Why? Well, now they know you are definitely an expert and they will feel comfortable with you handing their needs.

Yesterday I was reading an article on the history of Olympic television coverage. As some might know, the 1932 Olympics was the first television program to ever be broadcast using satellites. It wasn’t until the 1960’s when United States viewers started getting live coverage of the games. In the 1990’s, CBS started using additional cable outlet’s to give viewers more viewing opportunities for their winter Olympic broadcasts. Then in 2004, NBC took the next step and expended their coverage even more with 24 hour-a-day coverage on their family of cable networks. Now, in 2010, coverage has again expanded thanks to high speed satellite internet as many of the events are now being streamed live on the internet.

For the Olympics, this seemed like the next logical step. For as much as the Olympic movement is steeped in tradition and aren’t as open to change as some might want it to be, they do love to update technologically. The Olympics is big money and the IOC makes a lot of it selling broadcasting rights for their games. While NBC, the primary broadcaster for the games and the exclusive US broadcaster, utilizes highlights on their NBCOlympics.com website, they keep their live broadcasting for their afternoon and prime time coverage, which gets big numbers for their advertisers. For Olympic lovers it has always been a complaint that they rarely get to see full coverage of events. NBC focuses almost exclusively on US competitors and usually focus on just their performances.

While NBC is slowly learning how to utilize the internet for their coverage, other broadcasters, have fully embraced internet broadcast for the Olympics. CTV, the Canadian broadcaster for the Vancouver games, are broadcasting all events live on their website. Unfortunately for US viewers online, the coverage is blacked out for anyone on this side of the boarder (that is NBC’s doing). The same goes for the European coverage. The European Union broadcaster allows views in EU countries to watch most events live online, though they are not available for viewing in the US.

Next year, the International Olympic Committee will take bids on which United States network will provide coverage of the summer and winter Olympic Games beginning in 2014. NBC, FOX and an joint ABC/ ESPN bid are all in the running to broadcast the next four Olympic games with the winning network paying over a billion dollars for the privilege. Whether or not the next broadcaster will incorporate internet coverage into their package is yet to be seen, but chances are as the net becomes more relevant in live broadcasts, we will see more live streaming Olympic coverage in the United States.

Author Kimberly Green gets her high speed satellite internet service from todocast.tv

For the last four days I’ve done nothing but watch the Olympics. Day and night, the Olympics have dominated the television in my house. Get together’s have been canceled, dinners have been rearranged and my DVR has been cleaned out for the events that I miss. There is just something about the pageantry of it, and, more impressively for me, the entire massiveness of it. Just the commercial lighting that has to be utilized to light over a dozen venues for the fans is amazing. I know, I know, here are Olympic athletes giving there all for the chance at gold and I’m focusing on something as small as the “lighting”, but if you think about it its small stuff like this that has to be meticulously considered to put these games on.

Imagine that it’s your job to figure out how to light a venue at the Olympics. Sounds easy enough, but for anyone who has had to work on commercial lighting before (and I have, maybe that’s where this interest comes from) knows that there is a lot to consider when lighting something as important as an Olympic venue. Take, for example, the Richmond Olympic Oval, home of the Speed Skating events for the games. Whenever you’re dealing with ice you have to be careful with the lights you use. If it’s too bright or put at the wrong angle you could be dealing with massive glare off the ice. The trick is, though, you have to be able to light the venue for television while being considerate of the skaters. How do you do this? I don’t really know, I guess that’s why they are professionals and I’m just a blogger.

The Opening Ceremonies of the games was one of the most amazing lighting jobs I’ve ever seen. The director of the ceremonies (who has previously directed the Opening Ceremonies for the Sydney games in 2000) used over 70 projectors to create stunning visual moments that helped bring people an up-close look at Canadian Culture. One of the most striking moments were a pod of projected orca whales moving across the stadium floor. In all, by using the projection lighting, the director was able to make a lot out of a little. Very rarely were live props used, but instead by using the lighting projected onto white objects it looked as it the arena was covered in water or leaves or snow. It was definitely a sight to behold.

Author Kimberly Green recommends accessdiscounts.com for the best in commercial lighting and more!

While men’s rings are big business, there is one ring that most boys grow up dreaming about possessing at some point: a championship ring. Championship rings mean that you are at the pinnacle of your sport. May it be baseball, basketball, football or hockey, championships are what the business is all about.

