Murals Plus

It has been some time since I have written on What’s Gotta Go. My lack of compositional volume is not for a lack of things to gripe about, trust me! I thought I would write a little catch-up and insight as to the status of things.

A bit over a year ago I started up WGG as an experiment on several levels. First, I wanted to try out WordPress as blog software. Second, I thought it would be interesting to see how well placed a blog like this could get ranked in Google, as a site, and on various topics. Third, I thought it would be fun to rant about some common things people (meaning almost all of us) do that get on the nerves of others around of us. These rants were intended to be in good humor, and often tongue firmly in cheek.

Over time I wrote, along with some guest posts, over 250 articles Not too shabby for a non-writer as myself. One of the things I most enjoyed was just attempting to get improve my writing skills; whether I accomplished that or not is, of course, a matter of opinion. Rants have covered a wide variety of topics, some more popular than others. I have steered away from truly controversial topics, though at times my rants were a little more serious than my original intention.

At this point, I have accomplished many of the goals I set out to do, and the last few months have seen a hiatus from writing. I considered at times taking down the site as I had lost interest in writing rants and instead have spent most of my time posting samples of my hobby and real interest photography.

So what has kept this site alive? The daily readership. I have been continually amazed at how certain topics continue to rank well in search engines, particularly Google. My most trafficked articles continue to be on the topics of Saggin’ Pants and Chewing With Your Mouth Open which apparently rank high on people’s list of pet peeves. These peeves must rank high if people are not only taking the time to search on Google to read about it, perhaps in search of a way to tactfully help the offending party, but many have taken the time to comment on their opinion as well.

Also popular are my articles about Mandatory Tipping and how Throwing Out Cigarette Butts IS Littering; again, two of my person favorites along with the two previously mentioned.

With this in mind, I have kept WGG alive for, if nothing else, the enjoyment of those that stop by. Lately, I have thought of writing an article every so often to as things cross my mind, but haven’t followed through on them. I think perhaps I will try to act on the impulse a little more and get some content going again. Not necessarily with any regularity, and definitely not daily, but more than lately. Fair enough?

So keep that RSS feed subscription active, and as always, feel free to share this site with others and to suggest your ideas for rants!

Catherine / January 3, 2019 / Highlights, Highlights, Shopping, Zuki

Say Goodbye To Sleepless Nights With A Portable Hammock

Hammocks are a great accessory to add to your garden or your home. These days there are a variety of hammock stands and portable hammocks available in the market that make it easy for you to carry your hammock with you when you’re on a trip. If you’re not used to sleeping in someone else’s bed, these 2 person hammock can provide you with amazing relief while you’re away from home. Since they are portable, they are lightweight and very easy to move around with. Setting up a portable hammock is very easy and it only takes a few minutes.

One of the biggest problems that people face every night is the inability to sleep instantly. There is always some tossing and turning that happens making it extremely uncomfortable for others as well. More often than not the tossing and turning is due to the mattress not being comfortable. However with a hammock this problem never occurs. A hammock works exactly like a cradle. There is a soft rocking motion that soothes the brain and makes the body relax. Once the body gets into a relaxed state it is extremely easy to fall asleep instantly.

There is no more tossing and turning that will happen. Another huge advantage of a hammock the comfort level it provides the back and the neck. With a hammock the back pain problem is taken care of with no extra medication and no expensive equipment as well. There are many people who invest in an orthopedic pillow and mattress to take care of their back and neck problems. However with a hammock this pain can go away instantly and they can save a lot of money as well. Start sleeping on a hammock today itself.

These hammocks are long lasting and you won’t need to worry about buying a new one for a long time after you’ve invested in it. They work well in all sorts of climates and it is not tough to set it up. People who hate sleeping at ground level will find a hammock a lot more comforting. Hammocks also provide a soft swinging motion which eases you into sleeping. People who sleep in hammock have confessed to sleep a lot better in comparison to those who slept in a sleeping bed. Hammocks are very comfortable and apart from acting as a bed at night, you can also relax on it during the day.

One of the biggest advantages of hammocks is that it solves the persistent back and neck problems that you get when sleeping on a regular mattress. If you have a new mattress at home and it does not agree with your sleeping posture there is no chance you could go and return it at the store. However with a hammock you can test out as many as you want before getting the best one that suits you. Hammocks stretch out the entire back and neck making it extremely comfortable to sleep.

Catherine / December 29, 2018 / News, Zuki

Hong Kong protests offer gold some support

Precious metals prices continued lower early on Monday in Europe but at a slower pace than in recent weeks, with pro-Democracy protests in Hong Kong providing a boost to safe-haven buying.

