Back to school?

I've spoken recently about my need to find a new career. I was never one for school much, had a hard time transitioning from private school back into public school which ultimately contributed to the demise of my scholastic career in my Junior year of high school. Sigh...

I do regret not finishing high school even though I did get my G.E.D. about 2 months before I would have graduated. Still, that G.E.D. never offers me an invitation to a class reunion :(

Speaking of higher education, I have dabbled around it a few times. I took a Certified Nurses Assistant course at the local community college and worked in that field for a few short years. Later, I took Accounting 101 at a different branch of the local area community college and finished at the top of my class! Of course, my prior on the job experience in the field added to my success.

Thinking about changing or adding to my current career in the Accounting and Payroll field, I'm not sure how I feel about online business administration degrees. I think I need to do a bit more research. Obvious questions keep popping up in my mind. Having no face to face contact with your instructor seems a bit odd. If you have to ask questions, do you just email? Now we are relying on our skills to communicate our needs or questions via written word as well as interpret a response accordingly. Still, when I have ventured out into the job pool at various times over the past few years, a lack of a degree of some kind was a thorn on my resume. I have known several people who have had great success with online classes! Perhaps I should consider and reconsider my options and take a class or two from an accredited online college. I'll keep you updated!

Decline of Intelligenz....

I don't know if you have noticed this in your world...but it seems to me that there is a significant decline of intelligence these days. Now, I won't pretend to be smarter than a fifth grader because let's face it, I have forgotten more than I remember from that era of my life!

I have noticed that, basic rules from spelling and English language skills seem to be harder and harder to see. Texting and Instant Messaging lingo has slipped in and no one seems to care that today's youth uses such bad grammar!! The saddest part is to see adults who *should* know better sliding off that slope with the rest of them. Now it is moving beyond text and IM, here's one tiny example I took straight from a Facebook comment: "HOORAY WHERE BACK ON BUSINESS!" First of all, the saying is "We're back in business." Where is a place and since when is anyone ON business?? Oy vay!!

Chatsling, Netlingo and all the other Text lingos are sometimes hard to interpret as well. For some great online helps, try Teenangels. They offer a variety of helps by teens to parents and teachers for things like cyberbullying, game ratings and much, much more. Did I mention it was free info??

Parents, please have a discussion with your children about these things. Help them with their language and English skills around the house...don't ever give up! Sure itz fun 2 b cre8ive & all dat just try to incorporate some good grammar when you can. Don't rely on the

Ok, now you can go back to researching life insurance quotes or whatever else you do online...

Twitter much?

How many of my blogging friends are on Twitter? Let's follow each other! Follow me here and I'll follow you, too. :)

Time for a new career?

In these harsh economic times, a growing number of people are considering going back to school to learn a new trade. I have considered this option. I have always been interested in forensic science and crime scene investigation. I also have a love of photography so I'm thinking......perhaps a mix of the two?

I really enjoy tv shows such as The First 48, Crime 360 or Forensic Files. I feel like I've learned alot from watching real shows like these over the years but of course there's always more I could learn. We have a client at my work who is a forensic anthropologist and she was telling me about a class that St. Louis University has that I am considering. You don't have to be employed in the field to take the class, which is nice. Not 100% sure I can afford the class, it's $850 but I can make payments on it until it's paid for.

The class is called 'Medicolegal Death Investigators Training Course'. It's a 1 week course offered only 3 times a year that covers 29 topics of study ranging from 'Are you sure it's a natural death?' to 'Identification techniques' to 'SIDS' and more! I am really considering taking this class...I mean, it's not like I'm capable of creating a new wonder acne treatment that will make millions! I certainly don't like hearing my boss say it's time to close the office because he's out of money...again! I need a little better stability and there will always be crime! How about you, considering education for a new career?

Pet Peeves. Yeah, I got em'

I have a few pet peeves, I think we all do. As much as we try to be tolerant of other people's habits and quirks, sometimes things bug us and we just can't help it. I'm sure if we could list all our pet peeves we'd end up with a list a mile long!

Today I'd like to mention just one special pet peeve of mine. Any guesses? No, it's not people who look down at their hands while they play piano. No, it's not when people text while driving, although that is high on my list.

Today's pet peeve has to do with telephone calls. Here's the situation, they either:
1. Never have their phone on
2. Never answer the phone when you call
3. Never call back when they see the 'missed call' or
4. Never return your call when you leave a message!

