Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

A technophobic friend of mine was expressing frustration over his inability to find a slide projector. From the old school, he is going to do some sales training and has 95 slides he wants to use. Trouble is, nobody has a slide projector and his son told him the young guys would laugh at him for using it, even if he could find one. He does not have a computer, let alone a laptop so PowerPoint is out of the question. He is very good at what he does and sees no reason to change the way he does it. I suggested that he could meet somewhere in the middle of the techno-divide and do what he wanted without a big expense. Used slide projectors abound on eBay but they are bulky and truly dated. My suggestion was the SanDisk SDV-1A Digital Photo Viewer. SanDisk has a newer model but since I own the old one, I am familiar with it and from what I can glean on the web, the older model appears to do a better job. The viewer is about the size of a paperback book. It plugs into the s-video port on a T...

Free Books Once upon a time an employee of mine was showing some emotional distress. She told me that her live in boyfriend had left her because she couldn’t deal with her having a child. (Kid was 3 so it wasn’t like he was a surprise) She felt she could deal with the problem but she just didn’t know what to tell her child who wanted to know what happen to the boyfriend. I wrote “Mommy’s Friend Goes Away” and gave it to her. I was discussing the story with a volunteer at a local agency who suggested writing about spousal abuse. This snowballed into other suggested topics. If you want to see the topics feel free to click on the link to the right under favorite sites. The stories are free to download for non-profit use. They are stored in a .pdf format. They can be saved to your computer and printed out. They are directed toward pre-school and younger children. They deal with topics that are often ignored or unseen. If you know a child that can benefit from having one of these stories re...

Validation is a strange thing. Sometimes it gets you free parking. Other times it means you discover that what your doing means something to someone else. One of my blogs was to question who reads what I write, why do they read it and what would they like to see. I got zip, zero, butkus responses, comments or notice. It makes you wonder if your counter is being bumped by google just to make you think someone is looking at your blog. I guess that controversial stuff gets more comments. Does that make my blog vanilla pudding? My level of insecurity hasn’t risen to the heights where I will stop talking just because no one is listening. If you are alone in the forest talking to yourself, does a tree still fall on you? Homilies have never been my strong point. Anyway, when you do get a comment, it is a treat even if it is to remind you that you aren’t the brightest bulb on the tree. It means that what you wrote, someone read. Perhaps the folks I admire the most are aut...

Recycle that Pentium Besides boat anchor there are some good uses for old computers. Set up a dedicated screen saver machine. You load up your photos and set a screen saver to run continuously. Since you already own everything it is way cheaper than even the cheapest digital photo frame. If you are feeling philanthropic, there are many lesser known local charities that provide computers for those who can’t afford them. Even a classic Pentium can run word processing but realistically if you have a Pentium 3 it is probably going to be of value for someone. I let my old clients know I will take their outdated computers and if they are over burdened with them, they will often deliver them to me. I always caution them that they should insure there is nothing on the hard drive that they value. It is a lot easier getting rid of the machines if there is an OS on them but even without an OS there are homes for these abandon machines. I clean up the computers, often cannibalizin...

I had a 25 year old trimline phone die recently. I searched and found that it is still made. I found it at Kmart for $9.99. It isn’t as heavy as the old one and doesn’t feel as durable but it works just fine and at that price if it doesn’t I can just pitch it. They had it in bisque and black. I like to have some corded phones around for when the power is out. Cordless is great the rest of the time. Features and description of the phone are: AT&T Trimline Desk/Wall Phone - Bisque Kmart item# 9990000018120011 Mfr. model# 18120011 Single line corded phone from AT&T may be used on desktop or wall-mounted. Fully illuminated dial buttons 12-number speed dial memory 3 one-touch memory keys Backlit keypad Handset volume control Flash/ Mute Last number redial

I am a believer in night lights. Perhaps innate clumsiness feeds that belief but when the kids were little and I jumped up at the slightest nighttime provocation, it was reassuring to be able to see the nefarious hot wheels prior to stepping on them rather than pulling the impalement out of my foot after the fact. This has led to a long line of plug in nightlights. One of my periodic, paranoid Christmas stocking stuffers is the nightlight that plugs in but doesn’t turn on unless you lose power. Loss of power in the burbs occurs more often than you think. Usually a tree or branch coming down on the line. Anyway my last one died and I found this one on Amazon. Surprisingly enough it is about half the cost of my last one and has a significant warranty. Interestingly enough it is only $8.99 at http://www.buyzillion.com/ and you check out through Amazon. It appears that a $25 order will get free shipping. Technical Details 3-in-1 (3-way) emergency power failure light provides safety, secur...

Get off your duff and check your smoke detectors. If they are part of an overall alarm system, take the time to alert your alarm company and test them. Death overall kind of sucks but death by fire strikes me as too gruesome to even think about. So to avoid being a statistic check your smoke detectors. If you need new ones Consumer Search rates the First Alert Ultimate Series Battery-Powered Smoke Alarm #SA302CN at the best all-around smoke detector. Excerpt from Consumer Search at www.consumersearch.com “In reviews, experts consistently point to the First Alert Dual Sensor as the best smoke detector. It runs on a replaceable 9-volt battery and features a combination ionization and photoelectric sensor that is by far the most accurate and effective detection method available. The SA302CN has extra features that many detectors do not, such as remote-controlled alarm silence and test, Intelligent Sensing, which differentiates non-threatening conditions (i.e. kitchen smoke) from real emer...