Annndddd......we wait.  And wait.  And wait.

I'm not very good at waiting.

Two whole days ago I made the final changes to my book, Maddy's Tail.  I spent hours reading and learning how to do everything I'd only guessed at before.  (Yeah, probably should have read the crap first.)  And I fixed everything.

I received the email saying it was up and ready to go.  But still the changes are showing up in the final product.  Grrr.


And NOW I wait.

I'm really really bad at waiting.



As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

Maddy's Tail by BC Barry

What's good?      I wrote a book!

What's bad?        I self-published on Amazon Kindle.

What's the Difference?        I learned exactly how much I don't know!!



I haven't posted on here over the past couple of weeks, and for that I apologize.  I've been concentrating on an old/new goal in life.

As the title above states, I finally wrote a book.  This is something I've wanted to do for years, since high school actually, and have finally done it!!!  It's a short story based on the life of our beloved calico cat.  While some of the events in her life are true, the details surrounding them are pure fiction, born in the nooks and crannies of my warped little mind.

I was so proud when I typed that last word, so very excited at my accomplishment.  I read and re-read this wonderful book, over and over.  I made corrections and changes, modified sentences to clarify their meaning.  Then ignored it for a week before reading and re-reading it again.  I was proud of my work and proud of my accomplishment.  Along with my confidence, my sense of self-worth was finally starting to grow again, in fact, you could almost see it through a microscope.

Then I mustered up every ounce of courage I could find, mixed it up with a little bit of stupidity and a whole lot of determination, and self-published it on Amazon.  And there went my new-found confidence....right down the toilet.

Self-publishing is not as easy as it sounds.  I had created my own cover, but Amazon wouldn't accept it.  So, a dozen Youtube videos later, I created a cover they would accept.  I read page after page of instructions and guidelines, changed my book format to follow those rules, and published.

Then I bought my own book, downloaded it to my kindle, and listened to it.  Holy typos and bad formatting, Batman!!  Lesson One:  Have someone else read your work.  I might have proofed that thing a couple of dozen times, but I knew what it was supposed to say.  And when my eyes saw tow, my brain read two, same with through and though, etc.  Lesson Two:  Learn the formatting rules before you type it.

I won't even go into all of the listing, pricing, and marketing information I had to shove into my poor little brain.

So, I'm on about my 10th upload and I think it's finally, completely, perfectly correct.  Hopefully.  Now I'm just waiting for those changes to take affect and this wait is killing me.

In the meantime, I'm learning about promoting and marketing Maddy's Tail.  And I've written about 10 pages of book number two, not sure what it's called yet.  But keep up-to-date on my progress through my new Facebook Author's page and Twitter account.

https://www.facebook.com/BC-Barry-142212806192742/     for facebook and

@AuthorBCBarry for Twitter

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and checking out why my dishes haven't been washed over the past couple of days.  I'll talk to you soon.



As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

The Glory of Garbage

What's good?                    Garbage.

What's bad?                      Tossing it.

What's the difference?     Read on and see!  

10 Best Garbage-Picking Ways to Save Money.

Have you ever looked up and down your street on garbage day? It's unusual to see one lonely can with snug-fitting lid sitting at the curb. Normalcy is the bulging can with bag after bag balanced precariously up to eye level and the lid perched on top of it all.

We throw away so much junk. And many of us pay someone for that privilege. This is totally not necessary. There are so many ways to reuse our garbage and they require very little effort. Now, I'm not suggesting you ninja up and sneakily paw through your neighbor's cans in the wee hours of the morning. Although you can if you'd like and, to be honest, I may have been known to do so a time or two.

This is something we can do from our very own trash cans before they even hit the curb. Read on to learn some easy ways to make garbage-picking fun and cost effective.

1 – Aluminum Foil

Don't toss that foil once it's used. Aluminum foil, even used foil, has so many practical uses. Give it a quick wash once you're done with it (I just swish it around in my dish water) and set it aside to dry. (This works best using foil without heavily baked-on food product. Foil used for baked potatoes or to cover a dish works well. However, if you wrapped BBQ chicken with it, maybe not so much.)

What are those future uses, you ask? Well…

1) Scrubbing with wadded up foil really works and doesn't ruin those expensive scrub brushes. Try it on moss and fungus covered brick and concrete surfaces, dried paint and oil from your garage floor and driveway, cooked-on food from the racks and bottom of your grill, last year's dried dirt inside your flower pots, all that dried grass under your lawnmower.

2) Balls of used foil make great drainage for the bottoms of those flower pots.

3) Trying to start a camp fire on the wet ground or snow? Spread out the foil and protect your kindling from all that dampness.

4) Painting a room and need a break? Wrap your wet brush in the foil and place it in the freezer.

2 – The Shiny Silver seal on a coffee can.

You stumble out of bed, shuffle your way to the kitchen, fumble through the process of making coffee, then EEK!! The can of coffee is empty!!! Wait….wait, don't fear. The world is still a safe place to live. There's a brand new can in the cupboard. Phew! Profoundly relieved, you remove the plastic lid, peel off that shiny silver cover, close your eyes, and inhale deeply. That first whiff of a freshly opened can of coffee is sheer bliss. Stop! Don't turn towards the garbage to deposit that silver shininess dangling from your fingertips. That bit of sparkle has many more uses.

1) Glue a plastic cookie cutter to the shiny silverness and cut around the shape. Makes a pretty ornament for a tree, cute little candy dish or topping dish for a sundae bar, fill with candies and cover with saran wrap and it's perfect for the Easter basket.

2) Cut off the tab, glue lace or a nice slice of fabric around the edge, and place a candle in the center. This gives the appearance of a mirrored surface for the candle and you don't have to worry about dripping wax ruining your furniture. Plus, when it gets too gobbed up, simply toss it….you KNOW you'll be drinking more coffee.

3) Cut into shapes - circle, oval, rectangle - border edges with permanent marker, and use as labels for anything in the home. These are sharp, modern, and look like you actually spent money on them.

