My Blog

When I first got a computer, it was for my kids.  I knew that with the information that was out there in the cyber world, in order for them to keep pace with it, they needed to grow up with one.  I sat at the thing for the first time, and literally panicked.  I was so afraid that I would mess it up that I didn’t want to touch it.  Then I just realized that I couldn’t help my kids to use it if I couldn’t use it.  So I began just trying stuff on it, and when it would lock up on me, I would just power it down and start it again.  I started to realize that whatever mistakes I would make could be fixed in this way. 

Over the past few years, I have taught myself a lot about computers, and yet still don’t know anywhere near it all.  I have enjoyed learning how to type html.  This is the method by which you can change how things look like page colors and font colors and styles.  You can also use html to add decoration to your page and even animated things if you wish.  It is actually really easy and a lot of fun to do.  I have learned to sell and buy online and have gotten so good at it that many family members and friends ask me for help or to do this for them.  I don’t mind though, I take at as a compliment, and for me it is really easy to do.  I have created my own web pages and websites, two of them, however, although the websites themselves came out great, I didn’t realize then about things like how to get your page ranked with the big search engines, or PPC management services or any of these big fancy things that all basically amount to getting your web page lots of traffic and business quickly.  I always just thought that you put up a website and people came, but now I realize that there is a whole online “advertising loop” so to speak that you need to be aware of when creating an online business.  Well, now I am definitely more aware and more informed, and guess how I got that way…by researching all this information on the internet.  Just about everything you could ever want to know is out here on the web, all you have to do is find it. 

How very clever you are to plan that gathering without any care given to the cost of the novelties that you will need to provide. Well, I can tell you this. I would rather attend a nice gathering with absolutely not one novelty or gimmick or whatever, if it had the right ingredients for my version of what a nice gathering should be. Now balloons are always festive and if the gathering is being held outdoors, then perhaps a few festive light up items would add to the mood. Perhaps strings of those Japanese paper lanterns or some tiki torches or that spinning colored disco ball hanging from the ceiling. But if you want me to enjoy myself, it is all about the food provided and it is all about the beverages provided and it is all about the people that are attending. I am a true foody and I am always interested in the foody items we will be served. I love to cook and I love to eat and I also like to imbibe especially an interesting beverage. I don’t need a party hat or a blow horn or those light up items you wear on top of your head or around your neck. Give me some good companions and something to fill me and make me beg for the recipe and absolutely not too many alcoholic beverages unless you intend for me to crash on your couch. That is one thing that the perfect host or hostess should stand strong on — no one leaves and gets into a car if they are driving and have had even one too many drinks or if they are riding home with someone who has had too many drinks. I suppose a great novelty for a party where alcohol is being served with very little concern to how much was consumed by anyone attending, would be for everyone to stay overnight and the party could extend to a great ‘get your head together’ breakfast the next morning. I really like that idea. Keep the number of guests limited and just open up that sleeper sofa, pull out that inflatable mattress, get the guest room tidied up for a couple of guests and call it a night whenever you are ready. Those late night partiers would have to opt for the pull out sofa and the inflatable mattress on the floor, you and a couple of the others could get a good night’s sleep and start that coffee and a hearty breakfast the next morning.

Families today live very hectic lives and often become extremely involved in the day-to-day events without giving too much thought to the future.  We are very busy working, sending children to school, participating in after-school activities and sports and trying to find time for homework, housework, visiting with family and friends, etc.  This schedule continues throughout the year with some variations for school age children who then have different activities and needs during the summer months.  Sometimes it seems as though the family vacation is the only time things slow down sufficiently so we can catch our breaths.

In the middle of all of this chaos, there are very important things we must remember.  Bills must be paid on time, obligations to community must be met, and upkeep of home and cars, along with health check-ups, must be squeezed into our schedules.  These items should be priorities in our lives but, unfortunately, they seem to be secondary as there are more obligations than there are hours in the day.

