SMO-AutoPilot

Teaching children is one of my passions, and I have been a teacher for nearly twenty years.  There have been some great times over the last two decades, and I would like to think that I have made a difference in my students’ lives.

Recently, our school board has decided to change its’ mandate to include teaching children about energy conservation.  The goal behind this move is to help give kids an appreciation for the environment and empower them to make a difference.

We have been covering many topics in this area including how to conserve water, recycle paper and even how changing all of our light bulbs in our house to fluorescent light bulbs can have a positive impact on the world.

My grade six class decided that they were going to try to convince the school to switch the outdoor lighting to high pressure sodium to make it so the school was taking an environmentally friendly stance.  They prepared a presentation and presented it to the school board, and thankfully that change has been implemented.

It is just nice to see kids responding well to the fact that they need to do their part to help take care of the world.  It just puts a smile on my face to know that I can see the difference that we can make if we work together.

Technorati Tags: fluorescent light bulbs, high pressure sodium

When I set up my very first website, I used a web hosting provider that was recommended to me by a friend.  It was supposed to be free hosting, but what I didn’t know at the time was that they then charged way too much for domain name registration.  Not to mention the server space and bandwidth quotas sucked, and of course they overcharged for any additional space and traffic allowances.

But the real kicker was that their email servers were blacklisted for sending spam, which meant that my emails were going into my clients’ junk mail boxes — not a good thing when your business and your income is dependent on being able to communicate with your clients!  As a result I ended up switching hosting providers.

I learned some pretty important lessons in my first experience with web hosting.  For one thing, make sure the FTP server space and bandwidth you are allotted are enough for your purposes — not forgetting to take into account that your site might grow over time, of course.  Also, make sure that the hosting provider has technical support that can ensure you don’t run into problems such as having your emails flagged as spam, particularly if you depend on your email for client communication!

Technorati Tags: blacklisted, FTP server space

I know that none of us dream of getting divorced once we get married, but sadly, for some of us, that is something that can come true.  I thought our marriage was fine and that we had a great life, but I guess my wife didn’t think the same way.  As it turns out, she was cheating on me and then left me for him.

After grieving and going through a somewhat messy divorce, I have decided that I want to get rid of anything in the house that reminds me of Sally.  I think that it will be better to start over with new stuff so that I can get on with my life.

It took me nearly two weeks to get everything together for the yard sale that I am going to have.  I will especially love getting rid of the western home decor and the chilly western bedding set we had.  If I can get rid of all of the stuff, I will have some money to renovate the house and decorate how I would like it.

I am selling everything this weekend and hopefully most of the stuff will be gone in the first day.  I know some of the stuff will be hard to part with, but I will be glad when it is gone.

Technorati Tags: western bedding, western home decor

Nobody has “extra cash” right now, and I am no exception to that rule. I’m not in dire straights or anything, but like many people I do live from paycheck to paycheck. I have cut down on how often I go out and how much I spend when I do go out. Any luxury items I want have been put on the back burner.

Coming home from work a few days ago a dog ran out right in front of my car. I swerved and missed the dog. But I ended up hitting the curb. It destroyed one of my tires and one of my rims. I put the spare tire on and went to the tire shop to see what the financial damage was going to be.

Did I mention that I live from paycheck to paycheck? I needed cash fast! I remembered seeing one of those sell gold jewelry for cash commercials on TV and knew that now was the time to act. So I gathered up my old watches that hadn’t been worn in years, a big gold class ring that no longer fit and a few chains and ended up getting cash for gold. I was able to get a new rim and tire by getting rid of jewelry I never wear.

Technorati Tags: cash for gold, jewelry, sell gold jewelry for cash

I think that one of the most interesting things about being an actor is that you get to do a lot of interesting things. Sure, there’s the excitement of meeting other celebrities and gaining your own fan base. But I think that the things that you get to do as part of your various roles are the things that really make it worth it to try to get good at acting.

The really great actors get so into their characters that they become them for awhile. An actor who has to play a role as a Fiji scuba diver doesn’t just pretend to know how to do this. He’ll take lessons in Fiji diving. He’ll become that character. This is how he plays the character well because by going to dive in Fiji he’ll have a true understanding of what it’s like to live the life that he’s pretending to live.

Not all actors will do these cool things but the good ones do. They’re the ones that probably have the most fun with their jobs. At the end of the day, they may not be famous or remembered but they have a collection of awesome experiences to share with the people who love them.

Technorati Tags: dive fiji, Fiji diving