Whether or not you let championships define you more often has to do with how your career goes. If you’ve won them you wouldn’t change them in for anything. If you haven’t, hey, you would have liked one but you were a great overall player. Two of the most famous all-time great players to never win a championship in their sport were football quarterback Dan Marino and baseball shortstop Ernie Banks. Marino’s Miami Dolphins made the Super Bowl his first season, then lost and never made it back. Although he held many records at the end of his career, he is known as the greatest quarterback to never win a Super Bowl.

History judges Ernie Banks a bit kinder. A Hall of Fame shortstop for the Chicago Cubs in the 60’s, Banks played on some notoriously bad (and some say cursed) Cubs teams which famously didn’t win a playoff series for around a century. Because of this (and the fact that he’s so likeable) Banks usually gets a pass and continues to be one of the most beloved players in Cubs history.

Going to the other side of the spectrum, winning multiple championships takes not only skill but longevity. While hundreds of players have won multiple championships, three stand above everyone else. Of those three, two players lead with eleven championships each: basketball’s Bill Russell and hockey’s Henri Richard. Both players were key factors in two of the biggest dynasties in sports history. Playing forward for the Boston Celtics, Russell won his eleven championships in just thirteen seasons including eight straight titles from 1959-1966. Similarly, Richard’s Montreal Canadian’s were the dominate team of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s winning his eleven cups in eighteen seasons.

In baseball, beloved catcher of the dominate 50’s and 60’s Yankees dynasty, Yogi Berra, holds the record with ten rings. Berra won his ten championships between 1947 thru 1962, helping to anchor a team full of such Hall of Famers as Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford.

While children may dream of winning a championship someday in their favorite sport, few could imagine winning enough to fill each finger on both hands. It’s one thing to be on a team that wins, it’s a whole other thing to be on eleven of them. These truly are the greatest.

Author Kimberly Green recommends titanium-jewelry.com for an excellent quality men’s rings and other exquisite jewelry.

Professional clogs? When you read that, what immediately comes into your head? For me, when I first heard that phrase I automatically thought that they were a line of clogs for clogging competitions in Holland. There has to be some type of professional clogging league in Europe, right? I mean, I have no idea how they score it, but I’m sure they have some type of expensive clogs they buy from suppliers that give them superior clogging ability, right (I know, I know, I’m saying clogs a lot)?

Anyway, I completely digress. To my surprise professional clogs does not have anything to do with dancing, but instead have to do with the medical field. You see, may they be doctors or nurses, people in the medical field love wearing professional clogs. Why? Well, not only are they comfortable for professionals who are on their feet all day, but they are also breathable while being stain resistant. Most clogs can be cleaned with either a cloth or a little spot of water. This is absolutely paramount for a doctor. There is a lot of fluid that a doctor comes across throughout the day. The last thing you want is to have your shoes stain a day after buying them.

Looking at the description of professional clogs online, you notice that the makers do have comfort in mind as much as practability. According to several websites which sell them, a few of the highlighted features of the professional clogs includes: absorbent insoles, protective heel caps, reinforced padded insteps, a roomy toe box for increased comfort, a stabilizing PVC insert, a shock-absorbing flexible PU sole, and, very importantly for a doctor, a skid-resistant outsole. Other clogs may feature additional features and because professional clogs seem to run around $110-$120 it is a good idea to carefully study them all and take your investment rather seriously.

Style wise, the clogs come in a variety of practical designs and colors. For men such styles include both Professional Oil Clogs which come in red, brown and black and its cousin, the shinier, Professional Cabrio line which comes in black, red and blue. Women can also pick from the Carbria and Oil lines but also have the choice of some designer clogs featuring leopard print designs, snake skin patterns, flower patterns, zebra stripes and, yes, even a “brown cow” design. How could you not pass up the chance to wear a brown cow clog? Sounds like a winner to me.

Author Kimberly Green has worked in the medical field and absolutely feels professional clogs from Medelita.com are the best around!

What has Orange County, Ca. contributed to the entertainment landscape of the country? For most, Orange County is known as a place of riches and excess, full of beautiful Orange County jewelry and even more beautiful Orange County people. The reason for this idea? Television. While many residents might point out the many companies that call the OC home as well as industrial contributions and the many fine arts and cultural establishments that blankets the county, many people will never even consider any sort of sophistication because of what they have viewed on TV.

While many people might point to the FOX show “The OC” for showing Orange County as a place of self-centeredness and excess, I would like to point out that the show actually featured well rounded characters who all seemed to have their hearts in the right place. Sure, there were soap opera moments of sex and greed, but in the end I never found the show as anything more that people who had issues ultimately trying to do the right thing.

