Tonight I am going to dinner with my fiance Michelle, a few friends and some family for my brother in-law Kevin’s 40th birthday. My sister mentioned we were going to Central Steakhouse in New Haven. I read some decent reviews on the place and will be giving my own when I get home or first thing in the morning. I have never done a review before but know I love some steak; medium rare is my choice for cooking.

From Yelp…

Carlene of Albany, NY

For the food, the price is generally around $25-30 per entree.  I had the NY Strip steak and it was very good.  My side of asparagus was super salty, so ask them to hold the seasoning if you’re sensitive to sodium.  Other than that, our salad, salad dressing, and the homemade bread were all delicious.

I want to see what the ambiance is supposedly like if I have to wear these dress pants and shoes.

UPDATE: Don’t have to dress up. My fiancee spent 2 days shopping and hours of getting ready for nothing. I am sure we are going to have fun. Later!!!

• Food:

• Ambiance:

• Service:

• Prices:

UPDATE!!!

To start I mentioned before leaving that I could wear jeans and sneakers I get there and everyone is in button downs with shoes. The man of the night had jeans and work boots on. I had nothing to think about.

I noticed right away we were in the wine cellar of the restaurant. Being from New Haven it was cool to know I was in a wine cellar in the center of the city. The lights were dimmed, candlelight flickering, appetizers didn’t stop and the Heinekens for myself and soda for my beautiful fiancee were there before we could ask. Being in the wine cellar it flowed throughout the time we were there. Service was good for what it was. The servers were very polite. I am a natural tipper. Nobody else tipped besides another brother in-law that was there; Joe.

My sister invited a party of about 20. The dining table where we were seated seemed to be better for 14-16 people. My girl mentioned it right away once we all sat down for dinner. I have only seen plates like we had on TV. I never understood the plates I see on TV that seem to be only for show. I had swordfish with artichoke in some type of sauce. It was Alright. I had never had swordfish before and can’t say I am looking forward to it in the future. I do know I was at a steakhouse and not a seafood joint.

Over all if asked to go back to Central Steakhouse on Orange St. in New Haven I would say yes only to try something else. It would be different, too because I would be upstairs in the restaurant rather than in the banquet room. I am probably too much of a simpleton. Oh yeah, prices ranged between 31-50+ dollars a head.

In the end IT IS worth a try.

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Teeth Whitening Makeover 2012

I received an email from Kathleen at Topdentists.com. In it she writes…

Hi,

I thought you and your beauty obsessed readers would be interested in our “Who Makes You Smile” photo contest.

As you and the readers of tonyandjohngarcia.com know, for many great beauties their smile is their trademark–think Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, Christie Brinkley. So we think this contest and the chance to win a professional teeth whitening session with our Top Dentist in New York City (and more) would really interest them.

The contest goes from now until February 24th. In addition to the big NYC grand prize, there are daily prizes and chances to win teeth whitenings in selected local areas!

I don’t know where the “beauty obsessed reader” thing came into the equation but… after reading this I thought it made sense to get the word out there about it. I hope I am able to provide the winning visitor and make someone a bit happier.

Show off your smile, send in the pic for the “Who Makes You Smile” photo contest from Topdentists.com. Get an all expense paid trip with a friend to New York City. You get $1,000 in spending money, too with a professional photo shoot to finish it off. Like they say here for the state lottery, “You can’t win if you don’t play”.

You got until February 24th 2012!!!

You’re welcome Kathleen. I hope this helps just a little bit.

The former CEO is best known for his uncanny ability to produce and sell some of the highest selling mobile electronics in the world including things like the Ipod, Iphone and the Ipad. He also helped make Apple Inc. the world’s largest technology company surpassing Microsoft.

I am sure there will be more news out there soon.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs: you will surely be missed by millions of people across the world.