3 – Pasta boxes.

There's nothing better than home-made macaroni and cheese. And if you're going to make it, you might as well make a lot because it's even better warmed up. So, go ahead, be brave. Cook the whole box. Pause a moment, though, before flinging that empty box across the room to ricochet off the wall into the trash. (Because you are that good.) It's a neat little box, isn't it? Perfect shape, and it has that cool cellophane window on the front. Hmmm…..

Yes, you have yourself a perfect gift bag. Glue pretty paper or material on it, leaving the window open, cut off the flaps, punch holes in the top and make handles of yarn or string, and you're set. Is gluing too much work? Paint it. Still too much work? Steal….I mean….borrow your child's sticker book and have a blast, the kids can even help with this part. Letting some of the stickers hang over the window adds a bit of flair to the look.

Gift bags and wrapping paper are expensive…..use garbage instead.

4 – Toilet paper/Paper towel tubes.

Okay, fess up. How many of you can walk into your bathroom right now and see at least one or two empty toilet paper tubes in the waste basket? Uh-huh….thought so. Well, stop that. There are far too many uses for toilet paper and paper towel tubes.

1) Do you have a meat cleaver floating around in your drawer but lost the protective sleeve? You know that thing is just lying in wait to snag a fingertip or two, don't you? A paper towel tube can protect those precious paddies in a snap. Just smush it flat, duct-tape/glue/staple the ends closed, and cut a slit in one of the creases the length of the blade. Ta-da! Works on hatchets and axes, too.

2) Uh-oh. The kiddo has a birthday party to attend in 20 minutes and you forgot to buy a gift. No worries. Grab a toilet paper tube, cover with festive duct-tape or even that shiny silver thing from the coffee can, or decorate with markers or stickers (here's that child labor part again, let them do it). Tape one end shut and wad up some ones, a five or two and stuff them inside. Throw in some quarters and wrapped candies and you're set. You can get fancy and poke small holes in the open end, thread ribbon or string through the holes, pull the drawstring shut and tie it off. Or just tape or fold it shut….whatever your imagination, and time constraints, allow.

3) Fill with cat nip and jingle bells, wrap it and the ends with shiny duct-tape, and watch your cats go wild.

5 – Used Paper Towels.

Aren't you just so proud? You spent the morning cleaning every mirror, window, and shiny surface in your home with glass cleaner and paper towels. And the whole house sparkles. Well done! Now, just look at that mound of dirty paper towels. There's really nothing on them but dust and cleaning product. What to do…..

Here's what to do, put them in the bottom of your kitchen and outside trash cans BEFORE you put the bag in. These “dirty” paper towels will absorb any oozing created by holes in the bag, keeping the bottom clean. And the cleaning product already in them will help maintain a clean odor in the stinkiest area of your home.

6 – Empty Skittles, M&Ms, etc. bags.

We love us some fruity and chocolatey treats, don't we? And we buy the smaller bags so we don't eat as many. The problem is, we just buy those smaller bags more often. Well, maybe that's just me. But that's a whole lot of bright, colorful stuff most people can relate to and it's being wasted. Gasp! Cut the ends off those bags, cut up one side and wipe the white part with a Clorox wipe.

1) Fold in half, punch a hole in the corner, thread with ribbon, and you have a cool and unique gift tag.

2) Do you remember that toilet paper tube gift we talked about earlier? Awesome cover for that.

3) Fold the bottom up a little over a third of the way, glue the sides, then write your child's name on the white part at the top. Pin to a bulletin board and you have a great little pocket for allowances, lunch money, or chores.

4) Don't cut it up, carefully peel open one end, eat the candies yourself, place a twenty inside, then glue the top shut. Great little gag gift that's really a gift.

7 – Old Pillows.

Did you get wonderful, fluffy new pillows for your bed this Christmas? Nice! Before you kick those old ones to the curb, though, let them do some work for you. Damp basements are not fun to deal with, especially in the winter months. Place those old pillows around the basement and they'll absorb some of that moisture from the air. Don't wait too long before tossing them, though, or they'll get pretty nasty.

8 – Dish soap, shampoo, etc., bottles.

1) Finally squeezed out that last drop of dish soap? Good. Don't throw it away yet. Neatly cut it off about four inches from the bottom, peel off the label, and wash. You now have the perfect little sponge holder to set on your sink.

2) Are you as tired as I am of razors scattered all about the shower? And then they lay in the spray and get rusty. Not to worry if you have an empty shampoo bottle or such lying about. Neatly cut the bottle off five or six inches from the bottom, peel off the label, and wash. You can then attach this oh-so-expensive razor holder to your shower wall anywhere you'd like using double-sided tape. And if it starts to get gunky? Toss and repeat.

3) We all have toilet bowl brushes. And whichever style we choose to use, those things still end up inside our toilet bowl. That's something we don't want flitting willy-nilly about our bathroom. Take an empty Clorox bottle and cut off the top, then use this to hold that brush. You don't even need to wash this one since any Clorox left inside will only help matters.

9 – Kids' School Papers.

Every single week the kids bring home a mountain of papers, homework assignments, in class practice, tests…..it never ends. You oohhh and ahhh appropriately, marveling at their skill and knowledge. And then what. That's a huge chunk of their life and history, not to mention paper, to waste on the trash can. But it's just so much to keep around. Try this instead:

1) School pictures are here and oh so cute. What a wonderful gift for extended family. Now, to buy the frames and matting for every family member. Nah, waste of money. Use that schoolwork as your matting, it'll be the perfect backdrop for that treasured picture. And it'll be so interesting to watch how their writing and knowledge changes each year along with their looks.

2) Do you scrapbook? What better way to display those unforgettable moments than to place a picture on top of that test your child was so proud of. Just make sure the grade shows.

These next tips are only for those amazing individuals who somehow remain uber organized during all of life's chaos. Not for the faint of heart.

