Okay, you caught me, I’m blond and sometimes it’s hard to keep me on one subject, ya know? My mind goes from one thing to another so fast sometimes I can’t even keep up with it but I usually come back to what I started with before you know it too. See we get a lot of ‘city folk’ as we call them and they can’t leave their laptops home because they think their lives will end if their hands aren’t attached to their laptops so the local businesses provide wireless internet to make them happy. Gotta do what you can to bring the customers in and keep them happy and coming back.
The Internet offers consumers different ways to order things
I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I go shopping online I am uncomfortable filling out an order form that requires my credit card information. With all of the recent publicity about hackers getting into systems through the Internet, I find more and more that I would appreciate finding the item I want to purchase, and then actually placing the order with a phone call. So I was relieved when I was thinking about buying something from the musician’s friend website to see “To place your order, call us toll-free at 800-449-9128” as an option for ordering. I think in this day and age, this is a little bit more secure than sending the information electronically. What do you think?
Warranties Are Important
The Internet makes doing business so much easier
When Aunt Jackie told me that she had no idea where to even start to look for an agent to buy car insurance from in her new town, I offered to help her out as best I can. Aunt Jackie is a sweet lady who has never bothered to learn how to use the Internet for anything other than reading and sending emails. Fortunately, I was able to help her look for burlington nc car insurance from here without ever having to leave the house! Just a few minutes online and I was able to hook her up with several options. I sure do love the Internet!
Gaining Followers on Spotify
I don’t know what the average user does about playlists, but I made up a BUNCH of playlists. I started out with a modern country playlist because it was easy to recognize the current stars and their current hit songs. Then I went to rock and roll from when I was in high school Those songs will always have tons of memories for me – they are what I grew up listening to. The third playlist was harder and took longer, but it is my favorite: adult contemporary. I like this music because it is fresh and easy on the ears. It is the kind of music that you hear on all the different genres of radio stations, but they appeal to everyone.
I had no idea that anyone cared about my personal playlists, but a few months ago I started getting email notifications from Spotify that people were subscribing to my adult contemporary playlist. I don’t know these people and don’t know how they found my playlist, but it is kinda flattering to find out that a lot of people share the same interest in music with you. I keep adding subscribers somehow – about 1 or 2 a week. Last time I checked, I had 64 subscribers to my playlist from all over the world – and I don’t personally know a single one of them!
Technology Changing So Quickly
Thinking back to when I was a young child, my parents had analog telephones scattered throughout the house. They started with one incoming telephone line, then when my sisters and I were teenagers and hogging the phone talking to all our friends, they got a second incoming line for us girls. Then we started getting online which tied up the phone line and no one could call us without getting a busy signal. So they got a third phone line – primarily for internet but also a backup line for us girls. After all, three teenage girls can do a whole lot of talking on the phone, between their girlfriends AND their boyfriends!
But now, we’ve grown and moved out, we all have cell phones and we get online using cable instead of the telephone line. So my parents decided to give up the home phone line and save $50 a month. I don’t blame them!
Another big technology change has been instant messaging and texting. What a great convenience that is! Especially when you just need to push a message to someone and not really talk to them or engage in a 2-way communication. I use texting all the time with my sisters and my parents, and I love the way they can get in touch with me any time, even if I am on the phone and on the internet, all through my cell phone.
I just love how technology is changing so quickly. Now if they will just start reducing the monthly charges. I don’t see how they can justify these high prices for phone service any longer – they are not spending money on expensive phone lines and cables – it’s all digital.
Thank Goodness for Climate Control
Sometimes I wish that I lived in an area where it was a constant seventy-six degrees out. Someplace that had no natural disasters, and where it only rained at night between the hours of 2am and 4am. Where the economy is good, the government is good, healthcare is good, and people were friendly. I take that back – I don’t wish that sometimes – I wish that always! But I don’t even know if a place like that exists, so here I am, stuck in a location where it gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer. I am lucky to have a furnace to keep me warm when it is cold out, and air conditioning when it is hot out. And if I need a repairman to either the furnace or air conditioning, a phone call to Cary air conditioning takes care of that problem in short order.
Yes, I do love the creature comforts of climate control in my house! I have become quite spoiled!
No cups or cans of drinks near the PC
But remember this one important rule: No cups or cans of drinks near the PC. I’m serious. Because, no matter how careful you are, one day something WILL happen that results in the liquid getting spilled. Best case, it just spills on the desk or table. Worst case, it pours directly into your hard drive or saturates your keyboard. Not only do have a sticky mess that is almost impossible to clean up, but you can short out the electronics and end up with no computer.
I got lucky tonight, the cat jumped up on my desk and knocked over a small can of Arnold Palmer’s Half and Half. The mix of iced tea and lemonade went everywhere, soaking a stack of papers, dripping into the carpet, and little splashes dotted my keyboard. Thank goodness I was able to clean it all up and not lose anything important. I think this must have been a gentle reminder from Mr. Murphy of Murphy’s Law to follow that rule I just mentioned: No cups or cans of drinks near the PC.
Saving and Spending
So I decided that I wanted to take the family on a nice vacation this year but, realized I needed to take a look at our finances first. I’ve always had an idea of how much we spend on everything, but never really had a budget that was written down. In order to get a realistic idea of what we’re saving and spending, I thought maybe I should track everything.
I looked up free budget software online to get started. After all, I’m trying to save and I don’t want to shill out more money in all of this. At first I thought I would be overwhelmed. I watched a few video demos on how easy the software programs are to use. Some programs wanted a ton of information and others looked just like a spread sheet. I already have spread sheet software… that’s not what I was looking for.
I looked at reviews for best budgeting sites to get opinions of what other people thought worked and didn’t for them. I’ve narrowed it down to three different sites. I think just to get a good idea of what each site can do for me I’ll use them each for the next two months. At the end of the two months I should be able to tell which software will work best for me in the long run.
I can’t wait to see where our money is actually going. I wonder if I’ll find that it hasn’t been going where I thought it had been this whole time. No matter where it’s going I want to save so that we can afford a nice vacation. Budgeting here we come!
Online Book Club Using Audio Books
I recently thought about joining a book club. Well, now I’m thinking that would be great but it would also be great if I could listen to audio books online free. I would love to be able to the books as I’m doing other things at the same time like doing the dishes, folding laundry, or even sweeping and mopping.
I’m a busy mom and I have a lot on my plate. I’d like to be able to get in some reading and still take care of all my responsibilities. I’ll have to see what books I can find online and then maybe start a book club myself based on the books I find. I know I can’t be the only one out there that has the same dilemma that I do, and wants to be a productive mom and still get in some fun entertainment time. Audio books sound like the way to go. Pun intended.
Here’s an idea. Do any of you want to join a book club with me? We could do an online book club and check in with each other here or maybe in a Facebook group or something. Any suggestions on books we should read?