Category: Internet

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What is on your mind?

Have you ever considered writing your own blog, but didn’t think that you would have enough to write about to make it worth anyone’s while? Have you become disillusioned with social media sites like Facebook? Have people on Facebook written nasty comments to you in response to you voicing your thoughts? I know I have been quite upset over the number of people on Facebook that take great delight in “trolling” other people. I really don’t think that was the original intent of a social media platform, do you?

The people at the On My Mind Daily website must have gotten tired of the social media trolling, too. I think that is why they decided to create their website. Their website allows people to vent, or express their thoughts and opinions, without having to sign up for an intrusive Social Media account, and without having to create their own blog. I was looking at their website a few minutes ago, and read a few of the posts that they have on their current home page.

As I was reading the article, I started to think about how many times I have wanted to “sound-off” about something, but did not want to put it on Facebook, or here, on my blog because I did not want to deal with being blacklisted, or trolled. I think I just MIGHT actually contribute an article or two, myself!

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Kitchen Renovations

I can remember many years ago, hiring a custom cabinet maker to renovate my kitchen in a house that I used to live in. I had spent a lot of time looking through magazines and planning out exactly what I wanted. I spent several hours consulting with him, showing him the magazines, and going through his hardware catalogs, picking out exactly what I wanted. That was back in the early 1980’s, before I had a computer with Internet access. That was a lot of work back then.

From time to time, I day-dream about using some ideas that I found from here and renovating my existing kitchen. I love so many of the new ideas for cabinet storage! If only I was independently wealthy!

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News on the fly

Most people agree that following the news and current events is important, yet as many as one third of people don’t keep up with the news on a regular basis. Among reasons cited for NOT following the news are the time required, difficulty in understanding the topics, bias of news sites, sensationalism of the headlines, negativity and fear mongering by the media, and the annoyance of click bait and video ads.

Informucate.com is a different kind of news site that seeks to address these issues by providing All the News in Just 12 Views, leaving out the bias, bloat and bull!

Informucate synthesizes the news into just 12 current stories, each only a paragraph or two, with explanations of jargon, concepts, and key terms right alongside the stories.  Not sure about ISIL ? Don’t know what FOMC means? Can’t remember who Rand Paul is? Don’t understand the terms Triple Crown, Grand Slam, or March Madness? Anytime you read a story with terminology, jargon, abbreviations, institutions, or names and places that might be unfamiliar, there is a quick explanation right alongside the article.

Informucate is not a news aggregator. All daily stories are selected by editors and written by journalists.  Compared to bloated and biased news sites, as well as other “explainer” sites that in actuality do not explain, informucate allows viewers to get their news in just a few minutes a day, and more importantly, understand what they have read.

The 12 stories cover the top news of the day, as well as health, trending, entertainment, money, technology, and the popular ‘bad behavior’ report. By presenting a mixture of news that runs the gamut from serious to entertainment to trending, the 12 stories give everyone the information they need to stay informed and be more confident at work, school and in social settings. Best of all, it takes just 5 minutes a day to get informucated.

In addition to news stories, there’s also a fast facts video encyclopedia that includes fun daily trivia and other short videos on subjects including, dogs, cats, US Presidents,  colleges, holidays, and more.

 

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Mail order brides

Have you ever watched any television shows where the theme of the show revolved around mail order brides? I seem to remember a movie a long time ago called “Seven brides for Seven brothers” that revolved around that theme. I remember a Star Trek episode that was dedicated to the adventures of the crew that was transporting a man who was delivering mail order brides to his customers. Every now and then I watch a more recent television show that features the story line around russian brides. Usually the story is a murder-mystery type of show like Law and Order or Elementary.

When the more recent TV shows started to feature stories about mail order brides I have to admit that I was surprised to think that this type of match-making was actually really going on! I find myself wondering how many of these types of marriages become long and happy marriages, and how many of them end in a more unhappy way. I guess that as I gotten older, I’ve become more skeptical about other people’s motivations.

