Michele

If you haven’t been to a Renaissance Fair you are truly missing one of the most fulfilling experiences in life.  The Age of Chivalry is celebrated every year in October, usually at Sunset Park, but this year it was held at Silver Bowl Park by Cashman Center. The turkey legs were great and the entertainment was exquisite. Bravo knights and knaves, looking forward to next year.

Live blacksmith who told us stories of yore while making stuff.

Ahoy there matte, a ship in the grass! The ship was “shooting” at another!! Very loud and really fun.

My magical tennis shoes and staff ;).

Funny story…

The Romans

Jesus was even there.

Belly dancer who play with fire!

And there was the “Posh” experience.

The “Posh” potties are on the left.

Every Year Mix 94.1 host Bite of Las Vegas in October.

Gimp is a great program for those of your who are just starting photo manipulation. This is my first picture using Gimp. I am still very much new to the whole graphic art world. Gimp is free and there are a ton of great tutorials online. Most of the pictures I used I found on Flickr under the creative common license.  Enjoy 🙂

It has been two years since I smoked a cigarette. I started smoking at a young age. Trying to fit in with my friends I took up the habit when I was 16 years old. Most of our parents smoked which made it easy for us to obtain a cigarette here and there. If I knew then the horrible struggles I had to go through to quit, I would have never started. I was a promising young athlete at the time, but cigarettes really sent me down the wrong path.

Peer pressure is no joke. It was the summer of 1995 and I was visiting my best friends. I was shocked when Joann and Linda told me they had been sneaking smokes from their parents for a few weeks. I protested, but soon I felt I was being too harsh toward my friends. I took up my first Marlboro red, my head went light and I was buzzed. I laughed with my dear friends and we didn’t think much of it. The whole summer we stole cigarettes from our parents and found ever opportunity to smoke. We even had a code word! Pretzels = cigarettes. When school started back up I wasn’t able to focus during my studies and I couldn’t run as well anymore. The withdraws for a young hormonal teen were horrendous. Often I was mean to my family.

It wasn’t until I was about 22 that I wanted to quit and it took me seven years. You really need to want to quit. I actually believed I enjoyed it and it became the background of my life. Unthinkingly buying packs at 7-11, stocking up on cartons from the PX and smoking every change I could get. I smoked while driving, when I had a cup of coffee, after sex, in the bathroom, waiting for something, after eating at every meal and always while socializing. It started to cut into my sales at work. I would be busy smoking and as a result I would lose on a sale.

I would quit for a few days, would think I could have just one and I would end up starting back up again. Your mind must believe you are not suppose to be a smoker you can not justify to smoke for any reason. You should be aware of your thoughts as you are breaking your habit. Have a bag of nuts like almonds around to snack on. Chew gum.

Keep busy and put off having a cigarette as long as you can. If you have to smoke only take a few drags and do not finish the whole cigarette. Know when enough is enough. Make new habits. Understand smoking is bad for you, unattractive, and expensive. Look at pictures of lungs, read accounts of cancer, read health risks of smoking and ask yourself if you want to life longer. Just think, that cigarette you are about to smoke is shorting your life! Constantly remind yourself of the negativity of smoking and you will soon become strong enough to over come the addiction.

Once you stop smoking you will realize all of the positive benefits like, living longer, tasting food, breathing right and saving money. It is going to be a hard addiction to kick, but with willpower you’ll be able to do it and help your friend in the fight against smokers. Remember parents who are smoker: You have children who look up to you!

The reason it took me so long to quit is because I was always around it. I worked in a club, I drank coffee and my boyfriend smoked. My boyfriend and I quit together. We were short with each other, but we were aware it was the withdrawals causing it. If you have a partner to quit with, be each other’s support and you will make it through this difficult time. There are other thing you two can do besides smoke ;). It is going to be hard to stay positive so be aware of what this addiction has made you become.

You may want to take a few days off from work to sleep some of the addiction off. Exercise is an important element in quiting. Exercise and learn to breathe right. Keep busy. Remember if you must smoke, take a drag or two and put it out. Stay away from triggers during your first month of quiting. Example of some of my triggers were other smokers and drinking. There are some medications you can get from your doctor to aid you in quiting, I however do not recommend them. I tried to use medication myself and ended up even more depressed then I have ever been in my life. It has taken me a year to get back to my normal balance. Remember depression may result in more smoking! I’ve used the gum, but it always gave me too much nicotine causing me to smoke again, and more! With E-cigarettes, I am not convinced in the science and I don’t want nicotine in my system at all. Nicotine is an addictive drug! E-cigarettes are just another way to inject poison into your blood!!

