Searching #76: Sound Effects

I used FindSounds to find the following animal sounds:
Frogs croaking.
A bellowing cow.
A rooster at the break of dawn.
An a duck.

On SimplytheBestSounds, I found the following three sounds in the public domain:
A drum roll.
Ocean waves.
The sound effect of a plane crash.

Searching #75: Google & Beyond

In Blindsearch, I typed 3 queries and voted on the columns that best provided the information I was searching for. I voted for my personal favorite, Google, once and Yahoo! Search twice. I will continue to use Google because I like their format better but may dabble with Yahoo! Search occasionally.

Google scored 64.14% visits as top search engine for the week ending 01/23/2010. Yahoo! Search had 10.84% hits and Bing trailed at 9.34%. The usage statistics match my own personal favorite: GOOGLE.

With Google, I can find almost everything I need, including weather, stock quotes, time in cities around the world, sport scores, unit conversions, people profiles, trip planning, package tracking, patent numbers, area codes, dictionary definitions, spell check, local search for stores, restaurants & businesses, movie showtimes, and health conditions.

Recession Busters #60: Food, Fun & Frugality

I watched one of Clara's videos and then searched the web for depression recipes and found one for pasta.

Savory Spaghetti

• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 1 can #2 size tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 1/2 green peppers
• 2 onions
• 3 slice bacon, cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon rumford baking powder
• 4 stalks celery, diced
• 1/4 pound cheese

Make sauce of the juice of the tomatoes, strained and seasoned. Chop onions and cook in the fat obtained from frying the bacon. Add bacon cubes, 2 teaspoons flour and blend. Add tomato juice and baking powder. combine with green peppers, celery, and cheese. Add spaghetti, previously cooked. Combine thoroughly and cook in casserole one and half hours.

I found several summer recession busters for families on the local level. Sonic Drive In is offering customers a free Root Beer Float on June 3rd from 8PM to midnight. No purchase necessary. Rave Motion Pictures is hosting a Free Family Film Festival every Tuesday & Wednesday at 10AM beginning June 9. The Houston Symphony brings its Sounds Like Fun! performances this summer. The no charge program offers children a first encounter with classical music. Each program last 1 hour and features pre-concert activities such as the instrument petting zoo. Redbox DVD Rental has changed to a free one movie rental on the first Monday of each month starting today.

Here are tips that I have discovered to save money: Take advantage of the early bird specials offered at local restaurants; go to an afternoon movie or look for $1 movie special; check Sunday's newspaper for lunch and 2 for 1 dinner coupons; clip store coupons and use them at grocery stores that double and triple the coupons; shop around for the lowest gasoline prices; cut the cost of doing laundry by washing your clothes in cold water; replace incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact florescent bulbs.

Money & Finance #59: Credit, Money Management, and Saving

I read the article How Credit Scores Work and learned that insurance companies use our credit score to set our insurance rates and that the number of inquiries and new loans actually lower our credit scores. I took the Credit Score Quiz and found it reiterate what I had just learned from the article.

We never had a spending/budget plan, but have always lived within our means, never made extravagant purchases, saved regularly and always paid our bills. This method has worked very well for us.

The TCDRS Service Center has very useful information. Since I do not have a pin, I wasn't able to access my personal account but was pleased to see that my account has predictable security with 7% interest regardless of the market ups & downs and that the account retains its value no matter what happens in the investment market.

Money & Finance #58 Banking, Budget & Spending

My bank offers online banking and I have been using it for 3 years. This feature has simplified my life and my bookkeeping. I enjoy the convenience of paying my bills online anytime and being able to transfer funds between accounts. I can schedule one time or recurring payments and never have to worry about mail delays or late fees. The online monthly statements are quicker and more secure and are available for up to 7 years. There's no monthly service charge if you have an eligible checking account or keep a combined minimum balance of $5,000 in qualifying accounts at all times, otherwise the fee is $6.95 a month.

My bank online security guarantee begins with a unique username and password, timed log-off, 128-bit encryption, a powerful firewall, technology updates and continuous surveillance.

I can safeguard myself by using a current web browser, changing my username and passwork regularly, protecting my passwords by not writing them down, and closing my browser when I am finished.

I did take a look at the budgeting tools but was reluctant to put personal information on another website; therefore, I would not use them. I feel that we are doing a good job ourselves.

My husband and I engage in many of the ways suggested to cut spending. We watch weekly sales, buy bulk at Costco, clip coupons & redeem them at stores that double & triple the coupons; shop around for lowest gas prices, and my husband is a handy man on doing basic maintenance & repairs. I would like to shop around for insurance rates when our auto & homeowner policies come up for renewal.

To Tweet or Not To Tweet...Twitter #56

I was clueless to Twitter until this exercise although I had heard the word mentioned numerous times. I now know that it is a communication technology consisting of microblogs of 140 or less words.

After browsing a couple of different profiles, I personally would not adopt Twitter for my use although it was interesting to see what others are saying.

I used the search feature to find hundreds of tweets on the Obamas' new dog and the current swine flu outbreak. The results were varied.

Getting the Most Out of Facebook # 55

Although I did not have a Facebook account prior to this iHCPL exercise, I am familiar with Facebook and its applications as my daughter and son have accounts and have shared information and pictures they have received with me.

It was very simple to sign up for a Facebook account. I decided to search my high school for classmates and since we had graduated in 1963, I didn't expect to find anyone. What a surprise! I was delighted to find 6 of my classmates. I added a friend and received an invitation to take a quiz. My son has been ill, so I used the application to send him good karma.

Facebook is not something that I will continue to use but I did enjoy the experience.