I do not have a single day off this week. It’s only Wednesday and I know I work through Sunday. I’m not going to have a lot of time to continue working on this, but I am going to try to spend a few minutes every other day either posting or making a theme change. Between the ideas I have organizing this website and making it more user friendly, and the help I am getting from friends, this website should be useful by the end of March. When I do manage some time off I will try experimenting with videos and audio. I appreciate your time and patience. This will be useful before this year is over!
January 25, 2010
I still have a lot of work to do in order to learn how to build a website. It’s one of those things that seems to elude me at times. I appreciate everyone’s patience and the fact that some of you keep returning. I am working on a few ideas, but it may take me a while to coordinate them. I hope to be adding content I can be proud of in the near future. The voice recognition software is working well for me so that should help and I recently purchased a decent WebCam so hopefully there will be videos in the future. This is just a progress report to let folks know I haven’t given up. Have a great day & be the good news!
Categories: Uncategorized.
January 4, 2010
I haven’t worked on this website for a while. This last month I have not been able to decide where I should be going with this. That is pretty much why I have not even bothered to post anything. I know I have a unique way with words, but I have been hesitant to speak my mind only because I have no idea how to format that into a website. I’m also pretty sure there are a lot of people who do not want to hear what I have to say. The question is this; “is there anyone out there who would love to hear what I have to say?” What do you think? I know I have not had much luck when it comes to inspiring comments from readers. And since I don’t know how to use Google analytics, I have no idea what kind traffic the site is getting. I know it has to have dropped dramatically just because I haven’t been any promoting it in a month. I’m going to link to idea offer and see what the people there have to say. Hopefully, one or two might comment here.
Categories: Uncategorized.
December 5, 2009
I’m trying to get a little more done with life, but my focus is for shit!! I did put a few more items on Amazon and I’ve put some on eBay. It looks like I’ll be donating a whole lot of things to charity at the end of the year because I’m going to get out of the resell business for the most part. I do not mind working with Amazon even if the commissions can be brutal. Many times eBay turns out to be a whole lot more trouble than it is worth. Since I’ve managed to quit smoking, I can live on the income I’m making. The only problem with that is I am not getting ahead at all. Not getting ahead doesn’t bother me……….. it’s the fact that I went deeper into debt this year! The diet isn’t working out for me so well either. Sooner or later, I’m just going to have to deal with the fact that I have to make this a part of my daily routine! Here’s hoping the few of you pop in are having a great holiday season, & someday we will become friends!
Categories: progress.
November 30, 2009
I was in a singles chat room this morning when someone posted a link to the Burlington liars club. Being the extremely curious person I am, I just had to go over there and read.
After reading all of the entries, I just could not resist entering this year’s contest. My entry is as follows:
“I moved from Georgia to Florida four years ago and I still can’t get over how fast the weather can change here. The other morning I lit a cigarette before stepping out on the porch to take a picture of the frost on the grass. Now I have an autofocus camera, so I figured this would be a breeze. Before the camera could focus we had a hailstorm of golf ball sized hail, the sun came out & melted the hail, dried up the water and the grass was turning brown before the camera finally clicked. And to top it all off, I still had 1/2 my cigarette left!!!”
Hope you enjoyed it and feel free to go there & browse for yourself.
Categories: smiles.
November 22, 2009
I received a phone call at 5:30 this morning. It was my daughter telling me she had come down to surprise me and needing directions for the last few miles of the journey. My roommate, and my sister, both tell me it was incredibly rude of her to just drop in without calling first. What they fail to understand is that we are both comfortable calling each other at any time, day or night. And any time that we spend together we consider a blessing and treasure!! She knows I rent a room and that she wouldn’t be able to stay here, so she brought camping gear with her. I was able to get her an inexpensive room in the hotel so that she didn’t have to camp out. Like most parents, I take it personally when my kid is insulted. This prompted some deep thought and I’ve come to some conclusions:
First off, my daughter has incredible survival skills, especially for someone her age. Second, we have the best parent-child relationship of anybody I know! There is not a single subject that is taboo. We’ve discussed our sex lives, the mistakes we’ve made and personal problems. My daughter is a happy, healthy adult who is able to take care of herself, mainly because I taught her those skills. This meant I passed on knowledge acquired the hard, so that she did not have to experience a lot of the discomfort that I endured. As far as I’m concerned, that makes me a very successful parent!!!