UGH! Seriously...maybe it's the Italian in me, but that is sooo disrespectful. Nothing says, 'you aren't important like to me' like not being answered or called back. Especially if you leave a message saying hey, I need some information you have. I understand people are busy...what, like I'm not?? I guess some people just don't put the same importance on the certain things we do but it really does get under my skin when it happens over and over again with the same people.

What's your favorite social networking site?

I realize that I am old fashioned when it comes to certain principals. I can't help but to be put off by the idea of Facebook or Twitter or MySpace or any of the other social networking sites. Do I really need to know every little detail of everybody else's life? Do they all need to know what I am doing at all times during the day? Do I really need yet another distraction in my day to keep me from doing the things I need to do or being the person I need to be? Are we losing touch with reality with our relationships? Some might say they are 'closer' to other people because of their participation and some might say they now rarely communicate by traditional means, even email or by phone, now that they are 'Tweeting' and such.

So now I want to hear from you. What is it about the social networking sites you belong to that you have liked or not liked? What are some pros and cons? What are your thoughts on the extent at which you feel you need to be 'plugged in' in order to keep up? What would you change if you could? Do you have any concerns about the reality of your relationships being like disposable gloves in the sense that you don't make as much 1 on 1 contact with those around you? How many minutes or hours would you say you spend a day on these sites? Am I just missing the boat?

"This is your captain speaking..."

The phone rings in your office. You answer to a loud and annoying fog horn blowing. Soon, a man's voice comes on the line, "Hello. This is your captain speaking. You have been chosen to receive a free cruise to Nassau, Bahamas! All you have to do is.." Meanwhile, you can hear dingies dinging and sea gulls hovering about...as if sea gulls every enticed someone to get on board!

The point is, this is the 3rd time this week I've taken this SAME call from 'the Captain' with the SAME offer, UGH! If only there was a way to find out who was calling so I could call them up and give them a piece of my mind and perhaps get my number off their list!

Well, now there is a reverse phone look up service that can trace any phone number and let you know where the call is coming from and who it is! Callerbase.com can be used for telephone and cell phone numbers in the US and Canada and there is no way for them to know you are researching the information. Have you ever gotten a missed call from an unknown number and they don't leave you a message? Well, look the number up on Callerbase.com and see who it is before returning the call, you may not want to at all!

The internet is taking over the world!

I remember back in the day when you would receive party invitations by way of snail mail. A nice postcard, perhaps a flyer of some sort.

Now days, you get an email from the company with links to click to get to the party information. The who is having the party, the where the party will be, the what time to arrive and all the RSVP options you can think of, including 'Maybe'!

I recently received one such evite to a Southern Living at Home party. The hostess was able to see all the guest replies on her special page and plan her party refreshments accordingly. Also, because I had RSVP'd 'Yes', the system sent me a reminder email about the party a day or so before the date so I would remember. Remember getting that reminder phone call from the hostess? It was so personal and friendly...

Today I received an evite to an Arbonne party. This evite was a bit different. When you clicked on the link, it took you to a page where you could see everyone else on the list and how they responded to their invitation. Interesting!!! I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. If you are on the fence about going and see that she has a few others already going, you might be tempted to click 'no' more easily or you might feel more obligated to go if she doesn't have many saying 'yes'. In that case, it would be a good thing to have it displayed that way. At any rate, it just seems like the internet is replacing more and more personal touches we take for granted and don't notice until they are gone. Hmmm....I do enjoy the convenience and interaction of the evite offering it's links to view the products before hand but at the same time I miss the personal touch of a tangible invitation to stick up on the fridge and that friendly phone call from the hostess. :-)

Cell phone booster - mobile peace of mind

You may remember a post I did a couple of months back called "True story: Picture this...". It tells of a real life boating accident that happened to my dad and his friend. They had too little cell phone reception out on the river to call for help. I wish they would have had a mobile cell phone booster like the one by Wilson I was just given to try out from Powerful Signal. Here's a video that tells all about it:

I was delighted to see how many accessories it came with, adding to it's versatility. I'll be able to go straight from the car to the boat without having to remember extra adapters or parts, it's all conveniently stored in the carrying case which has a very nice handle (which didn't show up well on the video).

