't see any slow up in the off-airport growth in the near term.
Next, we go to the line of Adam Silver from Babson Capital Management.
Adam Silver
My question's already been asked, but I have one follow-up question in relation to acquisitions in the equipment rental space. What's your long-term outlook on industry consolidation in light of the recently announced RSC-URI merger?
Mark P. Frissora
First of all, our policy is not to comment or speculate on acquisitions and divestitures. So that's my answer. In terms of just broadly speaking, I guess, the industry is, I think -- did a consolidation move that's fairly large, and I think that's kind of where it stands today. I wouldn't speculate on anything other than that. I think that the status quo is kind of where I see it.
Next, we have a question from the line of Fred Lowrance from Avondale Partners.
Fred T. Lowrance - Avondale Partners, LLC, Research Division
Just wanted to see if we could drill down a little bit more into the $38 million gain that you reported or net gain that you reported in the quarter. We're kind of used to $1 million here, $1 million there, don't really pay too much attention to it, but obviously, this one is kind of huge and really moves the needle on earnings. So I'm wondering if you could kind of give us some color on what was this. Was this sort of accelerated franchising activities means more gross gains on sale? Was it fewer store openings, so fewer opening costs? I mean, what was driving this and made it so much different from prior quarters and prior years?
Mark P. Frissora
Fred, I don't know, did you listen to the script? I mean, we really dealt with that issue. I think we told you that we -- each year, we open and close locations. In the U.S. alone this year, we opened 415 and closed 168, incurring a lot of gains and losses as well as start-up and closing costs. All of this runs through direct operating expenses. Direct operating expenses this year were $4.3 billion, in the fourth quarter, I know over $1 billion. And these property sales are in line with our asset-light strategy to reduce brick-and-mortar. In addition, every year, we incur costs, which are not specifically highlighted like -- that are embedded in DOE, so that offset gains and losses. So this year, for example, there were roughly $90 million of costs that offset those gains. Examples of those costs included unrecoverable concession fees, consolidated facility costs. Again, over $90 million of those -- in fact, just one item was we had $22 million of unrecovered gasoline costs. We had -- I know when we look at concession fees alone, that number can be $35 million for this year. So again, these costs offset gains that we have, but we felt we would call out this particular gain because it was large enough to call it out and be totally transparent around it, so. But just to put it in context of our global DOE, again, it's a $4.3 billion number. So every single quarter, when we sit and look at our risk and opportunities, we look at those risks and opportunities, and we include that in our guidance. So as we looked at this quarter, as we have in all other quarters, we knew what we had in the bank and what we don't have in the bank in terms of risks and opportunities. And so what I'm trying to say is that this is something that wasn't a surprise for us. But -- so I guess in terms of going forward, we would expect that we will probably have gains and losses on real estate sales going forward. Our asset-light strategy tries to get less assets if -- as it relates to real estate and more virtual models. So as we go forward, I'm sure we'll be looking at some gains as well.
Next, we have a question from the line of Yilma Abebe from JPMorgan.
Yilma Abebe - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division
High-level question on your path to investment grade. You mentioned the growth in the franchise business potentially accelerating that path. If you look at all the drivers on a cap structure in terms of attaining the investment grade ratings, can you give us a little more context in terms of the importance of the franchise business in orders of magnitude?
Elyse Douglas
I'm not sure how I can address your specific question about how franchising fits in, but in terms of investment grade goals here, as we said, our net corporate debt to EBITDA leverage this -- ended the year at 2.6%, and we believe that if we're in the 1.5% range, our stats begin to look more like the investment grade model. The other point is one of the criteria of one of the agencies is that we have less secured debt. And as you know, most of our fleet financing is all secured. So surely, the franchise strategy helps us in terms of meeting that goal.
[Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up from John Healy with Northcoast Research.
John M. Healy - Northcoast Research
Mark, Elyse, I think kind of a big picture question, kind of, as you talked about your goal for investment grade. When I think about your business, and I think it's a great goal to have, with the Rent A Car side, I feel like you're kind of already borrowing kind of at the investment grade status with enhancing the facilities. And maybe you could borrow a bit better if you were investment grade, but I was kind of wondering what sort of real benefit do you guys get out of being investment grade, and how do you weigh that maybe in terms of maybe instead of approaching it, maybe buying back stock? I was just trying to understand kind of what the real upside could be if you guys do move towards that?
Elyse Douglas
No, you're absolutely right, John. In the U.S., because of the ABS market, we can very cost effectively finance the fleet, and I would argue that those rates are clearly investment grade level borrowing costs. On the corporate side, though, our costs are higher, so we do, on the corporate debt side, we'd get the benefit of a lower interest expense. But when you look outside the U.S., the situation isn't quite as robust. The ABS market is not as robust and, therefore, we do have higher fleet costs in jurisdictions outside the U.S., which are key growth areas for us. So that's really where we see the benefit. And in terms of how we utilize our excess cash flow, whether to pay down debt, buy back shares, make acquisitions, invest in growth strategies, we constantly look at all those options and make the decision based on what we feel drives the greatest shareholder value.
And we have a question from the line of Bobby Jones from Highland Capital.
Bobby Jones
I'm really sorry to beat the horse on this one. I was just wondering maybe if you could just quickly touch on how your acquisition strategy plays into your desire to attain a investment grade rating, certainly with things in the pipeline and that sort.
Mark P. Frissora
Our goal on any acquisitions we make is always to try to make it credit neutral within the first year. So that's always accretive and always credit neutral. I mean, accretive in the first year and credit neutral in the first year. So I guess we wouldn't expect any acquisition to really hurt our strategy for becoming investment grade. In fact, in some cases, it may accelerate it, depending on who the acquisition is. So we feel like we'll be consistent in that as we move throughout the year, at least in the short-term time horizon.
And speakers, we have no further questions at this time. You may continue.
Mark P. Frissora
Thank you, everyone, for attending and look forward to talking to you next time.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for using AT&T Executive Teleconference service. You may now disconnect.
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Yesterday we began the immense task of identifying the breakout players in the NFC North, talking about the Detroit Lions.
Today we turn our attention to the Green Bay Packers.
The impressive thing about the Packers is also something which makes this task a bit of a headache—depth.
This team rolls so deep that anyone, anywhere, is really capable of popping off in any given year.
Still, there are some guys who are far more likely to have a breakout season than others.
Here are my five Packers most likely to bust out of the pack.
Check out the B/R NFC North Facebook page - like us and keep up with everything NFC North on Bleacher Report!

