Flights
I am so unbelievably happy that this semester is almost over. I have had such a horrible semester that I just want to get it over with and go on vacation. I mean I have been looking in to cheap international airfares since the first week of February. It's not that I have not been doing well in school, but I have just been so totally overworked and under socialized that I just need to get out of town and go somewhere where I can voluntarily be this alone, or socialize at will. I am just so sick of sitting in the library from sun up until dark doing what seems like nothing now. I know that all of this stuff will come in handy later, but when you are doing massive economics projects, you just want to give it all up and go to some tropical island somewhere. I mean I am really serious about those cheap international flights. I have been planning the perfect vacation since february. I knew then that by this time of the year I would be as disgruntled as I am and that I would need to unwind for a good three months before I would be ready to do any of it again. So now I only have to study for my final exams and gut out all of the tedious class notes between now and then. So I have been spending most of my time today just trolling through internet databases for cheap international airfares. I know that I want to go somewhere abroad but I am still not set on anything because these cheap international flights come and go pretty fast. Apparently there are millions of other people just like me who get to a breaking point and just go scouring the net for discount airfare and cheap flights. Anyway I think you have heard enough of my ranting for the day. Everyone is probably feeling the pinch too and I don't want to bring everyone down with me because I am really trying my best now to look up and look ahead to the rest of the summer.
VoIP
One area of life that technology advancement has shown the greatest improvement is in the field of communication. The rapid improvement computer growth has brought to something as simple as communication is unbelievable. It is amazing to stop and think about the different ways people now contact each other that were not available even fifteen years ago. In the last decade, life has changed greatly because of the Internet. It has proven to be an invaluable tool for all types of communication. It can help anyone from a large business to even just a single person. It is possible for anyone to communicate around the world in an instant. This was not practical for a long time. It could take weeks or months to send a message across the oceans and to other parts of the world. This was very costly and was only available to those with plenty of resources. Times definitely have changed. Even though there is still a large population of people limited in resources, the gap is quickly closing when it comes to communication. Now people can have a conversation halfway across the globe and look at each other. The use of VoIP or voice over ip is an amazing piece of technology. If someone has a computer and the Internet he or she can now reach anyone in the world. It is a small world in the eyes of the technology age. Distance and time are not as large of factors in communication as they once were such a short time ago. It is a little more complicated than just having the Internet, but it does not take a degree in engineering to operate. Software programs are available to convert computers into phones. The process is easy for even someone who is not the most computer literate. A novice or the most experienced veteran on computer technology can go out and buy a softphone which will then allow him or her to make phone calls on the Internet. The software converts a general purpose computer, like most people have in their homes, into a telephone. From there, a person relies on the basic skills he or she has in using a phone. For the advanced computer user, he or she can further enhance the experience by using unified communications. This occurs by integrating all of the various communication and pbx phone system into a single environment. It makes the entire process easier.
SEO
My favorite aunt is turning into my rich aunt. She is redoing her house. She hired a housekeeper. She is wearing designer shoes. She just bought a brand new Passat. And she also gave my mom 6 months of housekeeping service as a birthday present last week. What's up, auntie? She has always been financially stable, but she is most obviously doing quite well now. My mom is very happy for her, as she is a single mom and has always worked very hard, was the breadwinner when married to her inadequate husband. She is smart as whip, very likable, and she deserves this.
Apparently, she has started her own business with her boyfriend, and whenever I ask her what they do, she says 'internet marketing'. Well that is so vague, is it a pyramid scheme or what? What are they selling? And can I have a job? I want to do something online to make money. Her company does Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. She told me to Google it to learn more, which I did. . It is this pretty major field that I had no idea existed, and it sounds fascinating. Apparently the goal is to make changes to your website so your site comes up higher in search results. Natural SEO would be changes that you make, choosing certain words for your website carefully, and naming pages a certain way, plus all of this behind the scenes stuff. Then if your site comes up higher, you get more traffic. Cha-ching. She explained that you can pay for traffic with ads, or you can do some organic SEO and get traffic just from people searching. Her company will do this work for websites and get paid. I guess she is making so much because they are really good at it. Plus they have been in the internet world for a long time and have lots of connections. They started doing local SEO marketing, targeting businesses nearby, and now have clients all over the world.
