On sconce

I'm teaching my mother how to use the computer, especially how to get online. It's harder than I realized. I know she used to type, but now she seems to have forgotten how to type so she hunts and pecks. But I think that she'll find stuff she wants to see. Tonight she wanted to check out a website by some French furniture company that she saw an ad for in a magazine. So she went there and it was pretty fancy and glossy. I don't think any of the photos included a sconce. But she quickly got bored, so she's already got typical online attention deficit disorder, and she can hardly even double click icons.

On Best Buy

I'm moving pretty soon, so I'm doing a lot of running around getting errands. One of the stores I pass a lot is Best Buy. I got to the library for various things, partly because I am still watching free videos. And partly to get online in the day, because I took my own PC to my mother's house for her to use. And partly to use the printer or photocopy machine. I copied my tax return there yesterday. I wanted to get my taxes in the mail before I left. I hated to mail it this early, because I had to enclose a check to both the feds and the state of Missouri, but I didn't want to get in trouble for not filing or filing late and especially for paying late.

On safety products

When thinking about financial safety products, it's obvious that not enough people have thought out the consequences of everybody using certain techniques at the same time. The 1987 stock market crash was greatly exacerbated by the portfolio insurance programs that automatically put in buy orders when the market down a certain amount. Great for one investor or fund -- but everybody was doing it, sending automated buy orders in for millions of shares, sending their price down, triggering even more automatic buy orders. And on and on. Much the same thing happened during this latest financial crisis. Nobody thought about the odds that many subprime borrowers would start defaulting.

On www.quickweightloss.com

I was listening to NPR's Friday science show last week and they had a segment on weight loss. So even NPR is getting into the act. They had a short panel of experts talking about the latest scientific findings on weight loss. Unfortunately, I missed most of the discussion. However, one expert said something that intrigued. That the latest data showed that the epidemic of obesity in America may be peaking, at least among some demographic groups such as white women. He wasn't allowed to go into any depth, though, since it was the end of their time. Still, I'm sure that sites such as www.quickweightloss.org will not lack for prospects for a long time.

On fat burners

Maybe I'll write a book on fat burners to sell on Amazon through their print on demand subsidiary Create Space. That'd probably be a good seller. People want to lose weight, and hopefully a few of the people buying such pills on ebay and other outlets would like to know about the ingredients in them. Might be too much work, though. Maybe not. Plus, there must be a hundred or so of such ingredients in various diet pills. Let's see -- chromium, niacin picolinate, ephedra, hoodia, caffeine, God, the full list would gone on for pages, probably. Though there are a some that are popular current fads and some are old standbys. And some are now illegal. But people could at least get a good idea of what they wanted.

On diet pill side effects

I just finished reading a fascinating book called THE NEW ELITE about the current wealthy class in America. They're not much like the Rockefellers, Kennedys or JP Morgan. They're also not much like the millionaire next door of that book published in 1996, though closer to them than to other stereotypes. Most of them started businesses that became fabulously successful. There's not much about wealthy lawyers and doctors. Or even small businesses that remained small though successful. Come to think of it, it'd have been a better book if it had summarized their pathways to wealth as meticulously as it did their shopping habits. Nothing in the book about diet pill side effects, though. Still, it's fun to know that the favorite store of the wealthy is Target not Bloomingdales.

On nodule acne

I'm reading an interesting book on the subprime mortgage financial crisis. My only criticism is not really fair -- just that it's sort of premature because it doesn't cover the collapse of investment banks on Wall Street, TARP and all that. It's not focused on the full extent on the collapse, just on the housing and mortgage industries that led up to it. Also, it doesn't explain credit default swaps, though it does well explaining other weird financial instruments such as mortgage backed securities and CDOs. Nothing in it either about nodule acne. Right now I'm in the chapter about the contribution of the home construction companies.

On hemorrhoid relief

I have to admit, I had hemorrhoids maybe one time in my life. Many years ago when I was a very young man, I recall seeing blood in my stool and getting upset by it. I don't recall whether I did actually take any medicine to obtain hemorrhoid relief. Sometimes I've felt some itchiness back there, but no more pain or blood, thank goodness. I certainly envy people who have that problem. I think they say you should eat more fiber. I get a fair amount of that by following the Zone diet of Dr. Barry Sears, so maybe that helps prevent any problems for me. Maybe I got that condition back when I was young because I certainly didn't eat so well in my very young years.

On colon cleanse reviews

I first heard about colon cleansing in the mid-1990s or so. I subscribed to Sam Biser's alternative health newsletter. Every month or so he'd do a review on some type of alternative therapy I'd never heard of before despite having hung around health food stores for many years. He interviewed experts on sea salt, Dr. Schultz on herbs, and some guy whose name I've forgotten on doing fasts with coffee enemas. Little did I dream that within 15 years colon cleanses would practically be a mainstream subject that people search colon cleanse reviews for on Google because there're so many products offering to clean your colon. Most of them don't rely on fasting, though. And I can understand why not.

