A Better Life

So, after being almost completely out of money for over a week I now have funds again.  Tonight we through caution to the wind and have a bona fide old fashioned date night with my wife.  What a great time to celebrate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Of course, once the rent is paid and the utilities we will be back to tight budget again but for tonight we rejoice!

Before April 28 I was childless which was cool you know, the on April 28 about 6:00 PM I had 2 daughters.  Who I love more than I can describe   Now at 2:44 Friday morning I became a grandpa.  Whew, I need a nap. Such a year but surrounded by a growing family. I love my brood.   They are what makes life worthwhile.

So you've seen all the ads and the come hither looks of the internet. You are bored with your daily routine and want the riches promised by the home-based business on the internet. Well, welcome to the club. But beware, there be monsters in here. Before you dive in to the murky waters of internet marketing you will need a wee bit of instruction to avoid the sharks that lie in wait. You see anytime there is a promise of riches you can bet there will parasites destined to relieve you of your life savings without so much as a how do you do. They will promise riches to the tune of thousands each day and only having to put in a fraction of the time you now spend earning your scratch. So where in lies the problem? Although there are billions of people out there surfing the internet, there are millions trying to make money. This makes for a very crowded space and the opportunities for getting noticed are dwindling as well. So now that you are sufficiently discouraged you can now approach ...

Having multiple blogs and article directories to write for, I sometimes find it difficult to start a blog post or article. Sometimes I have trouble just constructing an informal email. What causes this? Lack of motivation? Lack of ideas? No, just blocked. What exactly is blocked? You have ideas and you can write endlessly but none of it sounds good enough to publish. How does one overcome this blockage? My experience has shown that if you continue to write, even if you don't like it and let it set for a day or two you will find that the article you wrote isn't that bad and should be shared. The main thing is to get writing by whatever means necessary. Read a newspaper, peruse CNN.com or any other news site, look over previous posts or review other blogs and articles to get ideas (ideas not articles and blog posts, plagiarism is a big no no). Sometimes I just don't feel like writing so I take a walk, a long walk something on the order of 5 miles or so to get the...

As we go through our lives sometimes circumstances beyond our control force us to take a break. Imagine you are going along and due to budget constraints or the Sequester, you are laid off from your job. This would be a forced break. You didn’t ask for it, you didn’t do anything to cause it, you just drew the short straw and now have to consider your options. One aspect of my job has been that it doesn’t really fit any particular mold or category recognized on job search sites. What should your resume (or resumes) focus on? Is it time for a career change? Should you even be searching for a job or try to build a business instead? It is very difficult and if you are fortunate enough to have finances in place to cover you for 6 months or so, maybe it is time to just kick back and review your life for a couple of weeks. Give yourself time to look over your work history and chart the course that best fits your experience, abilities and interests. Maybe starting a business has been ...

Events in life are sometimes unforeseen, unplanned and sometimes not in anyway your fault.  For instance, let's say you walk into work and you’re working away.  Then someone says you are to go to a conference room.  You walk in and they begin by saying, "Unfortunately,...".  From there you know this is not going to be good news.  The end result is you get a termination letter because you have been laid off.  Now, for most of us that is a devastating situation because, provided you are responsible for others in your household, how do you tell your significant other especially if you are the sole source of income?  What do you do now?  Imagine this happening when you are 50+ years old and it was already tight with the money you were bringing in?  This is a situation no one wants to find themselves in but happens every day to people throughout our country and the world.  What do people do? Well, the first thing one must do is wrap your head around this news psychologically, ...

So many times I have seen this particular scenario, particularly with women in my life. I am asked about doing something and I respond with a polite no. Does it end there? No, they proceed to continue their tirade until I give in or conveniently “change my mind”. Why can’t people respect the no? No means no. This is what I have always been told, usually in the context of dating but there are so many areas where a no should be respected and left alone. Some of the most current infractions have been when asked to purchase something for my apartment, my response was I can’t really afford that right now. Their response? Oh I will buy it and you can pay me back. Again the no was not taken seriously and now my finances are strained. What this behavior tells me is that no matter how I feel about something, I am not considered. Sometimes I may even feel compromised because I am being asked to do something I am truly not comfortable with. “You will go to this event whether you like ...