Violent clashes between protestors and the police were reported in Hong Kong over the weekend and this morning, with tear gas and water cannons being used to disperse huge crowds blocking access to the financial district.

Having traded as low as $1,215.30 at one point this morning, spot gold managed to make back some of the losses and was last a modest 60 cents above Friday’s closing level at $1,219.40/1,220.20 per ounce.

GOLD 2

The pattern was repeated in silver, which dipped as low as $17.47 before recovering to $17.54/17.59 per ounce, down eight cents.

“The precious metals remain vulnerable but gold prices are moving sideways in choppy trading, which suggests both underlying buying and overhead selling,” FastMarkets analyst William Adams said. “The same is true for silver, while the PGMs are still looking for support, which we feel will be found soon given the fundamentals. Any turnaround in the dollar is also likely to prompt some buying interest.”

The dollar again made gains against the euro. It was last at 1.2671 against the single currency, up a tenth of a cent.

Last Friday, global risk appetite was bolstered by the revision in second-quarter US GDP growth to 4.6 percent, its strongest pace since the fourth quarter of 2011.

In a speech, Dallas Federal Reserve president and FOMC member Richard Fisher warned that the central bank must not “fall behind the curve” and urged caution that “we could suddenly get a patch of high growth, see some wage-price inflation, and that is when you start to worry”.

The data helped US stocks indices climb 0.85-1.05 percent and raised expectations that the US central bank will bring forward an increase in interest rates and lift them further and faster than previously expected.

Macroeconomic data and the European Central Bank will be key focuses by investors later this week. The ECB policy decision this Thursday comes after last week’s downbeat testimony from ECB president Mario Draghi to the EU parliament and the recent string of weaker-than-expected euro-zone economic data.

The lacklustre outlook for the eurozone as well the region’s stuttering economy has led many to speculate that the ECB could deliver more stimulus measures this week.

This morning, the Spanish flash CPI came in above forecast at -0.2 percent, while the PCE price index, person spending, personal income and pending home sales are scheduled from the US later.

GOLD 2

Towards the end of the week, US non-farm payrolls for September will be keenly watched as well. Markets expect 216,000 jobs to have been created this month while the national unemployment level is expected to be unchanged at 6.1 percent, according to forecasts.

So the macroeconomic environment looks to be negative gold, although the metal may find modest support during the seasonally strong period for physical demand.

As well, Chinese markets will close for the Golden Week holiday from October 1.

The platinum group metals followed in gold’s footsteps. Platinum was last up $4 at $1,301/1,306 per ounce, having slipped to $1,296 earlier, while palladium was up $4 at $782/788.

Catherine / December 27, 2018 / News, Zuki

China gold demand picking up again?

GOLD 2 One of the depressing factors with regard to the gold price so far this year has been the reported fall-off in Chinese gold demand, although by world standards it remains pretty healthy. But there are now signs that it is beginning to pick up again. While the full year total is still not expected to match the record 2013 level a recent pick-up in withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) suggests the lower prices may be beginning to stimulate demand again.

Koos Jansen, who is almost certainly the most consistent analyst and follower of Chinese gold demand data, has noted the pick-up and points out on www.bullionstar.com that the latest published weekly gold withdrawals from the SGE for the last two weeks in August have been 46 tonnes and 42 tonnes respectively. This is a significant jump from earlier levels and suggests the beginning of a healthy return to purchases as the final four months of the year approach.

GOLD 2 The SGE figures may be the only reliable indicator out there of the true picture of Chinese demand now that Hong Kong is not the only significant entry point for gold into mainland China. Western analysts had mostly followed the regularly published Hong Kong net export figures to the Chinese mainland as a proxy for total Chinese gold demand, but these have dropped off enormously this year as it is believed that other entry points for gold into the nation are becoming more and more significant, and the figures for gold movement through these are not published by the Chinese government. Whether or not this is a deliberate attempt by the Chinese to make life more difficult for those trying to make sense of the country’s gold import data, or an unintended consequence of the widening of import channels, is uncertain. However it perhaps leaves the SGE as the only source of consistent data and the fact that this data is still published weekly does suggest the broadening of the gold import channels may perhaps not be a deliberate move to muddy the waters on overall gold demand assessment by outsiders!

