Have you ever noticed that financial emergencies always seem to arrive just as you’ve finished using up your last paycheck? The boy breaks a tooth and the only dentist available wants you to pay the deductible up front. Your annual insurance premium comes due a month before you thought it was supposed to. Your brother is rescued from Katrina’s flood, but has only the clothes he is wearing (yes, this one is really my experience.) Some things can’t wait until next payday.
My little island of Oahu has numerous military facilities, and many of my friends are in service to their country. Their paychecks are reliable, but frequently don’t stretch from payday to payday. I’ve known for a while how they handle their financial emergencies, and now PaydayCashAdvanceLoans.biz has sponsored this post so I can tell you their secret. When my friend’s step-daughter needed emergency medical care while hubby was out to sea, and when their roof leaked during monsoon-like rains, they were able to get payday cash advance loans to deal with the crises. A cash advance loan lets you borrow against your next paycheck. They’re easy to qualify for, and PaydayCashAdvanceLoans.biz has a directory of services available in your area. You’ll also find other financial services available on their site, so you can bookmark them as your one-stop site for all of your financial needs.
I’m not a huge fan of censorship, but there are situations where I believe it’s entirely appropriate. Censoring what’s available in the public domain can stiffle an entire society, but in our homes and businesses can fulfill a valid need. Parents can and should control what their children are exposed to on the internet. Business owners and managers may need to monitor and control their employees use of the internet while at work. These needs can be met unobtrusively and with set parameters by using a keystroke logger.
Keystroke loggers allow you to monitor the ways that a computer is being used, and they will alert you when unauthorized activities are taking place. Employers can use this software to eliminate the use of their equipment and company time for online chatting or visits to other undesirable sites. There’s even software that can function remotely, so the technology can be applied to situations where the person doing the monitoring cannot routinely access the computer being monitored. I can see where this would be extremely useful for busy employers who don’t have the time to visit each computer station on a regular basis, or who need to conduct their monitoring activity covertly. The sophisticated software can even allow you to track, log and archive all internet activity. Sad to say, but sometimes inappropriate use of a computer results in a journey through the court system. Accurate records provide the proof that is needed to bring such cases to a successful outcome.
Parents can apply this same technology to the computers their children use. We’ve all heard terrible stories about adult predators using MySpace and other sites to find their victims. Keystroke loggers can record websites, email, chat room and message board activity. This gives parents the opportunity to intervene before a serious problem develops. Keystroke loggers are a small investment that can pay big dividends in protecting your children and giving yourself some peace of mind.
This post is brought to you by Netbus.org, who have twice won the PC Magazine Editor’s Choice Award for Best Monitoring Software.
Your response to my post about Hawaiian Pidgin has been very gratifying. So many of you posted comments, and I know from my stats that quite a few other people read but did not comment. Mahalo for the boost in confidence. As a new blogger I’m never quite sure that what I’m offering will be well-received. It’s a validating experience to know that I’ve captured someone’s interest.
Writing that piece and seeing your reaction has given my own interest a shot in the arm. I’ve been re-reading some books by Lee Tonouchi, who has named himself Da Pidgin Guerrilla. He has probably done more single-handedly than anyone alive to promote Hawaiian pidgin and its acceptance as a part of the culture to be celebrated rather than derided. In Living Pidgin: Contemplations on Pidgin Culture, Lee relates an experience he had in the Fall of 2001 with a group of students in one of his classes. He asked the students to tell him what they cannot do with pidgin. How would it hold them back in life? The students had two minutes to brainstorm and a list of their collective thoughts was compiled. The list of answers includes the following:
Dey say if you talk pidgin you no can:
Be smart
Be successful
Be one teacher
Be one doctor
Be big businessman
Communicate
Go to job interviews
Go opera or someplace elegant
Get one good education
Go mainland school
Join the military
Pray to God
Survive
Understand
Work at Neiman Marcus
Dey say if you talk pidgin
You no can
The total list includes fifty-nine items, all thought of within two minutes.
Keep in mind that most of these kids were not told specifically that they couldn’t be a doctor or work at a high-class department store. These things are the perceptions they’ve developed from the negative reactions they’ve experienced when they talk pidgin.
How tragic is it that kids are being raised to believe that they can’t measure up unless they give up an integral part of who they are?
You can find several books by Lee Tonouchi listed on Amazon if you’re interested in learning more. He is a brilliant man. He is not a second-class citizen. He knows that he can do and be whatever he wants in this life. He knows that he can do it without giving up his cultural inheritance. I hope that he and others with similar drive and imagination can communicate this to the pidgin-speaking population of Hawaii. It will be devastating to our beautiful paradise if they can’t.
