Information News

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How To Find The Right DJ - The Truth About the Electronic Monitoring Bracelet  -  Hiring a DJ in MA, FYI  -  What's Your Favorite Restaurant  -  Getting Married, What You Should Know  -  How to Stop Excessive Sweat  -  Best Prices on Party Supplies  -The Right Travel Agency  -  This Day In History

Disc Jockey's are a dime a dozen these days, so how do you know if you've found the right one for your special event?  It's good to ask questions up front when interviewing DJ's over the phone so that you can choose the right one for you.  One good question to ask is if they have received any awards or accomodations as a disc jockey.  While there are many sites out there like http://www.gigmasters.com/ that allow you to look through multiple DJ's in one stop, still be sure to ask the DJ's any questions you may have in advance.

I've receintly witnessed A True Family Affair DJ Service in action at a friends wedding.  They service MA, NH and ME, and provided a real top quality service.  Check out their site at http://www.atruefamilyaffair.com.

While doing my research, I did find one web site in Massachusetts (http://www.mavendorvote.com/) that allows clients to vote for their favorite mobile DJ's as well as event photographers.  You can find out each year which DJ received the most votes. 

Whatever your event, ask lots of questions.  It's good to write them down before you start your search.

There has been a lot about the electronic monitoring of sex offenders in the news lately, so I decided to dig and find out the truth about these bracelets.  Do they work?  Is our system just in how we decide who should wear them?  You might just be suprised by what I found.

In Massachusetts, if you pee in public (behind a bush, on a wall, etc) and are caught and convicted, you will have to register as a sex offender, and wear an electric monitoring bracelet.  That's right, someone who does something stupid and gross in some ways is treated the same as a level 3 sex offender.  (For those that don't know, a level 3 sex offender is the one considered at highest risk for offending again.  They are violent offenders.)  The bracelet is mandatory for all convicted of a sex crime, including peeing on a wall.  That tells me right away that there is a flaw in our system.

Right now the legislation does not consider the monitoring bracelet a punishment, and therefore all convicted of a sex crime (including peeing in the bushes) must wear the bracelet.  What they don't tell the public is the cost and restrictions.  First the cost.  The cost to the person wearing the bracelet is $290 a month maintenance fee.  Then you are required to hook up an additional phone line so that you can plug the base in.  (Another $20 a month from the phone company plus the initial installation fee of around $120.)  You cannot use an existing line because the line has to be stripped.  You can not have call waiting, caller ID, internet, or even an answering machine hooked up to this line.  If the bracelet is damaged, there is a $895 replacement fee.  If the base is damaged (part of the base must be carried with the offender at all times) the offender has to pay $1000 to replace.

The person wearing the bracelet has to be home at a time set by the courts for a minimum of six hours straight at least once within any 24 hour period.  For someone that may have done something stupid one time, and works two or three jobs to support his/her family, this is a problem.  If the person wearing the bracelet works an 8 hour shift, are home for 5 and then work another 5 hour shift, they will no longer be able to do it.  Even though they will be home for more than 6 hours in a day, they are required 6 hours straight.  So if you work multiple jobs, forget it.  You'll have to quit one of your jobs no matter what that does to family finances.  It doesn't matter if you can pay your rent or not.

Vacation?  Nope!  No one wearing a bracelet can go on vacation.  Not even an overnight visiting relatives.  For the level 3 sex offender, that's fine with me.  But for the level 1, the one peeing in public?  I think this is excessive.

In most cases the bracelet is passively monitored.  That means that they don't pay attention to where the person is, but rather where they've been once they've gone home and plugged back in.  This of course means that it doesn't prevent anyone wearing the bracelet from sitting outside a grade school, or in a park.  It just means that later on that person will get in trouble.  It doesn't protect our kids.