This year I spent way too much time thinking about what I “should” do. My income has been cut, so I should figure out someway to supplement it. I have very little money put back towards retirement, so I should start a retirement account. I should also quit smoking, lose weight and develop a social life. Back in March I tried to tackle all of those things at once. I made a little progress on a variety of them but it eventually fell apart. I am tackling them one at a time now and I’m seeing progress. I’ve almost got the smoking beat. That almost offsets my cut in work/pay. I have even taken a few small steps towards developing a social life. Next I’ll be tackling the weight loss. I’m slowly but surely becoming a better me.
Today turned out to be a great day to reflect on my life. I realized that I have all the money needed to supply my needs and most of my wants. Over the years I’ve developed a mindset which allows me to be happy, even when I was incarcerated. I’m honest, compassionate, kind, a great parent, often generous AND make an effort to spread laughter. I have everything I need, and almost everything I want. I have the skills to survive no matter what life throws at me. In short, I am already a success by my definition. Isn’t that truly the only one that matters?
What is your definition of success? How are you working towards fulfilling that definition? And last, but not least, what can I do to help you?
Categories: Info, improve lives.
November 20, 2009
First, I have this website and a free one I set up at weebly.com. Dreamweaver enterprises is my other website. You can find me on social media websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. I have also written a few short articles on other sites. You’ll find two articles about being poor on Squidoo.com. The first is “Poverty: Our Shame and our Blame” and the second is, “Being more than just poor“. I’ve written some how-to articles on GoToGuy and eHow. You’d be amazed at how much of the stuff I have just simply deleted because I didn’t feel like the content was of high enough quality! One entire website, believe it or not!! With the exception of MySpace, all of this has been done in the last six or seven months. And today I was even mentioned on someone else’s blog, LifeExcursion! Say what you will about me, it’s evident I have been making an effort.
My dilemma is this: do I keep this site and just continued adding to it, or start a new one that is primarily a blog? I seldom ask, but this time PLEASE leave comments and tell me your opinion!
Categories: helpful links.
November 14, 2009
The reason I got involved with websites and blogging was because I wanted to learn more about them. I also intended to try to become a resource for the poor. I’ve learned a little more about them, but becoming a resource for the poor has been a dismal failure.
There is a really good chance that I’m going to let this website die at years end. I will probably settle for the free websites instead of paying for hosting. I’ve decided I don’t care who is the most popular, most recommended providers of these services. What I really care about is ease of use since the technical aspects are whupping my ass!! I accomplish a whole lot more, and understand it so much better, when I used weebly.com that I’ve decided to go back to just using them. I will try to move some of the content here over to the other site before this one totally goes away. Not only is it so much easier, it makes doing this a lot more fun. I do plan to continue expanding my on-line presence, but I intend to change my goals somewhat. I had originally hoped to help the poor and generate some income. Instead, I have spent money that I really could not afford. As far as I know, I have not helped the first poor person. That’s okay though, I have learned a lot and met a lot of really nice people. All this effort has not been wasted. I have made a few people laugh, which is always a good thing. Have encouraged quite a few others; and that adds to positive karma!
If anyone is reading this, I would really appreciate some kind of comment. I know there’s a few of you out there who drop by just to see what the crazy person has put up now. If you are one of those repeat offenders, err uh, I mean visitors, tell me what you would like me to do for you.
Oh by the way, I’m down to about five cigarettes a week. Just in case anyone is curious. Have a great day and hope your life gets better every minute!!
Categories: Uncategorized.