It was *extremely* easy to set up and it delivered amplified signal on the first try-within moments after turning it on! I couldn't be happier to have received such an asset to my mobile peace of mind. Hey, I'm a single lady and driving long distances back and forth to see family as well as being out in remote areas fishing and boating will be enjoyed more peacefully from now on.

Thanks again to all the kind folks over at PowerfulSignal.com for providing this opportunity and choosing me as a recipient. I will make sure it is put to good use! It's not quite boating season yet, so because it was the closest location I could think of, I'd also like to thank Kim, my co-director and photographer for creative help and patience but most of all, for lending me the use of her house...the place where cell phone signal goes to die! :)

He's so precious to me!

I need some practice using the video feature on my camera in order to create a video for an upcoming assignment so I decided to capture my nephew doing something just precious. I just love this kid! Enjoy:



The best part is that he doesn't even talk full time yet! He says a few words and uses sign language some and of course is learning more and more everyday....that's why I wanted to capture him telling a joke before he even talked. Kids can bring so much joy and laughter to your life!

I wish I had a laptop

Seriously.

One of these days, I will get one. My brother recently got one and it's been great for him! Because of that, I've been thinking there have been so many times recently where taking my computer with me would be so helpful! Take tonight for instance, I have a meeting at church about the details for the Mother's Day tea coming up in May and I could really put it to good use to keep all the details in order, photos brought in to be used could be scanned in and then returned right away, we could watch other mother's day skits on YouTube and see if there's anything that will fit our theme...the list of good possible uses goes on and on!


So, does anyone have one they aren't using anymore? I could just add a little laptop memory and make good use of it! :) No?

True story: Picture this...

It's a nice summer day on the river in some remote county in the country. You've gotten up way too early and suffered those early hour low temperatures just to enjoy the opportunity for some sunrise fishing on the water. It's just you and your man out on the boat, relaxing, catching up and casting out. You've packed a lunch and some snacks and drinks because you've come this far away from home, you'd might as well stay for the day!

Running up and down the river, you're searching for *just* the right spot to catch a nice bass or two when all of a sudden, your whole world is changed. You are not quite sure what happened but suddenly you are thrust forward crashing into the inside front of the boat. The boat stopped but you didn't. There's pain, there's blood. Apparently we've hit an unforeseen underwater obstacle! You look over and see that your man has hurt his legs and knees but he will be ok. You are not so lucky. You see him trying to get to you and then he wraps his t-shirt around your head. The next thing you know, you wake up in an ambulance.

This is a true story that happened to my dad and his girlfriend on an unassuming summer day 2 years ago. They were out boating and fishing and they had a terrible accident. There was no help around and their cell phones had no signals in that place. Luckily some nice people came along and helped them tow their wrecked boat and got them to their vehicle. His girlfriend had a huge gash across her forehead and needed immediate attention. Other people tried to call for help to no avail due to the fact that they were too far away from any cell towers. In the end, they got her to a hospital and her blood loss wasn't fatal.

I fish with my dad in these remote type places all summer long! We take the boat and all the cousins on floating trips in these places when they come to visit. We also like to go riding on the 4 wheelers out in the woods. We all have cell phones but they are rendered useless without a signal! There are 2 different places on my regular routes alone where I have a loss of signal for a brief time. I could really put a universal cell phone booster to good use!

Not only would it be useful for the initial road trip to the woods or river or lake but it is also easily taken from the car right on board the boat or in the 4 wheeler pack to take along! The universal cell phone booster from 'Powerful Signal' boosts the signal with 3 watts of power making it sensitive enough to detect even the faintest signals even from shadowed cell towers. It works on all North American carriers for cell phones and with laptop data cards.

The benefits of having this handy helper go beyond extending cell phone battery life, which it does as well. They also offer many accessories to compliment the booster kit and utilize it in many ways which makes the kit priceless in most situations! I can think of a ton of great uses for this kit and would love the opportunity to put it to good use. It sure would offer some peace of mind in more ways than one! Emergency help can only respond if they are alerted to.

Something for the gift wishlist...

A couple of years ago, someone handed down to me a 5 in 1 mixing system. It was a sort of stand mixer, but not really. I guess it was more like a nicer hand mixer that you didn't have to hold in your hand. I created a dish for a special friends' night I was hosting that I really needed a good mixer for. Cold ground meats are not necessarily easily mixed by hand, after all!

