Face Book & My Space

I can’t seem to get away from folks trying to pressure me into signing up with either Face Book or My Space. My social life is fine and I have enough to do rather than dealing with all that is involved with maintaining such an account. I hear good things about these sites, but I think I’ll still pass on them for now.

The oil spill

I really had not had the opportunity to learn a lot about the the offshore oil platform’s explosion. All I really knew was the it had exploded and some people died and that there are millions of gallons of oil being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. And that all attempts to stop the gushing oil have failed so far. Well, tonight I had the chance to watch one of my favorite television news shows – 60 minutes. And I learned a lot about the who, what, where, why and how of the whole thing and it makes me furious that the employees of BP were so interested in speed that they endangered the safety of their employees, and the environment.

I don’t normally buy BP gasoline anyway, because the BP prices are usually more expensive in my town, but if I WAS a regular customer, I’m not sure how that would affect my loyalty to the brand. All I know is that there was a lot of greed and stupidity involved here, and I hope that someone takes responsibility and makes restitution and cleans up the mess. Finger pointing is just a waste of time.

Himalayan Salt Lamps for Example

We all have things that we are interested in and find ourselves collecting pieces now and then, here and there. The flea market is a great place to find all types of treasures, from all over. The one flea market that is open only on Sunday has such a diverse flavor to it. People from all over the world go there and it is best described as being “Spicy” which is cool by me.  

It’s a good place to find unique treasures that you wouldn’t necessarily find at most market places. Of course you can always go online and find most of the items but what fun is there in that. On a nice day it does a body good to get outside and spend the day walking and talking with people from a variety of places. I’m sure I could find some Himalayan Salt Lamps or a Native American War Bonnet online somewhere, it might take a little digging, but finding one at the market just gets the endorphins going and makes for a pleasant day all the way around.

The Elks

I have a few friends that are long time members of the local Elk’s Lodge #1870 which is in town, not too far from home.  They have been on a recruiting mission these past few years trying to bring their membership up and to get some new blood in the organization as well. I have a lot of respect for civic organizations, I just never got caught up in all what goes along with becoming a member. But maybe the time has come for me to step up to the plate and get a bit more involved with our community. Me, the wife and the kids plan on living here for quite some time to come and I would enjoy the benefits that would come our way due to my involvement.

I’ll keep you posted.

Too Funny!

This email was sent to me by a good friend last night. I thought it was too hilarous to keep to myself.

This man, 73, is wearing a protective flap over his ear while Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

I wish I could shake this man’s hand.. I just want to know where he got it…..?

I think it is more widespread than previously imagined

A few years ago a good friend of mine died of some form of cancer. At the time no one told me exactly what the cancer was, but I’m beginning to think it was Malignant Mesothelioma because he ran a cement company. I’m thinking that because I just found out that there is asbestos in insulation, roof shingles, cement, brake linings, flooring products, and textiles. The “textiles” part really worries me – because “textiles” generally refers to fabrics. Does that mean carpets and fabrics?

I really didn’t realize that asbestos was in so many products that we come into contact with on a daily basis! And I just found out that the symptoms often don’t surface until as many as 30 to 50 years after the exposure to the asbestos! With that in mind, I think that there is going to be a growing need for many blue collar workers to hire a Mesothelioma Lawyer in the not too distant future!

With the baby boomers were born, there was a massive housing explosion that created a lot of these products to be put into the general population. I think that the repercussions are yet to be fully seen. Yup, I think that I’m going to be knowing a lot of people who are going to be needing a find and hire a Mesothelioma Attorney in the next decade or so!

The end of the world?

Last night I was watching television.  Almost everything was reruns, so I decided to watch the History Channel.  It was a show about how so many different people/cultures have predicted the end of the world.  Supposedly that will be happening right around the Winter Solstice in 2012.  I think it is fascinating that so many predictions revolve around that date.  I wonder if it has something to do with the numbers – for example the date will be 12/21/2012.  So many 1s and 2s.  The show certainly was quite convincing that the end of the world really might be coming!  I’m starting to wish I had just gone to bed!

The right message

My mother is constantly sending me clippings in the mail about some Celebrity Speakers or Motivational Speakers that are coming to the area that she wants me to go see with her.  Or should I say HEAR with her?  She thinks that motivational speakers are fantastic, and I’ve gone to hear a couple of them with her, but I have to admit that although they do a really good job, the main point of their speech is to keep a positive attitude and how they kept plugging along to get some kind of help through a hard time that they had and they got the help that they needed. 

