Category: Education

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Piano Lessons – Tickling the Old Ivories!

My niece, Tracey, is wanting to take piano lessons via the Internet. My sister is having a fit, but I’m all for it. Tracey is a good kid and spends a lot of time on the computer and I think that she could handle the online piano lessons. She is a pretty smart kid and usually follows through with things that she starts so I’m surprised that my sister isn’t as positive about this request as I thought she would be. Tracey approached me about the piano lessons first (we are pretty tight) and I urged her to talk to her mom about it, thinking that it wouldn’t be a big deal. Boy did I call that one wrong, ugh…….

Looks like I will be going over to their house over the weekend and see if I can patch things up between them. I will even offer to help pay for the piano lessons, although they make a lot more money than I do, but that is how strong I feel about the whole things, although I don’t think it is the money that is the issue. Most of our family members can play at least one musical instrument and Tracey would like to be included in the music that is made at our family functions throughout the year. I’ve never been able to play an instrument or sing, but I can sure dance circles around most of them!

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Insurance Online

It doesn’t matter where you go, there will always be a need for most types of insurance. There just isn’t any way around it these days. The good news is that the Internet has made it easier for us to find the right type of insurance for our individual needs and wants and we no longer are  limited to word of mouth, the media and the local Yellow Pages  in an effort to find the perfect match.

Instead of spending hours on the phone, with pen and paper in hand calling various agents to get auto quotes or home insurance quotes you can go online and search for the information with ease and using the time that you have to the best advantage. When I first moved here I went to the Illinois Department of Insurance website and found a great amount of useful information and links. Every state has different rules, codes, laws, regulations yadda, yadda, yadda. And claiming ignorance is still no excuse and will not hold up in a court of law, so it pays to know what you are up against right from the start.

So like if I were to look into starting up a new business you can be that I’d be checking into business insurance in Illinois and doing my homework online to be better informed before signing on any dotted line. It’s all about the money.

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And I Helped!

I used to be able to help my nieces and nephews with their homework, but now a days I feel so useless and incompetent most of the time when they call on me especially for Math answers. Math was never my strongest subject but jeezy peezy times have certainly changed on us. God forbid if they need Precalculus help or Calculus help, I just can’t do them justice with that.

The good news is that they have access to the Internet and there seems to be several options for them when it comes to school work issues. You can all kinds of tutoring from Pre Kindergarten all the way up to the college years. So thank God once again for the Internet and all that it brings to us in today’s world. Of course you can get help with all types of subjects, not just math.

I expect good things to happen to my nieces and nephews. I’m sure that at least one of them will make a difference in this world and will make a name for themselves, then I can say “and I helped” LOL

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Technology and Christmas Shopping!

Being in the customer service field can be a challenge, as so many of us know that deal with the public day in and day out. Since I have to provide excellent customer service, I expect to get the best in return and can be an aggressive consumer if needed. I don’t hesitate to call a manager and complain, but on the other side of the coin, I’ll be the first to turn to a supervisor and give an “atta boy” to some one that goes the extra mile and makes me a happy customer.

With technology so heavily emerged into our daily lives, it can make a customer service rep’s tough job even tougher when you can’t get a piece of equipment to work. At the mall the other day I witnessed a sales rep(in training) in one of the kiosks that was having issues learning all the equipment that she needed to use in order to check out her customer. The customer was getting uptight and the new kid was getting flustered big time. I felt so sorry for him, been there done that before!

I noticed that he was trying to use the same Motorola-Symbol MC 5574 handheld mobile computer that I use at work. Too bad that his manager didn’t see fit to help him out of the jam that he was finding himself him. Computers are wonderful if you know how to use them. The holiday season in right around the corner. There will be a lot of new sales assistants working the Christmas holiday shopping season. We all need to be patient and keep the faith, ’tis the season to be jolly!

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Thank God for The Internet!

I have to admit that I really don’t know all that much about life insurance. My folks have been urging me to check into starting my own policy. They have one on me for $2,000 that they started when I was born. The policy was actually a gift that was presented to my parents from an aunt. A nice present, but unfortunately $2,000 isn’t all that much anymore, most likely not even enough to bury me with.

So I’ve taken upon myself to educate myself on the whole subject, thank God for the Internet. I need to learn what the best options are for me on a decent term life insurance policy. It shouldn’t take too long and I’m a pretty quick learner.

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Immigration Issues

I know that I poke fun at our immigration issues from time to time, but I do know what a major concern this “hot topic” is to so many people. This is an important topic that is growing and growing, not just in the great state of California, but all over the United States as well.

President Obama has his hands full with so many issues to sort out and deal with. I can only pray that during his 4 years in office that he can get a handle on many of the problems that we are finding ourselves faced with these days. In the mean time it’s good to know that there are people out there that are dealing with immigration and trying to help each and every day. I was reading an interesting news article about a particular denver immigration lawyer who has been a full service immigration law firm for over ten years and I thought I might post it here for all to read.