The solution which worked best for me:

Every morning I would wake up and I would not have a morning cigarette. I’d have breakfast, then take my dog for a walk while listening to music or an audio book. Whenever I would think I wanted a cigarette I would push the thought away and I would look for something else to do. If the craving got really bad I would pop an almond in my mouth. When it got extremely difficult I would take a drag or two always reminding myself my life was shorting and I was better then cigarettes until finally I didn’t need them anymore.

Looking back, I regret all the times I quit for 3 months and start back up thinking I could be a casual smoker then end up being full time again. Two year is a long time to be without nicotine… and it has been great! I have no desire to smoke and I do not miss it at all. People smoke around me and I do mind because second hand smoke kills. Fortunately, laws are being changed and the ugly smoker is no longer in a majority of places. I see them huddled together in their little smoker’s corner and wonder if they realize they are actually killing themselves. It’s been proven folks, cigarette smoke kills.

I have a dear friend who is very trusting and ambitious. She recently was called by a company who fed on her desire to reach financial freedom by selling her on a turn-key Amazon store front for pretty close to $700.  A few weeks later, they tried to upsell her by offering to market her new storefront for her for close to $3k.  They sent her a small brochure with inspirational bible quotes and got her really excited about the possibility of her “investment” paying off many times over.  After several months, she has yet to see a single dollar in earnings.

The fact is, her story is not unique.  After she reluctantly told me about the situation, I spent some time researching and have found site after site of these types of “store fronts” that other people have bought into.  So many customers have been taken for a ride by this scandalous company who knows good and well that their customers won’t be seeing any return on their investment.  ClickShopNow.com is a scam, pumping dreams and charging hundreds to thousands of dollars for what boils down to a sub-domain and an HTML template.

Seeing her being manipulated by a company which offers her nothing really upsets me. I am deeply saddened when I consider all of the people who get involved with these scams. They spend money they don’t have for an impossible dream. Almost $700!!!  It’s outrageous.

What is a sub-domain? Well… this is tricky… these companies promise you with unique domain names and technically they are right, but the names are ridiculous. First of all the domain name is the most important thing on a web-site because people will need to remember it and you. Unfortunately most of the really good names are already taken. Be creative with your URL name, make sure it is easy to remember this name represents you, I for example use my first and last name as my domain name. It is my domain. I registered it, and I pay $8 a YEAR… I use WordPress for my blog and I signed up to Amazon’s affiliate program all for FREE. Sub-domains are commonly used by organizations that wish to assign a unique name to a particular department, function, or service related to the organization. For example I own MicheleCosper.com I can make an infinite number of sub-domain names like, ForSale.MicheleCosper.com or TheReal.MicheleCosper.com to sell to other people. They do not actually own the sub-domain name at all. If I let my MicheleCosper.com domain expire then each of the sub-domains I sold would expire as well. Even if the domain name is picked up again by another person the sub-domains are not active unless the new owner takes the time to remake the sub-domains. Another option  the owner can do is  make what is called a “wild card” sub-directory forwarding all of the previous sub-domains to the original site.

ClickShopNow.com resells sub-domains. The number of sub-domains are infinite. You may think you are getting five unique original and great websites but the reality is you are over paying for something you have absolutely no control over. This company charges its costumers $150 per sub-domain or more depending on the package you choose to buy plus processing and promotion fees.

Google: “ClickShopNow” and see all of the sites for yourself. As I am digging deeper and deeper in this it is just makes me sick. I wonder if even a single one of these “store fronts” have been able to recoup their initial investment. One of the most interesting things I found on their invoice was this little disclaimer:

“Cardholder acknowledges receipt of goods or services in the amount of the total shown hereon and agrees to perform to the obligations set forth in the cardholder’s agreement with the issuer. By signing this Client Authorization, Cardholder acknowledges that advertising products and services cannot be refunded; this includes Media productions, Website add-ons, Unique Domain names and any Internet marketing products. Cardholder hereby acknowledges that all website set-up, design and graphics and any web stores are the only transaction that have a 30 day cancellation policy. Any additional sales are final. Cardholder also acknowledges that the purchase of product or services from Web Media Services. LLC. (“WMS”) does not in any way guarantee success. Cardholder also agrees to direct any concern or disputes about products or services purchased to WMS directly, and not to engage the services of a third party source for such purpose.” (Third party as in a Lawyer perhaps?)