A recent health check-up proved to be very important and I am certainly glad I made the time to have it done.  I went for a regular visit and my doctor insisted I go have a mammogram at the local hospital.  I did not really want to take the time out of my busy schedule but he insisted, so I said I would go.  The appointment was several weeks away and I almost forgot about it but, at the last minute, saw the notation on my calendar and scheduled the time off from work.  I showed up first thing in the morning, had the test done, and returned to work as soon as possible.  It was two weeks later when I received the call from my doctor.

My doctor thought there may have been something suspicious about a lump he discovered and the mammogram confirmed that I had developed a cyst in my right breast.  Removal was recommended and, although I was very upset, the doctor assured me that he believed it was not malignant.  We made arrangements for surgery three weeks later.  I was at least relieved that I did not have to worry about the costs involved in all of this.  We have a wonderful family health insurance policy that covers all of these unforeseen events.  At a time when the world seems to be crashing down around you, it certainly is a relief to know that years ago we made the right decision when we decided to protect our loved ones with this high quality family health insurance coverage.

I think I have been spending way too much time working this semester.  I know that I should try to work a whole bunch this summer before my senior year since I won’t be able to work very much on account of my internship.  I really needed the money this year and I really love the place I work.  I mean what kind person would turn their nose up at the chance to work with animals all day.  Working at a veterinarian’s office is definitely the best job I have ever had for a bunch of reasons.  First of all, I get a discount on animals so now I have myself a great collection of lizards and I am thinking of upgrading to a dog.  I haven’t had much time though this year to actually get out and have fun, or at least relax alone without the animals.  I just feel such a love for the animals in the shop that I can’t keep myself away for too long.  Sometimes I even call to make sure they get all their pet meds in on a shipment so if they need me to drive to another store I can pay for more expensive pet meds.  I wonder if some people might call me a little over dedicated? I mean I just have a huge love of animals and I can’t help but help.  Without me most of the other employee wouldn’t even know what pet meds to ever get or let alone administer to who.  I have worked there for three years now and the only person who has been there longer is the owner.  I am not officially the owner, but I basically run the place since the owner doesn’t have enough time to come in every day with his own college schedule.  He is a masters student in animal biology, imagine that.  I think that this summer I am still going to work just as much but i will have to take some time to myself, away from the animals.  No more coming in to the shop for a whole day when I am not even working.  I love the animals but I know that I can’t help them one bit if I can’t even stand from exhaustion.  I hope I can stick to that because I feel the urge coming on right now to just go on down to the shop. 

I have been invited on the most amazing trip anyone could possibly ask for.  I have a friend who is from Sierra Leone and he has been all over Africa in his life.  He is also an amazing musician and poet who studies comparative literature.  So this great guy has offered to help me with my first spiritual quest which will be a trip to the mother land of Africa.  We are going to try to see as much of the continent as possible and all that the individual countries have to offer.  He has been calling up a bunch of people he knows all over the continent to try and get us hooked up with both musicians and various experiences like medicine men and, at my request, safaris.  I have always been mesmerized by two things; animals and music.  So this trip will surely be the perfect trip for a person such as I.  We already have a couple of Tanzania safaris and a couple Botswana safaris set up through various channels.  I have actually been going online to set up some Kenya safaris as well which should be the last ones we will have time for since our trip will only last for three months.  This is going to be an amazing journey and all of it is being paid for by my college grants for experiential research.  I will film this entire trip and record as much music as possible.  In the late fall I will have compiled all of my research and will be asked to present the entire trip in some coherent form.  I want to try and mash it all together in to a video if it works out that way and then just dub the music recorded in to some transitional scenes.  I think that the project alone is going to be worth the trip because it is just an amazing idea in itself.  So we have about three days till the flight leaves and we will be landing in Sierra Leone in five days.  I hope everyone else out there makes the best of their summer, obviously I will have to try harder than others.  Just kidding.  