Most of the time, the help that they needed (and got) was close at hand, provided by someone close to them.  I haven’t heard many motivational speakers talk about how everyone they knew turned their backs on them and a complete stranger helped them out!  Well, notwithstanding the few wealthy people who sponsored entire classes to go to college after they graduate high school (and yes, that is motivational to finish school if you have a wealthy sponsor!)

I’d love to give an aspiring motivational speaker some speaking tips.  Take a good hard look at your speech and ask yourself if the message you are delivering is appropriate to the audience?  Telling someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps isn’t going to help someone who has no boots! Of course, you shouldn’t tell them to just give up, either. There is a fine line there. If you are going to give someone a pep talk about improving their lives, it would be great if you provided resources to help them, and not just a pep rally.

Addiction to pain medicine

One sad fact of life is that so many people that become drug addicts start out as innocent victims of some kind of accident that puts them in a lot of pain.  The doctors, in their efforts to relieve that pain give the patients a medicine, such as the very popular vicodin, that is highly effective in controlling pain, but is also highly addictive.

One of the most populat television show characters, House, is addicted to vicodin.  On a recent episode we watched House agree to go to vicodin rehab in order to get his medical license back.  It was suspended but he was told that if he went to one of the vicodin rehab centers that he would be reinstated after the doctors cleared him.  I think that this particular show has shown a lot of good information about how easily one can fall into the life of an addict, and how not all addicts are out in the street mugging people!

Credit issues

I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised how many commercials I see on television nowadays regarding the issues of credit repair.  There are a lot of different companies out there that offer to help fix your credit.  Some of these bad credit repair services, such as Ovation Credit service give the consumer the impression that repairing credit is easy.  And it IS easy if the only thing wrong is mistakes on your credit report.

But if the issues are that you have poor credit because you haven’t been paying your bills, then these services cannot help you at all.  What you need to do in these cases is to make arrangements with your creditors to get your bills paid!  And that may not be easy if you have lost your income due to some unforeseen situation.  Job loss, sudden health issues, and accidents can all contribute to troubles that will have a negative impact on credit ratings.

Substitute Teaching

My son has been struggling for the past couple of years to find a good job. He has had his heart set on becoming a newspaper reporter, but he can’t seem to find one in the area. So he has decided to look into becoming a substitute teacher for the local school system. There is always a demand for substitutes, and I think he would make a really good teacher. Looking into what qualifications he needs, we were surprised to find that you don’t even need a college degree, only a high school diploma!

Compatability

When the personal computer first came on the scene, back in the 1980’s we had a hard decision to make – Apple or IBM.  They were incompatable with each other.  Many consumers preferred the ease of the Apple, but many businesses went with IBM.  Well, I should clarify that a little bit I think – there were a lot of creative businesses that went with Apple, but the nuts and bolts number crunchers tended to go with IBM.  Anyway, the operating systems were so different that you could not file share, and this was a big problem.

At some point in time along came some geniuses who created the PDF file.  The PDF file can be read by both systems.  Even Linux!  A miracle!  Opening up the lines of communication.  Along with the invention of the PDF came the need for software for pdf conversion.  This type of software makes it possible to convert pdf to word or to convert word to pdf.  It also allows users to edit the pdf file directly.  This solves many problems between the different operating systems.  Now maybe we can all get along!

Where to put your money?

For those of us who are not interested in investing in precious metals, or the stock market, there are some decent options close to home.  You can invest in CDs or simply open a savings account, or an interest-bearing checking account.  CD rates being offered by banks change frequently – sometimes it seems to me that the bank CD rates have changed from one day to the next, but to be perfectly honest I don’t check the rates every single day.  I’ve just noticed when I do go into my bank that they have posted the best CD rates on a board for the customers to look at.

I’m sure that bank rates differ from one institution to another, so it is a great idea to compare bank CDs online.  One website that offers these comparisons is the selectcdrates.com website.  Along with offering quotes on rates from various states, the website also has a link to a tips section that has a lot of good advice on handling financial matters.

So sad to see

I’ve been trying to mentor some young people on job-hunting. I see how earnest they are, wanting to find work, and I try to help them out as much as I can. Whenever I hear of a job opening somewhere, I fill them in. I know that a lot of jobs are landed through social networking, and many jobs are not even advertised in any form. These folks have been looking for years, and are not on unemployment. It’s a miracle that they have not turned to crime.

I give them pep talks and help them work on their resume, and tell them I have confidence in them. It is so sad to see how hard they are working trying to find a job and they get turned away time and time again. It is very sad to see – they are disillusioned and discouraged. One of the things that upsets me is that these discouraged and disillusioned job-seekers are not even counted as part of the “unemployment figures” that the government releases. So when the government says that the economy is looking up because unemployment is down, that is just a lie. Very sad.