So auntie, my birthday is coming and I wear size 6 Michael Kors shoes!! Seriously though, I want to approach her about doing some part time work, or even interning. She and I have always been kindred spirits, so I think I have a shot. I will keep reading though to familiarize myself with the industry first, so I don't sound like a complete ignoramus.
spy camera
I visited my sister in Chicago over my spring break. She goes to the University of Chicago and her spring break this year didn't overlap with mine at all, so I got to visit Chicago (it was only the third time) and follow her around to some of her classes. We went to a couple of different parts of the city that I hadn't been to on previous visits - one, looking for a bike shop that could size her for a bike, because she's preparing for a cross-country bike trip this summer. We ate at a Moroccan restaurant, which has to be some of the most delicious food I've ever tasted. And we wandered around looking at storefronts.
There was this very bizarre store that we wandered into that I'd never really seen anything like before. It was a safety and survival store, kind of like a retail version of one of those "How to Survive..." books. It had everything from spy equipment and authority-surveillance to mace and pepper spray and tricks to keep travelers safe. There were these ingenious little door hangers, for instance, that you can hang on your doorknob - they are specifically for traveling, so you hang them on the inside of your hotel door - and they are alarms that go off when somebody opens the door. There are all kinds of other little movement, opening, or detachment triggered alarms like that. Some of them seemed eminently un-useful, but still very cool.
They also sold some spy camera, ranging from quite simple to extremely elaborate. Imagine having a hidden camera in your purse or briefcase. Everything in the store was either bright orange in warning or pitch black for remaining hidden.
I know that being prepared is good, but maybe there's such a thing as being over prepared - so prepared for something bad to happen that you become paralyzed by it. In a way, it can feed into your fear, and unless you have real reason to fear, maybe you shouldn't spend so much time and energy on being afraid - there are plenty of other more enjoyable things to waste it on, after all.
Broadway shows
With my theatre school as a high school senior I took a weekend trip (it was over Halloween that year, actually, I think) to Broadway. We saw two Broadway shows (Wicked and Servant of Two Masters), visited a film studio, toured backstage at Phantom of the Opera, stayed in a hotel, and ate lots of pizza.
We visited the drama bookstore: packed top to bottom with plays, monologue books, books about "the business," books about film, acting, directing, playwriting, design, technical theatre, how-to books, celebrity biographies, plays, plays, and more plays. I spent two hours there and certainly could have spent more.
We experienced the Broadway ticket brokers scene. We woke early in the morning one day to wait in line at the TKTS booth to get reasonably priced tickets (or at least, reasonably priced for Broadway tickets).
After Wicked, we hung around to sneak peeks at Idina Menzel (still in her Tony-winning role as Elphaba) and Kristen Chenoweth (still playing Glinda the Good Witch). This is totally not my scene, but it was fun to experience the hordes of autograph seekers for a few minutes.
We went to the Halloween parade. We rode in taxis and ran around the city all night. At the film studio we visited, we had faux screen tests. Screen tests are strange things: we watched ourselves afterwards. They are too up-close and too personal. They catch everything. I could never be a film actor. I lost my glasses in the film studio and had to have them mailed to me when they found them a week or so after I had left.
The goal was to give us an idea of what it's like to be a practicing theatre artist in New York City. I just wish that I had known at the time that I wasn't really going to be interested in acting anymore. I wish I had known enough to ask the theatre professionals we were introduced to more questions about playwriting and directing. But I was star-struck, and on the wrong track. So in that sense it was a relatively wasted opportunity
fax over IP
Recently, my boss discussed with me making our work environment more cost effective. He wanted some suggestions on things that we thought would help cut expenses in the office and asked as all to come up with some ideas. Well, quite honestly, the one major expense that I knew we had was the cost of our phone and fax services. We do a lot of long distance calling and faxing, which in our business is a necessity. However, I was currently experiencing the same dilemma at home. How could I still maintain a good quality phone service and not have to spend so much per month to keep it going?
Well, fortunately I was able to solve my own personal phone bill problem and save my boss some money at the same time. The answer I found was VoIP and FoIP services. VoIP is a voice over IP service which allows you to make phone calls through your computer, no phone carrier is necessary. For a flat fee per month I was able to have unlimited calling to anywhere in the world. This would cut my current phone bills in half at the very least. They did also offer business plans which would allow our office to save a ton of money on their bills as well. While inquiring about all this, I mentioned the fact that our phone bills were also very high because in addition to making tons of long distance phone calls, we were sending a lot of long distance faxes as well. That is when the representative told me about FoIP.