I don’t know how I would react if someone in my family told me that they were getting married to someone they had met online but had never actually spent face-to-face time with that person. I would be very concerned about how they will feel after a few months of reality. I would strongly encourage them to date for as long as possible, and maybe even get a pre-nuptial agreement before the marriage took place. But then that would be meddling, wouldn’t it? Oh dear…

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Have you ever wanted to get published?

I have a lot of friends that tell me that they would love to be able to have some of their writings get published, but they don’t know how to get started. I often tell them that they could start their own blog, for free, using WordPress, but that seems to scare them off somehow. I think that they are afraid that they will then have a huge commitment to write everyday.

Some of them try using Facebook, but I don’t really think that is the best platform for creative writing, and to be honest, I’ve struggled with trying to find older posts on Facebook. A lot of people will post something on Facebook and write “Share on your own wall so you can find it again.” I have not had good luck finding that thing I shared again – ever!

Believe it or not, I get a lot of emails from people asking me if I will pay them money for them to write a guest post on my own blog. I wouldn’t mind doing that from time to time, except that the people then want me to pay them big money for inferior writing that is really all about promoting their own services or product! They claim it will help my search engine rankings, but I know better than that. I get angry that so many people think I am that ignorant!

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Looking for a You Tube review

I don’t know about you, but I’ve learned to rely on YouTube for product reviews on several things. Music instruments, for example. I will watch several YouTube videos about a product before deciding whether or not a product might be worth purchasing. Often the video demonstrates the product. So when Bob was telling me that he was thinking about buying a squier acoustic guitar for Jason, I went to YouTube to check out the reviews on the guitar. The only YouTube video I could find about that exact guitar was in Spanish. That was disappointing to me. The title of the video was in English, so I was expecting the guy doing the review to be speaking English.

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Going To Visit My Nephew

My sister’s son goes to Stanford University on a Fellowship. This is his second year out there, and my sister has been missing him like crazy. She has been wanting to go visit him but since she is not supposed to drive, it has been a real issue about getting her there. Yes, she can fly from airport to airport, but transportation to and from the airport, and then transportation once she gets there (since her son doesn’t drive) would also be an issue.

Also, there is a matter of where she would stay once she got out there. Her son has a girlfriend that lives with him, and they are sharing a one-bedroom studio apartment. Very tight quarters! I have been thinking about flying out there with her and sharing the expenses. I would love to go and get in some sight-seeing while we are out there! So I’ve been looking around for ways to save money, and found that Motel.com has Palo Alto, CA hotel deals that just might help us with our travel plans. I’m going to pull together some tentative itineraries and deals and show them to my sister, and see what she thinks about the whole idea!

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Razor strops

Have you ever gone to a barber shop and watched a barber use a straight razor to shave a man? Have you ever wondered where the barber got his supplies for wiping that razor back and forth on a piece of leather, and what that piece of leather was called? Well, I found out that piece of leather is called a leather strop when I stumbled upon a website that discussed these straight razor designs products for sale. I found the website by accident when I was looking for a new razor-cut hairstyle to consider the next time I go to my hair stylist! Isn’t it strange how sometimes you will do a Google search for something and find other stuff that you would not expect to find!

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A five string guitar?

I have never heard of, or seen, a jackson bass guitar before I watched this YouTube video a few moments ago. I was really surprised to learn that the guitar in the video has five strings! I was pretty sure that guitars had either four or six strings before I watched the video. I even went onto Wikipedia just now and typed in how many strings does a guitar have, and their definition does not include five strings! How very interesting!

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Finding Great Boston Luxury Real Estate

Okay I admit, I was  not “Big” on living in Boston or even visiting, until I did some reading about the lay of the land,  so to speak, and started looking into a site about Finding Great Boston Luxury Real Estate! Seriously folks…if you are the slightest interested in Boston big time luxury living, there are indeed places out there that are just right for you! Heck, I was even captivated by the homes presented to me!

What I saw were listings of some really awesome places that people could turn into homes in a heartbeat! Homes that would suit certain needs and wants without the hassle of trying to figure out the benefits all by one’s self.

I must say that I am impressed knowing I can get online and if I need to, I can find a great home to live in with minimal searching with this company!