Did you do it this year? I’m talking about overspending for Christmas. It’s so easy to do, and I think most of us have gotten ourselves in trouble with it at least once in our lives. I know my own parents always went into debt to give us a “good†Christmas. I did it a few times when my son was young, despite my determination to not let that happen.
The holidays, of course, are not the sole source of debt misery. It’s easy to fall into a buy now/pay later mindset, especially if you have a pocketful of credit cards. We all know that the balance due will never be reduced by making minimum monthly payments, but we get caught in the trap and many can’t see a way to get out.
Put away your pessimism and face your problems. Explore some common-sense options for solving your debt problems and you CAN DO IT!
The first step is one you’ve heard before, and it’s really not as painful as most of us anticipate it to be. Get rid of your credit cards. Cut them up. OUCH! Sure it hurts, but the pain is brief. Take it from one who has done it. Keep one card for emergencies if you must, but only use it for true emergencies. Gift-giving and a new outfit for a special night out are not emergencies.
So, how do you buy what you want or need without credit cards? By being a practical spender. Buy your Christmas gifts in small increments throughout the year. Set a budget and don’t exceed it, even when the new toys come out in the fall to tempt you. Skip the expensive theme-park vacation and explore your own locale with your family. Check out museums and cultural attractions you’ve been meaning to explore with the kids, campgrounds where you can enjoy the wonders of nature or historic sites that you’ve been saving for “later.†Make a commitment to cut out luxury items for one full year. Most people get by with only a few restaurant meals and movie theatre visits a year. You can do that, too, because you’re serious about controlling your debt.
Now you’re spending less and saving more, but what are you going to do about paying off debt you’ve already accumulated? The most practical answer for most people is to make personal loans. The payments on the loan will be smaller than what you’re currently paying against accumulated balances, so you’ll have more money to live on as an added bonus to retiring your debt.
Most people who own homes can qualify for mortgages against the equity they’ve built up over their years of making payments. If the interest is lower than the total interest you’re paying on credit cards, and the payments for the secured loans are less than the total monthly balance due on existing debt, it doesn’t make sense to NOT do it.
Keep practicing the good spending habits you’ve learned and the budgeting techniques you’ve established while dealing with your debt crisis. You’ll avoid repeating the pattern and have better overall financial health because you faced your problems and brought a dose of common sense into the picture!
This post is sponsored by Loanwize, who can answer your questions about finding the loan that’s right for you.
Things in my life have changed a lot over the last twenty years or so. I’ve lost track of many people I had thought would be friends for life. I guess that happens to many of us, especially those of us who now reside thousands of miles away from the places we once called home. Today I have a small group of friends with whom I interact in real life, and a much larger group I have never met, but still visit with daily. That phenomenon called the internet has brought wonderful people into my world. While most of them are women, the group encompasses both genders, various lifestyles and religious persuasions, gay and straight, young and old and of many nationalities. A few weeks ago I joined in the fun on the PPP message boards and my list of friends has grown at a tremendous rate since then. Today I’d like to introduce you to a few of them. I hope you’ll go visit their blogs and get to know them. They’ve all taken this newbie under their wings and helped me improve my bogging skills and my writings for PPP. Most of them have several blogs. You’ll be missing a treat if you don’t visit their sidebars and get to know them better.
First up is Ms. Kat. She shares stories about her life, her family, Florida and a few current events at My Single Mom Life. Check out the photos of her recent shopping day with her two adorable nieces, if you can tear yourself away from Mr. Sexy in her header. Oh, and do share the joy of her catty Christmas too!
Jules lives near Vegas. It’s the gambling capital to us (and backdrop for CSI,) but home to her. I’m glad that she doesn’t believe that what happens in Vegas stays there, because she tells interesting stories. She, hubby & baby were sick for the holidays, so go show her some love at Just Julies Journal.
Bulletproofsoul is a technical whiz who shares her knowledge generously and does not suffer fools gladly. I really enjoy Bucket O’ Bulletz. She’s a very spiritual gal who shares that and so much more. I especially like her daily sidebar feature “Motivations for Moms.”
Aimee’s Blog is about life, love and the pursuit of pink flamingos. That’s just the kinda gal she is. She’s recently announced that she’ll be doing a monthly project-sharing carnival for all of you creative types. It starts soon, so go sign up now.
Cass describes herself as Mom of 8, knitter, and very, very proper. She’s always one of the first to answer when I have stupid newbie questions about blogging in general and PPP in particular. Several blogs, but the one I like best is Cass Knits, where she shares her love of family, knitting and eclectic oddities. She’s another techie who generously shares her knowledge with the technically-challenged.