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to the March 4 edition of the Schwach Indicator Rankings, once again grouped by conference for easy viewing.
As before, I listed each conference in the order of their Schwach averages. I also listed the biggest jumps and drops in each conference, while showing those schools' wins and losses for the week and why they gained or lost in as many places as they did.
In addition, I compiled each conference's top team into a single list for quick comparison.
Thanks again to Jordan Schwarz and Co. for the Schwach Indicator. Enjoy!
Jordan Schwarz profile (http://bleacherreport.com/users/8319-Jordan-Schwartz)
Schwach Indicator March 3 (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/133224-the-schwach-indicator-march-3)
Schwach Indicator Feb. 24 (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/128824-the-schwach-indicator-feb-24)


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The cowlick in his hair wouldn't stay down. His shirt and shorts didn't match. He wore dark socks with his sneakers.
He was clumsy, stumbling over table legs and chairs. Each time he spoke, his voice started softly and gradually got louder and louder until it ended in a yell.
On that first day of school, before I assigned seats at the lunch table, his peers smacked down their hands on empty seats and mouthed, "This one's taken," when he tried to sit down beside them.
"Excuse me," I said to them. "In this class we're kind to each other."
I invited Billy to sit with me. From across the table, he started to tell me about his favorite X-Man, Nightcrawler. I leaned closer to him because I could barely hear him.
"I like him because he can teleport," he continued, his voice getting louder. "That means he can disappear in one place and reappear in another." By this time he was shouting.
For the next 20 minutes he shared his encyclopedic knowledge of the X-Men.
In class, we worked on a poster project. While I could barely read Billy's handwriting on his poster, his pictures were amazing in their detail and color.
"Billy, you're a great artist," I said.
"Thank you," he whispered. "I love to draw!" he yelled.
I try to teach in the present. With Billy, though, I found myself thinking about the future. Will middle school be a challenge for him? Will he be an outcast in high school? Or a target for bullies?
I wondered what contributions he might make to society as an adult. Would he start a revolution in the art world?
If his peers constantly slap their hands down and say there's no room for him, how will he react?
Will he become a part of what author Alexandra Robbins calls the "cafeteria fringe," those people who are not a part of the school's or society's in-crowd? Because he seems different, will he be labeled "geek," "nerd" or "weirdo"?
As a teacher, I want to help him overcome. But what can I do?
Robbins has some of the answers in her book, "The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive after High School."
She follows seven high school students through a year. Each one in a different clique or label – the loner, gamer, popular cheerleader, weird girl, band geek, nerd and new girl.
Robbins focuses on "quirk theory," which says many of the differences that cause students to be excluded in school are the same traits or real-world skills that will be valued in adulthood.
This is the theory I hope Billy hears over and over again in his young life. I want him to see that the things that make him different are the things that make him unique.
Those traits can help him build a more humane world for all of us. But it's hard for a 7-year-old, a 17-year-old or even a 27-year-old to understand this.
So in the meantime, I'll follow Robbins' suggestions and encourage teachers to offer safe havens.
I'll also encourage students to strike up conversations and friendships with those outside their usual circle, especially at the lunchroom table.
I'll do that so Billy can inherit the earth – so that we all will inherit the earth. And what a better earth it will be.
Trevor Barton teaches second grade and is a member of First Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C. This story first appeared on the Teaching Tolerance website.
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Ferguson sets sail with music
Singer chosen to perform on ship
By WILLIAM KERNS
A-J Entertainment Editor
LisaAnn Ferguson was 13 years old when her father surprised her with a guitar.
As she recalls, she really ''didn't know what I was supposed to do with it,'' but eventually she began picking out chords and writing and playing songs for her own enjoyment. Ferguson never really studied music. She never actively pursued a music career. She has called Lubbock home for the past three years, but never played here publicly.
''I won't play at bars,'' she said.
This isn't how musicians land breaks.
Well, then again, there's always an exception to every rule, right?
Saturday found Ferguson honored as one of five vocalists performing on the aircraft carrier USS George Washington for approximately 10,000 sailors.
Those assigned to the Norfolk, Va.-based carrier wanted a ''Texas Day'' celebration, and Ferguson reportedlycq joined former President Bush, country recording act/headliner JoDeecq Messina and a number of chili cooks at the festivities.
Nashville producer Gary Foster, who has worked extensively with Vern Gosdin, heard Ferguson perform via a syndicated radio show recorded in Junction on March 15.
But one needs to reach back a couple more years to see when things really began to turn around for this 34-year-old mother of three.
''Two years ago, my mom was recovering from a heart attack and she wanted me to write a song. She also wanted me to perhaps consider giving Nashville a try because I do have a pretty unique voice.
''I never saw anything coming of it.''
For inspiration, she conceived of a ''cheating scene'' in which a man leaves home, carrying his bowling ball and telling his wife he's going bowling with the boys. The wife finds his bowling shoes left behind. The song's accusatory title is ''You Don't Go Bowling In Your Cowboy Boots,'' which has received minimal airplay thus far locally only on one Lubbock station: KRBL Radio (105.7 FM).
In fact, the station's personnel liked the song so much that they began playing it in its demo tape format. A single CD version won't be ready until this week. And Foster liked what he heard to such an extent that he's agreed to produce Ferguson's first full album.
''My kids are pretty excited and my husband's real supportive about the whole thing,'' Ferguson said with a smile. The name of her album will be ''Restless Cowboy'' and the aforementioned single will be her only self-penned song included.
Not that she doesn't have more to offer.
''I've probably written 150 songs, somewhere around there,'' she said. ''I can write a song in about five minutes. That's really about how long it took me to write 'You Don't Go Bowling in Your Cowboy Boots.'°''
Ferguson listens to many types of music, but somewhat shyly admitted that she gravitated toward country songs because they are easier to play on the guitar.
She is excited about recording in Nashville and expects her first album to be released this summer. And while she felt privileged to be asked to perform last night on the aircraft carrier, she expressed reservations before leaving Lubbock. ''I really don't like water,'' she explained. ''In fact, I'm scared to death of it because I can't swim. Then again, when I see 10,000 sailors, I'm not sure anything will come out of my mouth when I open it to sing.''
Ferguson added, ''I know I haven't worked as hard as other to have this happen to me. But I'm feeling confident because of what people are telling me about my singing. I guess if this works, if I get somewhere in music, I'll have to tell people, 'Mother knew best.'
''She's the one who encouraged me.''
Home | Back to News | Comments or Feedback
Copyright Lubbock Avalanche-Journal 1997


