Thoughts from Farid.

Thoughts from Farid:

Here’s the last part to help Organize Your Life. Since it’s the beginning of a new
year, you will start on a fresh page if you take time to organize, de-clutter, and take
charge of your life. Good Luck and Happy New Year!

TEN STEPS TO GET THE JOB DONE:

1. Empty the Space - If it's a drawer or a cabinet, dump everything into a container or box. Give this space a good cleaning. Empty and clean the corner of the room or garage. Now you will begin using your 5 boxes as you decide if it’s to put away/return, pass on, keep, fix, or throw away.

2. Use It or Lose It - Handle each item only once. Think to yourself: a) When is the last time I used this? How often do I use it? Could I borrow or improvise the few times I use it? Is it a duplicate? Is it out of date? What impact would it have on my life if I didn't have this? Do I value this item? Can it be fixed? Would I feel guilty if I gave it away? How
easily could I get another one if I really needed it? Can someone use it more than I can? Think of how this space could be used if this item weren't there.

3. Get Rid Of It Now - Take the trash out of the house now. Return all borrowed
items now. Bag up all items for charity now. The important thing is to get it out of your sight and life. Put them in your car and take care of them the next time you do errands. Ship handed down things to the designated person who will want them if they don't live close by.

4. Group Like Things Together - At this point you only have your Keep Box
and your Fix-It Box. Now you can sort. Store like things together (now will be the time to set up additional storage containers, files, drawer dividers. The best way to group things for one task would be in one container or location (i.e. gift wrap, shoe polish items, baking items, painting supplies, tools, etc.). Remember, our goal is to put them away where they will be living permanently when you're done.

5. Consolidate and Compress - Putting things that were once scattered in several places into one compact container means they take up less space. You will eliminate clutter, unusable space, and wasted time. If it's broken and you are not going to fix it, give it to organizations like Goodwill Industries who have people who can repair and then sell the items. Clothing - Get rid of duplicates, outdated, ill-fitting or unused items. Storage items - Downsize storage items such as boxes, caddies, racks, etc. Can you use a smaller container for the items? Closets - Remove all empty hangers and empty shoeboxes.

6. Go For Quality, Not Quantity - Keep only the best. Examine the true cost of buying an inferior item. It might be actually cheaper in the long run to buy the best, which will last longer and be more efficient. As for decorations, choose your favorites and display them rather than have knick-knacks scattered everywhere.


7. Think Multipurpose - Look for appliances and tools that can handle many jobs, not just one. They take up less space and cost less in the long run.

8. Alphabetize - It will be much easier to find things back if you label the storage boxes alphabetically whenever feasible. Even items used daily - Spices, Books, Videos, Files.

9. Label It - i.e. Kitchen - Write on a recipe card which items are on each bottom shelf or seldom used corner cupboards. List each item on each Storage Box (or on a card that will be taped to the outside of each box). Some organizers label each box A-Z, and keep the recipe cards in a separate recipe card box. You can retrieve items and then return them correctly when you are finished. Find a "record" system that works best for you. If you chose to keep these items, you want to access them quickly and effortlessly.

10. Put It Away - This needs to become a habit, or you will end up in the same situation as before. Ask yourself, where does this belong? Don't allow yourself (or anyone else in your household) to think they can put it away later. Everything needs to have it's own "home".

You can feed the world in 2008 at NO COST TO YOU.

You can feed the world in 2008 at NO COST TO YOU.

Every evening after work, I go for my walk in the park and listen to my downloaded programs on my ipod. Recently, my favorite program “World Technology” had a segment that was amazing, and I couldn’t walk fast enough to finish my walk and get home to log onto the site to check it out for myself.

The site is: www.freerice.com

The site explanation from their page is listed below:
About Free Rice
www.freerice.com is a sister site of the world poverty site, www.poverty.com .
Free Rice has two goals:
1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.
These goals are made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this website.
Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in you.
Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. It does not cost you a penny to go to the site and learn as you play and from your playing that you win they donate rice to UN that in turn is given to poor hungry people.
The site is not a Charity classified organization and that is why it (.com) and not (.org).
You will see few advertising and some are big sponsors, Goggle and Fortune 500 companies. It is their advertising that pays for the rice that you win for the hungry by playing the word game that allows all of us learn and test our knowledge of English language and also learn new words. Go to the site just once and read the “Frequently Asked Questions” that will tell you all about this great work. All the money from the advertisers buys rice for the poor and not a penny is used for personal use.
I am so excited about this that I am writing my article on December 4, 2007 for the January issue so you can join in this great endeavor.
Make it your priority every evening at home, before checking your e-mail, to log on to freerice.com and donate 100 grain of rice for that day, thus winning for humanity.
Below is the total donation by date.
Total Donations by Date
Date Grains of Rice