3) Wrap your child's engagement, wedding, and baby shower gifts in their grade school papers.

4) Still have all of your not-so-little one's schoolwork organized by year? Each year wrap your grandchild's birthday gift in their parent's school papers from the same age.

5) Many of these papers have blank backs. Fold it in half and turn it into a birthday, graduation, housewarming card.

6) Having a picture booth at your bundles of joy's graduation party? A montage of all those papers mixed in with some school pictures would be a backdrop they'll never forget.

10 – Keyboards.

Most of us have computers with the requisite keyboards. And don't we just love it when we spill a drink on the keyboard, completely ruining it? Time to bring in the new and take out the old, right? Well….not exactly.

Those letters, numbers, and symbols pop right out there. Did you know that? How cute is a gift wrapped in plain paper with the birthday boy's or girl's name and age spelled out in keyboard keys. Or decorate a child's bulletin board with CTRL, ALT, and DEL keys. 

Just remember, if you can buy it in a store, you can probably make it out of your very own trash.  The neighbor's trash......well, that's your call. 

As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

A Mother's Day Story

Here's a quick little two-part story for Mother's Day.

Part One:

I opened the door to the boy's room to see if he had any dishes in there as I was getting ready to do all the dishes.  You know how boys are.  I turned the light on and Tally, our fat lady cat, jumped out from behind the window curtain, scaring the crap out me.  I jumped and screamed.  And she went tearing out of the room just as fast as her fat little butt could waddle.  

He'd left for work a few hours ago so the poor little thing must have been in there the whole time.

Part Two:

The boy only had one coffee cup in his room.  I, on the other hand, had 3 cups and 1 glass on the coffee table, 1 cup and 1 glass on the desk, and 1 cup in the laundry room.  

I'm not doing this Mom thing right.

Making SOME money.

What's good? Making money, again.

What's bad? Not much about this site.

What's the difference? Steady income, just not huge amounts.

So, as promised, here is one of the sites I use the most to keep the money flowing into my account. Well….okay…..trickling into my account. You certainly won't get rich off of this, but you can keep a steady ten or twenty dollars hitting your account every day or two.

Amazon Mechanical Turk (or Mturk)

What's good?

Most everything about this site. For me, it's especially great if we notice we're going to run out of something before next pay and don't have any money left. It's pretty easy to build up ten or twenty dollars if you keep at it.

-You pick and choose which “Hits” you work on.

Hit stands for human intelligence task, meaning they can't get a computer to do it, so they pay us small amounts to do it for them.

-Even in the beginning you qualify for a LOT of hits.

-The larger your approved hit count is, the more hits you qualify for, which are also usually the higher dollar hits. (I spent a couple of nights doing hundreds of the 1, 2, and 3 cent hits just to get my count up there so I could qualify for the higher paying hits. I didn't get paid much for them, but they were very fast and easy to do.)

-Many of the requesters pay bonuses for high quality work.

I get so excited when I see those emails saying I've received a bonus for 9 cents or 17 cents. I know….whoopie? But when you get 50 such emails all in a row, that adds up.

-After your first time, they transfer the funds FAST.

At midnight last night I reached a balance of $20, at 3 am I received an email saying my transfer was complete. It's not in my bank yet, but that's because of my bank. When they do their download Monday morning, it'll be there.

-You can transfer ANY amount you want, no limits and no penalties.

Have $2.16 in your balance? You can transfer $2.16…..and I have.

-You choose the level of difficulty you feel like.

I'll normally go for the more challenging or creative hits, because they pay more and are more fun. Yet, when I'm on that first cup of coffee, my brain doesn't work. So I'll search out the easy hits. True, they may only pay 3 to 5 cents per hit, but most of them are beyond simple.

**Example – Data Entry, you are entering the date of birth from the image of a form, it only shows you the date of birth part of the image, so no searching. But they only want you to enter the month. So, you type two numbers, hit tab, type two numbers, hit tab, etc., til all 20 items are entered in that hit. It literally takes a minute to do and requires no thought process at all. (My favorite kind.)

-Many of the hits are just fun.

I've placed stop sign and traffic light icons on maps, I've written reviews for companies I've never heard of, I've described pictures for blind people, I've listened to songs and typed up the lyrics, I've played word search games, answered math questions (made a $25 bonus on that one for getting all 50 questions right), I've looked at photos and clicked on each one of whatever item they said. And so on.

What's bad?

--And this is a big one…..only TWO methods of payment.

You can choose either an Amazon gift card or direct deposit to your bank account. Now, I won't normally have anything to do with any site that wants access to my bank account. But I've been an Amazon customer for years and years, they've always had access to my debit cards, and I've never had a problem with them.

I am NOT in any way recommending that you do this, it needs to be your choice. But I chose the direct deposit to my account because I personally trust Amazon. And so far I have had no reason at all for concern.

-You cannot make your initial withdrawal of funds until you have at least 10 days worth of approved hits.

I don't believe they need to be 10 days in a row, but you have to have worked for them for 10 days before they pay you. And the first transfer took about five days to complete. But each one after that has been within a matter of hours.

-Waiting for the hits to be approved.

I get impatient and want my money!! Some people approve the hits right away, sometimes as soon as I submit them. Others take a week or so and that can be frustrating when you know you have $20 just hanging out there.

-If you have an issue with one of the requesters, Amazon will not back you.

But they pretty much say that right up front in their guidelines. I had one that did not pay after three weeks and ignored my messages to them. Amazon basically said they could do nothing for me. So I was out that $1.25.

However, to date I've completed 1253 hits and that was the only one that gave me any problems.

WARNING: Do not think this is something that you can just click your way through and not pay attention to what you're doing. The requesters review everything that is submitted and will reject bad work or wrong answers. The higher your rejection rate, the fewer hits you'll qualify for until you're finally just booted out the door. You will have to actually earn the little they pay you.

However, if I do a hit and find it's just too much work for that small amount of cash, I'll either return the hit (this does not look bad for you) or just never do one like it again.