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FOLLOW THE RAINBOW -- Brighten up your day on Nov. 2 with the original, full-length feature film "Rainbow Brite & The Star Stealer: The Movie" from Warner Home Video here. The pre-order date is Oct. 4. The movie has been remastered and contains additional DVD content, including a sing-along music video. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the brand, Rainbow Brite was re-launched at retail with multiple licensees in January 2004. A new, talking Rainbow Brite doll and musical playset ...
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Follow @DaytimeRoyalty
|Viewing Single Post From: DAYS:Spoilers & Previews
|Oct 19 2008, 05:33 PM
Sorry, it's in the script. Nichole did not stop drinking "a few weeks" prior to her diagnosis. She ordered an OJ and then said "what the hell" to adding some vodka, just prior to going to the hospital. She continued to drink until the day Daniel told her she was pregnant. At the hospital she was out of control asking for alcohol. She displayed many characteristics of an alcoholic, including commenting that she could not be in withdrawal because she drank at least three drinks with every meal. She was throwing up the alcohol because of alcohol poinening. DT's were diagnosed, which can only develop after prolonged and excessive exposure to alcohol, and are symptomatic of alcoholicism.
The writers went out of the way to write her as an alcoholic for months leading up to the pregnancy storyline. She clearly was drinking heavily for the first 8-12 weeks of her pregnancy. That is not the same as a moderate occassional drinker or even a single binge. Withdrawal occurs after the user has developed an addiction, not from casual use, and is experienced for a period of hours, beginning 4-12 hours after the last use, depending on the substance.
Once physical withdrawal is complete, the addict still must contend with the psychological ravages of addiction. It is a common phrase among recovering addicts that "quitting is not the problem, staying quit is." Physcal withdrawal from alcohol does not occur weeks after the abuser stops using. It is a dangerous situation for a pregnant woman and fetus, and it deserves to be acknowledged in the story.
I am not trying to further any agenda with this post, I really believe it would be terribly irresponsible for NBC/Sony/Days to have built such a strong case for Nichole's drinking and then ignore it.
I have faith in Ari's ability to act and believe she could do justice to a great many stories, including a pregnancy or a miscarriage. But rather than haul out another tired Days repeat story, I think that a story built around her alcoholism, a miscarriage, a relationship with Melanie, and an exploration into her relationship with the mudered abusive husband could be Emmy material for her. It is time to redeem this woman and take her out of the role of victim by letting her face and conquer her demons.
Edited by leharner, Oct 19 2008, 06:22 PM.
|DAYS:Spoilers & Previews · DAYS: News, Spoilers & Discussion


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Japanese-Style Fried Tofu and Vegetables
Crisp, cornmeal-crusted tofu tops a colorful mélange of sweet peppers and pea pods. For excellent texture, be sure to purchase the extra-firm, silken-style tofu.
TOTAL TIME: 1 hr 24 min
- 1 package(s) tofu, extra-firm
- 3 tablespoon tamari, reduced-sodium
- 8 scallion(s) (green onions)
- 8 ounce(s) pea pods, fresh
- 1 tablespoon oil, toasted sesame
- 1 medium pepper(s), red, bell
- 1 medium pepper(s), yellow
- 2 tablespoon cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
2. Meanwhile, trim ends of green onions, leaving 3 inches of white and light green parts. (Reserve the dark green ends for another use.) Cut green onions in half lengthwise, forming 16 strips. Trim ends of pea pods and remove strings; cut pea pods in half lengthwise.
3. Pour sesame oil into a 12-inch nonstick skillet. Preheat over medium-high heat. Stir-fry red and yellow peppers in hot oil for 1 minute. Add green onions and pea pods. Stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes more or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Remove skillet from heat. Drain tofu, reserving tamari sauce. Stir the tamari sauce into cooked vegetables. Transfer to a serving platter; cover and keep warm.
4. Carefully dip the tofu slices in cornmeal to lightly coat both sides. In the same skillet cook tofu about 6 minutes or until crisp and heated through, gently turning once.
5. To serve, arrange the tofu slices over cooked vegetables. If desired, sprinkle with sesame seed. Serve immediately.
Nutrition Detailsper serving
Calories 198, Fat 10g, Cholesterol -, Sodium 410mg, Saturated Fat 1g, Protein 16g, Fiber 3g, Carbohydrates 14g


