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.

Don’t Mess With Mother Nature

Since we have been having such extreme heat with little rainfall that people are turning to rain water barrels to harvest water for their yards and gardens. It seems that rain harvesting has become a positive effort to help the huge “Green” effort that is going on these past few years. You can find some pretty interesting rain barrels for sale on the Internet. Amazing the variety of rain barrels that have come on the market for today’s rain harvesters.

These dry summers are really starting to become a struggle each year. Mother Nature is certainly not happy with us. Winter was hard and then we went straight into the 90’s and higher. We didn’t even get one day of nice spring weather. I can only hope that we get some type of fall weather before the snow start falling once again. Next thing you know it is going to be the holidays and all that goes along with that each year. Isn’t that a pleasant thought to think of right now?

Looking Into Local Satellite

The cost of cable TV seems to keep going up and I’m not happy about having to pay more and more money every month to just watch TV. There are converter boxes to get just regular network digital broadcasts, but there are some cable network shows that I would miss and I like to watch from time to time. So perhaps it is time to check the  www.localtv-satellite.com web site and see if switching to satellite is the way to go.

The attraction of local tv satellite to me is being able to customize your subscription so that you only get the channels that you want. If I want all sports, then I can get a sports package. If I want channels with family shows, I can pick those shows.

My friends tell me that localtv-satellite.com can be as inexpensive or as expensive as my budget will allow. I’m interested in the cost of installation and equipment to get started and comparing the expenses to my monthly cable bill. I hope to save some money and still watch quality shows.

Rubbing elbows

This past weekend I felt like I was completely out of my element. I was invited to a party by my brother-in-law. The party was being held by some friends of his, and he thought that it would be a good opportunity for me to network and expand my business contacts. The music was good, the food was good, and the drinks weren’t bad either. But I have to admit that I found it a little bit difficult to engage in conversation with most of the people there. Seems as if everyone there was a major computer geek.

I’m not all up to date with all of the aspects and terminology of computer and the Internet. Sure, I have a computer, and I blog, but when it comes to carrying on a conversation with a group of folks about topics such as a web hosting hub review I have to admit that I’m rather lost. I’m assuming that they were talking about a website that reviews and rates web hosting services, but I was afraid to open my mouth and stick my foot in it! A wise man once said “‘Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt!”

Cable and Internet Systems in the South

Guest post written by my friend Will Blackson

I moved to a southern state to avoid the horribly cold winters I have endured for 30 years of my life. I figured this was going to be great since I would be outdoors most of the year, I really wouldn’t have much need for Internet and cable services like I needed when I lived up north.

Boy was I wrong. Okay so here’s the deal, some of the year, yes it is just gorgeous, and sunny. Then it doesn’t get frigid cold, it goes the opposite way and gets boiling hot. So hot indeed, you cannot enjoy the outdoors at all. Inside I go again, now with central airbecause this is a must have. Now that I am stuck inside again, well its time for cable.

You really cannot rely on rabbit ears in this rural community, you can’t get a signal. You have to have cable to be able to watch a show. I called the cable company and guess what? They are actually pretty fast at getting out right away, thank goodness. I informed them that I have a computer and they asked me if I wanted a Clear TV Bundle. They explained how it is always cheaper to do cable and internet bundles together the first time, although the cable company can add a service into a bundle at any time. The cable company provided all the tools I needed to get hooked up. And having one bill to pay is just awesome. The more you can bundle the more you save in the end. I love this service and it is very convenient for me. They were fast, on-time, and courteous to do this all on the same day. Thank goodness for bundles, you need them no matter where you live.

Supernatural is a Super Show!

This is a guest post by Jones Baker

Several months ago, I was channel surfing on the satellite TV at my office we got from directv for corporations looking for something good to watch. A channel that I scanned quickly past caught my eye and I had to turn it back. At the time I skipped over it, what appeared to be a man in a graveyard was apparently fighting a zombie or something with a shiny chrome knife. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a big fan of zombie movies. With this vision passing quickly by my eyes, you can easily understand why my interest was peaked.

