I was reading an article in The Chronicle yesterday about how people who continually update their Education make themselves more valuable employees. In this day and age, when people are so worried about competing in the job market, I think that taking some courses now and then is a good idea.
But many of us have transportation issues, or schedule issues and need to be able to take courses online. Fortunately there are lots of schools that offer online degrees. One of those, Walden University offers a degree in Communications, which is something I’ve always been interested in. I’ll have to check and see if my company has tuition reimbursement benefits for their employees! Getting a college education with someone else’s money is a good thing!
It appears that today was the first day of school. I got stuck behind one of the slowest school buses on the way to work this morning, not a good way to start the day. Good thing that most of the buses had taken all the kids home by the time I was on my way home. Just one more thing to add stress to the day.
I’ve always loved watching dramas and reality television because of how exciting they are. There is an adrenaline rush when someone gets voted out of American Idol. Since Ellen Degeneres became a judge on Americal Idol, I decided to check out her talk show on satellite TV packages in California I got.
Let me tell you, I have never been interested in any talk show before. Like I said, I was only checking it out because of my love for American Idol. Ellen’s show is a classic! She always has a smile on her face and she is ready to make the audience laugh with her wit and dance moves.
It seems like all of her guests are really interesting people. Sometimes the AI contestants that have been voted off even come onto the show. Those are some of my favorite episodes. It’s kind of funny that The Ellen Degeneres show is now one of my favorite shows of all time. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Now that I watch her talk show, I sometimes tune in to other talk shows to see if they are as exciting and inviting. I still haven’t found one that I consider on par to her show, but there are some that are decent enough.
Always be on the lookout for newer shows that you might not think are interesting. Some can be really great!
I spent well over an hour cleaning out my refrigerator this morning. A jar of pickles managed to tip over some time ago and has been leaking, the trickle down effect, big time. So I started just trying to clean up that mess and ended up cleaning the whole darn thing. Don’t get me wrong, it was in need of a full pledged cleaning, it’s just that first thing on a Sunday morning it’s the perfect time for me to tackle something like that.
I love being spontaneous. I do try and plan things out but sometimes things just happen and I have learned to roll with them as best as possible. I don’t mind getting a last minute call from someone and running out the door in order to get somewhere in the shortest time possible. I did grow up here so I know all of the roads like the back of my hand and I’m sure that I know each and every shortcut that is possible around my hometown and the cities that surround it as well, so I can get places pretty darn quick if needed.
I love going to sporting events, even though I’m not really active in very many. I do however enjoy playing a game of golf every now and then. My folks brought us up playing golf and I’m grateful for that. It is a nice easy going game that just about anyone can play and they have golf courses and tee times just about everywhere.
My folks just got back from their annual Myrtle Beach vacation last week. They wanted me to come but I couldn’t really take the time off of work and I all ready have a long weekend planned for the last part of September. My mom was telling me last night that they had a good time, the weather was a bit wacky but all in all it was a success. My dad found a website at www.48hourteetimes.com that they had to utilized during their stay in Myrtle Beach. They are a full service hospitality group that helps people with their accommodations and their 48 hour tee times. Since so many people are flocking to Myrtle Beach S.C. this year due to BP ruining so many of the other beaches on the east coast a lot of the hotels and golf courses have been slammed with customers that need some help finding their way around and finding what is available and for who.
I’m glad that my folks are computer literate. Many people their age are a bit timid when it comes to maneuvering around on the Internet, but they have mastered it quite well and use it to their best advantage when possible. And I’m glad that they are spontaneous, that must be where I got it from, a double dose of it, to be sure.
I saw Mike Posner perform this awesome song the other night on the TV. I can’t remember what show it was, probably The Tonight Show. The next day I heard the song on the radio and was really digging it. As soon as I could I went online and went to YouTube.com to find the song and Bingo, had it done in less than a minute.
Boy what I would give to be able to take off and go on a road trip and stay in one of the nicer resorts in Myrtle Beach that Myrtle Beach has to offer. I hear that Myrtle Beach is rocking this summer. Since the oil company BP has let so many beaches be destroyed by their oil leak that people are flocking to Myrtle Beach South Carolina, where the beaches are clean and welcoming.
