You can find good news on the Good News Network, of course. The Good News Network was started because bad news and scandal are given so much attention while good news is overlooked. The Good News Network gets its stories mainly from volunteers. They offer a forum for members and a free newsletter.
Sunkist wants kids to be able to help learn to take a stand for things by helping them have the ability to raise money for their favorite charities. Sunkist is again offering the Take a Stand lemonade stand program this year. The Take A Stand program lets kids between the ages of 7 and 12 raise money for charity. Stands are only available while supplies last. This year there are 20,000 lemonade stands available to give out. To read more about the program or to request a stand, go to http://www.sunkist.com/takeastand/.
ZenniOptical.com sells affordable prescription eyeglasses starting at only $8! I know that sounds impossible, but it’s true. The prices are low because Zenni manufactures and sells their own brand of frames. They don’t do much advertising and they sell over the internet. They have a huge selection and even offer the additional options like progressive lenses and tinting. Shipping is an affordable $4.95. Check out Zenni on Fox to see a news program checking them out.
Tastespotting is a food website, although calling it simply a food website doesn’t do it justice. It’s more like a photo album meets recipe book meets directory of food. When you go to the Tastespotting page you’ll see pictures. The pictures are big and gorgeous. When you click on a picture you’ll be taken to the blog or website where it originated and you’ll find something about the picture - a recipe, story, article, review, etc. (If you’re wondering where it is you’re going before you click the url of the site is just above the picture.) Tastespotting is free to join. I got really hungry surfing the Tastespotting website. I found some recipes I can’t wait to try. Go Tastespotting, you won’t be sorry you did.
The Fourth of July is Independence Day here in the US. It’s the anniversary of the day that the United States declared her independence from England. The US declared her independence with the Declaration of Independence. Continental Congress passed the final text of the document on July 4,1776.
Check HowStuffWorks.com. HowStuffWorks is a website that was started in 1998 by a North Carolina University professor. It’s goal is to educate people on how things work. It tackles the questions we all wonder about one step at a time until they’ve figure ou how something works. The website is part of the Discovery Communications group, the number-one nonfiction media company. Discovery Communications holds many tv channels and websites we’re all familiar with including the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, The Science Channel and Discovery Health. The site not only contains thousands of articles on how things work but it also contains helpful tips and articles related to the topics. For example, you can learn how a dishwasher works and then read tips on countertop cleaning. The site is quite enjoyable and offers something for everyone. And it’s child safe and user friendly. I love this site.
OurStage.com is a website about new music and videos. New artists can upload their videos, which viewers can vote on. Both music and video are broken up into categories, which are called channels. Music contains more than 40 channels. In each channel two entries are placed in a battle. Users watch a minimum of 15 seconds of a battle, which is two different videos competing against each other, and then they can vote. Entries can rise higher and higher in their channel until reaching the top. Artists with the highest voted entries win prizes. I think the site is a neat idea and could bring lots of attention to bands that might not otherwise have the means to get their stuff out there.
Our living room television has four remotes - one for the television, one for the Tivo, one for the home entertainment system and one for the dvd player. Oh, there’s also a remote for the Sirius Satellite Radio in the living room too.
Logitech is having a contest, Remote Disasters. They’re looking for people to submit their remote control stories. During the three month contest, three winners will be chosen from submissions each month. The three monthly winners will receive Logitech products as prizes. One grand prize winner will receive a 42″ hdtv, a Harmony universal remote and a slinbox solo, package value $2,500.
Food411 is basically a large searchable directory containing all sorts of food related information. On it you can learn about recipes, foods, food tools, food stores and premade meals. Basically it’s all about food related products and where to get them. Food411 offers a blog, on it readers can ask questions of Chef Sylvia, read reviews and find articles and tips. The home page of Food411 lists 8 broad main categories. Under each of those 8 main categories are numerous sub categories. Under the sub categories are websites where you can find the products the category is about. Most of the links under categories open in new tabs which saves visitors from potentially confusing backwards navigation. Let me know what you think of Food411.
A master list of storm names is put together years in advance. The list can be seen on the National Hurricane Center website. The list used to contain only womens names but mens names were added in 1979. Now the names alternate - one female, one male, one female, one male and so on. A list of names is recycled and reused after six years. The only time names are removed from the lists is if the names were associated with extremely deadly, costly or damaging storms. If a name is retired another name replaces it after being chosen by the World Meteorological Organization. Different areas of the world have different lists, so a name can be on several different lists and could have storms with their name in different years. For example the Atlantic list includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico. My name (Valerie) is on the list for the year 2012. The Northern Australia list constantly recycles itself so my name could theoretically be the name of a storm more than once. Is your name on any of the lists?
If you blog regularly or read blogs regularly, there’s a good chance you know who Lori is. Lori is the blogger behind A Cowboy’s Wife and Blogging Cents. Lori decided to create a blog just for female readers. She did so in January and called it All Chick Stuff.
The header on the plaid background is the first thing I noticed. The header, containing “girly” things like shoes, purses, jewelry and makeup, fits the theme of this blog well. The theme loaded quickly. The text is clear, of good size and easy to read. Navigation of the site’s pages is up at the top, which I love. All Chick Stuff offers an about page that Lori did start work on but I’ll bet with everything she juggles she hasn’t had a chance to get in there and finish it. (You can tell she isn’t finished because some default text is still there, with her text. Oops.)
The double sidebar is neat and organized. I think the categories should be moved up a bit higher, to make it easier for a reader trying to find something be able to look for it. I noticed a white spot in one where a Photobucket image wasn’t loading. I recommend not using Photobucket because I see this all of the time. If you can use host your own images, if not use a more stable system like Flickr.
Lori has kept page length to a reasonable length, allowing only four posts to appear on a page. One thing I’d love to see on this blog is a little more color by way of adding pictures. Some pictures would draw attention to a post and break up the white post space. Plus, we’d all benefit because Lori is a terrific photographer. Her writing style is personable and friendly, and when I read her blogs I can actually hear what she’s saying in my head. Watch one of her videos and I bet you’ll be able to as well. Readers are invited to leave comments. Leaving a comment on All Chick Stuff is easy as it requires no registration or login.
Lori’s done a nice job getting All Chick Stuff up and running. Go check out the site for yourself, and when you do please tell her that valmg sent you.
I was, and I didn’t even know it. You’re probably thinking that what I’ve just written makes no sense so let me explain. Shortly after doing our taxes my Dad saw a link on the New Jersey State Division of Taxation website that read unclaimed property. Curious, he clicked on it. He saw a message saying that the State of New Jersey did endorse a site entitled Missing Money to help locate unclaimed property. For these purposes, unclaimed property refers to money. Now more curious, he called me over to the computer so we could try it. To use it all you need to do is enter your name and the state you’re in. There’s no charge. We put his in and nothing came back. We put mine in and a message came back that I had unclaimed money. I clicked on the link provided and it asked me to verify a little more information, in this case my address. I put it in and was given a form to print and mail in. I mailed it in. What could it hurt? I got a letter back last week that told me I had a payment of $85 plus interest coming my way from an old health insurance policy, and that the check would take 4-6 weeks. The check arrived today. Very cool! Everyone should take a moment to see if they have any missing money, just in case.
In recipes, a sprig usually refers to a 2 to 4 inch piece of an herb plant. Before substituting with a dried version of the same herb check your recipe. Often a spring is called for because at some point the recipe calls for the spring to be removed. Springs can be removed but dried herbs cannot so the end results might taste stronger than intended.
