Never Forget Your Anniversary Again!

I found this surfing the other day. It's a great organizational tool. And it works with one of my favorite things ever - Google Calendar. It's Remember the Milk.This handy little application can be used to manage tasks, organize, and schedule. It's also a reminder service that works with AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, Jabber, Skype, and Yahoo.You can share your to-do list or calendar with your colleagues or friends, and add tasks to your list wherever you are, either by email or by phone.And now a new feature, accomplished through a partnership with Google Gears, allows users to access Remember the Milk offline. So if your computer's...

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Will We All Be Retiring to Panama?

I've been hearing a lot lately about the wave of Americans retiring to Panama. In fact, there was a piece last night on some news show that got me thinking - will we all be retiring to Panama? I have to tell you, it sounds enticing. According to Panamainfo.com, Panama is one of the safest countries in the world and has long had a large American presence.You can live there at a fraction of the cost of living here in the U.S. The currency is the U.S. dollar, and Panama has the best retiree incentive program in the world - discounts on everything. It also has a great and affordable health care system, which makes it very attractive to retirees.And...

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Study at MIT for Free

"Education is the movement from darkness to light."Allan Bloom, author of The Closing of the American MindI'm always looking for online courses and classes. But most of the time, they're unaffordable. So I was really excited to find out that MIT - that's right, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - offers free online courses in everything from aeronautics to urban studies. These are not degree-granting or certificate-granting courses. And you will not have access to the MIT faculty.According to the web site, MIT OpenCourseWare is "a large-scale, Web-based publication of the educational materials from the MIT faculty's courses." Learners...

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Still Hanging

I'm in the process of moving from one house to another this week. So my living room is filled with boxes. I have bags and bags of dirty laundry waiting to be washed. My children keep complaining that there's no food in the refrigerator. And yet I must keep working, because the rent is still going to come due the 1st of the month. This picture sort of accurately depicts my state of mind lately. Just thought I'd sha...

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Fabulous Tool for Bloggers

Thanks to Blog Avenues for this fabulous tool for bloggers and other webpreneurs. It's Website Grader. You just enter the URL of your site, the keywords you're gunning for, and your email. It will generate a report that's filled with useful information and helpful advice on how to best boost your site's visibili...

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The Britney Spears Phenomenon: Why the Inept Often Succeed

I've often wondered why it is that people of modest intelligence and talent often have great success in life, while many extremely talented people possessed of very high IQ frequently do not. You see it all the time. Britney Spears, for instance. While she's a beautiful girl, recent events seem to suggest she's not all that bright. And her singing, though adequate for its purpose, doesn't rise to the level of, say, Christina Aguilera. So how do you explain her pop career, which until she seemingly lost her mind, placed her at the top of the charts?I think I have the answer. It's a little known phenomenon called the Dunning-Kruger Effect....

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For Those of Us Who Are Culinarily Challenged

I'm not a great cook. My sad little repertoire is limited to four or five main dishes, at the most. My kids know exactly what meal to expect at Christmas, because it's the same one they ate last Christmas, and it's the same one they can expect to see on the table next Christmas. To be honest, I just don't have time to experiment. So I stick with what I know.But I found a list on the Net at About.com's Busy Cooks, and it's got me thinking I might try my hand at Crockpot Sour Cream and Bacon Chicken or Chocolate Almond Pastries. They just sound too good. But most importantly, they sound simple, because each recipe has five ingredients or...

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Pimp Your Google Calendar

I mentioned in a previous post that I LOVE Google Calendar. It's clean, easy to use, and colorful. Especially great is its drag and drop functionality. But I've only been scraping the surface of what I can do with Google Calendar. There are some great add-ons that can make it even better.You can colorize Saturday and Sunday, add events without going to the Google Calendar page, import events directly from Facebook, and basically alter its design to fit your needs. Check out the best of the user-created add-ons, thanks to Kaly at makeuseof.c...

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Moms Helping Moms Make Money

The U.S. Census Bureau notes that by 1992, women owned 10 million home-based businesses, and that today, they own 17 million home-based businesses. That's 70% of all home-based businesses. In addition, according to the National Foundation of Women Business Owners, 2.1 million of these women business owners have children. These numbers are impressive.What's behind this boom in women-owned home-based businesses? Part of it, I believe, is a determination by many mothers to be at home with their children. But another important aspect of this societal and economic phenomenon is the explosion of the Internet into our lives, and the reach it provides...

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Maybe the Housewife of 2010?

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Time Yourself!

Continuing with my earlier theme of productivity, one of the things that I find helps me be more productive in my "real" job as a transcriptionist is using a timer. I set it for 30 minutes and start typing. When the buzzer goes off, I stop, take a break, and walk around. This is especially important if you sit at a desk all day, because of the very real risk of blood clots forming in your legs.I find a timer makes me much more productive. It's easier to focus on your work when you use a timer. It not only insures that you're going to work for a minimum amount of time, it also lends urgency to your task. And as I said, it also reminds you to...

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Cool Links O' the Day

I need this one! Found a cool link for homemade Febreeze on Charlotte's Tips. She also has this great recipe for Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie.Also found this site, 10 Minute Mail. They'll give you a temporary email address for 10 minutes - plenty of time to register on a site or forum where you don't want to give your real email address. Your email will be sent to a temporary web page. You can then click on any links necessary to confirm.And finally, for you moms with younger children, there's Kids-in-Mind, a movie review service for parents. Movies are reviewed and rated based not only on the amount of sex, nudity, violence, and profanity...

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Early to Rise = More Productive Day?

I am a night owl. I love to stay up late at night reading, working on the computer, surfing the Internet. One reason is that it's quiet at my house. Everybody is in bed. And this will only make sense if you have teenagers. No one's going to call me on the phone and ask me if I can pick them up or bring them something.I'm also more creative at night. My brain's just not working at full tilt in the morning. It's all I can do to roll out of bed, pour some coffee down my gullet, and get dressed. I do most of my best work after midnight.But it's catching up with me lately. I'm having more and more trouble falling asleep when I finally do...

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An Irresistible Offer

Just stumbled across this enticing job offer. ;)Find Diversity employment at DiversityJobs.c...

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