I’ve checked out the website of http://avistaresort.com and I have to say that I would highly consider staying at their first class Myrtle Beach hotel. They have good golf packages to offer and the good lord knows I love playing a good round of golf. And to play golf near the beach would just be awesome. My parents got me started playing golf at the local Putt Putt, when Putt Putt was still in business. And then we started playing real games and the big people’s golf courses and I was hooked forever.
Maybe by next summer I’ll have accumulated enough vacation time and I can save up a few bucks and check out Myrtle Beach for myself. That’s something to work on.
To say that my aunt likes the movie “Wizard of Oz” would be a gross understatement. She’s actually obsessed and will do anything to buy items in any way related to the movie.
That makes it the easiest, yet the hardest task to buy presents for her birthday, which just happens to be soon. She has almost every kind of memorabilia that exists and that’s what people know to buy her for gifts. Some of her collections include all kinds of figurines, snow globes, afghans and T-shirts. Most of it is in the living room and it’s crazy to see how she’s positioned all of it in there perfectly. It almost makes you afraid to sit down or touch anything.
So after I got my new satellite internet packages I decided to just do my entire gift hunt online instead of going to the mall like I have in the past. I found a set of coasters and I knew she didn’t have movie-themed coasters so I bought them on wildblue internet and had them shipped to my house.
My cousin Lynne sent me an email that her son Jarod is moving across the country and she has been helping him to pack his belongings to get ready. She was helping him to comparison shop moving companies and found a website called EZ removals that provides up to six different quotes from different companies that specialize in helping people to relocate their households.
I can remember how stressful it was four years ago when we moved down here, trying to find the most economical services. The Internet sure is a great source to help people to compare prices and services on just about everything anyone needs in this day and age! And I really like the fact that it can take you beyond your local neighborhood when need be. I think that being able to comparison shop on a wider scope helps keep your neighborhood businesses competitively priced.
I love the Geico website because it allows me to do everything I need to do online. There are times when I need to pay my bill a day or two late and all I have to do is use my wireless internet bundle to get online and push back my automatic payment. I don’t think I’ve ever called the customer service number because the website is set up so well.
I am able to change my policy and what state I am in instantly. I review my new policy online and have paper billing so all I have to do is print what I need and save paper where necessary. One of the best parts of having my insurance with Geico is being able to choose which payment plan and insurance needs I have at any time.
Last month, I switched my payments to quarterly instead of monthly because it was a more convenient way for my family to pay. I actually saved money because I was making a bigger lump sum payment. Usually they charge a small fee if monthly payments are made, so I was able to eliminate this amount.
My bills are almost all online, which makes it easy to get everything paid on time and when ever I am able to. I usually pay them after all of my kids go to bed and it is quiet. I wouldn’t have this luxury if I had to make phone calls or mail payments.
Have you ever dreamed of having the perfect fantasy kitchen? I do, all of the time! I’d love to have custom made cabinets with customized kitchen spice racks in it. I love the spice racks that hide inside cabinets that swing out to give up the goodies that are hiding deep inside. I think that they are just about the most clever spice rack ever designed!
In my current kitchen, there are cabinets on all of the walls so there is no way that I could have a wall spice rack in my kitchen; I’d have to go with the kind that mount on pantry doors or hide inside drawers. Right now I have a lazy susan inside my pantry that holds most of my spices. I hate to admit that it is overflowing a little bit.
In my fantasy kitchen, I’d have at least three times the room size, and two food prep areas. I’d have hanging pot racks and a double oven in a wall. I’d have two kitchen sinks, and one of those microwave ovens that keep your food refrigerated until it is time to cook it, and then automatically cooks it. If I had one of those, I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven!
All of my life I’ve been adamant about keeping my doors locked. Both at home and in my car. I used to keep my bedroom door locked when I was growing up to keep my siblings from going in there to steal things from me. Fortunately my parents gave me a locking door knob after I caught several of my siblings stealing from my piggy bank!
My concern for my own safety increased when I became a young adult and was attacked and almost raped in my own apartment! I started taking karate classes and tried to get my apartment’s management to look into the installation of a REAL security system; not just a chain lock on the apartment doors! Back in those days, however, security systems were unheard of for individual apartments! So I ended up persuading the manager to give me an exception to the “no pets” rule and buy a dog for protection.