Many people here at school claim that they can’t afford to pay for car insurance.  Most do actually find a way, however, lately it has come to my attention that there are several of my friends who are driving around without any auto insurance.  I have tried to advise them against this, as many of them are still technically students whose permanent address is their parents.  Many of their parents live in nice homes, and would be devastated to think that these guys are out driving around with no insurance.  If they were to have a wreck or kill someone, there parents would be left with nothing but the shirts on their backs, which is an awesome payback to the loving parents who raised you and provided for you all those years.  Some of these same parents are still helping these guys pay their bills and would die if they knew they didn’t pay their insurance or let their insurance lapse.

It is frightening to me at the level of immaturity that some of these young adults have.  It seems to me at least, that once you are capable of leaving the nest, it is time to grow up and act like a grown up.  I really think that most of the students here think of this as a glorified kindergarten, where having fun is the #1 priority and work and responsibility lie somewhere around #10.  They just aren’t ready to grow up yet.  I think that if I ever had a child that was this irresponsible I would make them start supporting themselves so that they could really learn the hard knocks of life, before it is too late.  That is what my parents did, and maybe that is why I have a slightly more mature outlook on life.

I have tried to inform these people about the possibilities of causing their parents to lose everything.  About how if they get pulled over without insurance that their car could be impounded and they could even do jail time, depending on the issue.  They just don’t seem to be too concerned about anyone but themselves.  I did give them the names of several companies that offer the best auto insurance quotes around; hopefully they will heed my warnings and look into it for themselves.  They really need to begin to take life a little more seriously before someone gets injured monetarily or otherwise. 

In any drug detox program, it is important for the health professional to be aware of the underlying cause of addiction. Obviously, a lot of times, a familiar scenario is that a teenager tries a drug at a party and then continues on to abuse it. However, even in this scenario, there is already a multitude of factors that go into making a decision of trying a drug. How did the teenager end up at a party like this in first place? One of the possible causes that comes to mind is that a teenager felt that he/she associated with the fellow students/friends that invited him and wanted to go and have a fun time. However, while at the party, the teenager might have realized that s/he is in a rather dangerous situation. To me, what is the most frustrating thing is that at parties, or at other events with “elevated adrenaline”, the sensation of danger is altered in a way that a regularly dangerous situations are still perceived as dangerous, but one might feel a certain gist to go ahead and experiment with the situation – what if, despite the perceived danger, everything will turn out to be OK, and the person will come out feeling that he/she had accomplished a dangerous situation successfully. There is obviously a certain ego associated with such, but that’s just human nature. So, back to the teenager. So, given the fact that a teenager senses that he/she has to leave the party that’s turning into a drug fiesta, a person might just be subjected to peer pressure. “What are you, a coward?” – to hear something like that is a major red flag for a teenager, just like the red flag for a bull in Spain (even though I think that it has been proven that bulls, instead of reacting to a specifically red flag, react to anything that moves). Knowing that it is time to go home, the teenager still stays, and, under the influence of peer pressure, or, possibly curiosity, adrenalin rush, or whatever else it might be, tries the drug – and this is where the vicious circle begins. The teenager might be OK after all, meaning that his/her system did not take the drug as an addictive substance right away, and if that is the only time that he/she tries the drug, the outcome might be just fine. In other cases, one of the steps in several years down the road ends up being a drug detox program (in the best case scenario), meth treatment, or opiate rehab.

In lieu of having a real good wife, I am considering becoming a customer of eComparison. Of course, the fact that I AM A FEMALE has a good deal to do with that decision. I have found that having a real good husband is not as easy as it used to sound before my first (and only) marriage. Wouldn’t it be great to let someone else do the research and do the comparison shopping for you before you spent all that time doing it yourself. And I think it would be a lot less confusing also because after you decipher the consumer ratings on everything from a vacuum cleaner to a nose hair trimmer (not that I need the latter), you can become so confused you won’t know what you started out wanting to purchase. It ain’t as easy as it seems. Have you ever tried it? Well, I have and honestly, by the time I have spent hours or days checking out the product or service or whatever, I could have worked a little overtime at time and a half pay and paid for the more expensive product. Why not let eComparison do the leg work for you. Let their fingers do the walking. I personally hate to shop. I hate it so much I am quite sure I have become a disgrace to my gender. Talking to someone who has the product you want to purchase is a good way to do it also because they have done the homework for you and hopefully they have had the product long enough to know if it is worth a toot or not. I am about to purchase a new hot water heater and have heard that there is something new(ish) on the market that is much smaller than the usual hot water heater and has NO limit to the amount of hot water that it produces. It looks like some kind of panel about three times as big as the normal electric switchbox ;and it mounts on the wall and sounds like it would be much less conspicuous. And some way, I am sure it must be magic, it heats the water as it comes out of the tap. Now, if that is in fact the truth, I could sure use someone to give me the details in words that I could understand and tell me where to go to get one and get it installed.