Hope this helps someone. And I'll keep posting other methods to make some money while lounging on the couch in your jammies.

As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back. :)

I don't know stuff.

I really don't know what's going on with the fonts in these posts.  I do the same exact thing for every post.....I think.  And every post has something a little bit different.  I obviously don't know stuff.  But will keep trying.

For those of you who are irritated by it, I do apologize.  All I can say is, "Yeah, me, too."



As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

How NOT to make money from home.

What's good?            Money.  It's always good.

What's bad?               These sites.

What's the difference?        My mistakes and wasted time.

There are a few sites out there where you can sign up for jobs to earn some money.  Some are good, some....not so much.  Below are three of the not so good, I'll make another post for the good.

Fiverr.com

I signed up for this site about a month ago and haven't gotten a thing from them.  But I only have one gig posted, writing, and there are probably thousands of writers on there.  It's very easy to get lost in the crowd.  I have yet to find a way to promote yourself further outside of videos and creating really off the wall gigs, which just isn't for me.

I check it every day, even though they'll send you an email with any responses.  So far nada for me.  I have noticed, however, that once of week or so my gig will become paused and I have to reactivate it.  Not sure what that's about.

Anyway, nothing good and nothing bad about this one.

Freelancer

I had read a lot of good reviews about this site, yet I've had nothing but bad experiences with them.  As a result, I am currently deactivating my account.  I personally would not recommend them but, as always, make your own choice.  To help you with that choice, here's what happened to me.

I created a profile listing my skills, etc., and signed up for their free account, because I'm cheap.  You're allowed to bid on eight jobs per month with the free account.  I thought that would be enough until I started making some money, and then I'd re-evaluate whether or not I wanted to pay.

You then browse the many jobs they have available to bid on, and there are many.  Once deciding which job you want, you make a bid on it, naming your price and services.  You're also given a spot to sell yourself with around 1000 characters, enabling you to really pile it on.  You can see the bids others have made but can't see what they typed about themselves.  I liked this part of the whole process as it allowed you to pick and choose and gives you a more active role.

However, and that's a bolded and capitalized HOWEVER, I have not had good luck with the whole process.  Within a week I was contacted to perform some data entry work, and accepted the job.  A few messages passed between the requester and myself to iron out the details and I was to start the next day, having logged onto the website where the work was to be done.  The next day, though, the website didn't exist.  I contacted the requester through Freelancer, and this is when I discovered their account had been deactivated.

So, I contacted Freelancer, explaining the situation and asking if I should be concerned because I had logged onto this mysteriously disappearing website.  Their initial response to me was, "You don't have any currently active jobs."  That's it, nothing more.  I replied with all the same details and told them to look at my messages since all the info is still there.  

And here's the kicker.  They responded alright, telling me that the account had been deactivated because it didn't follow Freelancer's guidelines.  Then they spent an entire paragraph threatening to deactivate my account if I continue to work with people who don't follow the guidelines.  Nice, huh?  I chalked that up to lesson learned and continued on.

Move forward two weeks and I receive a notice from Paypal stating they paid an invoice from Freelancer in the amount of $10.48.  What???  Checking my Freelancer account, I notice I've been upgraded to a paying account with a notification stating, "Help boost your income by making more bids."  No email from them, just that notice in my Freelancer account.  No no no.

The gist of the story, they upgraded me since none of my bids were accepted and they just KNEW having 100 bids instead of only 8 would help me.  I demanded a refund and deactivation of my account.  The emails continued and finally a week later the money was back in my Paypal account.  I am currently on my third email requesting they deactivate my account.  Their last reply was that I would still be able to make up to eight bids a month.  My reply, "You people already took money from me without asking.  I don't trust you anymore.  Deactivate my account."  So, we'll see what happens next.

Speechpad

This is an online transcription company which initially seemed great.  You typed everything you heard people say on video and audio recordings for the lump sum listed.  I started out on this like a ball of fire, clacking away on the keyboard as I watched my balance grow.

The bad?  Lots.  Their software sucks, to be blunt.  You cannot slow down or speed up the recordings nor can you change the volume.  You can rewind for five seconds by moving the mouse and clicking on the rewind button, then moving the mouse back to where you were typing and clicking there to start typing again.  There is no spellcheck, unless you type it in a word document and that means clicking between screens constantly.  Or you type into their screen, copy and paste into a word document to spellcheck, then copy and paste back into their screen.

You must use their formatting, spelling, and grammar guidelines.  No problem, right?  Just click on the guideline tab.  Except, you can't do that while you're typing or it boots you out of the job and it gets rejected.  I learned that the hard way.  So, you download the guidelines......all 33 pages of them.

While typing you must insert time stamps [00:00:00:0] that coincide with the audio/video at the beginning of each paragraph, each laugh, each pause greater than 2 seconds, each new speaker.  No button to push, you have to type that out.  Each sound needs to be shown with a time stamp and tag: [laughter] [cough].  Each speaker has to be labeled, and there's a whole page of rules for that.

But they paid good, so it's worth it, right?  I thought so at first.  In fact, within five days my balance was almost $300.00.  Woohoo!  Yeah....not really.  You have to wait 14 days to be paid, no problem, most companies are like that.  They just neglect to tell you it's 14 business days.  And hidden somewhere in all that fine print is the fact that while they list the funds in your balance, you don't actually get the cash until their customer approves the work you did.  That was a month ago for me, and I've been paid $66.79 to date.

And, icing on the cake, in the beginning the jobs came fast and furious, one right after the other.  They were good jobs, easy to understand, and I maintained a high quality rating.  Then suddenly, all that stopped and the few jobs I was assigned were in foreign languages or impossible to hear anyone because of loud music, etc.  Needless to say, I no longer waste my time with them.....and it did take time.

So, that was MY experience with these three companies.  Not great, huh?  I'll admit it could have just been me.  I may not have read every little word so eager was I to start earning the big bucks.  But if you choose to give them a try, you'll at least have your eyes open a little wider than mine were.