October 27, 2009
Okay, I’ve been kind of a slacker for the last two weeks. In my defense, I have been working my regular job. I enjoy it and I have had some time off, though not much. And I have yet to stop smoking, but I have gone from two packs a day to two packs a week! I still have a lot to learn about how WordPress works. I have the voice recognition software now so I should be posting more often. I even did a survey that rewarded me with $55 and a pocket cam. That means I could do videos … if I didn’t have a face made for radio! All right, maybe it’s not that bad. As far as I know, I’ve never given a child nightmares!
Actually, I intend to add video and audio entries to this site someday. I really need to learn more about video editing, and audio editing for that matter, before that becomes a reality!
I realize I’ve wasted a lot of time that could have been spent generating some income. I also realize that as long as I have enough money to pay all my bills, I really just can’t let money be a priority! It’s true that I would like some nice new toys and to be out of debt, but neither are burning desires.
I know there are ways to monetize a blog, and even understand how they work …. somewhat. Eventually I may do that too, but for right now my major concerns are learning more about how things work. I also need to get in the habit of posting regularly, just in case somebody out there as crazy as I am wishes to stop by and read my ramblings! I still have no clue as to what my “niche” might be, especially since a majority of the people who could relate to me are either in prison or too poor to own a computer!! I have a rather unique way with words, unfortunately, it flows much more naturally in conversation than it does when I’m doing a blog post.
I’m still hoping that some day one of these people, half my age, with all this tech savvy, will feel sorry for me and say, “Dude, we have got to barter your broke ass a better website!” I mean, I could probably squeeze out a hundred dollars, maybe even 2 hundred, for a better website or at least one that more accurately reflects who I am. The thing is; I can really offer a lot more in merchandise, than in cash because part of what I do is find things selling well below retail and resell them. I prefer to sell on Amazon.com, but because of product restrictions, I often have merchandise that I have to sell on either eBay or craigslist. Both of those are much more frustrating so I think barter would be much more beneficial to me, and whoever can build a good website. I’m open to suggestions, criticism, comments, and even verbal abuse if it will make this better. In case you don’t know, that’s an open invitation for you all to respond. I hope to hear from someone this month just so that I know this is not done only for practice!. Some days I believe no one can hear you scream in cyberspace either! Have a great day and try not to do many of the things I have done!!!
Categories: Uncategorized.
October 12, 2009
Last week I wrote about giving up and the week before about transparency. Well today is supposed to be my first cigarette free day. I smoked three the first hour I was up this morning, and will admit to wanting one for the entire four hours since then. I have been on Chantix for a week. That means when I do smoke a cigarette I no longer feel the effects of the nicotine. It also means I have a funny taste in my mouth similar to when you burn your tongue on something too hot. I am not craving the nicotine so much as the familiar repetition of the act of smoking. My finances have been so convoluted this year that I wonder what it is going to take to lay them out in a coherent manner. I haven’t been keeping a budget. I went thousands of dollars into debt trying to start another part-time business. Although I have learned a lot, I have also lost more money than I earned!! Sometime, over the course of the next few weeks, I will do a post laying out my finances for this year. The only thing I’m sure of at this point is that my main job has provided less than $18,000 income year-to-date and I am normally at closer to $21k by this point in time. I also know I started this year 19k in debt. After paying 3k of that off, I am still 21k in debt at this point in time. I’ve actually done fairly well selling on Amazon.com, but the results from craigslist and eBay have been pretty dismal. Shipping also cost me more than Amazon charges the customer, more often than not.
I have been heading in too many directions. Now that my main job is finally providing some work, I can focus solely on that and stopping smoking. After I have stopped smoking for a month, then I’ll work on budgeting. Hopefully there’ll be enough work over the course of the next six weeks to provide my exercise. When the work dies sometime in November, I can shift my focus to exercise and budgeting. I have already decided to wait until the new year before I start the new website. Until then, hope you find things here to entertain and inspire or otherwise occupy you. I would also love to hear any suggestions you have for making this better!! Thanks for dropping by
Categories: Uncategorized.