OCTOBER 2007 537,163,380
NOVEMBER 2007 4,768,969,790

December 1, 2007 235,092,740
December 2, 2007 231,789,260
December 3, 2007 252,053,160
____________
Total All Dates 6,025,068,33
We are all so blessed in our lives and it is time for us together to make it our priority for the year 2008 to feed the world…..and it does not cost us a penny. Encourage your children to do this also. It is a family site, so it could be a family project to see how much each family member can win rice donations for the poor. In addition to this, have your children pass this information on to their teachers, so the other students can be encouraged to join in on the fun while increasing their educational levels. Pass it on to your family, friend, organizations and churches. Make this one of your New Year’s resolutions for a self-improvement project as well as a “helping others” project. Let’s feed and learn. PASS IT ON!

MY SPORT BAR AT HOME.

MY SPORT BAR AT HOME.

In an effort to “cut back”, we will be staying home more and also doing more of our entertaining there. I decided to create my own sport bar in an extra room. I would like to share it with you, and you might want to realize a similar savings.

Last week I was upstairs in our “teen room” watching my Monday night football. The 6:30 PM evening news was coming on and I had the dilemma of wanting to watch the football game and the NBC evening news.

I looked around the room and realized there was an old TV that was unplugged and sitting there collecting dust.

I accessed my computer, video, and audio accessories drawer and found the components that I thought might let me accomplish what I wanted, but wasn’t sure if it would work.

I found a 2-WAY SPLITTER and two TV Cables I had bought from the 99 Cents store awhile back, simply because I could not resist the low price.

I disconnected the cable that came from the wall that went to the cable box. I then connected it to the IN outlet on the 2-WAY SPLITTER, connected a cable from the 2-WAY SPLITTER that said OUT to the back of the cable box. The cable that goes from the cable box to the existing TV was connected and I left that alone. I turned on the TV on and I still had cable with the existing TV. Then I connected a cable to the 2 WAY-SPLITTER that said OUT and connected it to the extra TV that was sitting in the room. I plugged that TV in and I had pictures on both sets.

Now the existing TV had cable channels with all the programs, and the old spare TV had the basic channels that were coming in. I moved the TV on the desk top (that runs the entire length of the room) next to the existing TV and put one on football and the other on NBC evening news. I was watching football and learning all about the state of the nation. Talk about multi-tasking!

I thought how nice it would be if we had 3 TV’s instead of 2, since we’re never satisfied with what is at hand. I founf another TV in he garage that wasn’t and hauled it upstairs. I stopped at Wal-Mart, bought a 4-WAY SPLITTER, and that evening I put 3 TV’s, a VCR, and the DVD player together and created my HOME MADE SPORTS BAR.

Thursday night Football was great. I had Football on one, news on another and an old TMC movie on the 3rd. I am sure you all have old TV’s sitting around collecting dust. A visit to the 99Cents store can turn your room into a exciting SPORT BAR at home just like ours at a very minimal cost.

This past Saturday, I had 3 College Football games on at the same time on the 3 TV’S and it was heaven on earth.

Take note, before creating this outstanding fun, check with your spouse or companion and make sure you are not going to get in trouble doing it. I do not want it to be HAZARDOUS to your relationship.

NEXT: A FOURTH TV and maybe a Mini Bar to finish it off!








2-Way 2 Splitter


3 Way Splitter


4 Way Splitter

LET’S KICK 2009 OUT OF HERE.

LET’S KICK 2009 OUT OF HERE.


Wow! What a year it has been for all of us. Started in late 2008 and it did not get any better in 2009. It affected us all and the big guys got fatter by using all the sceams to take publics money and get their messed up house supposedly in order which did not work. Meanwhile we all cut back and sacrificed to just make it though this tough year.

As it has been said a million times “government is not the solution, it is the problem” and gets in the way and places policies and laws in place that stays with us for years to come and we have to live with.

We all have lost many nights of sleeps this year worrying and finding ways to overcome the unforeseen problems that came up daily and we had to find ways to solve it.

I want to thank all of you for being resilient and sticking together through this year to get us to the end of the tunnel that we hope to see the light in the economy and the turn around without government intervention in 2010 to get us back to the way we use to do business and not by trying to make to the next level. All our competitors are in the same shoe and cut prices to capture the business. The worse thing to have is deflation, which would restrict all companies from raising prices to become profitable again to take care of their devoted employees. Inflation is bad, but deflation is worse.

Let’s look forward to 2010 with positive outlook and hope this storm is over and we can do business like business should be. President Calvin Coolidge in the 1920 said “The Business of America is Business”. So let’s do business.

I wish you all the best 2010/