Reflecting

I was reflecting on something this morning, and that is that money is usually at the root of evil. This is not to say that money is bad or that people who have it are all evil, but just that many people do not know how to handle wealth, or cannot handle being without it. For example alot of people are willing to go to great and sometimes harmful lengths to get it. People kill family and strangers for money, they steal for it, lie for it etc. When I stop to think about how many marriages fail due to problems with finances and how many families argue about money on a weekly, if not daily basis, it astonishes me. Then I think about the comparison of people who live in poor countries and how for the greater majority of those families, the lack of money brings them closer together. So it makes me realize 2 things; 1 you have to be more at peace with what you have, especially when what you have allows you to have your basic needs. You have to realize that alot of what you are trying to achieve should not make you sacrifice your integrity, and that most of what we are working towards is well over what we need to survive. Of course I do not have anything against someone working hard and as a result that person becomes wealthy; just that if you are killing yourself and angry all the time due to the pursuit of wealth, then you need to evaluate if you priorities are really in order. You see, many people in this society are in debt due to overindulgence. Many times you will hear of people owning expensive cars and other toys, but yet their rent or mortgage is months overdue. I remember once watching an episode of Oprah and there was a couple on the show and between the two of them, they earned over one hundred thousand dollars annually, they both were paying on really expensive cars, but yet they had their stuff for the baby's nursery on lay-a-way, because they were in so much debt they could not afford to pay for it flat out! This is a serious problem...The second thing that I realized is that when you are blessed with wealth, you have to remember where you came from, and how you got to where you are today; when you do this, you are more likely to benefit others and the more you benefit others as well as yourself, the more fulfilling your life will be. The lesson is: be in control of wealth, don't let wealth control you.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Woah! I can't believe I have been away from blogging for sooo long!; not that I did not want to blog, circumstances permitted me from doing so. I hope to be back in the swing of things from now on, although I probably will not blog everyday, but I will try to keep it updated at least once a week. I also will be changing the look of my blog soon and trying a couple of new formats to include. I have been online all day today!! (too much) but at least it wasn't just for leisure. I had to put in my resume with a couple of places, fill out a FAFSA form, and do some other research; my only guilty pleasure was I visited my Facebook page:) (my favorite social networking site). Off to bed in a bit as I have to get up in a few hours to do that Wally World thing...yes unfortunately I still work there :( On another note I just had the chance to really research the rules for the proposed tax rebate, and am happy to find out that I should be getting one as well! (Yea Me!!!) Last time we had a rebate I was not eligible, but this time I am looking forward to the possiblity of the extra money. I have alot of important uses for the extra funds, just need to rank them in level of severity. Which begs me to ask the question what do you plan on doing with the your rebate check?

Tornado Watch

I am experiencing a whirlwind of emotions right now, boring stuff, but I will post it anyway as I am taking advantage of these few rare moments when I can blog.

1. I have just been blessed with another nephew, my bro and my sister-in-law have just had a little boy yesterday, to add to the little girl they already have.(This adds to the 2 nephews and 2 neices that I have thru my older sis) He is so adorable, he wighed 6lbs 10oz, but my sister-in-law said he was a more difficult delivery then my niece (that does not surprise me as my younger brother has always been a real pain lol like father like son). So I am happy about that.
2. I also am happy because I have actually made real progress with my bag(s) construction last night, I can see some light at the end of the tunnel, if only I can keep myself on track and not divert from my current direction, I will be that much closer to my giveaway contest and actually displaying them on the websitethatIneedtofinishbutcan'tbecauseIhavelimitedaccesstotheInternet.
3. Now for my frustration: work as usual is the main source; too much drama there, and I am having to try and pick up an extra day or two, because I am going through a financial crisis (what else is new) and have one day left before my license will be officially suspended for not having any insurance on my car :( because I can't afford the freakin payment right now arrrggghhh! The worst thing about working a crappy job is when you try and get those extra hours (not overtime mind you, the company shuns this, and will threaten termination if you do incur the O.T.) you end up killing yourself and when you get the paycheck you see maybe an extra 10 to 15 dollars after taxes! So those are the main culprits for my anguish right now, but I will try and drudge through as usual and keep the hope that I eventually things will get better. Once you've reached rock bottom, you can either stay there, or claw your way back up.

I am blogging today

Ha ha so much so much. Well I am blogging today... first thing:

• I have a new store ( cick here to visit it), well it does not actually sell my stuff, it is more of a consignment deal, I suggest and sell products for other websites. So we will see how that goes trying out new things. etc. There are some really good books on blogging in the books & manga category.
• Next I have found a host for my site, but I am in the process of tweeking it and of course I need to hurry along and finish some bags so that I can list them.
• I have been trying to check out all the blogs in my link list. I have deleted a few that I don't read enough, and have added a few. arrggh many good blogs out there.

There is so much going online I will have to write about it in another post, new topic and all.

Blogging Is Taking Over!-But Like the Starving Artist You May Have To Work Extra Hard Until You See That Big Break.