Ever since then I’ve been a strong advocate for having a dog or two in the house for security. I think a barking dog will scare off a burglar faster than any alarm system will! But then again, you don’t have to walk and feed and groom and scoop up after an alarm system, do you?
Recently I’ve been reading a lot of articles that give tips on how to stay safer at home. I like the one about using motion detection lights around the perimeter of the house. I also like the one about using timers to turn lights on and off at various times through the house.
I remember hearing Kermit The Frog sing his hit song entitled “It Isn’t Easy Being Green” it was a heart breaking song to hear him sing back the. Now a days the big buss word is “Green” people are flocking to find ways to become as “Green” as possible and I’m loving it. My parents were from the 70′s era and were totally into the hippie and Woodstock scene. They brought us kids up trying our best to recycle and not abuse our Mother Earth, which we all embraced and learned from.
Today at work we were discussing “Green” issues when someone popped up with the subject of webhosting and how there as many that are doing there part in providing green web hosting sites. He found this information at webhostinggeeks.com, which is a Web Hosting Reviews & Rating Directory that we all took a quick gander at during our lunch break. I have to say that I’m impressed to see that many web hosting sites trying to do the right thing at the right time. FatCow advertises that they are 100% green, which is a mighty big challenge, I’m glad that they are up for it and I hope that more companies soon start to follow suite.
I’m so proud of my mother, since my father passed she seems to be holding up so very well, she is, and always has been my hero. Not too many daughters can say that about their mother. I do worry about her each and every day. I’m sure that she will be with us for a long time, but she certainly isn’t a “spring chicken” if you know what I mean. I try and get over to her place as often as I can and help her out around the place. It is a lot for her to keep up with all by herself and all and my other sisters do what they can as well.
We are currently trying to encourage her to purchase a new address plaque for the front porch. The one that is there now is so old and faded that we are concerned that if she needed any type of emergency assistance that they wouldn’t be able to read it and it could delay any type of help that they could offer her. We have all heard how important it is to have your address plaques and numbers in good order for just this type of reason. And I’m sure that the pizza delivery people would like to be able to read the address sign as well it is hard to read, especially at night and lord knows that my mother likes her pizza nice and hot upon delivery, me too. Putting it into the microwave to re heat it is just nasty.
I think that I will go online and start looking at home address plaques and see if I can come up with some suggestions to show her and possibly get the ball rolling that way. I love my mother and want to keep her around for as long as possible and I hope she knows that.
One of my favorite commercials is where the E-Trade baby talks about the ease of trading stocks online, and then throws up all over himself when he‘s done. This really caught me by surprise, even more so than the baby talking like an adult. I laughed for quite some time after watching the baby vomit on himself, it was just a great shock thriller.
I remember watching the commercial quite well actually. I was enjoying a night in and was watching my Direct.TV satellite TV with my girlfriend when the commercial came on. We were first blown away when the baby opened his little mouth and had sounded like an adult. This was really great entertainment. We really began to lose it when he started talking about trading stocks online. And when the baby clicked the computer mouse and said he just traded stocks, we both calmly laughed a little bit. We both loved the baby so much. And then the unthinkable happened, the baby puked. I thought this was really funny, but my girlfriend was kind of grossed out. I don’t think she laughed too much after that, and I don’t really think she likes the commercial anymore. The puke scene really made the commercial entertaining and enjoyable. I look forward to the next E-trade commercial. I can’t wait!
For several years now I’ve been thinking about buying a Custom Computer to use. I’m tired of having a lot of pre-loaded software that I’m never going to use filling up my hard drive. And this business about buying a package deal where you get a free printer thrown in is just filling my basement with a lot of brand-new never used printers that I may NEVER use. My brother is a self employed IT specialist and he is always buying brand new Custom Computers and Custom Laptops for his clients. And it seems to me that every six months he is buying a new computer for himself! I don’t know what he does with his old computers, but lately if and when I have a problem with my computer(s) at home he tells me that anything older than two years old just isn’t even worth his time to look at it!
He’s been encouraging me to buy a new Custom Laptop lately. He knows I’ve been talking about how sometimes it gets really slow at work and there is nothing to do and I wish I had a laptop with me to check my emails and work on my blogs and work on my continuing education credits. The issue I’m having with that, though, is that I can’t get free wi-fi at work and it would cost me $60 a month to get Internet on my phone OR my laptop. I don’t really want to spend $60 a month on that!