So, in the year to August 29th Jansen notes that the SGE has reported gold withdrawals from the exchange – which GOLD 2 he equates to total Chinese wholesale gold demand for the period – as amounting to 1251 tonnes. This is a fall of 17% from the same time last year which tallies pretty well with assumed Chinese demand fall-off, but is not nearly as big a fall as many mainstream media reports, drawing on the Hong Kong figures alone, seem to imply. And if these latest weekly SGE withdrawal figures are maintained for the rest of the year – traditionally a strong period for Chinese gold purchases – then although total China demand for the full year is indeed likely to remain lower than a year ago, the fall-off may end up as even less significant than the 17% drop seen so far. Chinese gold demand has thus not ‘collapsed’ as a total reliance on the Hong Kong net figures might suggest, but remains pretty healthy, albeit at a slightly lower level than a year ago.

Catherine / December 25, 2018 / Travels, Zuki

NEW ZEALAND – All about the beautiful country!

New Zealand is one of the most beautiful exotic countries. Its astonishing sceneries, with volcanoes, lakes, large forests and wildlife, attract each year waves of visitors. Not only tourists seem fond of New Zealand. The producers for Lord of the Rings picked New Zealand as Middle Earth. Furthermore, the country’s Maori population has inhibited the islands since 1200 AD. Their traditions, lifestyle and beliefs have survived for centuries.

New Zealand earned the rank of the freest country in the world and you can clearly see that among the locals. They are non-judgmental and lack hierarchies. While the preservation of culture and community events are important, what one does as an individual counts more in their eyes. They respect others’ privacy and expect the favor to be returned. In Maori etiquette, songs play an important role, so don’t be surprised when people start singing on the streets. New Zealand is the only place where Kiwi means: firstly, a New Zealand inhabitant; secondly, the national bird; and thirdly (with a “maybe” in front) the kiwifruit. For an unknown reason, kiwifruits received the nickname of Chinese Gooseberries.

New Zealand is the paradise for art aficionados. Despite cannibalism and polygamy being regarded as primitive Maori habits, the group gained recognition for its artistic inclinations. The artists would tattoo a person’s face with a chisel (right now they use modern technique). Art for Maori never served a practical purpose, but a form of expressing their concerns and their spirituality. Add on your itinerary One Tree Hill, Tongariro National Park, Rotorua, Goat Island, Cape Road and Kaitaia. For more urban attractions, go to Auckland’s Sky Tower or The Beehive in Wellington. Don’t miss the fjords and glaciers. New Zealand is a popular sailing spot, so you should try to explore the nature from the comfort of a boat.

Catherine / December 23, 2018 / Travels, Zuki

AUSTRALIA – Land of Kangaroos

Australia is more than kangaroos, koalas, desert and hot weather. It’s one of the most civilized countries, ranging even higher than the US in terms of individual and financial freedom. Plan a trip to Australia if you’re interested in Aborigine cultures, the country has one of the oldest ones. Relatively isolated from the other countries, Australia has its own distinctive culture, different from the British or the other Anglo-Saxon ones.

Many great sportsmen were Aussies. However, most of the foreigners know Australia for its convicts since Britain used the territory to send off his felons. Due to the wildlife in the area (and the adventures of Steve Irwin), people’s perception about the country is unbelievably inaccurate: they think of kangaroo riders, savages, and a vast portion of unoccupied land. Wrong! Australia has amazing cities, such as Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane. It has 7 universities in the Global Top 100. Australians love sports and it has not 1, not 2, but 3 Frisbee teams.

Drinking is embedded within the culture. Bob Hawkes beat the World Record by drinking about 1.5 liters of beer in 11 seconds. Later, he became Australia’s Prime Minister. Bet you taught the Great Chinese Wall was the longest one. Wrong again. The Dingo fence in Australia is longer. Many of these curious facts determined a strong self-deprecating nuance in Australian humor. Most of their jokes mock either Australia or the US. People tend to have a positive attitude and they’re friendly, informal and don’t care much about manners. Most common invitation you’ll get will involve a barbecue. You are supposed to bring wine or beer, as in many other situations. Tipping service workers also includes giving them alcohol.

The most famous tourist attractions are the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney’s Opera House. Its beaches are great for surf. Actually, surfers were the ones to bring UGGs in the Western World. For amazing landscapes, visit the Ayers Rock in Uluru National Park, Kakadu, Purnululu with its Bungle Bungles, the Blue Mountains or the Kangaroo Island. Emus, echidnas or wombats live in the many ecosystems of Australia. Port Arthur, Ballarat and the War Memorial in Perth are a good start if you want to learn some history. The famous desert regions are called Outback. Don’t miss Sydney’s Harbour Bridge or Melbourne’s Block Arcade.