Anytime they want, they can send off an alarm that requires the person to call in.  Even though they're home and plugged in, they can sound the alarm at 2 AM just for the fun of it.  They do this at least twice a week.  They do this for "maintenance reasons", and most of the time require the person to take the base unit off the charger for 10 minutes, and then replace it.

Don't get me wrong, I believe some people should have to incur the costs and wear the bracelet.  Should it be mandatory for everyone convicted of a sex crime?  My answer is NO.  It is excessive, and there is no way you can't call it a punishment.  People who have done something stupid and minor like peeing in the bushes should not be forced to incur the costs of this system and the punishment it entails.  Sentencing someone to wear the bracelet should be done on a case by case basis.

There's a web site out there called www.MAVendorVote.com.  I've featured it here before.  It's designed so that customers can vote for their favorite DJ's or Photographers from their weddings.  Sounds simple right?  Well it's supposed to be.

I noticed when I went to check on updates on their site, that they had removed a notice that had been on there before.  It was about 2 DJ's banned from getting votes on the site, due to multiple false votes (more than 40 votes between the two in less than two hours).

I decided to contact the owner of MA Vendor Vote and find out why he removed it.  After all, I'd want to know if there was a dishonest DJ out there before I go to hire someone.  Well, after talking to Mark (owner of MA Vendor Vote) it seems that Mr. Cote (one of the DJ's from Locomotion DJ's) sent several threatening notes to Mark, all in one day.  Apparently he threatened to sue Mark for posting the information on his site.  The subsequent contacts from Mr. Cote all involved vulgar language, and essentially hate mail.

Now, Mark took down the information from his site, since his intentions weren't to end up getting hate mail, but instead to let people honestly vote for their favorite wedding vendors.  Not to vote for themselves.

I told Mark that he should have kept it on the site.  He won't put it back up though.  However, I'm not afraid of Mr. Cote, or the other DJ from the same company that gave themselves false votes.

DJ's are a dime a dozen, and now because of the behavior of Mr. Cote, he is giving the Locomotion DJ's company a bad name.

I found this great new site.  The site started in January of 2009.  It's a site dedicated to the great restaurants across the country.  You actually get the opportunity to submit your favorite gem of a restaurant, and tell why it's your favorite.  You've really got to check this site out.  Visit them at www.hiddenrestaurantgems.com and find the kind of restaurant you're looking for, or submit your own favorite.

For more information, visit http://www.yourweddingpassion.com/

Do you suffer from excessive sweat?  How about solving the problem once and for all.

“Stabilize Your Over-Sweating In as Little as 9 Days!”

There are so many party supply companies out there, how do you know if one is better than another, who has the best prices, or best customer service?  After searching the web, we have come across a company that beats out the rest.  This company is ever changing with new items being added almost daily.  Visit http://www.jbpartysupplies.com/ and look around.  We think you'll be happy with what you see.

Another site with equal kinds of supplies is http://www.orientaltrading.com/.

Do you like to travel?  Have you noticed that travel agencies have become fewer over the last 10 years?  While many people have gone to booking their trips over the internet, travel agencies still play a major roll for many others.  If you'd like the added convenience of knowing that you can call someone to fix any travel issues, especially those last minute, then you might want to consider using a travel agency. 

The advantages of using travel agencies are too numerous to list here.  However, when you look for a travel agency, how do you know you've found a good agency.  One that will treat you fair, as if you are their only customer.  After much research on this topic and interviewing hundreds of travel agencies, as well as going through countless pages of comments from travel customers like yourself, there is one place that stands out from the crowd.

This is actually a fairly small office located out of Marblehead, MA.  They have clients from all over the US and Canada.  No matter how much research I've done, I cannot find one blemish on their record.  Each and every customer is treated like they are the only customer.  I have found each person in the office to be very knowledgable about just about every location you would want to vacation.

You can visit their website at www.flagshiptravelinc.com.

If you have suggestions of topics you'd like to see on this site, drop us an email at; funsmilefree@yahoo.com.