Updated Steve Jobs News

The Indians ended up losing 27-19 but that is not to say that any of these North Haven kids should bow their head about. It is a battle of the unbeaten; Clinton was for 5-0 coming in and North Haven was carrying a 4-0 mark due to a bye week. I have been around the buildup to this game firsthand because I know the head coach of the Indians personally. Him and everyone around him have been talking about this game since last week.

I don’t know how the Clinton side felt coming in but if they thought they were coming in to route another team their plans surely got reversed. North Haven was able to get the ball on downs on more than one occasion and their running game was superb as it usually is. 3 key misses in the passing game meant a lot to the scoreboard.

It was a back and forth grudge match between the top teams of the league and you could tell. Clinton had a decent passing game that seemed to befuddle Indian defenders where the Indian’s running game was able to get passed the great defense of the Huskies. In the end the kids had a blast. Both sides did what they had to do and North Haven in no way can be laughed at when the Huskies get back to Clinton. The game was surely close enough for the Huskie’s coaches to remember they will probably be meeting this same North Haven Indians 4^th grade youth football team in the playoffs.

For the kids and adults involved with the sport of Youth Football, you are all great to come out and support these kids. I have to give a shout out to the cheerleaders as well of both teams that dance and sing for their home teams. Coaches and staff don’t have to do this. Their time and dedication shows in the production of their players on the field.

Congratulations to the Clinton Huskies for an awesome win. Congratulations to the North Haven Indians for doing what you had to do to keep the game interesting throughout. I wish sometimes when I was a kid I was able to be involved with these types of things. At the same time I have the pleasure of watching mine and others grow through youth sports.

I came into the game back in 2005, injured, in need of a job and had no real advanced education but I was hungry. My leg industry kept me out of my safe zone in terms of “preferred” employment; roofing, construction, moving, waste management, etc. I came to realize quickly that SEO was a growing industry and one that could prosper if done the right way. I came in handling reciprocal links for maybe 5-6 small clients. I say “small” compared to the clients we deal with today in terms of size, budgets and industries. The number today is more near 95-100 domains.

In-House Link Building…

Industry Research for Category Building: Take some time to research the industry you are working from. For link generation purposes you give yourself a path to take in terms of websites, directories and search engines to search as well as what keywords may help most when searching for relevant link partners. Then there is generating the appropriate links for the categories chosen and submitting them to their respective webmasters hoping they will link in return.

Link Generation: Going out and locating websites to contact for linking purposes. To me, the in-house “link manager killer”. It could take hours and hours, many times; days to locate 300-500 links. Depending on the industry you are working in finding 300-500 links could seem damn near impossible. Note that I have my own way of doing things. With 6 years in the game I have networked with many companies and individuals that help in MY time locating links. For beginners, to find good 3 way link resources you have to get to know a few link managers that handle multiple clients. One-way link building usually consists of 3^rd party companies.

Link Submissions: After all of the links have been generated and uploaded to the respective newly indexed pages it is time to submit your client’s link to each of the respective webmasters or website owners either using template emails or filling out link exchange forms. Depending on the experience you have this can take hours in itself. I have seen coworkers take up to 9 hours to submit 400 links both using emails and link exchange forms. Submissions are done twice usually. After the 2^nd I will give it 2 weeks and then remove all non-reciprocating links.

Reciprocal Link Checks: Not all webmasters own up to their end of a reciprocal link exchange agreement. In fact in my experience up to 20% of the 1000s of websites I am currently exchanging links with will remove my link with no notification to me. For this reason you would like to conduct reciprocal link checks to make sure your link is still active on the page or website agreed upon originally. Depending on if you are adding and removing from the actual websites yourself or records keeping are done with Excel sheets, the time associated with the checks varies.

NOTICE I mention the time associated with each of the 3 variables above and the title of the post is “long term link managers”. It is hard to find them these days. As I mentioned in the beginning of this article; I was hungry and had no college education. When I came into the SEO industry I was at the bottom of the totem pole but I saw room for advancement. I am now lead programmer and company link manager for other employees. My “responsibilities” list is too long to list. The biggest reason I am still around is I had no higher education or direction I was moving in.