FoIP which stands for fax over ip allows you to use a fax server to do all your faxing via the internet. They said that you didn't need a fax machine any longer, so no need for toner cartridges or paper or any machine at all. You can send and receive faxes over the internet, no hard copy is even necessary. You are assigned a Fax number and anyone can send you faxes to that number from any fax machine (even analog), and you don't even need a fax machine to receive it. Just go online and your fax is there waiting for you. This will even allow our sales people to send us documents and receive documents from us on their laptops, without having to run and look for one of those places with a fax machine. This will be great when they are on the road.
I brought these ideas to my boss, and he gave me a raise. He said with all the money he was about to save he could afford it.
Umbria villas
There are so many different ways to live in Europe. You could be the classic backpacker that hops from hostel to hostel. You can be the seasonal traveler that stays in the well-known hotels in all the major tourist cities. You could be the frequent businessperson that stays at the most expedient business hotels near the financial centers. Or, as I recently found out, you could buy or rent one of the many Italian villas that are offered nowadays and truly live in style. Frankly, I would love to live in one of the colorful, quaint Cinque Terre apartments that you always see on posters and calendars. The homes themselves are stunning, from what I can tell. I suppose that they won't be another bland tract home sitting next to another bland tract home separated by a strip of grass that is a little too neatly trimmed to be real. Rather, you would be living in one of the Le Marche villas near the Italian coast, with your entranceway, patio, bedrooms, and bathrooms all arranged in a way different from the various Italian villas next door. There would be some common areas in which to host guests, probably a quaint, beautiful kitchen, and interesting twists and angles that would make your villa distinct from all the other Le Marche villas. On top of the architecture, the location would be superb. Sure, you can get nice ranch homes in the northern states, settle comfortably in Florida or Hawaii, or buy nice homes or haciendas in Mexico, but imagine living in one of the many Umbria villas next to wineries, towns, and pure Italian culture. You wouldn't need to live in a super special, highly sought after location, but the very fact that you are in Italy would automatically add some flair to your life. Also, the scenery would be beautiful. Whether you live in one of the Umbria villas enjoying the interior of Italy, or in one of the Cinque Terre apartments enjoying its coasts, these locales would offer views and experiences much more distinct and cultured than any location in the United States.
payday advance
If you are in need of a little extra cash for a short term problem, then taking out a payday loan may be right for you. This type of cash advance is meant to help you out with an unexpected expense or issue that has arisen suddenly. These loans are not meant as a long term solution.
To obtain a payday advance, all you must do is get a pay stub and a bank statement and a check from your account and your id. You fill out the paperwork, and they don't even do a credit check. Once all the initial information is entered into their computer system, then you are ready to go. They will tell you an amount that you are approved for and let's say that the amount is $300.00, then you write them a check for 300 + the interest they are going to charge you, then they hang onto that check for collateral. If you come back on your next payday and pay them, then they tear up the check. If you don't then they may try to cash the check.
In any case these types of loans are supposed to be paid back on your next payday; the problem with this is that most people can not afford to pay back half their paycheck to the payday loan people. But that's okay, because after you pay back your payday loan they will allow you to keep taking it out every payday. This cycle can be a difficult one to break, but you must really try to get the loan paid back even if it takes a few paydays or longer to get it completely paid off.
Taking out a payday advance can be a necessary thing for some people. It is a process that is easy and as long as you have a job and a bank account, then you will be eligible for this type of cash advance. You can obtain money, usually within an hour and for the most part these companies are reputable.
On the other hand however, it can become the money pit. The interest on these loans is extremely high, and paying them back is not always an easy task. Taking out these loans over and over again is a pitfall many people fall into.
engraving
When my Grandfather passed away, I had the job of having to clean out his house, and sorting through his belongings. Quite honestly, it was a really difficult job to do. The man was a total pack rat. He has old newspapers some that dated back from 1940's and a collection of model cars. He had old paintings, furnishings, and even a bunch of old toys. He had musical instruments and music boxes, and even old Avon perfume bottles that my grandma used to collect. The job took about a year to completely get through everything and get it distributed, sold, or dumped which ever was appropriate. It was like the antique road show, gone wild. I did have some things appraised and some actually were worth something.
One thing I found in his attic which I truly enjoyed was a box of items that he had obviously acquired over the years. There were many engraved gifts in the box, things with all different dates, saying things like congratulations on your promotion, and one of the personalized gifts was actually from his marriage to my grandma back in 1960 with their names and the dates on them. I didn't realize that they did custom laser engraving back that long ago, but that is surely how this challis appeared. In any case, it was really nice to have things that had events and times on them, kind of a walk down memory lane. Since grandma and grandpa were both deceased, it was difficult for most of the family members to date some of the older items and where they had come from. Some of the gifts my mom knew around when and where they had been obtained.