I named the recipe "BeccA's Baked Ziti with Mini-Meatballs." The largest attachments my 5 in 1 set had were like normal hand mixer beaters. Now, if I would have had a Hamilton Beach Mixer, it would have made the recipe just right! Actually, if I would have had the Hamilton Beach Stand Mixer, to be exact, it would have been better blended! The recipe I created goes as follows:

Becca’s Baked Ziti w/ Mini Meatballs

Preparation time about 45 min.

Combined cook time about 1 hour

Mini Meatballs

¾ lb. ground round or chuck

¾ lb. ground Italian sausage

2 tblsp ground garlic

1 tblsp Italian seasonings

Salt & Pepper

2 tblsp Olive oil, in pan

Gravy & Pasta

3 jars of preferred sauce* (I use Sautéed Mushroom & Onion Ragu)

*Or equivalent amount of home made sauce if you like

2-3 jars of Giorgio sliced mushrooms, drained

2 tblsp ground garlic

¼ cup of dried minced onion

1 lg box of ziti style pasta noodles

Finishing

1 tub of Ricotta cheese

4 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

Begin by making the mini meatballs. Combine the 2 meats and spices (preferably with a stand mixer on low/medium with a large hook such as the dough hook attachment). Do not over mix the meat, just enough to incorporate the two meats together with the spices. Into a large skillet with olive oil in bottom, use a melon baller to scoop the spiced meat mixture into mini meatballs until all is used. You might have to thump it to release the meatballs from the scoop. Roll them around in the skillet to cook evenly. While the meatballs are cooking, heat the gravy in an oversized pot, adding the garlic, mushrooms and onion. Once the meatballs have slightly browned, drain well, and then add to the gravy. Simmer together for 10-15 minutes at a med-low heat. While the gravy and meatballs are simmering, boil water and cook the ziti. Important: Do Not Overcook The Pasta!!! Drain the pasta well. Next, add the pasta to the gravy. Carefully stir together just enough to distribute and coat the pasta. In a large baking dish (maybe a 9 x 13) spread a layer of the gravy and ziti. Sprinkle small spoons of Ricotta and shredded mozzarella cheeses. Next, another layer of gravy and ziti. Continue layering until the pan is full; the top layer should be a cheese layer.

Place the pan into the oven at 375 for 30-40 min. Enjoy!

Using my glorified hand mixer to combine the meat didn't go as well as it could have. The Eclectrics® Mixer has 400 watts of meat mixing power.



If I could have combined the dough hook attachment and the convenient pour shield, I could have incorporated the spices into the meat while gently mixing the sausage and burger together. You definitely don't want to over mix or over work the meat. It makes it too mushy and your mini meatballs will be weird. Try this recipe soon and let me know how you like it!

Meet Putty boy!

You may have noticed, I added this fun little guy to my sidebar which I have named Putty boy. No, not like putty in your hands...like "I taught I taw a putty tat". Maybe it would be better understood 'pooty' boy. But that's how I spell it, p-u-t-t-y. When my brother and I were young, we decided all cats should be named 'putty tats'. We've had 'Putty' he was a stray and our first cat. Actually this cat looks almost just like him, except he was all black with a white patch where a priest has that white collar. Too funny. Then there was Putty. I got her when I was 15 and I still have her! She's like 18 now...DO NOT ADD THOSE TWO TOGETHER, I AM 25 AND NOT A DAY OVER. Then we found a kitten in a box in our alley, so we kept him and called him Putty Jr. Which has now become just PJ, but he's 14. He's cute too. Now I have Putty boy for my blogging enjoyment.

I nabbed him from another website and put him right up here at the top. If you have your speakers on, you can hear him purr when you put the pointer over his tummy. He's so cute!!! I used to regularly visit a website kinda like the 'Feed the Head' one where a larger version of this kitty was. I'd pet him and play with him and listen to him purr. He's the perfect pet! You can give him love and he doesn't give you poop in a box! I can pet him at work and not worry about cat hair on my clothes!

So when you come back to the blog, and I know you will, often, don't forget to look for Putty boy somewhere over in the sidebar and let him know he's welcome!! He likes his tummy to be petted!

Where is it all coming from?

I have no idea why I've been getting so much spam in my inbox lately! I mean, where is it all coming from? I never had this problem until I started joining these free search engine sites to try and promote this blog! I don't think I've gotten any traffic like I'd hoped either.