Semantics

I’ve noticed that there seems to be some confusion among consumers about different types of credit services.  There are many different types of services related to managing debt.  There are debt management, credit repair, and debt consolidation to name a few.  Many people don’t understand the differences between them.  To be honest, sometimes I get confused too between them all too.

So if you are contacted by a company that offers you credit repair services and tell you that they can help you with bad credit repair, please be careful and make sure you understand exactly what services you will be getting for your money.  Are they simply advising you to contact the credit agencies (or offering to contact the credit agencies on your behalf) to see if their reports are accurate and to tell them to remove any incorrect information?  You can do that for free by yourself!

Are they offering to consolidate your debt by putting all of your debt and payments in one account?  Sounds good – they offer to lower your monthly payments that way, but the credit experts are warning us that actually hurts your credit.  And debt management – well I think that is where they try to get the credit card companies to accept less money than you owe them.  The problem with that is you can’t use the credit cards anymore!  And you have to come up with a large lump sum to pay off your lower debt balance, which many of us can’t do!

So, folks, be careful and make sure that you fully understand what it is you are getting into!

Money money money

A few years ago a friend of mine (Ed)  decided to become a stock broker.  I tried to be supportive and do my Stock Trading though him and the brokerage firm that he was working with.  The only problem that I had with him was when I called him and told him that I wanted to buy stocks in certain companies he always tried to talk me out of what I wanted to buy and steer me towards what he thought was a better investment.

I got pushy and demanded that he buy the stocks that I wanted (and he did) and they made money.  The stocks he recommended lost money (I kept track.)  I came to the conclusion that I was better off with an Online Broker because that was not going to ruin my friendship Ed.  Well, maybe it would if he found out!  So I’ll just keep my Online Trading a secret from him as long as I can!

Speaking out

I would really like to see some Celebrity Speakers start to speak out about how this country needs to get its act together and fix our country’s healthcare system.  I think it is simply inexcusable for us to be allowing our legal, law-abiding taxpaying citizens die horrible deaths simply because they can’t afford the healthcare that they need.

I would love to be hearing about large conventions and meetings with Keynote Speakers that are focused on getting the job done.  I would really like it if they had the info right there to answer any questions and assuage their doubts.  I’m getting really tired of hearing so many people trying to use scare tactics against improving our healthcare system.  We need to take action; there are too many people out there that need help and can’t wait much longer for us to do the right thing.  And I’ve noticed that more often than not, getting celebrities involved in causes helps those causes to succeed.

My wife wants to learn to shoot

Ever since I can recall, my wife has been very anti-gun. She has been vocal about how much she feels uncomfortable having my guns in the house. She’s says she’s afraid that if someone breaks into the house and finds them that they will use the guns against her. Yesterday I went out to run a few errands, and when I got home she surprised me by telling me that she wants to learn how to shoot my .25! It seems that a couple of strangers came driving up our long driveway and it scared her pretty badly. So now she wants me to take her to the shooting range and show her how to handle a gun – just in case she ever needs to use it. I think it’s a good idea, but I wonder how she’ll take to the gun! She’s been so vocal against it in the past. It will be interesting – that is for sure!

Beating the bushes

Will tells me that he has finally decided to go to an outplacement melbourne consultant to see if they can help him to find his next job.  He’s been looking for a job for over a year now, every since his company laid off a hundred employees.  It sure seems that the economy troubles are not being confined to the United States!  I blame corporate greed and corruption for those troubles.  There really should be a better system “out there” that enables everyone to make a decent living and not simply support the “rich get richer and the poor get poorer” spiral that we seem to be stuck in.

But I digress.  Will said that his sister Becky used a career outplacement sydney service to help her to re-evaluate her job skills and find a new career, so he is hopeful that they will be able to help him to land a new job too.  It has been very difficult to survive this past year and he is sinking deep into debt.  I certainly can empathize with that!  I hope it works out for him.

Writing skills

I don’t think I’m the best writer in the world, but I am often very surprised by how BAD other people’s writing can be! They will brag to me about how they got an “A” on some kind of college term paper and ask me if I’d like to read it. When I say yes, and they proudly show it to me I am at a complete loss of what to say to them! More often than not, there are several spelling and grammatical errors, and their skill level appears to be that of a fourth grade student! What I want to say is “your writing is terrible!” but I don’t want to hurt their feelings! So what do I do? I say something like “what an interesting topic!” But I feel like I’m copping out. What would YOU do?