Hope this helps.  I'm currently writing up a post about the sites that I've actually made money from, so stay posted.  

As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

Meet Tally, my fat cat.

What's good?                     Tally. She's a cat.

What's bad?                       Tally is a cat.

What's the difference?       Cat people will understand.



I have a great big old fat cat. Her name is Tally, named after the main character in the Uglies book series.

Tally started out as my son's cat, belonged to the whole family when my parents and son and I all shared a house, then she became my parents' cat once we all went our separate ways as Mom couldn't let her go. Once Dad passed and Mom went into a nursing home, she reverted back to being my cat.

I may or may not be a crazy cat person, I'll never tell.

I'm pretty sure Tally just tried to get me fired. I was typing up a storm when she jumped up on the coffee table and tried to get on the keyboard. I pushed her away, she walked around behind the laptop and tried from the other side. I pushed her away again, she walked around the back again to the first side. Then she ever so sneakily tried to ease her way, head first, up under my arm onto the keyboard, as if I wouldn't notice that great big watermelon body squeezing under my arm. So I picked her up, no easy feat, and set her on the couch next to me. She was fine at first, stretching her head out onto my lap, then suddenly pounced onto the keyboard and sprawled in all her glory.

So, we had a discussion.....I won and she's now on the floor refusing to look at me. However, she won also because she not only added a few lines to what I was typing and submitted it, but made some pretty major changes to my laptop as well. She turned on airplane mode, flipped my screen sideways, opened some control panel thing, and started a word document.

Luckily, they were all easy fixes, only took me an hour and half a dozen or so gray hairs. And I was able to contact the people I was typing for, explain what happened and ask that they reassign the file to me. They were great, said they understood, and that it had already been rejected and reassigned and I should see it soon. They also suggested that should this activity continue, I demand that my cat create her own account and they'll be happy to work with her on an individual basis.

I'm still laughing. Gotta love people with a good sense of humor.

Moral of the story, when a cat wants attention.....they mean right now!!




As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back. :)

Words are not just words.

What's good?                           Words.

What's bad?                             Words.

What's the difference?            Understanding.

"You reap what you sow."  "Serves ya right."  "What did you think would happen?"  "What were you thinking?"  "Why would you do something like that?"  "Why didn't you do this?"  "Well, that's what you get."  "You should have known better."

How many of us have heard these statements at some point in our lives?  And be honest, did they really help in any way at all?  Did they accomplish even the tiniest little thing?

Next question:  How many of us have spoken these statements to someone in the past?  What were you thinking when you said them?  What did you hope to accomplish when those words flew from your lips?

I've heard those words in my life.  And, to be frank, they made me feel like crap.  They made me feel like I wasn't worth the breath it took to utter them.  Here I went to this person, depending and relying on them to help me in some way, whether for actual assistance, or advice and guidance, or even just someone to vent to.  I relied on them, counted on them to support me.  Already downtrodden, I made myself more vulnerable to them, raised my chin and bared my jugular, to hear what?  

I've also used those words before.  I hate to admit it and am not proud of it, but I'll be honest.  In my defense, I wasn't aware of this at the time.  It's only now, thinking back on my life, that a lot has dawned on me.  What was I thinking when I made these useless comments?  I was thinking, phew, someone is more screwed up than I am.  I was thinking my internal judgment of them is justified.  I was feeling vindicated, this just proves that my decisions are better, that my life choices worked and theirs didn't.  Ridiculously self-satisfied in my existence when compared to theirs, aren't I perfect?

These were not conscious thoughts, no smirking or puffing up of the chest was involved.  But looking back, I know they were there, sadly enough.  And while on the receiving end of those admonishments, I also know the speaker felt the same.  Look in their eyes, look at the unguarded expression on their face, and yep, there it is.  The speaker most likely doesn't realize those feelings are rattling around inside themselves, but they are there.

What is my point in all of this?  Don't listen to it.  It doesn't help and just piles worse feelings on top of your already inadequate sense of self.  It produces absolutely nothing of worth and benefits no one.  Yes, no one, ultimately not even the speaker.  Remove yourself from the negativity, eliminate that influence from your environment.  You don't need it.  And it will not help in any way.  In fact, it will hinder.

So you screwed up, who hasn't?  So you made the wrong choice, again who hasn't?  So you didn't do something you should have or did do something you shouldn't have, who hasn't?  And now you're suffering the consequences and facing the music.  Some are lucky enough that their situation is an easy fix, others.....not so much.

You're living life and ran right out into that lake, right?  Wooho.....uh....oops, maybe you waited too long and ran out ONto that lake.  There you stand, balanced precariously on a slippery sheet of ice, unsure what to do next.  Whatever you try just upsets your balance even more, and pretty soon your legs are flailing about in every direction imaginable.  You fall a few times, pick yourself back up, just to flounder some more.

What do you need now?  Do you need more abuse inflicted upon your already low self-esteem?  No, you don't.  You need understanding, you need compassion, you need a shoulder to lean on.  Then later, once life has been fixed and all is well again, then you may need a kick in the butt to not do it again.  But not now, you don't need that now.

What you need is to NOT give up.  You are not the horrible person that you and the "words speaker" are trying to make you out to be.  You are simply human.  So tell your negative self and the speaker of those unknowingly cruel words, "Thanks for listening.  I'll see you later."  Don't give up, keep trying, keep putting that effort out there no matter how much it feels like a waste of time.

And you'll make it.  Eventually, you'll flounder onto a rough patch of ice and gain some traction.  Then, all it takes is a little nudge to slide you back onto firm ground again.

Don't give up on you.  You're more than worth the effort.

Oh, and for those who have been the recipient of those clumps of letters that never should have been formed into words?  I'm sorry.  I never should have said them, I should have actually helped.  I didn't mean to hurt with my words, but know that I did.  And I'm truly sorry.

As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

Makin' the Moolah!!

What's good?             Money.