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July/August 1999
Melodies heard.. Melodies sweet
Challenge Records
Sudhalter's main man is Bix Beiderbecke (in his prolific other life, he co-authored the best Beiderbecke biography), but his trumpet has a Louis Armstrong aspect that shimmers through many of these pieces. In addition, lately he has been known to lay in little intimations of bebop. On six tracks, the band is Sudhalter and Roger Kellaway, a pianist for all seasons who functions here more as collaborator than accompanist. They take a joyous romp through the 1935 hit "Eeny Meeny Miney Moe," with a passionate series of four-bar exchanges and plenty of attention to the celebrated Beiderbecke ad-lib that Matty Malneck and Johnny Mercer wrote into the song.
All of the pieces are songs by jazz musicans. The collection begins with Artie Shaw's "Love of My Life" and ends with Fats Waller's "Blue Turning Grey Over You." Sudhalter and Kellaway caress Ellington's "Black Butterfly," and Armstrong's "If We Never Meet Again," trumpet and piano floating along on great melodies. Their work together is equally agreeable on Benny Carter's "Only Trust Your Heart" and Kellaway's "I'm Smiling Again." In a quintet nicely arranged by Sy Johnson, Sudhalter is blithely muted in Gerry Mulligan's little-known waltz "Summer's Over." He employs gentle growls, smears and Bobby Hackett allusions in a Billy Strayhorn rarity, "Multicolored Blue." Johnson's arrangement of the Strayhorn suggests the Ellington small bands. His use of trumpet-vibes and guitar-vibes unison lines is effective in several pieces, including Red Norvo's, "Everywhere I Go," a harmonic treasure house.
Vibraharpist Ed Saindon, bassist Marshall Wood, drummer Joe Cocuzzo, and guitarists Frank Vignola and James Chirillo round out the basic supporting cast. Johnson plays piano on two tracks and Barbara Lea sings on two in this relaxed Sudhalter collection, which is given over to melody and melodic improvisation.


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We'd like your opinion
As you can see, color has come to Center Times. And over the next few months more changes are coming.
On page 11, you will find a reader survey, and it will was distributed by e-mail on Feb. 24. We hope you'll fill out the survey and give us your thoughts. Our mail code is 9060.
We want to ensure that our campus publication reflects your interests and ideas. We plan to offer more information on campus happenings — as well as feature stories on the students, faculty and staff of UT Southwestern and the fascinating work they are doing in our labs, clinics, hospitals and classrooms. We want to ensure the publication is fully relevant to our entire community.
In addition, we will eventually offer a daily companion, on-line version of the publication that will provide updates and current information of interest across the campus, and we look forward to your help as we evolve to new ways of communicating at UT Southwestern.
Center Times went online recently. You can view the monthly editions at www.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/ home/home/news/centertimes.html.
Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts on Center Times.
The Editors


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Books on ophthalmology can also be found on our shelves:
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Search BOTH links below to find ALL books and journals on your topic.
The Cleveland Clinic Center for Consumer Health Information provides a wide variety of information and services to the general public as well as other departments in the Cleveland Clinic Health System.
Cole Eye Institute: CCF Patient Education Materials
In addition, patient education materials can be found through the following resources:


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days too frigid now,
fingers longing for warm dirt
to plant my high hopes
« taking down the tree | Main | my sketchbook project flys back home but here is a sneaky~peek »
i get that! we are so cold and snowy here in MN but i am happy for the reflective time inside for in summer i am never in...love your photo & haiku...
beautiful blue snow
a candle burning each night
my Lu Lu is fine...
sending love and pink your way,
xox - eb.
I'll send you some warm weather
you can send that cold over here
ice skating on Peach Tree Rd...it's crazy
it is frigidly cold! I keep telling myself it's suppose to be cold in January but BRRRRRR!
I think winter may exist just so gardeners will have the time to look at the seed catalogs.
Some days it seems like winter lasts forever (even in California) - but have heart -- spring is coming!
And oops, I don't have my seed orders in, yet. Gotta go figure that out...
i love the your perfect idea of planting high hopes.
spring, even covered in snow, i FEEL it!
so glad to have some pink flowers to brighten the white horizon.
The comments to this entry are closed.