I believe the disclaimer is put on their invoices to scare people into doing nothing. I have never in my life seen such a disclaimer. It is almost as if they admit their guilt.

Web Media is the L.L.C running the ClickShopSell.com site. The address is

67 E Weldon Ave Ste 121
Phoenix, AZ 85012

It also happens to be a company named: Aggressive Advertising….. hmmmmm.

I searched the Better Business Bureau for Web Media Services L.L.C.

I found that this company has an F rating, with an estimate of 5-25 complaints in the past 36 months.

The Reason for Rating as per BBB

BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates

BBB does not have sufficient information to determine how long this business has been operating

6 complaints filed against this business

1 complaint filed against that was not resolved

2 serious complaints filed against business

BBB does not have sufficient background information on this business

link

For those of you interested in taking your first steps to financial freedom stay away from ClickShopNow.com!  This outfit charges so much for nothing.  They make you believe that they are some sort of branch of Amazon.com and that Amazon endorses this site.  They make it sound like they are offering you something of value that has the potential to make you rich.  The reality is that everything that they are offering you can be found elsewhere for free.

The Site Wizard is a wonderful site where you can learn the basics of web development to choosing a domain name. The best thing about this site is that it is 100% FREE! and filled with lots and lots of great information. Start there see where you end up, if anything you’ll learn terms and be more comfortable when dealing with future web projects.

How to Join Amazon:

Go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ and Join free. Click on the blue “Join Free” button and follow the directions. If you already have a Amazon account you can just plug in your username and password and the rest of the information should populate for you. The questions are easy to answer and will only take a few moments to complete.

Making a website is not easy. You do have to take the time to learn how a website works. Be creative with the content and make it your own. Make sure you do your homework, read reviews, forums and ask friends about new social trends like twitter and facebook. There are numerous web designers that will give you original work. http://99designs.com/ for logo contest and web designs and  http://wordpress.org for blogger themes Free.

Do not pay ClickShopNow.com hundreds of dollars for a sub-domain and a free Amazon affiliate account.  It’s a scam.  They are selling snake oil and taking advantage of people.  The truth is there is a lot of opportunity right now doing business on the Internet.  Unfortunately, there are also a lot of fly-by-night operations who are trying to take your money and leave you with nothing but the sick feeling in your stomach that tells you that you’ve been hustled.

If you or someone that you know has had a negative experience with ClickShopNow.com, please comment and share your experience.  You shouldn’t be ashamed that you bought the snake vapor that ClickShopNow.com is selling.  All it means is that you were willing to invest in your dreams.  But this company isn’t going to help you reach them and they will continue taking other people for $700 at a time until enough people speak out against them.  Please also link to this site so that more people can see how this company is taking advantage of people.

I am not much of an Xbox 360 player, but I have been wrapped up in Fable 2 and 3. It was Valentine’s Day Dutch and I decided to skip a movie after our romantic dinner and play a video game the rest of the day. Well it turned to one week then two… almost 3 weeks then BOOM! Our game had a bug. We couldn’t progress in Fable 2. The glitch was during the quest “Love Hurts” I couldn’t turn in the head! A bunch of forums post the same problem but there is no solution but starting your game over. Sigh…

Instead of buying Fable 3 for 60 bucks we rented from the blockbuster destroyer… Red Box …. Yay! Only four days of game play and we beat it… twice ( it is 2 dollars a night for games to rent). I had made a female character and Dutch made a male and we got married and had a baby in-game.

The games themselves are similar to each other. Fable 3 is a better game mostly because it didn’t bug out. There are side quest to do as in Fable 2 once you beat the game or before. The side quest are enjoyable with great humor that will keep you playing. The map and inventory system is greatly improved in Fable 3 and there are more choices for home decorations. The Co-op is quite better in Fable 3. I am not sure if you could gift gold in Fable 2 but I know you can in Fable 3 :D. We may buy Fable 3 to finish the achievements when it goes down in price. Until then my Hero is saved on my Xbox 360 and my Fable 2 Hero is waiting for a miracle patch.