Catherine / December 22, 2018 / Travels, Zuki

Best Golf Travel Bags

What makes a great golf travel bag? Of all the points to consider when looking for a bag to protect your favorite golf gear on the road to St. Andrews or Pebble beach or wherever your golf game may take you this year, the two most important are probably price and protection. Beyond these two, there is quite an assortment of bags on the market that will likely meet your needs.

Protection

The first decision for you to make is hard or soft shell? Hard shell cases do offer the most protection for your valuable golf clubs, but there are a few significant strikes against them to think of as well. First, they tend to be significantly more expensive than most soft shell bags. Also, they tend to be much heavier than your average soft bag and they have no give at all when attempting to fit them into limited spaces like rental car trunks.

That said, there are many very high quality soft sided bags on the market that offer great protection to your clubs, fit massive volumes of gear and add very little weight to your luggage. Some companies are even offering very attractive guarantees against damage. The Izzo Golf Club Protection Guarantee in 2009, for instance, claims that if any club is damaged while traveling by airplane, they will re-shaft your club at no charge.

Cost

Price varies widely on golf travel bags, even among the soft shell varieties. You should expect to pay somewhere between $70 and $320 to protect your bag. To some extent, it is a “you get what you pay for” proposition. The higher the price, the more protection is built into the bag. However, once you get over the $170 range, you start paying for size and capacity. So don’t buy the most expensive model if you’re not carrying a tour pro’s staff bag.

Size. Weight. Convenience.

The best bit of advice on size is to make sure your travel bag or cover fits your golf bag and clubs closely. A small golf bag inside a large travel bag will bounce around and offer much less protection than for the clubs it was designed for. Most of the soft cover bags have heavy-duty padding around the club heads, but are still made of lightweight material for your convenience in getting around the airport and other places. Look for a bag that has several handles along the sides of the bag for easy handling. A set of wheels is also a great convenience and easier on your back and shoulders. You do want to be in good shape when you tee off.

Wear and Tear

When it comes to soft sided luggage, make sure you choose something made of durable material. Most are made of some variation of nylon and may or may not be waterproof. Take a look at the seams and make sure they are all stitched solidly and won’t come apart easily. Once you’re confident of that, pick your bag and enjoy your travels.

Some of the Best

A few of the best and most popular golf travel bags out there by brand are:
ClubGlove
Izzo
Ogio
Bag Boy
Callaway
Datrek

Catherine / December 21, 2018 / Review, Travels, Zuki

Cristoforo Colombo Rome Hotel Review

For those travelers looking for an affordable hotel right in the commercial center of Rome, the Cristoforo Columbo Hotel is a good choice. The lower rate of the Cristoforo Columbo somewhat offsets the fact that the hotel lacks a great many of the amenities provided by larger in-town hotels. The Cristoforo Columbo provides guests with the opportunity to enjoy the historical sites of the city while remaining outside the primary tourist zones where prices are significantly higher.

Wows and Woes

The hotel staff can help guests find their way into the tourist zones using the city’s bus system. They’re happy to draw maps or direct customers to the nearest bus station. While the hotel caters primarily to guests who have their own cars, the local buses are still far and away the most efficient way to get into the city to see the sites. The nearest bus stop is less than one-quarter mile away from the hotel, and the nearby tobacco stand is the ideal place to purchase your bus tickets. Guests can walk to a shopping center near the hotel in just in a few minutes. Small meals are offered at the hotel’s on-site restaurant, although the options are limited to basic pasta and meat dishes.

Insider Tips

The hotel offers guests breakfast before they leave in the morning to head into town. While the hotel doesn’t provide full meals for breakfast, they do provide basic cereals and breakfast meat. Cured meats, such as prosciutto, are the extent of the breakfast meat selection. There isn’t any cooked food for breakfast, but there is something for everyone, including vegetarians. The hotel has a small bar by the pool, but the pool is not very big, and more than just a few guests make it feel overcrowded. Unfortunately for those who like being right in the center of things, the hotel is nearly an hour by bus from any of the major Roman sites.

Bottom Line

For guests that don’t mind sacrificing convenience to save money, the Cristoforo Columbo Hotel is a great value. While the hotel offers limited amenities, the rooms are immaculately clean and the hotel provides the basic necessities. The Cristoforo Columbo Hotel is a very basic hotel, great for guests who are looking for little more than a roof over their heads after a long day of sightseeing. While the amenities at the Christoforo Columbo Hotel leave much to be desired, the hotel is well-kept and the staff is always willing to go out of their way to make sure guests enjoy their stay.