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Life History
Mating in pelagic octopods poses some problems. Male argonautoids have solved this simply by detaching a hectocotylized arm and giving it to the female. One submersible observation on Vitreledonella suggests that they mate a bit differently:
Figure. These pictures are from a video sequence taken from a submersible at about 900 m depth off Hawaii. A Vitreledonella drifted into view but clearly has too many arms. A closer look indicates that one octopus is within the web of another; presumably they are mating. Unfortunately, the hectocotylus cannot be identified. Photographs from Young, et al., 1999.
The females apparently brood their eggs within the mantle cavity until hatching (Joubin, 1937).
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Randall County commissioners got good financial news at their Tuesday meeting.
Henry Davis of the auditing firm Doshier, Pickens & Francis gave commissioners a "clean opinion," meaning there were no unusual signs in the county's financial records. He also said the county had a three-month reserve of money.
"That is a very adequate reserve," Davis said. "Basically, the county is in real good financial shape."
The reserve fund totals $5.2 million, about $1 million more than last year, the audit said.
County Judge Ted Wood said commissioners faced the choice of raising taxes substantially or dipping into the reserve fund for the 2001 fiscal year. Voters responded to the tax hike with a successful rollback election.
"We were faced with that decision and decided to keep the reserve fund at an adequate level," Wood said.
The audit showed departments responded early to the threat of the rollback, leaving money in their accounts to be returned to the general fund at the close of the year.
"Most departments left between 2 percent and 6 percent. They stopped filling positions, and that's where they saved the most," County Auditor Joella McPherson said.
The sheriff's department went 4 percent below its rollback budget.
"When your budget is $5.6 million, 4 percent is a lot. That is $183,700," McPherson said.
Other examples are the tax assessor-collector's office coming in 2 percent below for $17,000 in savings and the road department saving 4.5 percent.
In other business, commissioners postponed imposing a burn ban in response to recent rains. They will evaluate the situation where not much precipitation fell, primarily the southeast quadrant of the county, and revisit the matter.
Commissioners also voted unanimously to have departments make monthly reports in a timely manner, something most already do, Commissioner Skip Huskey said. The reports will be used to generate financial reports on the entire county.
On a 3-2 vote, commissioners voted to support a declaration to encourage state leaders to investigate the federal government's enforcement of laws that control the nation's food supply. Commissioner Craig Gualtiere and Wood voted against the move, citing their aversion to putting blame on the presidential administration.
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Grandi, Stoica & Titov present programs for FIG Presidency
Cancun will host the 79th FIG Congress from October 25-27. This Congress, among other things, will elect the new FIG President, and members of the Executive and Technical Committees.
For the first time in several years the current FIG President, Bruno Grandi, will run opposed in the figures of Adrian Stoica (ROU) and Vassily Titov (RUS). Grandi has been the FIG President since 1996 and he is the precursor of the open-ended Codes of Points and the reduction in size of artistic gymnastics teams in favour of individual gymnasts at the Olympics.
This week, the three FIG presidential candidates unveiled their programs for FIG Presidency.
Grandi's program continues to emphasize solidarity between federations "a solidarity programme with two core strands: the first focused on federations with a well-established gymnastic tradition; the second focused on federations with serious plans to develop gymnastics." This approach has given him success among those developing nations but is starting to face opposition from the powerful federations. He also insists in the need of competitions to be shorter, well organised, and fair, in order to catch the audience's interest. A positive approach to the audience is broadcasting online: "This channel (FIG Youtube) should become our chief vehicle for broadcasting at all of our main events."
One interesting point of his proposal is the gradual inclusion of the Athlete's Commission in the running of the sport. Grandi also says that the "conflict of interest" that still exists in some areas of the sport should be eradicated.
Grandi also suggests that "there is an increasingly urgent need to develop continental championships which will act as qualifying events for the FIG World Championships." Additionally, he introduces the idea of a Junior World Cup, which seems to be against his previous mandates.
Titov's proposal has judges as the main character. Titov wants to introduce monetary compensation for judges' ratings and performance. One new point in Titov's letter is the intention to ask the IOC for the inclusion of Acrobatics to the Olympic program.
Titov also wants to increase sponsorship and advertising and provide webcasts of all official FIG competitions in all gymnastic disciplines. He mentions an old idea of "considering the issue of entering junior competitions into the list of the FIG Official Events," an idea clearly opposed by the current President whose tenure has seen a limiting of junior gymnasts' exposure.
Finally, Titov wants to develop and approve the system of selecting athletes for participation in the 2016 Olympics, a system that most federations agree should be changed and that both Stoica and Grandi think that should be made through Continental Championships to some degree.
Stoica, the current chair of the Men's Technical Committee, acknowledges that " we cannot go forward while looking back; however, there are certain lessons we must all learn from previous mistakes." One of the most interesting points of Stoica's proposal is the inclusion of Continental Championships as a qualification for World Championships and the Olympics, an idea that Grandi also presents, following criticism from federations of the double qualification system for this year's Olympics that put gymnasts in a too long peak period of time. This proposal could solve the physical and psychological marathon that some gymnasts suffered in reaching qualification to the Olympics.
Stoica also suggests an age limit for FIG Presidents, according to IOC rules: "I shall advocate the introduction of a 70 year age limit for the FIG President, similar to the one that IOC applies otherwise gymnastics shall continue without representation in the IOC, when the FIG President's age is over the above." His proposal also puts a focus on improve branding and advertising in gymnasts' uniforms.
Cancun, FIG Congress, Grandi, News, Stoica, Titov


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Top Apps
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The goal of this project is to design and write comercial quality software and aplications with fully respect to free software (like in "free speach"). The software designed by us will target various fields: from scientific applications to multimedia an14 weekly downloads
Sinhala Desktop
Sinhala Desktop is a Sinhala Version of Windows Shell Replacement. This project contains all the major Windows System components with Sinhala User Interface. (Sinhala is a national language of Sri Lanka.) Developed Using Delphi 6 and C++Builder 6.2 weekly downloads
MHW real-time descrambler
MHW is a real-time descrambler build on a linux-based PC, that will emulate, decrypt and descramble the Suka II Satellite cryptoalgorithm.