Recently, we had to do an intervention for a friend of mine, one of my best friends.  Unfortunately, although we were all recreational drug users, our drug addiction problems never spiraled out of control in the way Mike’s did.  Always, a wonderful person and fun to be around, Mike became a whole different person.  So much so that for a little while we were thinking that he might be on steroids or something.  In any case, that was not what was happening, we think that what was happening was that he was becoming frustrated because he felt his life slipping away, and was too out of control to do anything about it.  He actually lost his girlfriend and his job in the same week.  He did get a new one of each eventually. 

When we did the intervention to tell him that drug rehabilitation seemed like the best answer for him at this point, he agreed.  I told him how concerned I was for his safety and well being, and how above all else I wanted my friend back.  Other people said similar things to him, but on TV you always see the person getting angry about the intervention or running off, not Mike.  I think he knew that he needed help and that we all loved him enough to tell him so.  He agreed to enter a local program to try and get the help he needed.  The counselor at the intervention remained a helpful support for all of us.

Well, Mike did go to drug rehab and we all supported him and visited him as we had promised.  It was really good for all of us because we all stopped using drugs because of Mike and now we have fun the clean and sober way.  It is scary that drugs can grab your life and take hold that quickly.  One minute, you are thinking that you are totally in control and just a recreational user, and then before you know it you can’t live without them.  Both illegal and prescription drugs can have this affect on your life, so when at all possible stay away from both, if you do this you surely can not become addicted.  Especially if you know that you tend to become addicted to things easily or have a family history of people who are addicts, then you need to be especially careful.  Don’t worry being sober is actually more fun, you know who you are and what you are doing and why.

It is amazing how much getting the student airfares can save you on a flight.  I have been really excited since I found out about this program offered by most of the major airlines.  Most people think that finding a cheap airfare is impossible, but I have found that if you remain determined you can find discount airfares.  Sometimes, it does require you to travel at odd hours, fly stand by, etc.  I have really found that some of these travel sights give you some great tips on how to save money on airfare, hotel accommodations, and even rental cars.  The offer flights, especially if you get a package deal that is all inclusive.  This can save you about $300 on everything.  Through these websites I have been able to locate discount flights really easily.  I find them very helpful and they were even able to help me locate cheap international flights when I needed them.  When I made phone contact with them because I couldn’t find international airfares on their website, they were very helpful and were able to quickly redirect me to the internet page I needed. 

Someone had told me once that these sights were a rip off and that if I used them I would have to worry about my reservations being held for me.  I was a little bit skeptical at first, but I have been using them consistently now for about the past year and a half.  They have been very reliable, easy to use, and their customer service is excellent.  They go above and beyond every time I have need help, they have come through.  Now anytime I need to book a flight or a hotel room, I immediately go to their website and click, click in a few minutes it is all taken care of.  I always get a cheap airfare and a great price on my hotel room.  When I get to my destination, all goes smoothly.  The room or flight reservation has been made competently and exactly as I had requested.  Even to the point of the extras for a hotel room, like a fridge when I go to the beach, this website really takes care of its customers.  So the next time you need to book a flight or reserve a hotel room, be sure to check out an all inclusive travel website, and I am sure you will find that it is the easiest, best trip you have ever taken, and you will save $$$ too, which really helps.