The CEO of my company recently purchased direct tv for business and it has been a huge hit in the office. One of my friend’s and I favorite shows to watch is The Daily Show. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has been a much loved comedy show loosely based on current events and news stories. As I was watching The Daily Show during my lunch break, I wondered how many people actually watch this show as their main source of news. While the show claims to be ‘fake news’ it actually has some real substance to it. Many of the clips played are from actual news organizations, often taken out of contest, and commented on by Jon Stewart. I frequently have discussions with my fellow employees about the show and the discussions we have are very interesting. The use of props and other footage also plays a role in this programs appeal.
While this show often takes a democratic view on political news, it points to no side in particular. The main objective of the show is to point and laugh at the world we live in. The Daily Show has grown a large following over the years and has even spawned a spin-off show. The Colbert Report was a segment on The Daily Show for a while and has now become its own independent show.
Many comedy news programs are now cropping up. While The Daily Show is still at the front line of TV ratings we have to wonder where our news is actually coming form. For many Americans these types of shows provide an outlet for the need to have some kind of news without the foreboding feeling that comes with watching the news on a full time news network station. Who wouldn’t prefer to watch a comedy show and laugh while learning about current events then watch a real news program and be filled with dread? I suppose that is why these TV shows are so popular.
My father served in the Navy during World War II, and he served in the South Pacific. He was very proud to have been in the Navy, but he didn’t talk much about the war. I was only twenty four when he died of cancer. I always thought it was really odd that he died from cancer; he never smoked a cigarette in his life, and ate the most healthy diet possible!
He was ill for a very long time, going to the doctors, before they finally diagnosed him with cancer. By the time they figured it out, it had spread throughout his body and the doctors didn’t give him much of a chance for survival. He died back in the early 80′s, and I often wonder if he had Mesothelioma Cancer, from exposure to asbestos while in the Navy. Every time I ask my mother about what kind of cancer my father had, she tells me that it wasn’t Mesothelioma, that it was multiple myeloma, or something like that. I wonder, though, and I guess I always will wonder, what really happened! And I will always wonder when the cure for cancer will be discovered!
I can remember back around 1994 when I was working for a large utility company that I was asked to volunteer to take on an inspection of our building for OSHA. At first I was flattered that my boss thought highly enough of me to ask me to do the job. I had to go to a training session about what was expected of me. There were a lot of people at the meeting!
As part of the training, we were told about the dangers of asbestos and how important it is to keep asbestos fibers from getting into the air. A lot of emphasis was placed on how important it is to use the right techniques and technology for asbestos removal to protect all of us from dangerous exposure.
After the training, I inspected our building and found a lot of OSHA violations; including some asbestos ones. I turned in the report to my boss (which included recommendations for asbestos removal) who was very unhappy with me for actually doing a good job in the inspection! I have to say that I was dismayed at that kind of reaction – the boss was supposed to take care of the problem, not try to sweep it under the rug!
Since that time, I’ve actually become more interested in issues related to health. I never wanted to be a nurse (although my parents wanted me to be one) but a pharmacy technician job is something I feel comfortable doing. As part of the job of a pharmacy technician, I am constantly learning about health issues and health resources. One interesting resource that I found around the asbestos removal issue is a website called asbestosregisters.co.uk. What I found interesting about this particular website is that it encourages businesses to register their asbestos situation and reach out for advice and assistance through their site. I think this is a step in the right direction!
I think I just fell in love with a new shopping engine site. Maybe I should clarify that. I really don’t know how new the site is! It could have been there for years! Well, then it is new to me – I just found it for the first time today.
The site is become.com. What makes this shopping engine special is that not only will it help me find the items that I want to buy, but with a click of the mouse it will also lead me to articles that research the products that I’m interested in! For example, if I want to buy a lenovo Thinkpad, I can search for the lenovo by clicking on the “shop” button, If I want to learn more about it, for example, what the reviews on the lenovo have been then I can click on the “research” button.
I think that this is an absolutely fantastic shopping concept! I think that using this website will help me save a lot of time and money.The “shop” button will help me to compare prices and order the product from the place with the best value, (it even searches Ebay!) and the “research” button will help me to make the right decision about the right product in the first place! How awesome is that! I have marked this as a “favorite!”