It was a very sad time, and at times a very difficult job, but cleaning through my grandfather's house quite frankly brought me closer to my family's roots than I had ever been before. I think that year, our family had more talk about them and the past then we had ever had. I learned about the stories from their childhood, and from my mother's. She even spoke about her grandparents and who they were and where they were from.
Although, a difficult time, our family was definitely brought closer together with the death of my grandfather, and for that I am grateful.
Rome apartments
My grandparents took a trip to Italy for their 45th wedding anniversary. They both were from there and decide that it would be a great way to celebrate. My grandfather was raised in Florence, and my grandmother's family is still in Tuscany, so they decided to just take a month and finally make the trip. When they came back from the trip, they had lots of stories and laughs to tell about.
While in Rome, they got lost and had to ask for help, and it actually was a person that they had known from back in the day. Well, needless to say, they didn't recognize the man at first, but then as the man was helping them locate the Rome apartments that they were staying at, they got to talking and he introduced himself and well one thing led to another and they were having dinner that night with him and his family.
When they left Rome, they went to Florence. My grandmother raved about the Florence apartments, and how beautiful they were, my grandfather on the other hand was not so thrilled. Although, they did enjoy the galleries, I think he was a bit disappointed at all the changes he saw. I think he expected things to be the same as when he was a kid, needless to say, everything changes.
Then they were off to Tuscany. My grandfather had better things to say about the Lucca apartments that they stayed in. My grandmother could only speak about seeing her cousin Rosa and her family and how nice it was to see everyone again. They had a big family get together and talked about the old days.
Finally, they had both really wanted to see Venice and had never been. They stayed in Venice apartments Well, they took a romantic Gondola ride under the bridge of sighs and loved it. It is hard to imagine, but my grandparents are still crazy for each other after all these years. They hold hands, and kiss, and even sometimes just look at each other with love in their eyes. It is really quite cute, to say the least. Anyway, Grandpa was hinting about the romantic evening they had. Claiming that after the gondola ride, it was so romantic that they went back to their Venice apartments and spent a romantic evening with wine and candlelight, just the two of them, if you know what I mean. In any case, I think it was true because Grandma was blushing. Hopefully I will find that kind of love some day.
business phone systems
I just picked up a night job to supplement my income while I am here at school. Unfortunately, the only job that really suited my schedule with flexibility of hours and schedule was a telemarketing job. I have always hated telemarketers when they call me and I am not a really pushy person, so I am not sure how far I can go in this job. In any case, I have worked a few nights being trained so far, and I am just amazed at their phone system.
Apparently, they use what is called an SIP phone system. To my understanding, this is a system by which your phone is channeled through your computer and uses it to make phone calls. I have seen many business phone systems in the past, but never one that worked like this one. The manager told me that the system is very reliable, and on top of that extremely cost efficient. Since, all telemarketers do is call people all over the US all the time, they found that this system was the best way to keep costs low.
I found this system so interesting, that I had to find out more about. It seems that this is the new wave of phone technology. You actually use a device to wire your landline phone through your computer and for a flat fee (no extra charges or long distance charges) you connect to other people using a broadband connection. No worries, the phone you are calling does not have to be an SIP phone, it can be a cell phone or even a landline phone. It doesn't matter. You receive a similar phone service to that of a landline phone with no additional charges. With the right carrier, your service can be just as reliable with this type of system as it is on your current landline phone. All this for less than half the price of what your current carrier is charging. Sometimes, it seems that technology changes so fast, it is nearly impossible to keep up with the newest and latest advancements. I am just glad that I learned about this service. Now, I can switch my home phone and give it a try. It is a minimal investment to switch and I guess if it really doesn't work out, I can switch back with no problems. I don't really see that happening though.
Rick Stonell
If you are wanting to get information out to the world, the best place to do it is on the internet. There are some great ways to increase your chances of a search engine picking up your name. One way is to have a few similar domain names that are almost the same, but not quite. Studies have shown that the larger search engines like google will draw similar domain names together. For instance, let's say that your name is Rick Stowell then you might want that domain name and one like Rick Stonell. I guess that since so many people misspell words on the internet, it would be very easy for someone to incorrectly type the name Rick Stonell instead. The only problem with this is if the website Rick Stonell is taken, then you may wind up directing traffic to another web site instead of yours.