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International Create Challenge (Aug 31 - Sept 21, 2016)
2016 Results
Results of the International Create Challenge 2016
On Tuesday, September 20th, after three weeks of hard work and networking, the ICC'2016 participants found out which teams the jury had selected among the winners of the challenge. The organizers of the ICC'2016 are proud to announce the following winning teams:
1) CHF 5'000.- cash - VIPRODEV: Offers a breakthrough technology capable of recognizing the world around us, allowing the understanding of objects, humans and their behaviors in different environments, by processing 3D imaging in high definition and real time with a unique, compact, patented, all-in-one system.
2) CHF 5'000.- cash - VEINTREE: Identification and authentication system based on palm vein biometrics used in disaster management
3a) CHF 2'500.- cash - MeasureMe: Mobile application to measure and weigh children in developing countries to detect and assess malnutrition
3b) CHF 2'500.- cash - Dental Simulator: is a mobile application simulator useful for students to simulate and practice dental procedures such as dental anesthesia, root canal treatment, dental implants, etc…
The Free IdeArk Incubation award went to team VIPRODEV.
The organizers of the ICC'2016 would like to thank all the 8 teams for their hard work and their commitment during the three weeks of the challenge and wish them all the best for their entrepreneurial future.
|MeasureMe - Dental Simulator
|ICC'2016 image gallery
|ICC'2016 Testimonials
ICC'2016 presentation
|Switzerland is among the leading innovative countries, with her universities, research institutions and engineering schools ranking among the best in the world. This creates a natural breeding ground for start-up activities. However, the lack of a comprehensive program that combines training, mentorship and early stage investment stalls the progress of technology start-up creation. International Create Challenge intends to address this gap by facilitating start-up/ spin-out creation within the framework of the IM2/Idiap domains of research and technologies.
|The International Create Challenge provides the ideal breeding space and resources to drive early stage technology innovation into Minimum Viable Products and start-ups, providing top-notch coaching, seed funding and competitive prizes. The format is a free of charge, 3-week immersive program in which around 10 teams of 2 - 3 people, composed of developers, researchers, entrepreneurs and/or designers, will be engaged. The project selection is focused around the IM2/Idiap domains of research and technologies.
|The best three teams will each receive CHF 5'000.- cash of prize money. There is also the possibility to negotiate seed funding in exchange of up to 10-15% of equity of the created company. Should one of the teams decide to create a company locally by integratig the IdeArk Incubator, additional grants will be delivered: an open access to the The Ark Incubator with in-kind support of over CHF 100,000.-, CHF 10'000.- in the form of a The Ark Scholarship and other advantages.
The International Create Challenge wishes to accelerate the process of start-up creation. It offers a new concept in the value chain of booster programs, speeding up the time frame from the idea consolidation and the team setup to the prototype development.
Eligible research & technology areas
For ideas or projects to be eligible for the ICC, they should exploit information and communication technologies (ICT) as available within Idiap.
Research themes of the Idiap Research Institute are:
- Perceptual and cognitive systems
- Social/ human behavior
- Information interfaces and presentation
- Biometric Person Recognition
- Machine learning
Selection process
To select candidates, teams and projects, a 2-step call will be open prior to the 3-week period of the ICC.
First step: candidates will be selected according to their skills (developer/researcher, designer and/or entrepreneur) and their motivation. There is no need to have an idea at this stage. Skilled people still in search of an idea are given the possibility to integrate a team between the 2 steps of the selection process.
Second step: the selected candidates will be judged based on the teams of 2-3 people they have to set up, as well as their project ideas which must leverage Idiap domains of research and technology portfolio to drive their codes to a minimum viable products.
The International Create Challenge is a full concept which includes top-of-the-class coaching and mentoring. Every day, a different topic (IP, funding, business model, market, competitors, customers) will be discussed with professionals through short plenary sessions and face-to-face meetings.
At the beginning of the ICC'2015, the participating teams will have the opportunity to exchange with a large pool of Idiap researchers during one afternoon. This meeting provides a unique occasion to share codes and/or ideas and to get an overview of the state-of-the-art of the related domains of research.
The prizes will be awarded during the event "Oser entreprendre" on the last day of the program. The successful team(s) will have the opportunity to integrate the IdeArk Incubator as soon as the ICC has ended.


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Mystery Object Speech
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This product is no longer available.
You can try these similar gifts instead.
Personalized Cookie Monster Pencil Case
When you send your favorite kiddos back to school, make sure they have a place to store their pencils. Made of durable canvas, the pencil case features the Cookie Monster and can be personalized with the child's name.


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For immediate release: March 4, 2013
Metro to pause rebuilding efforts for Cherry Blossom season
Metro today announced that it will take a break from its aggressive rebuilding efforts to accommodate customers traveling during Cherry Blossom season.
This year's break will take place over four consecutive weekends, beginning Saturday, March 23, and continuing through Sunday, April 14. The only planned weekend work during that time will take place late Sunday evenings, when ridership is light.
"While the work we do almost every weekend is necessary to get the system back to a steady state of safety and reliability, we are in a position where we can take a short break to let everyone enjoy the season," said Metro General Manager and CEO Richard Sarles. "The spring break will give people an opportunity to experience the type of system we are working toward."
On average, Metro ridership increases by more than 15 percent during Cherry Blossom season, and weekend ridership can double to near-weekday levels if the weather is nice.
Customer Travel Tips
During Cherry Blossom season, customers can do their part to help ensure that their trip is pleasant by remembering the following travel tips:
News release issued at 4:01 pm, March 4, 2013.