What's bad?              Not enough of it.

What's the difference?        Happiness.

As promised, here's some of it. I'll try not to make this too wordy, but I do want you to have the details. There are hundreds of lists out there about making money online and while these lists may provide the basics, they don't provide the real experience. I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did, so I'll let you know exactly what happened with me.

**Please Note: These are my experiences, my assumptions, what happened to me personally. The same may not happen to you, it's very possible it's just my crappy luck. All I'm saying is, travel at your own risk and beware.**

Opinion Outpost:

– This is a survey site I've used since mid-February and have had very good luck with it so far.

What's good?
-Gift cards or Cash in your Paypal account, 100 points equals $10.
-Points are awarded instantly.
-Funds are transferred fast, within hours after your initial transaction.
-Disputes are handled quickly. (I've only disputed 2 surveys, one disqualified me after already asking over 50 questions and Opinion Outpost awarded me the points. The 2nd claimed to award 30 points, yet at the end of the survey I only received 5 points. Both times I was replied to within 24 hours and my points awarded within the next 24 hours.

What's bad?
-You have to have 100 points before you can transfer any cash.
-I've found that I'll fly through the surveys, qualifying for one after the other, until I reach 85 or 90 points. Then suddenly, mysteriously, I don't qualify for a single one of the next 50 or so. Almost as if they enjoy tormenting you…..”Look you're almost there….psych!! Not really! Haha” Maybe it's just my perception, but I've reached 100 points 8 times now and it's happened every single time. It gets frustrating,.
-Before each survey, Opinion Outpost asks you half a dozen or so “Help us get to know you” questions. Which is fine, except that after the first few surveys, they're the same exact questions. Over and over, every single time. Ugh.

Survey Spot:
Almost exactly the same as Opinion Outpost.

What's good?
-Gift card or Paypal cash. 1000 points equals $10. However, they award more points per survey, so it's about the same.

What's bad?
-Many of their surveys seem geared towards people with children or minorities, so I qualify for fewer surveys.

***Survey Spot is NOT Survey Savvy. This was my experience with Survey Savvy and it may have just been an error on their part, but I didn't feel it was worth the risk to me. So...take from it what you will. I signed up with them, qualified for only one survey right away. Then received notice from Paypal requesting permission to pay an invoice they received from Survey Savvy. I denied it, contacted the survey company basically saying what gives. Received another notice from Paypal about invalid account activity. So, I deactivated my account with Survey Savvy, wrote them a nasty email, and reported them to Paypal. I've had no problems since.

Swag Bucks:

What's good?
-They pay in many, many different ways. Lots to choose from.
-Many, many ways to earn, here's just a sampling:
-Watch videos. While The Boy is at work, I'll play the videos on his computer the entire time, leaving mine free to do other work. Or play them on mine while doing housework.
-Taking surveys, lots to choose from here.
-Shopping online. I choose Amazon gift cards as payment because they require fewer Swag Bucks, then buy groceries using our Prime account and those gift cards. Using the shopping option on Swag Bucks, you earn more bucks while spending the bucks they gave you. Does that make sense?
-Search Bar. Rather than opening a tab and going to, say, Opinion Outpost that way, I type it into the Swag Bucks search bar and earn Swag Bucks from that. So I'm getting paid to go to Opinion Outpost to get paid again. I pretty much do this with all my earn online sites. However, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing this with more personal sites, but you choose.

What's bad?
-Swag Buck payments are very small and it takes a long time to build up. Since most of my earning is passive I guess that's ok. But I get impatient.
-The Boy has said that he's gotten viruses on his computer several times after I've played the videos on there. (He is unbelievably careful and picky about his computer.) But he says they're easy fixes. So beware and, again, travel at your own risk. I've had viruses on mine that he's fixed quickly, but I'm on so many different sites that….who knows. Just a heads up.
-I seem to qualify for few surveys, and their Partner Surveys, which pay the most, take forever even to get to.
-To earn the big bucks you need to participate in tasks or surveys, etc., that require too much personal information. Such as get an insurance quote, check your credit score, and so on. Nuh uh….no thank you…..not worth the risk in my opinion. However, you choose your own path. To me, better safe than sorry.

Those are three of the sites I use all the time. I've tried many others and a ton of them are just sites that take you to other survey sites that take you to other….ad nauseam. I wish I had kept track of those to share, but alas...I failed miserably there. I hope this helps any who may be interested.

Please feel free to conversate (yes, I made that up) with me about this in the comments.


As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back. :)

Why Butterfly? Why?

What's good?     Butterfly.

What's bad?       The ice cream is all the way out in the kitchen.

What's the difference?  Nothing, they have absolutely nothing to do with each other.


Why Butterfly, you ask?  Ok, so maybe you didn't ask that.  But I'll tell you anyway.  

About six years ago I went through a small Zen-ish phase.  You'll find I have many "ish" phases in my life, some ishier than others.  I bought a book, I researched how to arrange your home and what items to put in it.  I think I even put a couple of said items on a dresser, but I don't remember.  Although I found it interesting at the time, I don't remember much of what I learned.  At least not the details.

One detail, though, has never left my mind.  And frequently pops back into the forefront of my thoughts at random times.  That is the symbolism behind the butterfly.  And why I like it so much.

Butterflies are pretty.  But I'm not enamored of them because their prettiness goes so well with my princess dress as I twirl about the room.  I don't even own a princess dress....but I think I'd like one some day.

No, butterflies intrigue me because their entire existence is about evolving. Evolving into something more, something completely different, something seemingly unattainable.

Think about it, it starts off as this creepy, crawly, fuzzy worm with many legs.  It laboriously scuttles from leaf, to branch, to grass blade.  Its only view of life is what is in front of its eyes that it can eat.  It fears becoming the cat's next toy, the bottom of a shoe's next mess to clean up, or that bird's next meal.  Its every moment is a struggle against everything.