For the whole story please click here.

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Food For Thought

Here is an example of why hiring illegal aliens is not economically productive for the State of California…

You have 2 families…”Joe Legal” and “Jose Illegal”.

Both families have 2 parents, 2 children and live in California.

“Joe Legal” works in construction, has a Social Security Number, and makes $25.00 per hour with payroll taxes deducted…

“Jose Illegal” also works in construction, has “NO” Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 cash “under the table”.

Joe Legal…$25.00 per hour x 40 hours $1000.00 per week, $52,000 per year

Now take 30% away for state & federal tax

Joe Legal now has $31,231.00

Jose Illegal…$15.00 per hour x 40 hours $600.00 per week, $31,200.00 per year

Jose Illegal pays no taxes…

Jose Illegal now has $31,200.00

Joe Legal pays Medical and Dental Insurance with limited coverage

$1000.00 per month

$12,000.00 per year

Joe Legal now has $19,231.00

Jose Illegal has full Medical and Dental coverage through the state and local clinics

at a cost of $0.00 per year

Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00

Joe Legal makes too much money is not eligible for Food Stamps or welfare

Joe Legal pays for food

$1,000.00 per month

$12,000.00 per year

Joe Legal now has $ 7,231.00

Jose Illegal has no documented income and is eligible for Food Stamps and Welfare

Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00

Joe Legal pays rent of

$1,000.00 per month

$12,000.00 per year

Joe Legal is now in the hole

minus (-) $4,769.00

Jose Illegal receives a $500 per month Federal rent subsidy

Jose Illegal pays rent

$500.00 per month

$6,000.00 per year

Jose Illegal still has $25,200.00

Joe Legal now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after work.

Jose Illegal has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family.

 Joe Legal’s and Jose Illegal’s children both attend the same school.

Joe Legal pays for his children’s lunches while

Jose Illegal’s children get a government sponsored lunch.

Jose Illegal’s children have an after school ESL program. Joe Legal’s children go home.

Joe Legal and Jose Illegal both enjoy the same Police and Fire Services, but Joe paid for them and Jose did not pay.

 The one thing not mentioned here is that since Jose Illegal has all that money left over, he sends a good share of it to Mexico to help support THEIR economy and legal citizens.

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Pass It Along, It’s All Good!

I honestly thought I knew pretty much all there is about the different web hosting companies that are out there for us to choose from. But I recently stumbled onto a site, webhostinggeeks.com, that has a great amount of information concerning the many dedicated server web hosting” sites and I found that they have put together a list of 7 different  “Green Web Hosting Providers” that are eco-friendly and doing what they can to save our mother earth, now how cool is that?

These 7 listed providers use renewable and alternative energy, as well as recycling waste, the planting of trees, and they also purchase RECs in order to power their data centers, which I think are all great ways to make a difference in our soon to be maxed out world.

 Ireally have to respect these companies and I would encourage anyone to check this site out to find more information on them. The company that comes in as Number One in the list of 7 is SuperGreen, they have it listed as the most Eco-Friendly Host, with the provider coming in as Number Seven being GoodAvocado, with the boasting of being a wind powered hosting.

Pass it along, it’s all good!

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Another School Year Comes To An End

Man where did this year go already? I can’t believe it’s almost time for school to be out. My kid goes to a middle school that requires them to wear uniforms. Not like the Catholic School type uniform. They wear a polo type shirt tucked in (dark or medium green for 6th grade, dark or medium blue for 7th grade and red or burgundy for 8th grade) with khaki or black pants or finger tip length shorts. Girls can wear capri’s or skirts too.

I grew up in the generation that fought like a dog just to get to wear pants to school and then it was only under our dresses IF you walked to school but then you had to take them off when you got there. It took us a long time to get to wear our blue jeans to school. Part of me still wants to fight the ‘uniform’ thing but the one thing I like about it is all the kids are equal at school. No one has any better than the other does so there’s less looking down your nose at the kid that can’t afford the nicer clothes. That I think is great.

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Had to take back my mini 7″ Cloud

What a dissapointment my little 7″ Cloudbook by Everex has turned out to be. I ordered this little laptop on-line at Wal-mart, along with all the necessary accessories that were needed to go along with it. Had it shipped to the local store, in an effort to save $9 on the shipping cost, which took an agonizing two weeks to arrive.

I had to return it, details later, I’m still too irked to even think about the whole ordeal. But I can say that I am going to save up a few more hundred dollars and buy a real life sized laptop. With Labor Day right around the corner I should have enough saved to take advantage of some holiday specials on a decent laptop around the $500 range.