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|Ryu Kaijitsu
:::Facepalm::: I apologize.
4711 AR: Ryu Kaijitsu arrives in Sandpoint seeking his family and is acknowledged by Lonjiku as his son.
Biter: How long have you been in Sandoint?
why? is he also Lonjiku's son?
ps: please reply my PM so I know what is good/bad on the racial changes
|Brindolfin Cloudcap
Spiral, would it be alright for Straehan - as a gnome pariah and 'outsider' to his native culture in many ways - to drop the race hatred of goblinoids and lizard types? I've already mentioned and blunted the 'hated' angle in reference to Biter and it just might be easier to dump it.
I'd like to take that 1 RP point and drop it into my bonus pile - to make it 6 RP (and/or build points). I'd be happy to ensure that it remains as an RP point instead of doing a 26 point buy, if you prefer. The odds are very good, I'll be spending at least a few points as RP not buy points.
|Kaddoc the Grey
|Cilyanka Caumlo
|Sparrow Seacutter
If you mean Advanced stats specifically, doesn't that require 20RP races or Monstrous Humanoid?
|Cilyanka Caumlo
|Ryu Kaijitsu
Since Spiral kicked this thing off with a 20 point buy and I'm calling Strae a gnome despite his half-whatever bloodline, I'm going to try to keep him pretty Gnome-like... so I'm shy of boosting his racial stat bonuses too much. It just seems a stretch to me.
|Ryu Kaijitsu
before Cilyanka mentioned the advanced profile here I already agreed with GM about that for Ryu, Ryu is supposed to be draconic/half-draconic and this heritage will become more obvious as he grows in power/level, this is a core part to the concept, so I made changes based on that, and added Kitsune as additional flavor to the idea (adopted from GM suggestion)
so, a gnome can still look as a gnome if you want, my char will also stay human looking and his race or type doesn't change either, Biter also got traits from advanced list with no issues and you can essentially overlook required creature type as long it makes sense for the concept
be careful of the costs though, as example a +2 natural armor would cost 3 points, I dropped this idea after I considered that other, cheaper traits also fit the concept and help to flesh out the idea better
|Cilyanka Caumlo
okay, Alkaid, I have to ask. Do you have a mechanical reason why you'd be able to drink 24 of what I assume are bottles of hard alcohol? I don't see any racial or class abilities (or even archetypes) that make you especially immune or even resistant to alcoholic beverages. Your fort save is a +4… which is about equivalent to those of some of the other members of the party.
I mean… 24 bottles? Heck, 24 shots of any real alcohol is enough to level most people… if not possibly put them in the hospital.
I'm all for interesting character quirks, but I'm failing to see why this girl would be able to drink the goblin, the half-orc, or the half-giant under the table in this manner. Just curious, I guess.
I've reviewed Alkaid's updated version via PM and approved it. The stats are much more in line with the rest of the group, though personally, I'd have given a cleric a slightly higher wisdom. Still, that's an RP decision on Alkaid's part.
And yes, once you get through the stone slab, things will get...interesting. ;)
I hope you folks aren't going to be too mean to my monsters.
|Sparrow Seacutter
Well, at least now we know how our first combat will go. Lots and lots of 1s.
|Sparrow Seacutter
I've been toying with Sparrow's eventual build abit, and figured I'd ask for opinions. As of right now, I'm thinking
Level 2 Ranger bonus feat - Rapid Shot
Level 3 feat - Precise Shot
Level 5 feat - Deadly Aim
Level 5 Wizard bonus feat - Craft Magic Arms & Armor or Craft Wondrous Item
Only thought that far so far. I might swap out Precise and Rapid (since both on the Ranger list), it would save on arrows, though going by the numbers two attacks would be a bigger bonus than one with Precise. Of course that assumes full attacks every round.
|Sparrow Seacutter
Actually, yea Precise at 2. I think maybe Deadly Aim at 3 then, and wait for Rapid until 5? One good attack is usually worth more than 2 imo.
I forgot Rapid Shot has a -2 as well, which threw off my numbers.
|Sparrow Seacutter
Yea, at first I was thinking I'd hit more frequently with two attacks at -4 than one at no penalty, but forgot the Rapid Shot, so it'd be two at -6. It'd be something like I need an 8 or better just to break even on that, and I'd be wasting two arrows to do it. Precise Shot at level 2 (just wish it didn't have point blank as a pre-req, otherwise I'd have it now).
So should we consider establishing a marching order in OOC just to get it taken care of?
Yeah, my basic theory is the damage from an extra shot, or even your main shot, doesn't mean much if you fail to hit. :)
I think kicking out a marching order makes sense - for both 10' wide and 5' wide corridors.
Here's a quick idea to start the ball rolling... Feel free to fire off your own amendments if you've got a better idea.
10' wide
Biter / Strae <-- Sneaky Scouts w/ good vision, magical backup
Brin / Kaddoc <-- Front Liners, variable spell and psi use
Alkaid / Sparrow <-- Healer (centralized), ranged attacker + magic
Cilyanka / Ryu <-- Rear guard - strong combat, spells, flanking, and awareness
I could see Brin, Kaddoc, and Cilyanka alternating in the front-line or rear guard positions.
5' wide
|Cilyanka Caumlo
|Sparrow Seacutter
Looks like a decent setup to me.
|Kaddoc the Grey


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This print started out as a baseball card more than twenty years ago. Every aspect of it is designed to preserve the original look and feel of the card, from the printing pattern to the slightly worn edges. In fact, this print started by finding the actual card in our vault and then painstakingly re-mastering it with a team of designers. The authenticity extends to manufacturing; each print is made on high-quality, cotton fine art paper that measures 1/64 inches in thickness. Framed prints feature 2-inch flat wood or metallic frames with high-end, glare-resistant glass. And all prints are officially licensed by MLB and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Yes, Rod Carew was an All-Star yet again in 1981. He hit .305 in that strike-shortened season, which is a down year by his standards considering Carew's .328 career average.Intellectual Property Notice: © 2013 All Rights Reserved. Topps is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.


