Now I am looking for an online broker to get my start with investing. I don’t really want to call a local brokerage office and hear a lot of sales pitches. I think I know which stocks I want to buy and I would rather try online trading and see how I do on my own. If I mess up, it will be my own fault and I am OK with that.

Stock Trading is still the basis for a lot of people’s retirement plans. I don’t want to be retired and start learning about the market. I want to learn now and get the learning curve behind me before it is critical to my financial health.

She is a good writer. I’ll give her that. But I think she sucks at mothering and usually disagree with just about every opinion that she ventures. I only read it when the wife brings it up and makes me read it so we can discuss the topic of the week.

This week’s blog is about being a step mother and how difficult it can be dealing with the birthmother. She wrote it in retaliation for a blog written by a birth mother on another site who voiced many legitimate concerns about a step mother. They both tried to be politically correct but it was obvious that both are irked with their own situations.

The odd part is that both bloggers referred to the birth father as the “biodad.” I have heard the term “baby daddy,” but the term biodad was a new one to me. It sounds kinda creepy. Like something created in a science lab.

This printer was on sale for $39 and the box had a bonus of the serial cable included. This machine is a Copier, Scanner, and Fax, and does a good job on photos. It even has a preset button to print on 4 x 6 photo paper, which is what I prefer to use.

I’m looking forward to hooking up this baby and giving her a test run tonight!

Before heading out to Office Deport I checked the web sites for HP and Epsen printers, and compared some of the different models in the $100 and under range. I know these are cheap printers, but that’s all I want for casual use at home.

I decided to go with Epsen because the ink cartridges are each one color and you only replace the one color at a time as it runs out. With the HP, the cartridges are all three colors in one container, and when one color runs out, then you have to replace the entire cartridge. So you are throwing away good ink and wasting money.

The main think I’m looking for this weekend is a cheap printer on sale somewhere. The Sunday newspaper always has ads from Staple, Office Depot, Office Mac, Best Buy, etc. Surely I can find something good in the sales flyers and go get a new printer later today or tomorrow.

If not, I’ll check the internet for HP and Epsen, and see if they have any online specials that I can take advantage of. The only drawback to ordering online is that I will have to pay for shipping or wait several days for the order to arrive. I would rather find something locally and be able to carry it home with me so I can be printing again by tomorrow night.

I cleared the jam and have pressed every reset button, combination of buttons and on/off switch that I can find. It won’t reset off the error code and print.

Most of todays printers are cheap enough to be disposable after a year’s use. There doesn’t even seem to be much difference in the length of time you get to use it between the price points. I have gotten good use out of a $39 printer and I have gotten good use out of a $400 printer. But neither one lasted more than a year and had to be replaced.

She told our HR manaager today that she has been experiencing Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms, although she did not realize it until the doctor told her the diagnosis. The symptoms can easily confused with other things. There are many health conditions that cause, among other things:

• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Bladder/UT dysfunction
• Spasms
• Depression

So for a few months is was a huge medical guessing game. thankfully, her doctor was persistent and found out the cause. Of course, no one wants to hear the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, but at the very least it is a relief to have a name to put on it and then get the right treatment for it.

To be honest, this is my first encounter with the disease, so I need to get educated pretty quickly. I want to do what I can to support this woman and not sound like an idiot if she chooses to talk about it with me. So I’ll be online searching out Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms, Diet & Exercise tonight.

Finding a great Myrtle Beach hotel online is fast and easy. You can see photos of the hotel, the guest rooms and all the amenities of the property. Then you can shop for room rates and package deals that might include a game of golf – or two.

While looking for Myrtle Beach vacation deals, I found the Grand Shores resort. This is the place that is at the top of my list for my South Carolina vacation.

Bathroom tiles can be used in a variety of ways, with different sizes, borders and patterns. But they can be used in just about any room, and I have even started seeing glass tiles inlaid with brick or stone on walkways and patios. There was an article in a major magazine about their dream homes that featured glass tiles in a garden pathway. That was inspiring!

The biggest new fad for kitchens is the use of Subway tiles on walls that surround countertop work areas, sinks and cooktops. These make a nice nostalgic reference for anyone who has lived or worked in New York City. Other cities have subways, too, of course. But we have a lot of people in Nashville who moved here from NYC because of the entertainment industry, and I know they are especially interested in finding small touches that remind them of home.

My burning question now is: should I get another desktop or should I get a custom laptop? I wonder if there is any advantage in the desktops anymore? At least with the laptop I can easily take it with me wherever I need to go. The desktop stays tethered to the home office. But it should be more reliable and probably more powerful. So I’m thinking hard on the two options and have to figure it out tonight. I need a computer at home by the weekend.

The IT techs want to bid out for new managed hosting solutions since we are moving and considering new equipment. But the Purchasing Department says that the servers and hosting aren’t going to change just because of the move. They are pretty swamped with other moving details and evidently don’t want to take on any more projects.

That’s why I say to let the IT guys do some preliminary shopping and configuring. If they find a good deal or a better way to go, then they can give the Purchasing Department the contact information and all the proposals. If they can’t find anything better than what we’ve got, then it doesn’t require Purchasing’s attention.

As long as they include colocation services, I’m not too worried about which way it goes. I don’t have a dog in this fight unless the system goes down, and then we’ll all be screaming for SOMEBODY’s head on a platter.

We hired the data cabling installers ourselves rather than trusting the general contractor to handle it. When we moved into this office we had a terrible experience with the contractor, as we had to use the company hired by our landlord to do the build out. We learned from that nightmare to never let the landlord choose the guys who will be doing sensitive work for us. It is especially important to have a cable contractor and electrical contractor who know what they are doing.

As it turns out, it was the burglar who got shot. He came in the house and had made enough noise that the homeowner was alerted, went to get his gun and then shot the guy. I don’t blame him a bit, in fact, I applaud him for taking action to defend his home and family.

Its no secret that changing demographics and the bad economy has forced a rise in the crime rates here and in a lot of other cities. That is why I am glad we have the gun laws in place and the regular citizens have the means to protect themselves.

In addition to responsible gun ownership, a good security video camera is an important tool for protecting your home. Along with bright lights in key locations, you can still sleep in peace and be prepared for any trouble.

There are signs in different parts of town, such as people installing metal bars over the doors and windows of the ground floor of houses, installing fences, getting large dogs for the back yard, etc., that some areas are fighting back against the crimes.

All of my neighbors have a home surveillance system, lights and dogs. That’s what I call the triple threat and recommend to friends. I’m pretty sure we all have guns, too. Although we don’t have a formal Neighborhood Watch program, we all know each other by name and have each others phone numbers. We look out for each other. But the security cameras are the first line of defense for a homeowner.

For those of us who are deadly serious, we’ve bought a backup battery and equipment guide, and we never leave the house without locking up and setting the alarms.

Wilmington, North Carolina became the first city in the U. S. to completely switch over from analog to digital broadcasts, on September 8, 2008. (One reason for me to love North Carolina!)

Now the FCC is planning to release additional channels for use by satellite TV services. This is great news for Direct TV. You can read more in this FCC article about switch to over the air. Because so many channels are completely focused on one subject, adding more channels will mean that we can watch a bigger variety of subjects. Some of my favorite channels are the History Channel and the Animal Planet. I also like the RFD channel, which is not available through the local cable service.

Also, the transition creates more HD channels for direct tv, which is great for purists who want more HD channels. I saw an HD TV at the store the other day which was showing the new Alice in Wonderland movie. The effects were astounding. The clarity is obviously the biggest advantage, but the intensity made the movie have more dimension and the colors just popped on the screen. There really is a difference in the viewing quality of a good HD TV.