On acne medicine

I've already started doing my taxes. Like most Americans, I consider it an annual chore I don't look forward to. Though, to be fair, the part I hate most is writing a check to the IRS. There have been years when I get money back. I'm never quite sure. When I'm due money, I want to know as quickly as possible so I can send in my return and get that refund ASAP. If I owe them money, then I need to know as quickly as possible to start saving up to send it to them on April 15. I don't always make the deadline. I do make it with a return, not always with a full check. Oh, to be young again when the only thing I had to worry about was girls and acne medicine that actually worked.

On child franchise

Right now many professional people have been laid off due to the financial crisis and the recession. Many of them have gotten large bonuses or compensation packages and are thinking about using that money to finance their future incomes. So many of them are looking at franchises. So are many older baby boomers who have money from their jobs or savings and are thinking about changing careers as they get older. One popular choice is to consider investing in a child franchise -- one with a product or service directed at children only. I think that would be fun, though I don't know whether it'd be more profitable than a fast food franchise, though those are also a form of child franchises in a way, since so many kids like to eat at them.

On an Outer Banks vacation

Well, winter has started, after a beautiful but too-short Indian summer the last two weeks of November, when it was really sunny, dry and warm. We don't have snow yet, unlike Houston Texas, but it's only a matter of time. So it'd sure be good to be looking forward to an Outer Banks vacation right now. I'm sure many people are planning to leave right after Christmas, and others after New Year's, first spending that party time with their local friends. Then they'll leave to get away to somewhere warm and beautiful while their friends and remaining family have to face the snow and ice and cold. But who can blame them. They will have to hope, though, that, like Houston, they don't become victims of global warming and face incredible cold weather and snow.

On GMAT prep

Years ago as a rebellious semi-hippie, I dropped out of college my first go-round after one and a half years. Then I scrounged around at minimum wages jobs for three years, then returned to school determined to get a useful degree as quickly as possible. I took 9 quarters back to back, not stopping for summer break as many students do. However, I never took the GMAT prep. I just went back to school and worked hard at getting good grades and hard at my job at Pizza John's, and at partying after work, because we almost always stuck around and drank beer and sometimes went out for breakfast and sometimes to a bar and a few times to an illegal black social club. But one co-worker was old friends with the owner since the time he was a pimp and drug dealer before getting busted.

On Toto sinks

One good thing, since I didn't have to go to my day job the Friday after Thanksgiving, I stuck around my mother's and washed dishes for her. Then dried them. She'll put them away later, but at least the hard work of cleaning up the kitchen was done. I wanted to do the turkey roaster too but she was too tired to even want me still there. Said she'd do it the next day. She doesn't go out shopping on Black Friday either. She doesn't have Toto sinks, but I was still able to wash her good silverware by hand. And put some of the other dishes into the dish washer machine. Then I drove home and ate more food than I should have, but I didn't have to go to my day job Friday so I was happy for that.

On quick weight loss

Well, the holiday season has started. And with Thanksgiving dinner, people have already started to overeat. At my old job we would have some kind of dinner, so this year I missed out. Oh well. And they have numerous snacks and treats all through the Christmas holidays and ever after. My waistline is better off because I won't be tempted by all that food this year. But I will probably overeat for Christmas dinner, just as I did for Thanksgiving, but those are only two meals and so not a big deal. After New Year's people will be looking around for way to achieve quick weight loss. Unfortunately, there's no good way for that.

On electronics

Well, it's the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure how Black Friday stacked up. I think I heard a news report that people bought more this year than last year, so that's good for the retailers but in the long run it may not be good for the people who spent more than they can afford. I wonder how many people got great deals on electronics and other items because they were at the store at 5 o'clock in the morning? Not me. I guess I would if I really wanted something and it was going to go for a really significant savings, but I never have and don't expect to want any one piece of equipment that much.

On netbooks

Well, plans are proceeding to get my mother a computer or netbooks or some way to access the Internet pretty soon. I think she may enjoy finding old friends and family on Facebook. My sister thinks she'll enjoy shopping online. Probably some of both. And she's a local actress, so maybe she'll find a way to get parts online or come to the attention of some movie makers. I don't know. There are established channels for that, but you never know. Maybe in independent will need an older woman for some part and not go through the established agencies. Maybe she'll find people she enjoys talking or chatting with. Or good discussion forums.

On fall protection

I've been reading a really interesting book called The Survivors Club. I highly recommend it for many reasons. One of the points the author makes from his research is that you can prepare for some problems and thereby have a greater chance of having them and of surviving them. For instance, seatbelts and shoulder straps save lives in automobile accidents, yet not every wears them. Same with fall protection got contractors. Not everybody in dangerous work makes use of the safety equipment that's available. Then when they're hurt they say they had an "accident." But most accidents are not purely random. They're often caused by things that were preventable.

On www.goodsamvip.com

It's another beautiful day here in the St Louis area. We deserve these sunny, warm and dry days. We didn't get very many even during the summer, and for sure not in September or especially October which was very cold and rainy. Set many records for cold temperatures and rainfall. So to have a mild even beautiful November is quite a surprise and a pleasing one. Still, if I was driving around living in a recreational vehicle I'd be heading south. I'm sure those states must fill up with people during the winter months. Tourists and people who stay there just for that season, including people in rvs. And if I owned an rv for sure I'd get my self over to www.goodsamvip.com and see about the deals they have available on insurance.