rants and raves – Page 2

August 24, 2014

Online college

Most online colleges are good schools but I found how to get Online master degrees from one of the top ranked private colleges in the country. Yes a lot of the top colleges are afraid that attending classes online will not give their students a proper education but just the opposite is true.

One things for sure, if Kiplingers Personal Finance ranks Gonzaga University a best value among private universities, then it has to be a great college. I’m going to do a lot more checking into what they have to offer. A good education is something no one can ever take from you.

August 12, 2014

Help your local animal shelter

This time of year there are always a lot of kittens and puppies at the shelter, but there are also a lot of adult cats and dogs being surrendered by owners and many are abandoned or dropped off because of the economy. People are being evicted and having their homes foreclosed and have no way to take care of the pets any more.

This really bothers me – I just don’t see how anyone in good conscience can abandon a pet. What kind of person leaves an animal locked in an empty house and drives off? What kind of person can drive down a road and just toss kittens out of the window into a stranger’s driveway? People who do that and people who beat their dogs or otherwise abuse their animals should be arrested and put into jail.

If you have a shelter in your community, next time you have the urge to take on a pet, I hope you will go to the shelter and adopt an animal from the shelter. And if you have anything you can donate to the shelter, here’s a list of desired items that can be dropped off and will be put into good use:

Clean, old newspapers to be used for litter and lining cages
Toilet seat covers (cats love to lie on them in their cages)
Any type of cat or dog toy (plastic or washable)
Old bath towels and blankets
Canned cat food, any brand
Bagged, dry dog food (particularly desired is Science Diet but other brands accepted)
Laundry soap
Bleach
Heavy ceramic food and water bowls
Antibacterial hand soap
Candles – citrus or spice
Paper towels

Shelters also need volunteers to come and walk dogs and play with the animals for short periods to give them exercise and socialization skills. If you have a good heart, please help the animals in your local shelter.

August 1, 2014

Help when it’s most needed

Credit Card Counseling is everywhere in these economic times but there are more options than getting with a company that focuses on debt consolidation. Most of those types of companies only help you with counseling or others only help you to find refinancing and still others get you into a service where you pay a certain amount per month and owe less in the end.

Well they are hard to find, but there really are companies that help you with all of the above and financial planning too. In all reality, financial planning is the best way to get out of debt and stay debt-free while you plan for your future at the same time. Getting debt-free won’t happen overnight; it may take years, and it takes a lot of discipline to spend your money wisely. I know that sounds impossible but financial planning really can help.

July 4, 2014

Happy 4th of July

There is a local semi-pro baseball team that has the best fireworks every year. It doesn’t cost much to go watch the game either. I love taking the kids every year to see the ball game and the fireworks. It’s almost become a tradition with us. Before the game, we go to the park for a cook out with my family. We have hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad and make home-made ice cream too. By the time it’s time to go to the ball game, we’re all stuffed and so that helps save money at the game. Hot dogs are EXPENSIVE at ball games.

June 22, 2014

I can’t believe people still don’t have health insurance

I am very lucky – I get health insurance from the company that I work with, as a benefit. But a lot of my friends and relatives don’t have that, and they struggle to find affordable health insurance. I can’t believe that so many of them still don’t have any health insurance at all! I’m recommending to them to check out the information I found on the nc health agency web page to see if they can help them get affordable health insurance. Nobody should have to go without medical treatment!

June 16, 2014

Free AntiVirus Messed Up My PC

When I got Comcast for my internet service they bragged about a free antivirus program that comes with the service, so I am supposed to save about $50 a year from not buying the Norton program and my internet will be safe. So my Norton expired and I downloaded the Comcast version. Now my computer is totally messed up. All my passwords and log ins that I had saved are gone. Not happy at all!

June 10, 2014

Social Security verification

With there being so many illegal aliens in our country now, a lot of business owners are beginning to do a Social Security Number Trace to make sure that the number they are supplied with is actually the persons that gave it to them. I think it’s a great tool and can not only help employers but can protect you too from having someone else use your Social Security number.

You know, it might even help employers keep from getting in trouble by hiring illegal aliens. Something needs to be done and this is just one more tool to help.

June 4, 2014

Big Day for Spiders

Had to do some yard work over the weekend and I cannot begin to tell you about all the spiders I saw. There were brown recluse spiders under my trailer tarp, orb spiders in the bushes that I had to trim, tiny brown spiders in the tree that drops low over my driveway now, a black widow in the grass, and even a white spider that crawled out from the retractable dog leash that I picked up. I’m not afraid of spiders but I don’t like them and I am going to call the pest control company or head out to the hardware store to buy some pesticides. It just seems like last weekend was all about spiders.

May 29, 2014

Three Times This Month

In the past thirty days I have had to upgrade the software on my blog. That seems a little excessive to me. I know the software was free and is one of the most popular blogging platforms available. But why so many upgrades? It makes me nervous that something must be so unstable that it needs constant fixing.

May 4, 2014

Visiting my grandparents

I used to love to visit my grandparents house when I was a child. They had the most beautiful old grandfather clock I had ever seen. I loved to hear it chime. In fact, as a child, I would run into the sitting room where the grandfather clock was when it would start chiming just so I could hear it better. I loved that clock. My parents now have it and it will be mine to keep in my home when they are gone which I hope will be many years from now.