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Add some sparkling diamantes to this beautiful hand crafted rose posy that adorns the cake. Looking striking in white, the design is finished with trailing strands of sophisticated white iced beads each tipped with a sparkling diamante. This will certainly dazzle your guests.
Four Tier Square Cake, tier sizes 5",7", 9", 11" serves 120 dessert portions (2"x1" sized sponge slices) or 240 coffee portions (1"x1" sized fruit slices).


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1. Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Organizations
It's possible for small organizations to supercharge their marketing efforts with social media marketing tips. The process begins by outlining marketing goals clearly and determining how success will be measured.
Facebook provides a low cost marketing option with the opportunity to reach over 750 million users. This powerful platform allows you to secure you organization's user name by creating a Page. It helps to look at the pages of your competitors to understand how they're using the network.
You can also reserve a Twitter account in the name of your organization. Beginners should spend time doing basic Twitter searches to become familiar with the content on the service related to their area and search for competitors as well. To get the most out of Twitter, you can take advantage of some advanced tools like TweetDeck, Tweetie and Seesmic.
2. Strategies for Social Network Marketing
Social network marketing is a hot new trend among network marketers wanting to promote their organizations online. The social media sites are an easy and free avenue for communication with people worldwide. The opportunity is huge for those which are able to capitalize on the power of the social networking platform, which has proven that it is here to stay.
In social network marketing, following the proper social etiquette and effectively differentiating yourself from the competition are the keys to success. You must find a way to distinguish your message from the many spammers which are abusing the social media sites, and proper branding is key to doing so. You should aim for a strategy of moderation in your marketing campaign, so as not to be labeled a "pitcher." It's also very important to engage people on a personal level and to build authentic relationships.


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Has anyone worked with freon or one of it's many chemical offshoots.
I've put together a small Minto engine, but am having a heck of a time moving the liquid from one end to another without overpressurizing my containers. I have not had a containment failure yet and wish to avoid one. I am using a solar still to heat water, and using the water as my thermal conducter for the transfer container which works fine and I am able to pretty closely monitor and adjust the heat. My big problem is with the transfer of the liquid during the boiling stage.
When I increase my transfer pipe size (in an effort to move more liquid, I end up pushing both gas and liquid, which ruins the effiecency.
This is my first time working with the material R134a, so anyone with some advice would be helpful.


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|Whoever said money can't buy happiness didn't know where to shop!
Everytime I go browsing a high end online store, I make a mental wishlist of the gorgeous pieces i'd like to add to my wardrobe.. regardless of the fact that i'd not be able to ACTUALLY afford those pieces in a lifetime without donating a kidney or stealing my dad's credit card !
But, come QVENDO and the dream of owning brands like Armani, Gucci & Hugo Boss seems within reach.. And why wouldn't it be, the very generous bunch of people working behind the site offer the designer pieces at almost HALF the price! You know how elating that is?! Investing those last 5K that you saved after 3 months on an Armani Jeans Dress feels like guilty pleasure..
Although, I earn NOTHING of myself, i'm shameful enough to make a list of things I'd want from the site. Some Classy & Fabulous pieces that would make adorable outfits when combine with the existing wardrobe.
Here's my Style Wish List from the QVENDO Diwali Sale Store..
The Armani Jeans Dress; Feels like Summer! But if paired up with some hot shot pumps and a chic blazer, it becomes a perfect Fall outfit. And oh, the Owl pendant adds a hint of coolness to it .
This one very well qualifies as a Date Outfit ;)
Yet another summer outfit, cute CK tank top with a floral mini, ballet flats ( lets confess, we all love em!) and an expensive handbag. All set for the day out with Girlfriends!
This one's my most favorite of the three. A White Denim paired with plaid shirt never fails to spell CASUAL in capital. Plus that CK duffle bag ( from QVENDO store too) makes you step out of the house for no good reason but to show that you're awesome like that. ;)
These are just four out of the many amazing items available on the site for everyone, man, woman and kids. I wish a miraculous multiplication of digits in my bank account so I can shop all of them :P
Thanks to IndiBlogger I got a membership in this shopper's haven! If you want exclusive access too then
Go Hit This Link : http://qvendo.com/vip/indianbloggers
P.S. I cant describe how much efforts it took to create those outfits in photoshop for a digitally challenged person like me but then I cant even explain how much pleasurable it is to go through all those fabulous fashion pieces out in the Google search results, picking the one that fits your outfit the best and then imagining yourself wearing it!
THIS post has been fun for me.
Written for the DISCOVER QVENDO contest on Indiblogger.
Share your Style Wish List with me.


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Do you like it?
**** yes
however it sounds like..................open condom store!!!!!!!!!
Originally Posted by ShinraRengan
Shame on you.
Pointless thread. Yes i do. I once saw a pointless button on the street xD.
I don't understand all of the hype surrounding it.
Dafuq is Gangnam Style ?
Originally Posted by נıм
Dafuq is Gangnam Style ?
I don't like it. The hype around it is fitting though, as it's a satire on the huge amount of money in the Gangnam district and pointless spending that is attributed to it. But then again, I find the mindless attachment to popular music stupid in general, people don't think for themselves when picking music, and often ignore talent.
Yes! It's strangely addicting.
Originally Posted by kekerot
ehh no..., I like steampunk
If I knew what he was saying besides sexy ladies I might enjoy
u cant help but get addicted to it.....
Originally Posted by -Kuro-
I don't understand all of the hype surrounding it.
Some, if not many, would say the same about the ho' in your sig and avatar.
Yes, Catchy catchy song and hella fun to dance it with your friends haha
the actual song... hell no
the music video... meh
yes, and the video is full of win
Is it bad that i know the whole dance off by heart and am arranging a flash dance at my school in the lunch hall?
Im pretty good at it too ^w^
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