A Better Life

Some events in our lives bode remembering and the more important ones, celebrating.  It is an odd practice to celebrate the passing of a year since some event.  The most obvious one, of course, would be one's birthday.  What better occasion to celebrate than one's entry into this life?  Other events that may be considered somewhat memorable would be the day of graduated from kindergarten, 6th grade, and more importantly high school.  If one makes it so far the day they graduate from college becomes a very memorable event.  However, as these events are noteworthy, we don't really celebrate them each year do we?  No, there are just some events we remember and some we bring out the party and share the moment with family and friends.   Events we usually actually celebrate would be the day we were engaged, the day we were married, the birth of our first child and subsequent children, the day we were hired for a particular life-changing job.  The list goes on.  Most importan

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 li

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 psychologic

I am constantly barraged by stress, either at work, at home or with extended family.  The primary reason is allocation of resources, especially time.  My wife wants many things but mainly she just wants to spend time with me and our granddaughter when she comes to visit.  Her visits are extended and often since we are currently sharing custody of the little angel with the dad's parents.  However, I also must spend time on my job and the other online businesses I am working on launching for some extra money.  Even though I do okay in the salary department, there never seems to be enough for all the things that are needed, wanted, desired, etc.  Since I am the only one with a proper job this makes the situation grim at times.  My wife doesn't work for health reasons but has been very understanding. I have gone through the usual barrage of internet get rich schemes.  Spent a bit of money here and there with very little return for the effort and expense.  However, I have found

Since I have been bored and require constant attention, I decided to embark on a challenge to write 30 articles in 30 days so here are the articles I have written and published (not paid, just accepted and put online by the good folks at www.streetarticles.com): 1. LLC or Sole Proprietorship 2.  Does More Money Spent Equal More Money Earned? 3.  Buyer Beware - Tips to Avoid Losing Your Money In Internet Marketing 4.  When A Home-based Business is Necessary 5.  How A Home-based Business Can Take Over Your Life 6.  Online Surveys - Real Money Or Fantasy 7.  Scheduling Your Success 8.  Organizing Chaos 9.  Pirates - Pioneers Of the Home Based Business I highly recommend Street Articles  for anyone interested in getting some content online who don't already have a website.  You can achieve expert status quickly and use this site to launch your articles to promote yourself, products, services, etc.  Also provides a chance to work on your writing chops.  The acceptance rate o

Way back when I was in the process of graduating high school, we along with probably every other high school in the union were required to take the ASVAB test (ASVAB, or Armed Services Vocation Aptitude Battery, is a test given to determine suitability to serve in the armed services). The test covered among many other topics, mathematics, simple, applied and theoretical and tools by showing you a picture and you have to determine what said tool was designed for.  I was shall we say deficient in my advanced knowledge of math and some of those tools looked more like implements for torture than anything else.  Needless to say, I did not do well in these areas but exceeded quite effectively in all other areas.  Since I was determined to pursue a career in the ministry (Fundamental Baptist Minister to be exact), insufficient mathematical skills were not a concern.  Since doing well on the test, I was contacted by the US Army recruiter in our little town.  He was very insistent that I s

As a son I appreciate the need to celebrate Mothers. My mother especially. She is not the easy going June Cleaver type or the Jane Wyman Father Knows Best type. She is more of a cross between Ma Kettle and Mrs. Tasmanian Devil. She has good core country values, Christian purpose but is not one to tangle with. I love my mother but she can be a handful. She is protective, sometimes belligerent, always defending herself and her family but not willing or able to just let slights go by. As her son, I have seen her in good times and bad. When we were poor living in a project and when we had everything. Through it all she remains consistently true to herself and family. She is a little bit different because she hails from New Orleans, actually East of New Orleans in the swamps and Mississippi delta which breeds a particularly strong type of inidividual. She can dish it out and she can take it. There are times to joke around with her, get in an insult match but then there are times

Now that tablets have taken over (I am typing this on my iPad Pro), finding the right tools is more important than ever. Used to be a couple of apps would suffice. For this article I am using Blogo which is usable but in the free version imposes some arbitrary limits. One non-app purchase i have made is a bluetooth keyboard. Typing onscreen is not intuitive nor is it useful for those of us who cantouch type. 2 finger typing is painful at best.

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