Well, when I landed back on the channel, it was exactly what it appeared to be and I thought to myself that I finally found something really good on. The surprise to me was that it was on a regular channel and not on a premium channel. The name of the show is “Supernatural” and it is by far the best science fiction TV series on the air today.

The show follows two brothers named Dean and Sam that are demon hunters. They travel all across the United States looking for demons to fight and send back to the dark realm. All the while, demons and a few angels are chasing after Dean and Sam trying to stop them. Dean and Sam are on a mission to stop the war between Heaven and Hell by all means necessary and the angels and demons don’t want them to stop it. The angels believe that this war must take place in order to finally put Lucifer to rest. The demons simply desire to take over the world. Lucifer has even made a few special appearances. The great thing about this show is that it is so well wrote and directed, it doesn’t look like the normal ugly, brutal demons you would expect and the angels don’t even have wings. Very good show and I highly recommend watching at least one episode to give it a try.

My family and I now have a normal Thursday night ritual. Pop a bag of popcorn and settle in to watch Supernatural.

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.

Gratification

Most of us are doing a good amount of our shopping online these days. There are good deals to be found for people that take just a bit of there time and do a bit of “Googling” and follow through with some good old fashioned research. With as many search engines and searching sites available to us with just a few short key strokes it feeds us the information that we are looking for. We truly are a society looking for instant gratification and we usually get just that with all of today’s technology that is bringing us more goodies to make things easier, more compact and faster every time we turn around.

I am need of a new pair of eyeglasses and have heard of Zenni Optical before, so I checked them out online last night for a few minutes. They have complete eyeglasses that start at only $8 a pair and they have a great variety of eye wear to choose from on their website. It didn’t take me long to place my order. I’ll pay $4.95 for shipping and will receive a hard case, a cleaning cloth and they will be UV protected with an anti-scratch coating on them as well. It sounds good to me and if I like what I get I’ll be ordering more and passing the good word around.

Graduation

I think that Seiko Automatic Watches would make great college graduation gifts!  I can remember how grown up I felt when I got my very first watch.  I was quite young, but my father gave it to me along with a speech about how time flies and how time is more valuable than money.  I never really understood that until I got a lot older.  But now that I AM older I think that giving a really nice watch as a graduation gift really would be fitting – a reminder of how valuable time really is, and how little of it we have to enjoy the gifts of life, love, and laughter.

Awesome cooler with speakers

Jim came over today to show me his new Burton Lil Buddy bag.  He was really excited about it because it is a cooler that will hold twelve beverage cans and it has built in weatherproof speakers, amp and input jack that you can plug an MP3 or CD player into.  The Burton Lil Buddy speakers were detachable, which I thought was pretty cool too.  I’ve never seen a bag like that before!  I asked Jim where in the world did he find a bag like that!  He told me that his wife bought the Burton Lil Buddy for him on sale through the Zappos.com website.

I was really surprised when he told me that!  I didn’t realize that Zappos sold other things besides shoes!  My wife and I have bought shoes through Zappos before and really liked the free shipping both ways policy.  I also like their 365 day satisfaction guarantee!  There aren’t very many Internet companies that stand behind their products like that.  I’ll have to go online and check out what else they sell!

Bracing for the storm

I spent the day getting the snow blower and my tractor ready to go for tomorrow.  According to the weatherman we will be getting a record amount of snow overnight and over the weekend.  I’m rather excited about that; I have had this snow blower for two years and only used it once!  I pulled all of our cars off to the side of the driveway and pulled the tractor off of the trailer and into the garage.  With the Subaru having four brand new studded snow tires, and our truck with four wheel drive and  new snow tires I am feeling pretty secure about our ability to get out and about if we need to.  Now I just hope we don’t lose electricity!

Time well spent

I”ve noticed that my wife has a large collection of broken watches.  Now to be honest, some of them are not really broken, they are in her jewelry box with dead batteries.  I asked her why she doesn’t replace the batteries in them and wear them and her answer has been that the replacement battery cost more than the watch did!  And then she explains that she just can’t bring herself to throw them away. 