I can't believe how much of a phenomenon blogging has become! It is estimated that there is at least 71 million blogs out there! Now I must say that a good percentage of these are also said to be inactive as well, but that is still alot of people blogging. Which brings me to the few reasons people are blogging. Some people are blogging purely for self-expression and status updates for a small private fan-base such as family and friends, while others want to introduce their literary talents to the world. Still others are blogging solely with the purpose of profiting from their blogs. I think I along with many other bloggers, I fit into an evolved category of people which begin blogging to express themselves, and possibly gain a small following along the way, but then we are introduced to the possibilities of earning revenue from our blogs. You get caught up in the excitement of people who claim they have become rich and they will tell you all the secrets to being successful, "just like them!" While there are some bloggers whose tips actually work, many of them are just gaining more publicity-therefore more revenue- for their blog. I also happen to notice that many of the popular blogs that get top listings at places such as Technorati and Bloglog , are related to "Making Money With Your Blog" and/or technical blogs. Coming in a close second are the blogs that are about celebrity gossip, or just racy in nature. A few of the blogs that tell you they will show you how to make money, tell you to write about what's hot! While it may very well be true that alot of readers are into that type of content, I think it is watering down the essence of blogging, by writing just to keep up with the trends. If that is truly your style i.e you are a gossip queen or king who just loves keeping up with the latest news, then by all means that is what your blog should be about. However if you are randomly posting topics that you don't know about, feel any connection too, or like, why write it? This is not to say you can't blog about current events around the world, if your blog is about "dogs." If you are moved about a particular topic whatever it is write it down. Blog It. In my opinion a blog that is totally random, with the author all over the place babbling about topics that clearly you can see that have no real interest, expertise, or personal interest in, is a waste.... So blog about what drives and inspires you to write, and earn your fans and audience. Maybe it may take you awhile to earn revenue, but if you have a blog that shows some quality, you will have longevity, and a fan base that will follow you will all the others have died out......

Downfalls of being poor: Episode 1---No Health Insurance

Some of the downfalls of being "poor": DOWNFALL #1.

You can't afford health or dental insurance--- a few years ago I burned my foot by spilling a big pot of boiling water on it-ouch...and I went to the emergency room they cleaned it up gave me some ointment and told me to come back in two days to make sure that it was healing fine. I returned 2 days later and the doc looked at it and told it was healing nicely :)....Do you know how much this two day spa treatment cost me? $USD 1000.00 :S I had no health insurance and to pay it all out of pocket, while I was still in school and was making about $6.00 an hour. It took me a couple of months but eventually I paid it off. When I made assistant manager at the old retail job, I decided too get the company health insurance, even though I was making only a little more and really could not afford it, but I decided to bite the bullet and sacrifice that extra $130.00 a month but I soon found out that the deductible was much more than I could afford with what I was making so the insurance became an extra deduction out of my paycheck. Then the dental insurance was completely useless, it would not even cover my extraction of a wisdom tooth that had become abscessed, and I had to go to the emergency room because the left side of my face had become swollen. The emergency room doctor told me that I had better get the tooth extracted, because the abscess infection could spread to other parts of my body--pretty scary. Then he told me I should just stop spending my money on frivolous things and pay the money to have my tooth extracted lol I wanted to hit him for that comment. I didn't have the money to spend on things I needed, never mind frivolous things.

I frantically tried to think of an idea to come up with the money, and finally I realized I could take out $500.00 from the mere $750.00 I had in the 401K that I had at work. Just a year before the incident the company elected to open a 401K for me, because I had been there for over 5 years and reached the required age of at least 21. They deposited a little money for me, so I thought why not put a little money like 5% of my paycheck into the account every payday. Big decision for me; not making too much to begin with. But I am happy I did because I was able to take an early distribution on the money (paid a $50.00 fee for that when I did my taxes) and get my tooth extracted.

Emergency room visit for abscessed tooth: $USD 300.00

Antibiotics: $USD 80.00

Fee for early distribution from 401K: $USD 50.00

Cost of procedure: $USD 500.00

Feeling alot of the pain of my tooth being extracted, because 5 shots of numbing med. did not numb me until 5 minutes after procedure was over.....priceless.

Clarification

Just thought I might give a little clarity on a previous post (How did I get to this point?). I gave a little info on my school background not to state how bright I was, because in no way am I claiming to be a genius, but rather because to the simple eye it seemed that initially I was destined to be a successful doctor or lawyer when I was younger. It's funny how you take things for granted thinking you have it all figured out, but most often in life you will go through many tests and challenges, sometimes taking many different roads. In the end you may end up where you want to be but sometimes you walk the path you need to be on and not the one you thought you would be on. I am not saying that you can't have dreams and goals, you may just achieve them in ways differently than how you expected. I believe that the Most High, our all-knowing Creator does not give us burdens that we cannot handle, and although I have always been taught that, it took a little more growing up for me to finally understand it. When I was younger whenever something did not go my way, I would get really upset or depressed about it, but recently in the last few years I try to approach set-backs differently. I try to understand how I can learn from the situation; how does it make me stronger? I also try to remember those who have less than what I have, and I try to remind myself that after hardship, will eventually come ease...