HUH? I came in with a fresh mind, saw what it was about and gave myself a path compared to those shopping for jobs because of the present climate here in America. The hustlers out there are willing to do just about anything knowing they will be on their way as the opportunity arises. That is what companies are suffering from. Hiring kids out of college, people with too much work experience or people with credentials that make them seem they could work for Microsoft. There is NO WAY they are sticking around for the long-term. It is nice to brag about them to coworkers until they go through all of the training and learn all of the games that have made your company only to move on. For owners I can understand the frustration. For the hustler who comes and goes, “go for it”.

Long term link management positions are no longer “long term”. Outsourcing to India seems to be the popular way of doing things. NEVER in my days will it happen on my watch at the company I work for. In house link building has brought many, many positive experiences. With all of the variables aligned from your SEO campaign the good results can be endless. At the same time you can think you have done it all only to have to wait for what seems “forever”. Patience!!!

CleanTechnica says,
In earlier trials, the researchers used different alloys that achieved full spectrum responses but involved very high production costs. The advantage of gallium arsenide nitride is that it is very similar to a conventional semiconductor, gallium arsenide, and it can be…

Let’s hope that people near 40 like myself will get to see the day. Alternative energy is the only way us here in America can stop depending on oil products and the countries that seem to keep building hatred towards our way of living. Let’s see this through.

I am giving big props to the scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of California.

YES I am. I have found other link exchange/manager networks out there but it seems most are only out to promote themselves or the company that is behind the effort. Here at Tonyandjohngarcia.com we are TRULY looking to help webmasters and website owners find a place to have their website listed and have it count at some point. I have been updating this website and still do regularly for 3 years and change now. The main site has been up for almost 6 years.

Many will say that exchanging links; whether reciprocal, 3 way, one-way, through blog reviews or what have you are in one way or another bad for something. Listen, I have been at it 6+ years in the links game of SEO and have nothing but awesome results for the clients I have implemented the practice to. Know that LINKS are not everything. The good experiences I have had totally had to do with utilizing the many aspects associated with an SEO campaign.

The important variables being Content Creation, Keyword Research and Custom Meta Tag implementation as well as Social Media marketing, Article Marketing and more.

I pointed the latter paragraph out for those who assume Links are everything. They count for a lot of the success websites gain but without the proper help from the many variables associated with an SEO campaign, those link management efforts will continue for a long time before ever seeing a generic term at the top.

I am trying to build or bring together a network of like-minded webmasters that care about what they do and how they do it. If they are like me they have already done the basics, lets get your link popularity efforts rolling. If interested in getting involved be sure to let us know by liking us on Facebook or checking us out on Twitter.

Thanks for reading!!!

At my day job I create blog for clients on a regular basis. Usually I go out and find free templates, hack them up a bit and I have a new client blog. The problem of course with that is the blog never matches the actual client website.Yeah, I am able to add their header  images and maybe get some of the colors to match but it is never an exact replica.

Friday before leaving work I told my boss and a few co workers that I would figure it out. I had already checked a few resources online and it seemed it would be easy. What I need to point out is that I am in no way a PHP programmer. I CAN edit code in all languages for the most part but to do this type of stuff I thought it would be harder.

At a later date may I will post something on how exactly I did it but for now I just wanted to get it out there that a new time has begun. I am probably making an excuse for myself when I say posting on here while the template didn’t match never really suited me. There is a lot I have to say and a lot I think the world should know about all kinds of things.

If you have a topic you want to read about or a website you would like reviewed and posted about here let me know about it. I am Tony Garcia, owner and operator of Tonyandjohngarcia.com and this adjoining blog.

I am so happy this has come to be. Thanks for reading if you did.

The media has turned this Hurricane Irene into a super star among the throngs of people who grabbed up all the water from a Walmart in Wallingford I believe. My fiance has the picture to prove it that  I will put up when she gets in. How does this happen? How do grown adults turn into paranoid freak within minutes of hearing the local meteorologist or from a friend for that matter.

