I’m thinking about taking some courses at the local community college. I’d like to learn more about the technology of the Internet. I’ve noticed that I feel rather out-of-place among many of the folks around here lately. I need to learn how to geek-speak! Apparently more and more geeks are moving out here because their jobs do not require that they live in a specific city. So they move out to a rural area where they can live a really nice quiet life and yet make enough money to do it in style.
I noticed a few weeks ago when I attended a dinner party at one of my customer’s houses that a lot of people were talking about computers. They were using terms like dedicated hosting and network servers and bots and I realized that I was falling behind on my knowledge of the technology that is running the world. I think I’d like to keep up with it all, so as not to fall behind and feel totally technologically challenged!
Besides dealing with all kinds of extreme weather issues, we have papers to gather up and income taxes that need to be filed. Paperwork is not one of my strong points but it is worth the time and the effort to keep up with all the necessary documents in order to get the most out of what the IRS requires out of each one of us this time of the year. There are so many things involved with taxes, it just boggles my brain and I’m thankful that I have a good friend who does my taxes for me each year for a very decent and reasonable price. He has been preparing taxes since coming out of high school and really knows his stuff and always does well by me.
It’s very helpful to have acess to the Internet at times like this. There is a lot of information out there and it is (the Internet) a good tool to take advantage of. I spent a little bit of time online the other day, found an interesting site by Coldwell Banker that had the following video concerning the extended Home Buyer Tax Credit that over 2 million people have taken advantage of so far. There is a lot involved with these Real Estate Tax Benefit options that they have out right now. The more you know about these types of things the better prepared we can be in order to get the most for our hard earned money come April 15th each year.
I can remember when I was younger and needed Math help with my homework, the only option was to stay after school and meet a Math Tutor in the library. I was lucky in that the school provided the tutor for free. Sometimes it was the teacher that stayed after school, and sometimes it was one of the teacher’s star pupils. I was very grateful either way; without their help I never would have passed math!
Nowadays, kids don’t have to stay after school anymore to get homework assistance. If they have access to the Internet, then they can get an Online Math Tutor to help them out. This is a great convenience to the parents and students because the student can get the help at their own schedule convenience, and they don’t have to worry about trying to ride a late bus home. That’s even better news since due to budget cuts the late buses were all cancelled a few years ago and parents had to drive all the way into town to the school to pick up their kids!
Living in the country makes getting Homework help a big challenge! Especially now that the schools have cut back on their funding. No more late buses to take the kids home, so they can’t stay after school to get help with their Math they way that they used to be able to do. That also makes it a lot more difficult for kids to participate in after school sports and music and clubs. Many parents are very disappointed in these kinds of cut-backs for a variety of reasons. These kinds of after school activities certainly enrich the lives of the children on a social level that is important to the overall development of their character!
Fortunately there is help in educational subjects such as Algebra and English online. Many of the services charge a fee, but some offer their services for free. So folks that live way out in the country can help their kids get the kind of scholastic tutoring they need right at home without worrying about how the kids will get home after staying late at school!
I think that it is wonderful that there are so many baby proofing products on the market today. I don’t remember most of these products being available when my kids were babies/toddlers. I’m sure that if they had been available we would have used every single one of them! Our kids were into everything imagineable, and they wore us out chasing after them! That’s probably why our parents used playpens when we were little – so they wouldn’t have to chase us around!
But our kids absolutely would not tolerate playpens once they learned how to crawl. So we went the route of baby gates, outlet covers and child safety locks instead. It was a struggle, keeping the children away from so many things that could harm them. I know my wife misses the kids being little, but it is a big relief that we don’t have to chase them all over the house anymore! That is at least until we have grandchildren!