While surfing the Internet today, I came across some very interesting things.  Perhaps most interesting site a came across was Virginia College Online.

What I found interesting about the site, was the fact that their college offered the opportunity to work on a degree at home and at your own pace.  This is vastly different compared to what traditional colleges offer.  Instead of having a rigid schedule of where you have to be for your class, you can pick the times that you will work on the class.

I was happy to see that you could study anything from their healthcare degrees online to the business degrees online that they offer as a part of the curriculum.  They don’t have a specific timeline set out for you to follow, rather you can work at your own pace.

Since I love learning so much, I think I might go online and learn a new subject.  But I will definitely keep the online classes option open as it will mesh well with the times that I work.

Now, I don’t want to say that it is a mistake to start a business, rather I made a big one when I started my restaurant many years ago.  I thought I had thought of everything from the kitchen to the dining area, but I was wrong.

On the opening night, things went smoothly.  The restaurant was busy and the food was served quickly.  From the patrons that I spoke with, they loved the food and I was so happy things were going very well.

Everything was perfect until the first customer came to the till to pay – and asked if we could take his credit card.  It was at that moment I realized that I forgot to arrange some sort of credit card processing service, and that we couldn’t accept any credit cards at all.

Big mistake.

Considering the fact that it was a high-end restaurant, most of the patrons wanted to pay by credit card.  Though the food was a success, I lost money that night.  I will never forget about setting up payment processing again.

The summer I was pregnant with my only child, we decided to build a deck. All we had was a set of brick steps leading down to a grassy patio area, which is to say, a muddy area.

So there I was, six months pregnant, chipping away at the old brick steps. I couldn’t wield a sledge (even if I hadn’t been pregnant), so I used a hammer and chisel. Actually I destroyed two big screw drivers until my husband gave me the chisel. I took out a LOT of frustration on those screw drivers.

Once that was done and the deck completed, there were decisions to be made I hadn’t counted on: Should we use a deck sealer? What color deck stains would complement the red brick of the house? What kind of deck cleaner was compatible with the stain we chose?

The best part of having the deck, however, came a year later, being able to watch our daughter, by then 8 months old, playing in her kiddy pool while I barbequed.

With finals just about done, it is time for me to start cleaning up my dorm room in preparation for me moving away for the summer.  It looks like I will be moving back home this year as the summer job that I have is in my home town where I grew up.

Going through the stuff my room, I find myself throwing way a lot of the dissertations that I wrote during the term.  Most of these papers I wrote were for elective classes and I won’t need them in the future.

The one thing I decided to hold onto was my copy of the research proposal I wrote for my thesis.  I’m especially proud of that work that I did as I earned one of the highest marks that I’ve ever earned in college.  As corny as it sounds, I think I might put it in a frame and stick it on my wall as a constant reminder that once in awhile my writing is a stroke of genius.

I think before I leave for the summer, I will have taken the empty bottles that are stacked up in my room from all the good weekends that I had during the year.  I will be able to use the money I get back to pay for the bus ride home.

Once a week I work for an online help service for a hosting company based out of my hometown.  It is a very convenient job as most of the help I give it is typed in a window.  I am only Level 1 support, so I answer basic questions about difficulties that our customers are having with our hosting service.

Once in awhile we get customers that are contacting us, praising us for our great service.  Today though, I did get a request that was different than any I have received before.

It was from an older lady that ran a little e-business selling makeup she created.  She told me that her sales were going great but that she was looking for a local web designer to redo the look of her website.

She was based out of New York, so I went online and did a search for "web design New York" and found her a couple of companies to check out.  She was very happy that I took the time to help with her question and I told her that it was all a part of our customer service.

As I’m nearing the end of my term at college, and finding increasing demands on my social time and yet I am supposed to be finishing up the last few assignments for my classes.  I really don’t want to miss the last few weeks of spending time with my friends, as I will be moving away for summer to go work and it will not have contact with them for four months.

I decided that maybe the best way to get things done would be to go online, and buy completed assignments in the subject areas that I needed to work on.  While browsing through the essay topics, I found that they did have philosophy essays for sale for a reasonable price so I decided to pick one up.

Glacier seems a lot easier if you can buy your way through college, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.  I can have a life I dream of and the degree I deserve.

I thought that I would try my hand at making a simple web page for the chess club that I belong to.  It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, because all we really need is a details of when our meetings and tournaments will be occurring.

Since I’m not a computer programmer, I’ve decided that I would use some web page maker software to make the site.  The neat thing with the software that I’m using is it is basically drag and drop and it should only take a couple hours to come up with the final design.

Before I get that far though, and what a fool around with it a little bit and maybe make a personal website for myself.  This way I will know how the software works and what to expect for the final product before I take the time to create the chess club website.  If it turns out that the software makes ugly websites, I will have to find some other way to go about it.  Wish me luck!

Just the other day I decided to Google "buy research paper".  I was curious as to how many results this certain specific quote would come up with.  I was surprised at the vast number of pre-written essays that could be purchased online, and that some of them were available for next to no money at all.

I was not considering buying a custom research paper when I did this search, but it got me to thinking about how many people must do it for the market to be this great.  I wondered if anybody actually writes their own papers anymore.  I also wondered, if I could sell some of my past essays.  Just kidding.

The very next time that I am doing dissertation writing I will be thankful that I am writing for myself and not trying to please someone else.  I guess, the only other person I have to please with it is my professor.  Thankfully, most of my professors seem to like my writing.

My wife always gets a my case that I’m a packrat.  Well, as much as I hate to admit it, that is true.

But, this year I made a New Year’s resolution to change my ways and get rid of some of my stuff.  For me, it was a really slow process – there are just so many good memories that I just didn’t want to get rid of.

One of the hardest things for me to get rid of was the research papers that I wrote in University.  The term papers I wrote back in the day was some of the best writing I have ever done.

But realistically, I haven’t read one termpaper since I wrote them, so was time for them to go.

We had a fire out in the backyard tonight and roasted some hot dogs.  I used my old term papers to start the fire.  I just hope my wife can see my commitment to getting rid of all of my junk in my effort at getting rid of my packrat habit.

In my life I thrive on routine.  Every morning after I eat breakfast I call my dad and ask them what the stock pick of the day is.  He is very knowledgeable and I trust everything he tells me.  He has not failed me yet and I don’t see it happening in the near future.

One of the reasons for this is that since he retired he likes to research stock and deduce which ones would be a good investment and which ones would be better left on the table.  He helps me out and I have made a lot of money invested in what he tells me would be a good choice.

I like to go over what I can as he teaches me how to do stock research. I hope that I can one day be able to do my own picks without help from him.  I am really glad that I have him in my life and that he taught me about money and investing from a young age.  He is my hero.