Catherine / December 19, 2018 / Technology, Zuki

QR Codes Aren’t Sweet Without Strategy

QR codes represent a unique mix of technology and advertising that is steadily improving with evolving new forms and functions. But their functional improvement is meaningless if the platform is not applied with the right strategy and tactics in the real world in order to connect with consumers.

Most people within the marketing community are no strangers to seeing QR codes attached to advertisements and products these days. Even many tech-savvy consumers know how to create QR codes for promotion or information sharing, which is the beauty of their open platform design. Anyone can use them, read them, and get creative.

QR codes have created a new way for brands to engage their audience with products and services, and there are already quite a few examples of ways that “traditional” QR codes are getting pushed further, including the logo-friendly Snap-tag. Snap-tags are a gussied up version of the mobile interactive code options. Instead of the static-like appearance of QR codes, they’ve created a sleeker option that focuses more on branding with a cleaner code look based on gaps placed throughout a ring. Digimarc, another QR code boundary pusher, takes the cake by attempting to create mobile interaction with everything from an image to sounds.

Clearly, this mix of technology and advertising is steadily improving with new forms and functions constantly. That being said, functional improvement is meaningless if the platform is not applied with the right strategy and tactics in the real world.

I recently found myself standing in the Philadelphia subway and spotted a QR code on a candy advertisement across the rails. At the safest distance, without dangling myself out in front of a pending train, the closest I could get to the QR code was about 12 feet. The QR code took up a small portion of the lower left corner of the ad, and when zoomed in on became blurred. When I got back above ground, the decoder application was incapable of deciphering it. This brought another issue to my attention, if I hadn’t already known what a QR code was and installed a reader application, how would I even know that it failed or received additional information if it had been successful? Quite frankly, how much time are we anticipating the average commuter will put into interacting with that advertisement?

It’s quite easy to see how far down the rabbit hole you can go. Depending upon the platform, there are different applications for your mobile device. What if you can recognize the symbol itself as something you should be able to interact with but don’t know how? Are the creators anticipating that brands will use valuable ad space they could be using for brand recognition to explain to their potential customers what the symbol is and how to use it? Is multichannel marketing turning into something everyone feels they must do on every form of advertising, for every product, every time?

All of these questions boil down to an engagement and demographic stew. If your product’s target demographic isn’t within the range of those who are always at the ready to find out what’s on the other side of that symbol, you should be reaching out to them in creative ways that they respond to, not simply attaching every button and symbol you can to each campaign. It won’t be long before your once full of impact campaign is doing nothing but help further other companies and gadgets for free on half of your advertisement.

The end result of this subway advertisement experience should be people stopping on their way home to pick up a candy bar and indulge. There is very little commitment beyond just that. If the product is great they’ll be back. If it’s not a hit with the consumer, there is very little that tweets, posts, and fun codes can do.

I’ll continue to wonder what’s on the other side of that QR code, which I’d prefer to come across on the actual candy bar. Maybe I’ll have to stop on the way home to pick one up…in which case the QR code inadvertently succeeded.

Catherine / December 18, 2018 / Technology, Zuki

Twitter Verification Implications for Brand Marketers

With recent news that Twitter’s verification process has become linked to monthly advertising, there has been conversation and debate about blurry lines in the sand. What does this change mean for your brand or company on Twitter? Is verification critical to your Twitter strategy?

Twitter verified accounts are used to denote the authenticity of certain pages on Twitter. The verified badge helps users identify that a legitimate source is authoring the account’s Tweets (or at least officially ghost-tweeting on behalf of a legitimate source).

Beginning primarily with the rise of celebrities’/politician’s use of Twitter, verified accounts then spread to other categories such as news outlets, companies and more. Confirmation that the account is being run by who it says it is.

Digital Trends recently reported (highlighted? exposed? uncovered?) that the verification process is tied to a monthly advertising fee. While this policy and the manner of its implementation are stirring up some debate, what does this mean for your brand?

I doubt that Twitter is going to make The White House account, or a celebrity like Kim Kardashian, pay $5,000/month…they create a draw for others to use Twitter. But for companies and brands on Twitter? That now seems to be another story.

A verified account may not be necessary for every business, but if your company feels it’s important to have verification, yet doesn’t have the budget for that monthly charge, the best things we recommend you can do is:

Update your posts often
Stay consistent with messaging
Interact with your followers regularly
Monitor your name and keywords, both in account names and in post messages (You should be doing this anyway, whether you run a Twitter page or not)

By making sure that your social media efforts are forging connections and conversations with your audience, the verification will be inherent with or without a check-mark badge. Otherwise your brand is at risk of having someone literally take over how others perceive your Twitter presence.

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