And the spam is so filthy, how do they come up with this stuff? From secretaries to families to animals to pills! And none of it is spelled correctly! They have to try and disguise themselves, I guess. I just wish I could find a way to prevent the spam. Obviously my email server isn't doing a very good job of it.

And what about the fund transfers spam emails? Everyone knows they are scams, how are they even still around? I've even seen them say they were ATM transfers or from the president or hey, I've won a lottery in the UK! LOL

To all those spammers out there: Get a new job! Find a hobby! Go get some college football tickets or a massage, but leave me alone already! Sheeshk.

Bad girl...

I've been a bad girl lately. More specifically, a bad employee! Since I've been back from vacation, I've had so much non-work related things to do that I have been letting my work stuff slip away unfinished whilst I'm working on my own stuff. I know people do this from time to time, but it's been boosted lately by the fact that I can't really use my home computer right now.

It takes forever to boot up, forever to open programs and so on. Most nights, I don't even turn it on when I get home. I sure hope I doesn't need a new hard drive! Along with my regular bills, I have a new card payment and a speeding ticket to pay for! Ugh...'Calgon, take me away!'

Elephant

My friend sent me a link to this game and it's fun! Warning: it's also sort of addicting! She called it dodge, the tab only says 'Elephant' so I'm not sure of it's official name.

It's a challenging game where you use the right and left arrow keys to jump a sweet yellow chick back and forth whilst the unpredictable foot of the elephant taunts you in every direction trying to catch you off guard so it can stomp you! All the while, it times you to see how long you can keep it alive! I have to have the volume almost off, so I can't make out what is being said, but it looks funny! My best time so far is 23.8!!! What about yours? Play it, then post your top score here in the comments section.

Email issues...

Lately, it seems, my email service has been having some issues. They have a blurb on their login page that says there will be a new website to access in order to retrieve your email as of October 16th. Maybe they are abandoning the current one or neglecting it's issues for the time being, but it's acting up, so hopefully the new one will be better.

It seems, sometimes, not all the time, when I click on 'send', it appears in the 'draft' file. As if it's not sent. So, I go into it and then click send. Well, someone just told me they've been getting double emails from me! Hmmm....

I'll have to keep an eye on this. I hope when they go to the new website, these things will be fixed! Anyone else using Charter Communications for email???

For all you moms out there...

especially the ones with young children, don't forget to take pictures! I was talking earlier about digital cameras and how they are awesome these days with the better technology and features.

The problem is, and I hear this alot, 'I don't have time to snap photos! I'm too busy chasing after the kids.'

I hear you. I do! But I cannot stress to you enough to keep that camera handy around the house, throw it in the diaper bag. Make it a practice to capture those little fun times that make you smile. You will not regret it in the end!

And for all the scrapbooking moms out there (even if you haven't started scrapbooking yet, but would like to some day) I say once again, "You can't scrapbook it if you don't have pictures of it!" Mark my words....I've been preaching this so long, my friend Jen told me the other day, "My youngest one snuck off and I found him playing pee-a-boo in my shower! All I could think was Aunt Becca is gonna say, 'Why didn't you take pictures?' So I ran down the hall and grabbed the camera and snapped a couple of really cute pictures of it."

Fun with digital photography

I used to say, that the technology just wasn't there yet in the world of digital photography to deliver film quality photos. Or at least not in digital cameras that normal people (non professionals) like myself could afford, anyway.

My first digital camera was an inexpensive basic model that sported a whopping 3.2 mega pixels. Woo. The quality was ... ok. I certainly took my share of photos with it. I did enjoy getting the gist of the photo on the display screen. That was a plus. Also being able to edit and crop the photos at home was definitely an added bonus to traditional developing and printing options.


In preparation of my upcoming trip overseas, I decided to upgrade the quality of my digital camera. I now have a Canon Powershot A630. I love this camera! Not only does it have all the above mentioned features, but it boasts 8 mega pixels, the display screen can flip around and be maneuvered so you can capture angles yet keep your ability to see what you are taking. It has so many features, well, let's just say I am still learning about it. Thus far, I have been impressed with the clarity and quality of the photos taken. I look forward to using this camera on my vacation and will certainly share my photographic experiences here for everyone's enjoyment! Did I mention, I love my new camera???