I have been hearing about it since Wednesday night from every person I have personally been in contact with. I personally feel that where we are there will be some heavy rain, heavy winds, some downed treed and power lines maybe but nothing hurricane force. I could be wrong, who knows? Connecticut is protected in a big way by Long Island sound and the many breakwaters we have along our coastline.

At the same time for anyone who reads this if you were one of those who jumped when you heard it, got in the stores early and were able to get what you thought you needed, more power to you. From what I hear there are many out there who missed the boat on a lot of things today recommended for the upcoming storm.

Citizens on the coastline can tell another story when this thing passes in forms of visual and physical experience is concerned. I wouldn’t want to be there and hope those that are in the direct line of fire are able to temporarily get out of there. We all know how some people can be about their homes. “Don’t be crazy people, get out while you can? Even if DOES just pass, the risk isn’t worth it.”

For constant news updates you can visit your favorite news channel online or your favorite search engine be it Google, Yahoo or Bing each have their own weather apps. For all of those here in Connecticut, Good Luck this coming Sunday. I will post again while it’s happening. Hopefully there is only minor things to report. Take care now.

We have all heard of (for those who haven’t, you will) there are a few different types of link exchanges associated with the ‘popularity building’ aspect of a give SEO campaign. Of course we all heard of the infamous ‘reciprocal’ link exchange where site A places a link to site B on their website and site B places a link to site A on their website in turn giving them a reciprocal link exchange. “reciprocating links” Then there is the “3 way” link exchange. I call it a 1 way link for both parties.

1 way links to many are the way to go and it makes sense. If looking to avoid showing the search engines that you are in cahoots with any of the websites listed in your directory or ‘links’ section having 1 way links gives no indication and leaves no trace that there was a communication between website parties in agreement on affecting search results through reciprocal linking.

A “3 way” link as they call it is when site A places a link to site B and site B places a link to site C. This way there is no connection between any of the 3 websites. What does site C get out of it? Nothing really, usually the site is only active for placing links agreed upon in the webmaster’s “3 way” link exchange request. On most occasions (98%) I stay away from these types of link exchanges. NOW, if our link is placed on the blog associated with the website or a mini site relevant to their main site I will in most cases hook up. To me the sites created specifically for links aren’t worth much in terms of ‘weight’ and can be blacklisted at the drop of a hat. (Granted I have heard the stories I have never seen a site blacklisted or banned in my 6 years) Free sites used for 3 way exchanges are a no-no for sure in my book. Those types of sites I have seen taken down by the Blog companies themselves for breaches in their ‘terms of service’ agreements because of the link games webmasters play.

For the most part though and as much as there are so many who will talk junk about ‘links’ and any type of ‘link exchange’ it is true that in the end no matter where the link is or how it was attained if the search engines recognize the link then a “link is a link”. I have seen and witnessed firsthand highly regarded companies with their businesses online associated in all kinds of paid linking practices. Whether through ‘blog reviews’ or ‘pay per posts’ or through 3rd party linking companies, it seems like so many continue to pursue the highest amount of links to their website in hopes of somehow altering search results over time for their biggest keywords. It is the way it is and there is nothing at the present time that shows it will slow down.

Being in SEO myself for 6 years I have plenty of positive experiences with client websites getting up to the top for some of the most general terms imaginable of course because of the various steps taken as part of given SEO campaign but in the end the amount of links and where they were located has definitely impacted the majority. Whatever, anything I say is arguable, I am in no way an expert and am always open to someone else’s ideas. I have a few directories I do use for reciprocal link exchange opportunities as well as a ’1 way’ link playground for many cool website owners I meet through emails at my day job. If looking for your own reciprocal link exchange or you have a 3 way opportunity you want us to hear about be sure to contact us and let us know what you have or what you feel after reading this article.

Submitted by: Someone who still believes in Reciprocal Linking.