And, evidently, that all becomes too much for it.  It curls itself into a ball, fighting mightily to ignore the world, to ignore the harshness of life.  It builds a shell to aid in this battle, to help protect it from so much reality.  

There it huddles, staring blindly into the dark night after night, shuddering through it's thoughts and memories.  It relives every mistake, every near-miss, every hurt, experiencing them all again.  It fears all that exists beyond the safety of its cushioned walls, the walls around its body, its mind, its heart.  It asks itself why, how, and what next.  

Until finally, it learns to accept and begins to come to terms with all of existence.  It starts to understand its triumphs, its successes, and fondly remembers moments of happiness.  It realizes giving up under the weight of all that bad was just too easy.  It's better than that, stronger than that, and has good memories to support those feelings.

One day, a crack appears in that thick layer of protection.  Realizing it's no longer needed, it dries up and withers away.  And there we see......No, not our many-legged, creepy, crawly, fuzzy worm, though maybe, in retrospect, it's not such a worm after all.  No, instead we see two beautiful wings, stretching out, softly waving about that body.

And then it's off, fluttering about the yard, flitting from leaf to branch to blade of grass.  Not in fear, oh no, but in wonderment.  It wants to see it all, taste it all, experience it all.  As it learns to use its wings, it floats above the surface of the lawn enjoying the view, gazing eagerly at all there is to see.  Then it arcs up into the sky, flying as high as it chooses with nothing to hold it back.  It soars over the hedge and can finally see what that shiny stuff is in the neighbor's yard.

And that's why I like the butterfly, it evolves.  It evolves from one thing to another completely different thing to yet a third completely different thing.  And it never gives up.  It may take a break for a bit, but it never gives up.  It always tries for more.  

I think I need to be reminded of that every now and then.  Maybe we all do.

Now, did I ask a caterpillar and butterfly what they were thinking and feeling?  Why, yes.  Yes, I did.  Not really, just kidding.  But in my mind, that's what it felt and thought.

And I still want a princess dress.



As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

A Shovel for the Crap.

What's Good? Money.

What's Bad? Money.

What's the Difference? Life and happiness.

I know it's been said before, but I'm saying it again anyway. The creator of the quote “Money can't buy you happiness” is an absolute moron. Seriously, people. Whoever first termed that quote, and all those delusional folks who repeat it in far too many conversations, I have to ask you, “Where is your head at??” Or better yet, “Where is this fantasy world you live in and how do I get there?”

Don't get me wrong, I get the gist of the meaning behind the words. It's better to have a happy family life than to make gobs of cash, marry the personality, not the wallet, etc. But is it really better? Who knows. What I do know is in today's life, you NEED money, all the time, to be happy.

What level of happiness am I talking about? I think at this stage in life I'm all about the basics. Electricity in your home is happiness, you need money to have electricity. Heat during the cold months is happiness, you need money to have heat. Food to eat is happiness, you need money to have food. Work and a regular paycheck is happiness, but you need money to get that work and to get TO that work.

I understand these are basic facts in life and are often taken for granted. Everybody's gotta deal with it, nothing new there, move on. We all plan for it and do what we've got to do to make it happen. It's basic, it's a part of everyday life. But what if all of that stops being basic? What if that existence you've provided for yourself suddenly smacks you upside the head so hard your clothes will be out of style by the time you stop rolling? (One of my father's favorite quotes.) And, out of nowhere, all those plans, all that work, is meaningless.

Plans are great, aren't they? We all have them, we all make them, discard them, rewrite them. They are there. They may be a detailed, long-term list of what and when filling a 300 page notebook. Or perhaps a 10-year agenda of how you want to get from where you are to where you want to be. They may even be something as simple as this vague notion in the back of your thoughts, this fuzzy, dream-quality image of where you want life to take you.

Plans are great. They tell us where to go and how to get there. They're a gentle reminder when we forget what is truly important to us. And a nudge in the right direction if we get knocked off our path a little. Best of all, they're usually easily adjustable and you can modify them to include that new goal or cool, fun thing you've recently discovered.

Yes, plans are great. Until that smack upside the head snatches them from your hands, tears them up, shreds them, and dumps them in a used litter box. I'm not digging them out of there. Are you?

So what do you do now? Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, nothing astounding about that announcement. We don't buy a $50 pair of jeans without budgeting for it or working overtime. We can't wait til next pay when we'll have money to order a pizza. But we're making it, it's working. Until one little bit of crap starts the downhill slide. That $25 vehicle inspection turns into a $400 new breaks and tire bill. A week or two later the alternator goes, couple of weeks after that the starter. Your medication that was a $10 co-pay suddenly isn't covered and you have to pay $300 a month. And on and on.

And the crap just keeps piling up on top of you. I'm no longer talking about those little rabbit turds of crap, I'm talking about the great big globs of crap that plop down one right after the other until you don't even know where to start or what life should smell like.

Money DOES buy you happiness. Because money is the ONLY shovel you have to haul that huge mound of crap out of your existence. So, how do you get it? Where do you find it? There's a shovel laying out there somewhere for you…..but where? And would you even recognize it when you see it?

Very recently, I've been the recipient of the type of head smack I described earlier. In fact, I'm pretty sure my eyeballs are still rattling in my head. Yes, my clothes have gone out of style but that's not new. So, what do I do now?

Well, I'm learning what to do now. And I'm trying a large variety of many things to see if I can find my shovel. At this stage, I'm not sure I even know what a shovel is let alone how to use it, but I'm going to learn.

And I'll share my newly acquired knowledge here. And please note the MY in that last sentence. It's very likely that none of this is new, but it's new to me. I read a lot of blogs and watch a lot of Youtube videos about this. It's so easy to say what to do, the actual doing of it is a whole other ball park, though. So, read on as I explore, as I try, as I discard, and even as I completely screw up. I'll share it all, the good, and the bad, and the difference.

Maybe together we can discover exactly what that stupid shovel is supposed to do.



As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

He said I said

I think my son is pretty intelligent. He's smart, bright, funny, quick witted, and ooooohhhhh sooooo dense sometimes.