Now, if you want a show that really made Orange County residents look self centered, you can look no further then the MTV reality show Laguna Beach. Starring such luminaries as Lauren Conrad, Stephanie Pratt and Spencer Pratt (is it sad that I didn’t even have to look up their names, I just knew them off the top of my head *shudder*), “Laguna Beach” showed these “typical” Orange County residents doing what “most” Orange Countians spend their time doing such as going to the beach, buying stuff at Fashion Island (think Orange County’s Rodeo Drive), getting makeovers and spending a lot of time talking about stuff. A lot of time. I can’t stress how much time was spent talking. Anyway, while “The OC” made Orange County look glamorous, this show made the people look egotistical and stuck up. And while some are, it does not represent most people. If anything it did make people from The OC famous, not the actors but the residents. One of my friends from Orange County went to France and actually signed an autograph by someone who was star struck that she lived in the county. True story.

While the best show about Orange County still remains the brilliant “Arrested Development” (the show had so many inside jokes about Orange County it’s obvious someone really knew their county), reality shows have made big business shooting the OC. Shows like the Laguna Beach-sequel “The Hills” (in Laguna Hills) and “The Real Housewives of the OC” continue to show the rich side of the county. It may be entertaining, but don’t think that it’s anywhere near what people are really like there.

Author Advice:  Simply Google ‘Orange County Jewelry‘ to find the best of the best in the area!

When did wearing a lab coat make someone a sex symbol? I know your mother always wanted you to grow up and marry a doctor, but I never really grew up thinking that doctors were sex symbols. Lab coats are essentially work clothes developed to keep gross stuff off of a doctor. What’s sexy about someone who looks down people throats and has handwriting so terrible that you need some kind of amulet to decipher it.

Apparently, in the past twenty years things have changed. Thanks mostly in part to TV shows the idea of doctors as sex symbols has gained much traction. It probably started with General Hospital. For those of you who have never watched the show, General Hospital is a long running ABC soap opera where a bunch of beautiful people work in a hospital. Typical soap opera stuff occurs in droves: lots of sexy doctors with their shirts off, lots of casual hookups, etc.

The continuing popularity of soaps like General Hospital led to an explosion in prime time hospital dramas in the 1990s. Famously two hospital dramas premiered in the 1994-95 season. Chicago Hope and ER both featured sexy doctors in dramatic situations. It made sex symbols out of people like George Clooney and Noah Wyle and essentially set the stage for what was to come for doctors in prime time for decades to come. Of course, Chicago Hope only lasted a few season while ER lasted for 15 years and become one of the most beloved dramas in television history.

While ER might have kick started the “sexy” doctor genre, it was ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy which came to symbolize just how “sexy” a doctor in a lab coat could be. It was a show that featured just as many in hospital hookups as medical cases. They actors were so sexy, in fact, that they were given sexy nicknames like “McDreamy and “McSteamy”. The female doctors were not hacks either. Katherine Heigl became a big star thanks to the show as she seems to spend as much time in tight clothing as she does in doctor’s gear.

Of course Grey’s Anatomy has led to a slew of copy cats on television. Now each network has their Grey’s knockoff featuring sexy doctors hooking up and working on cool cases in random city hospitals. I don’t really watch any of them but I know the stars thanks to the buzz. Are they sexy? Sure. Is it an accurate portrayal of doctors? Not really. Do real doctors mind being thought at as sex symbols? I’m sure they don’t.

Author Kimberly Green used to work in the medical field. Back then, wearing a lab coat was not at all sexy!

I recently helped a friend move from an apartment to a house. In every group, there is always the “first” couple to make the leap from renting an apartment to owning a house. For our group of high school and college friends, this was the couple. I only mention this because helping someone move from an apartment to a house can be a much different experience then purely moving someone from one apartment to another.

The reason for this difference is because people who are moving into their first house tend to go a little bit crazy buying stuff in preparation for the new house. My male friend was pulling his hair out for a few weeks prior to the move because his wife was buying a variety of stuff for the new place. She even dropped money on a variety of baby clothes for a baby that wasn’t due for six months (she later said that it was done during a clearance sale and that in retrospect she wasn’t very proud of the purchase). What was so infuriating my male friend is that she was buying all of this stuff prior to the move which meant that all these new purchases had to be moved along with their already wide variety of belongings (they lived in a three bedroom apartment). It didn’t help that his parents also decided to buy them a new crib BEFORE their move.