You need to be really careful when deciding on a web domain name for a company or site that you want to start. When choosing, try not to pick the most commonly misspelled words, and if you do choose a name of this kind, be sure to purchase all web domains of the common misspellings of these words. For instance, if your website has the word equipment then be sure to also purchase a domain name of the most common misspelling of this word which is equiptment. If you are unsure about possible misspellings, just go online and type in the word, then go in and misspell it and you will probably find that someone online has misspelled that word in the same way you have.
To give you an idea these words are some of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language:
minuscule
millennium
embarrassment
occurrence
supersede
noticeable
harass
inoculate
Be sure to check out online for which words are most commonly misspelled (by the way misspelled is one of those words). I found lists of them, and some of them are words that you may not think of. Try to think of all possible ways that people could mistype your web domain name, and try to get those names too.
I any event, try your best to cover all your bases. You can't be sure whether someone might mess up when typing in your address, but if they do, you want to make sure they find your site no matter what.
Search engine
I am so excited, several months ago I created my own website. I really thought that it was going to be a really complicated process. I found a great web design company that was all inclusive. They helped me get my web address set up. On this site I was able to layout my website the way I wanted it, design and colors and everything. I got all my products up, and everything was looking really good. I also got a shopping cart set up and linked with a way to take payments and I did it all for a low monthly fee. I was really excited about the whole thing.
Once my page was online, I checked it all the time, and it didn't really have anyone visiting it. I waited, very anxious for my first order. Well, week after week I waited, and nothing. I wondered what I was doing wrong. Were my items not saleable? Were my prices too high? Well, I really couldn't figure out where I had gone wrong. I then began researching online about websites and learned about search engine marketing and search engine optimization. SEO as it is more commonly called, is optimizing your website for certain keywords to come up higher in search results. It is complicated, you have to change the wording on your page, add lots of content, and try to get links to your page. Many people hire someone to do their SEO. The goal is to get higher in search results with companies like MSN, yahoo, and google. If you have ever wondered how to get your name on the first page of search results for certain keywords, this is the way. Instead of doing it yourself, I recommend you find a reliable SEO company, and let them know your main keywords. If you are not sure which words to use they can help you do this. Search engine optimization apparently is imperative. There is a fee for this service, however, without it your website will probably not get any traffic or sales, so this fee is a worthwhile investment if you want your site to take off.
Well, I did hire a reliable search engine optimization company, and it really paid off. Now I have plenty of sales and my website has gone up in ranking on all the major search engines for the keywords we established together. The lesson, always research questions you have on your computer. In this day and age, almost every question you need answered is online somewhere. Don't be afraid to ask, the payoff can be amazing!
Life insurance
Today is a sad day, my great uncle passed away, and his poor widow found out that he had stopped paying his life insurance premiums 2 years ago. She had never tried to understand the finances of it all, and now it was too late. They had just a small savings, and of course their social security checks, which don't amount to a lot of money. She spent most of the day, just shaking her head in disbelief, since she found out that his life insurance premiums were only about $28.00 per month and his death benefit would have been $200,000. Now she has to make the cheapest funeral arrangements possible and will probably have to spend the rest of her days scrimping and saving every dime to try and make ends meet. It is really sad. The family would be glad to help her out, but she is proud and will never accept charity.
I just can't understand why he stopped paying the premiums, did he forget? Term life insurance is not very expensive at all. It is a shame that more people don't realize how much a life insurance policy can help their family members out in their time of crisis. Life insurance can help cover things like paying off a mortgage, or paying for funeral arrangements, or just help to give a loved one some money in the bank. Especially, if that other person is your spouse and counts on you for a source of income and stability. I guess many people don't like to think about dying, but unfortunately it happens to all of us, and in that case, life insurance is the most important type of insurance to have. Let's face it, you may not ever get into a car accident, or have your home burn down, but you are definitely going to die and that may sound morbid, but it is true. No matter how much you avoid it, death is something that is guaranteed, and therefore there is no better insurance policy than a life insurance policy.
Life insurance is really important, and keeping up with your premiums is imperative. Whether you choose a whole life policy ( one that builds cash value ) or a term life policy ( one that only pays benefits when you die ), if you don't have life insurance, be sure to get a policy now. Don't wait, your family needs to know that they are taken care of when you're gone.