A word for word recurring conversation:

The Boy:  Where is it?

Me:  Over there.

The Boy:   I don't see it. (looking randomly about the room)

Me:  Look at my hand and look where my finger is pointing.

The Boy:  (Looks at my hand and follows my finger with his eyes.) Oh!!  There it is.

Every.  Single.  Time!!   His WHOLE LIFE!!!!!


As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

Meet The Boy.

What's good?  I have a son.

What's bad?   He has ME for a mother.

What's the difference?  Poor kid has never had a chance to be un-wierd.

I'll call my son The Boy.  While this is not the name on his birth certificate, it's close enough.  Since day one of his life, my father has called him The Boy, as if it were a title he alone held.  "Where's The Boy?"  "What's The Boy doing?"  "We're going to take The Boy for ice cream, you wanna go?"  He called him The Boy so much that at various times over the years you'd hear other family members, my friends, and even some of my co-workers refer to my son as The Boy.  So it seems appropriate for here, to me at least.

That was my father's name for him.  My name for him during much of his younger years, from about 1 1/2 to 9 or 10, was Heathen Child.  In so many ways my name suited him so much more, especially once his personality started shining through.  But that's a whole different story.

I can use all the old tried and true platitudes regarding my son.  He's my sole reason for existence, my shining star, my every pride and joy.  He became all the human I ever hoped he would be and then some.  And he's a jerk, a brat, and my biggest irritant.  I don't think he's happy unless he's picking on me or twisting my words around.

Being the single parent that I was, over the years I've evolved from his cocoon of safety and teacher of basic functions, to his biggest homework nag and "girl explainer."  I taught him how to do what was right, and sometimes how NOT to by example.  I attended every wrestling and football function, every boyscout meeting and singing lesson, and coached T-ball and soccer.  I was a parent, a strict disciplinarian, a guide.  His biggest fan and loudest cheerleader, I was also his meanest teacher and most demanding boss.

The Boy is now 26, a full-grown, gainfully employed adult in his own right.  And I've evolved once again.  I am now his friend and we are roommates.  Yes, we share a house.  He moved back in with me a few years ago when life hit him upside the head a little too hard.  I willingly and happily provided the safety and shelter he needed until he could get back on his feet again.  For a short while we were equally contributing adult roommates and he was planning to get his own place.

Then my health hit me upside the head a little harder than I could handle and he's staying on to support me.  That's true friendship and the true give and take of family.  He could easily have said, "See ya later, I'll mow your lawn once a week."  He didn't.  He said, "You can't afford to live here if I take my pay away, can you?"  And so he put his life plans on hold and stayed for me.  And I've never been prouder of him.  Grateful, yes.  But proud of the type of person he's become.

So, he's the bread winner and I can finally be the stay-at-home mom I always wished I could have been when he was younger.  

The Boy is a huge part of my home and my life.  And you'll probably see many conversations between us on here, such as tonight's when he got home from work.

The Boy:  It was busy at work today.  How was your day?

Me:  Good.  I took a shower.

The Boy:  Good job!!  I'm so proud of you.

And that's our life.

As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

Quick question before I end my day.......

How many times do YOU try to stab a piece of food with your fork before you finally give up, pick it up with your fingers, and place it on your fork? 

Evidently, my limit is 6.

As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)

Someone stole my motivation!!! Help!!!

What's good?  We have dishes and we ate food.

What's bad?  Many of said dishes are currently dirty and bulging from the kitchen sink.

What's the difference?  I don't know.  Maybe me?

I'm standing in the middle of the kitchen glaring with every bit of glareness I can summon at those dirty dishes, yet they absolutely refuse to wash themselves!!  So, I turn my all mighty glare upon the useless dishwasher standing insolently against the kitchen wall.  It smirks at me as it leisurely lounges about and silently asks, "Yeah?  So what if I'm broke.  Whatchu gonna to do about it?  I got me a nice, warm home and ain't gotta do squat to earn it."

"What am I going to do about it?" I reply.  "Well......apparently nothing at all since I haven't done anything yet."  

And, yes, I just had a silent conversation in my head with our broken dishwasher.  I really should see about getting someone to fix it.  But I really don't have or want to spend the money on fixing it.  So there it sits, mocking me, scoffing at the piddly weight of the empty dish drainer I force it to carry.

I realize that I'm not working now so there's no reason I can't keep up with the dishes all day.  But somehow, they've developed their own super powers and quickly overwhelmed my mediocre strengths.  

But I've been busy, honest!!  I've had many things to do and have been doing them.  We need money so I've been writing, trying to get some places to publish articles I've written.  I wrote a 600 page novel 3 years ago but never finished editing it, nor have I tried to publish it yet.  So, I've been working on editing that.  I've been doing online transcription, taking online surveys, anything and everything I can do to get some money coming in, even if only a few dollars at a time.

And I have many things I want to do.  Swimming through my thoughts right now are these cute little flower vases I want to make and try to sell.  I have all the stuff needed to make them and have even made one...yes, a whole ONE.  I want to rearrange the living room so it's more work and user friendly for me.....and prettier.  Give me a minute.....I can come up with some more excuses.

But instead of doing and finishing any one of those things, I flounder about, going from one to the next until I've completely confused myself.  And until I can't stand the gloating of those insufferably obnoxious dishes, constantly bragging about their amazing ability to grow.  Or until I have to wash one bowl just to have some ice cream because all the bowls are dirty.  Sigh.

How do you motivate yourself?  How do you force yourself to completely finish one thing and make it go away once and for all before starting the next something?  Where do you find that discipline?  And how do you maintain it?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, criticisms....well, unless it's really mean, then maybe not.....on this kryptonite of mine.

Anyway, thanks for not noticing my messy home during this visit.  I promise that next time it'll be much cleaner....probably....maybe.  Fine, fine.  All I can say is I'll try.

As always, take your time leaving but hurry on back.  :)