Last, but never, ever least is Chris. She’s affectionately known as the queen, and keeps us laughing and interested on the PPP message boards. The same humor is evident on her blog Queen Chris’s Xanga Site, where she explains why it isn’t easy being queen. Today she’s also talking about blogging friends. Good stuff, even if she didn’t have anything to say about me!
Give my friends a visit and tell them skeet sent you. If I’m asked very nicely I might introduce you to some of my menfriends in a future post.
The girlfriends picture is from Fotosearch Stock Photography. Lot’s of lovely photos and clipart there, and a well-organized search system to make it easy.
I grew up knowing a few folks named Skeet or Skeeter. It’s a pretty common name in the South. The first Skeeter I knew was a boy a little younger than me. His family, mine and several others from church would gather every month or so at one of our homes. The parents would play dominoes or cards while munching the elaborate party snacks our mothers had found in the most recent edition of Good Housekeeping or Red Book. Us kids, usually ten to twenty of us, had our own snacks and drinks set up outside. About the third time someone ran inside to whine to a parent or to use the bathroom, the adults would lock us out. We all thought that terribly unjust, but we loved being out in the dark with friends, playing chase, telling ghost stories & doing the things kids do. Eventually someone would get a scraped knee or the mosquitoes (skeeters!) would get too bad and we’d be allowed back inside, consigned to a den or rec room or garage with board games and a record player.
When I was old enough to go to school I met other Skeets and Skeeters. The name is assigned to both boys and girls, and I also knew adults whom we addressed as Miss Skeeter or Mr. Skeet. We children of the South in the fifties and sixties were very polite and always attached an honorific to the front of adults’ names. Actually, not so much because we were polite, but because we knew we would be severely punished for failure to do so.
Here’s the history of how I became skeet. It didn’t come from my parents. It’s the abbreviated version of the name my big brother gave me when we were quite young. He drug it out whenever he wanted to torture his little sis. Eddie and I were quite close and I loved him dearly, but he was a terrible tease. My parents named me Anita Bess. My mother, her mother and my great-grandmother were all named Bessie. Mom wanted the tradition to continue but hated the name. The adult relatives must have approved of her choice, because they always addressed me by the double-barreled version, and those who are still around do it to this day. It’s a Southern thing. Our across-the-street neighbor, Mom’s best friend, also did it. She was a New Orleans gal (we’re originally from Texas) and she pronounced me in that dialect found only there and in Brooklyn, New York, so to her I was Neeter Bess. What a perfect opportunity she created for Eddie! The segue from Neeter Bess to Skeeter Bess originally came in a fit of anger, and fit nicely into a chanting phrase he created when he wanted to make me miserable. “Skeeter Bess, she’s a mess …” It followed me everywhere and was eventually picked up by neighborhood kids who liked torturing animals and small girls. By the time I entered junior high it had been forgotten by the masses, but Skeeter Bess had developed into a pet name at home. Eddie was the one who used it most often, partly as a reminder of his own cleverness in creating it, but mostly as an expression of affection.
I first got online about eight years ago. I tried on various screen names for size, but none of them seemed to feel right. Eddie had died a few years earlier, and I still frequently thought of myself as Skeeter Bess when I remembered our childhood antics. As I began to develop online friendships, it occurred to me that my screen name had been waiting for me in the wings all along. I became skeeterbess once again as a tribute to his memory. It is shortened to skeet or skeeter by many of my friends, but in my mind it’s always the full moniker, and frequently chanted in Eddie’s voice: “Skeeter Bess, she’s a mess …”
A month or so ago I discovered that skeet is now a dirty word. The definition bothered me enough that I thought about changing my name and the name of my blog. That was before I understood the wonderful world of page rank. I found something interesting when I installed a stat tracker. I get “hits” daily from folks looking for the street slang usuage, so many that google will eventually take notice and quit calling me a zero. I don’t know of any adults who use the word that way and my blog is not addressed to those children, so I’ve decided to keep it. It has a long and mostly honorable history, and it’s been mine longer than it’s been theirs. If you get a little squeamish like me when you hear it used that other way, think instead of the affectionate teasing of a small boy for his baby sister. Think of skeet and come on by for a visit with a proud holder of the name. My google rank will thank you!