There seems to be something that comes over people when they move into a larger dwelling. There is an automatic need to fill every single inch of the house even before it is even inhabited. I will freely admit that this seems to be a womanly impulse. Maybe it’s because women are much more interested in making their house a home then men are. Men are interested, but inherently they could live with a mattress on the floor and a mini-fridge and not bat a lash. Something seems to come over us when we find that we have extra room to fill. It’s happened to me before. But if you’re going to do it you should probably wait until you’ve moved before you purchase anything. That way you and your friends will be done moving in time for pizza at noon. That’s right, you have to provide pizza.

Author Kimberly Green was able to organize everything well with tubs prior to her move. This made things much easier. From moving toys to baby clothes, it was easy on everyone.

Valentines Day just passed and it appears that I might be the only one not currently on the personalized jewelry bandwagon. Ok, ok, I’m not the jewelry master that some of my friends are, but am I really that out of the loop that I have not yet started purchasing personalized jewelry? After this weekend, I realize that, well, maybe I am.

For those of you who aren’t aware of the “personalized jewelry” movement that seems to be sweeping the market, think of engravings on steroids. Personalized jewelry utilizes such features as engraved diamond and gold pendants added to necklaces and bracelets to make each piece unique. These pendants can feature anything from engraved names to diamond studded initials, to precious stone hearts. In all honesty, these are beautiful pieces and having a personalized piece of jewelry is something that would impress many women on a special occasion like Valentines Day.

Even though these “personalized” pieces are rather new on the market, they are becoming big business for jewelry companies. The internet is full of companies offering these personalized pendants and pieces. It is becoming such big business that they are becoming expected gifts by women for romantic milestones. My friend told me a rather, umm, ok, I found it sad, story about when she was opening gifts for Valentines Day. Her boyfriend surprised her with a homemade, romantic dinner. After some champagne and homemade cheesecake (wow, this guy is a keeper), the guy elaborately revealed a brand new diamond necklace. Now, my friend’s reaction to this: “oh, it’s not personalized”? She said that she didn’t mean it in a bad way and she was just thinking out loud. Still, the guy was understandably a bit upset, and apparently she made it up to him, but this shows women are beginning to expect their jewelry to be personalized.

So if you’re a guy at this point, you’re probably thinking what you should do to make sure your jewelry is properly “personalized”. The best thing to remember is to go with your special women’s taste when trying to personalize. Chances are if you’ve been with a woman for any sort of time you know what she likes. If she likes hearts go with hearts. If she likes diamonds try a diamond initial pendant which looks perfect on a gold necklace. If you go online and checkout what different jewelry sites have to offer I’m sure you’ll find exactly the type of personalized jewelry she wants.

Author Kimberly Green agrees, her husband can’t go wrong with personalized jewelry for any occasion!

As most of you are aware, both men’s jewelry and women’s jewelry are usually deeply personal and treasured pieces of one’s overall ensemble. Many pieces of a person’s jewelry collection has deeply personal meaning as they are collected thru special purchases  or from a significant other or through family hand-me-downs that passes antique jewelry thru generations.

For athletes, though, there is no better piece of jewelry that you can have in your possession than an Olympic medal. As the Olympics are in full swing, a whole new set of athletes are securing these sets of medals. Like jewelry, Olympic medals have become more stylish throughout the years. In the first Olympics games of the modern era in 1896, silver medals were given out to the winners. It wasn’t until later Olympics that the gold for first place, silver for second and bronze for third system was adapted.

Up until the 1990’s Olympic medals were usually rather benign. They were usually one color and printed with a symbol and the name of the Olympic city. It wasn’t until the 1992 Winter Olympics that this changed. The Albertville, France hosted games were known for quirky designs, and their glass infused medals were no different. In fact, the medals were more glass then precious medal. Athletes didn’t seem to mind as they were beautifully crafted and, hey, an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal.

The 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympic medals continued this quirkiness, and it wasn’t until 2008 until the usually more traditional Summer Olympics utilized foreign materials in the medals. The highly praised 2008 Beijing Olympic Medals utilized jade, which gave them both a modern and classical look. Since China spent billions of dollars trying to prefect everything about the games (at least on the surface), it’s no surprise that they provided some of the most beautiful medals in Olympic history. My guess would be that London, the host of the 2012 Olympics, presents medals that are more in line with the classical medals instead of using foreign material as the Chinese did.

More Olympic medal trivia to impress your friends: the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was the first to feature Olympic medals with holes in the center of them (they were circles and rather fetching). The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic medals are the first to be “wavy”. They feature engraved emblems of the sports for which the winners participated in and are struck nine times to get their wave feature. Trust me, they look better then you might think.

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