She always has been one to keep things beyond their useful life.  Sometimes that frustrates me, sometimes I think that’s a good thing!  Maybe she’d be tossing me out the door too!  I know there are times she thinks I’m past my useful life!

For our next wedding anniversary I’d like to buy her a really nice seiko diamond watch.  She deserves to have a watch that isn’t a “throwaway” watch like the rest of the watches that her brothers, sisters, and parents have given her over the years.  I’d like to buy her one that is nice enough to wear when we go out someplace nice, but not so fancy that she can’t wear it every day.  I’d like for her to think of me whenever she looks at it.  And I’d like for her to consider that our time together has been time well spent.

Wacky calculator

Have you ever had a calculator that gave you the wrong answers from time to time?  I have a solar-powered calculator that seems to have “lost it” somehow.  When I was given this calculator, I was thrilled – no more replacing batteries!  But lately I’ve been getting a lot of wrong answers from it.  I’m certain that I entered the correct data, so maybe one of the key pads has died.  So I guess it’s time to throw it away, but I hate to throw away an electronic gadget.  It’s bad for the environment, you know?  But I can’t keep on collecting dead electronic junk either!  I wonder if there is a local place that I can take this to…..  I’ll have to do a little research on that.  If you know of anyplace that takes dead calculators, let me know!

Remote access

My wife was quite upset earlier this week because her computer was acting up.  She ran all of the tools she could think of to correct the problem, but the computer continued to crash.  So we called her brother Will and asked him to use his remote desktop software to access her computer from his house and see if he could figure out what the problem is, and if possible to correct it.  We’re really lucky that Will is an expert on computer software issues; he is our designated geek!

Having this software allows Will to fix many of our computer problems from his home, which is wonderful because it saves us from the hassle of having to make an appointment with a computer repair service and packing up the CPU and taking it (or shipping it) somewhere off premises.  We used to do that years ago, and it was frustrating because they often had to keep the computer at their location for up to a week while working on it!

I also like knowing that keeping our computer here on our premises and having the work done by Will makes us feel comfortable that our private information does not fall into unauthorized hands.

Electric potato peeler

My wife has been telling me that she wants to buy an electric potato peeler. I thought she was joking! I never imagined that there was such a thing! Oh sure, there is the old fashioned apple peeler that peels, cores, and slices apples, and I can imagine it could be used for potatoes, but those are hand cranked things that have been around for decades. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the other day a catalog came in the mail and I saw an electric potato peeler in it! I think I might buy it for my wife to use. I love boiled and mashed potatoes and we don’t have them very often because peeling potatoes makes her carpal tunnel syndrome act up. Maybe, just maybe now I’ll get more variety of potatoes for dinner!

Avoiding a rip-off

A few years ago I bought a Tom Tom GO 300 GPS unit. Recently the rechargeable battery decided that it would not hold a charge anymore, so I took it to my local Radio Shack to ask them how much it would cost to replace the rechargeable battery. The person there told me that it would cost $100! Then he told me that I would be better off buying a new GPS unit for $169. Well I told him that I had to talk to my wife about it, and went home and told her what Radio Shack had told me. Well, she said that she didn’t believe for one minute that it cost that much, and went online to do some comparison shopping. She bought one for less than $20! So I don’t know what in the world that guy at Radio Shack was trying to do to me, but one thing is for sure; I’m not too inclined to go back there anytime soon!

New cordless phone

I went shoppTecing with my wife today and ended up buying a new cordless phone. This one comes with three handsets, and has talking Caller ID! I had never heard of talking Caller ID before, and I think that will be a great feature for us because our phone rings a lot of the time when it really isn’t convenient to stop what we are doing to go look and see who is calling! That durn things seem to ring at dinnertime almost every night! We don’t like to just ignore it, in case it is an emergency, but most of the time it’s a salesperson that we really don’t want to talk to during dinner! So this will be great – to be able to just keep eating without getting up if we hear that it is not a family member or a friend calling!