PayPerPost is at it again with their whacky videos. This time we get to view the insane antics they cooked up for postie Genki Girl on a cold Chicago day. She had to accost a stranger for his autograph, find someone wearing shorts on that cold, cold day, attempt to make a snow angel on iced-over snow that wouldn’t budge, and write “I LOVE PPP†on her forehead. It’s fun to watch, and suspenseful as we watch the minutes ticking down. This post was brought to you by HP, who supplied the prizes for the bizarre scavenger hunt. Did Genki Girl win a whole boatload of prizes, including an HP digital camera and Digital Photo Printing equipment and a bundle of cash? You’ll have to watch to find out!
Now wasn’t that fun? Don’t you think HP and PayPerPost should come to Hawaii to thaw out for their next Postie Patrol? Shouldn’t I have the next shot at winning a boatload of HP gear and cash? Yeah, I think so, too!
Because our population is such a mixture of cultures I sometimes hear snatches of a half-dozen different languages in a single day. My next-door neighbors on one side speak Samoan at home. On the other side is a Japanese family. They are an older couple and at least second-generation here in Hawaii. They speak English to each other and their kids & grandkids, but I sometimes hear them switch smoothly to Japanese with guests. I have Filipino, Portugese and Tahitian neighbors here on my block. The family directly across the street from me is Hawaiian. They all speak English when out and about, though many speak their national languages at home. English is the language of business and school and strangers who cross ones path. It is the thread that binds our polyglot society into a cohesive whole, but it is the local pidgin that defines “local.” I love its lyrical expressiveness. It soars and surges and captures the imagination. It is the language of complete candor and familiarity. It finds it’s most magical completeness in the children, those young enough to have not yet been told by some authoritarian figure that they should abandon pidgin and speak “correct English.” I contend, along with many others, that pidgin is a vital part of their cultural heritage and it is shameful to try to quash it. Like the “old school” teachers who used to punish left-handedness, there are those who would try to humiliate children into giving up this important part of who they are.
What follows is the closest I can come to sharing an overheard conversation. I’ve probably got spellings wrong and may have selected the wrong words in a few place.
A young boy passes an older woman who is raking up leaves in her yard.
Auntie, can have one mango?
Come, boy. Help rake da leaves, I give you five mango.
I help, yeah.
Whose boy you? I know your mama?
Don’t know, auntie. She Lani.
Lani works at Tamura?
No, not dat one. She work da Rec Centa.
Ah, dat Lani. Kauka your Dad.
Yeah, yeah, auntie.
He still *da kine?
Yeah, fo evah, I tink.
Got two big buddahs?
Tree, auntie.
Tree? Kimo, Lino - oh, oh, oh - Keo dat oddah one!
Him, yeah. Got him one hapa girl, she hapai. Make me uncle.
Fo real?
Fo real, auntie.
Heah, boy. One bag fo you carry mango.
Got five Auntie. Das good?
Going going. Tree big buddahs, one hapai wahine. Need plenny.
Ho! Tanks, auntie.
Tell your mama come see Auntie Laika.
Can auntie.
Boy, what dey call you?
I Ekeka.
You one good boy Ekeka. Akamaiâ!
Tanks auntie. I go. Get lickens come home late.
Go, boy. Come back bumbye.
*Da kine can mean almost anything that all parties in a conversation know and understand. In this case it might mean that he’s still singing in nightclubs, or driving a truck or teaching at the high school. Ekeka and Laika both know what it means, so da kine is effective conversational shorthand.
hapai = pregnant
hapa = mixed race
akamai = clever, smart
bumbye = by and by, some later time
I added a screened-in lanai to my house last year and had it fully wired and plumbed so I could move my washer and dryer out of the kitchen. The plan was to create additional space inside before starting a kitchen remodel. I hired local contractors and used cash I had saved for the new room, a new lanai on two sides of the house and a new roof for my old fixer upper. I thought I was being smart by using cash instead of taking on additional debt, but it turns out I was wrong. Since I’m now ready to do my kitchen remodel, I’ve been researching the best way to finance the work. I wish I had understood better about home equity loans before I used up all of my savings. Since the equity in my house has built to about four times what I still owe I can borrow what I need for the work, and maybe a little to pay the few bills that I carry a balance on from month to month. My payments will be low enough that I can begin rebuiliding my savings (I used their mortgage calculators to figure out how to structure the best deal for myself.) I wish I’d known that before I had the previous work done, but it’s never too late to educate yourself about your own finances, is it?
This post is sponsored by PersonalHomeLoanMortgages.Com. I’ve been visiting their site for about a month, learning what I need to know. It’s embarrassing to admit how ignorant I was when I started, but their Mortgages 101 and other educational features have made it painless for me to bring myself up to speed.
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