I blogged recently on Lisa Reviews about how much I can’t stand the Chicago Tribune. Yes, my favorite paper since I moved down here has made me cancel my subscription. I know, hard to believe. I have been through many, many, many changes to the look of the paper. However, this last one I cannot stand. It drives me nuts to the point that I swear its giving me acne. I can’t find the sections that I like. I swear there is less content. Some of pages look like a blog page which would be fine if I was looking at a blog. However, I read the newspaper for more content not less. My husband has always wanted me to subscribe to the Chicago Sun Times, so I finally did. Today, our first paper came, and I loved it! Their articles had real content and weren’t just all pictures. I could easily find what I was looking for. I only have two complaints. I am not sure how I am going to share the paper with Bill. We tend to read it at the same time. The other problem I see is that I get less coupons. However, the Chicago Sun Times is a third of the cost of the Tribune, so at least I am saving money there. If I remember, I’ll just ask my mom to keep her coupons, and I’ll go through them when we go up to Green Bay.
Did you November is National Novel Writing Month (hence, NaNoWrimo). NaNoWrimo is an interesting approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1 and end November 30. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word). This requires you to write a minimum of 1,667 words a day which can be very daunting. This is why using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for NaNoWrimo would take some of the pressure off. I know my sister would love to write a novel one day. It is honestly her lifelong dream. She went to college and majored in English, so she could do it. However, she is super busy (and this is before she even has kids!). When I learned about Dragon Naturally Speaking, I knew this would be a perfect fit for her. This can definitely help her blogging (of course, she is a blogger too!). However, I personally don’t think she thinks she has the time for something of this magnitude.
If you want to see how this would help you, you have to take the Dragon’s typing speed test! I tried it with Will (my 16 month old) hanging on me (so I really do type faster, but this is what my life is like normally. That is why blogging usually takes me all day. LOL Here’s my test results:
Let me tell you, I couldn’t believe how fast the speaker was compared to my typing. Granted, I could have typed faster without Will, but I still couldn’t have kept up with the speaker. There is no way. I think I know what I am buying my sister for Christmas. She has some big changes coming her way and this would allow her to both continue blogging and to write her novel.
I may not be writing a novel, but man, I can see so many uses for myself with this software. Since I have five blogs and two little kids, I could definitely get more work done with this versus me typing out my blog posts (see score up above – lol). This would make it much easier to write posts for my travel blog when we are on the road, and I could write my posts for my cooking blog while I am cooking the recipe I am going to write about. I could take the time I save and spend it with my family instead of working. It would be nice to be able to go to bed before midnight. Do you want to see how easy this is to use?
As you can see, anyone can use this software. It is that easy. Don’t believe me? Read some of these Dragon Reviews. I actually know people who have this and they absolutely love it. I am still working on getting my hands on one of these, so I can save some of my precious time.
Many of you know that I have been having major hosting issues as of late. From July till now, my sites have gone down daily, and Bluehost’s support has been less than helpful. I have used them for almost two years, so it was truly sad for me to have to even think about leaving. I have never had the problems I was having. If you read my blog, you will notice long absences (when I couldn’t even post due to not being able to even get to the backend of my blogs!), and I wrote about a lot of my issues. My final straw was when support finally told me to delete my old posts and put them on a static page. Well, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of a blog. I think I just outgrew them. I do have to say that to cancel Bluehost was super easy, super fast, and they were super nice.
I had asked around quite a bit about what other hosts were out there that people liked. One I heard a lot of good things from was Hostgator. Before I made my decision, I even online chatted with some of their sales people. The other thing that impressed me was that they are green. I personally believe that every little bit helps and that if I can help the environment with my hosting, why not. Granted, Hostgator isn’t running their own windmills in downtown Houston. Instead, they have bought RECs for 130% of the electricity used to power and cool its shared and reseller servers. What’s a REC?
Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) are tradeable credits representing all the environmental benefits of 1 megawatt hour of renewable energy. So when HostGator purchases 4,009 Texas wind RECs, it’s basically paying a Texas windfarm to generate renewable energy on HostGator’s behalf. HostGator doesn’t own the windfarm, but for every REC purchased by HostGator, that windfarm generates 1 megawatt of Texas wind power and puts it into the grid. When HostGator draws power from the grid, it can then claim credit for that wind power generated on its behalf.
Another thing I really like is that if there is a problem with one of your sites, they don’t pull them all down. That was a big grievance of mine before. They will also transfer your domains and your files to them for free! That was what really got me to come over to them. They saved me hours of time of having to move my sites! Every step of the way, I got an email letting me know what they were up to. The only thing you end up having to do is check to make sure that your site looks good and to change your DNS settings. It doesn’t get easier than that!
Any issues I have had so far have been dealt with quickly. When I didn’t get my welcome email (due to my own typo), they responded to my ticket in 15 minutes. I ended up sending in a ticket due to a WP hiccup last night (which I think was my fault too – lol) and had a response in about 2 hours. I love that kind of customer service! They have been nothing but nice and helpful. The thing I love the best is that I went from throwing errors on all my blogs to not throwing any. I am not sure how that happens, but I’ll take it!
If you are in need of new hosting, I highly recommend checking out Hostgator. They are very competitive in pricing, and they are everything I wanted in a host.
Do you ever find yourself frustrated that the charities that you give to keep a huge portion of your donation to themselves to cover “overhead” costs? I know I feel that way a lot, so when I come across a charity that gives 100% of your donation to the kids, I want to scream about it from the rooftops.
This is where the Child Foundation Charity comes in. They are foundation that helps children with physical birth defects get the surgeries they need to look normal again. They help children from all over the world. Each one of these surgeries costs around $30,000, and some children need multiple surgeries to fix their birth defects. As a mother of two little ones, my heart certainly goes out to these children. I remember how cruel children can be to one another and even how society can be towards you if you look different.
Now, I said that 100% of your donation goes to the kids. It does. They have a donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, who covers the operating costs of this charity. Every cent you donate goes towards these kids surgeries’. For me, that is huge. You can directly help a child. Granted, most of us do not have the $30,000 to help with the surgery, but a little here and there can definitely add up. You can even see some of the kids they have helped and those still waiting for surgeries. When you read their stories and look at their pictures, I can’t help but tear up. This could very easily be one of my children needing this. I am just happy that there are charities out there willing to help these children. If their stories touch your heart, you can even send these kids an e-card to help brighten their spirits. Now, if you know some one who is in need of this, please send them their way. Their motto is “giving children worldwide the quality of life every child deserves”.
The Child Foundation Charity was founded in January of 2007. Up until now, they have been able to help 6 children live a normal life. Their goal? They would love to be able to help 10 – 15 kids a year! However, they need help from you to be able to do this. If you would like to donate, they have a page set up to walk you through the process (you can even use Paypal!). Another way you can help is to post about this charity and get the word out. The more people who know about this, the better! A third way you can help is if you are in the Miami area. They are having an inaugural fundraising event on September 27, 2008 at The Rusty Pelican in Key Biscayne, Florida. It starts at 7 pm and includes complimentary cocktails provided by Bacardi. Afterwards, you will enjoy the house specialty of filet mignon and lobster, followed by a night of dancing to a live band, and a silent and live auction. The ticket prices are $125 per person or $1,000 for a table of 10. Lastly, you help by donating to the above event by donating items to be used for the live and silent auctions, by purchasing an ad in the Event Program for the night, and donating promotional or sample items from your company to be included in the gift bags for our guests. As you can see, there are so many things you can do to help!
I know this ended up being a really long post, but there were so many important things to tell you. Let me sum it all up for you. If you want to help kids with physical birth defects live a normal life and have 100% of your donation go towards their surgeries, then the Child Foundation Charity is for you!
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