Chalk Board Talk

There’s an ongoing debate on the advantages of a laptop as against a desktop. Although a laptop does have lots of advantages over a desktop, two things come weigh heavily against a laptop: upgrade ability and cost.

For the most part, a laptop uses less power, can run even with during a power failure (it has it’s own built-in UPS) and you can use it anywhere. But on a feature by feature comparison, a laptop is still about twice as expensive as a comparable desktop.

In order to acquire a laptop at an affordable price, would be to get a secondhand model. There are lots of used laptops for sale, as there are always lots of reasons to upgrade to the next higher model or the newest available model. Used laptops may not even be that old, as some models on the market are as recent as last year’s model.

Used laptops are a good alternative if you’re not really after the latest features.

Not everyone can be a good photographer but that wouldn’t stop anyone from taking pictures. Though some are content with the skills and pictures that they have, some do want to come up with better pictures. We’re not only talking of amateurs but also of hobbyists and specially of professionals.

Come to think of it, a lot more professionals and hobbyists try to develop their skills by reading and researching on photography tips and industry developments. And these people enjoy photography all the more because of that.

These people know that it wouldn’t hurt to read, study, learn and develop their photography skills. They also know that what they learn is almost immediately put into practice with instant results. And there’s no additional cost to the exercise of putting to practice what these tips that they’ve learned. Besides, it’s like riding a bicycle, once you learn how it’s not something that you forget.

A city map is an essential item in any car’s glove compartment. This becomes more important when you are traveling in any place you’re not familiar with. It’s easy enough to get lost in a city. Though you can always ask for help and directions.

Traveling cross-country or interstate, however, is another matter. There will always be expanses where there’s no one to ask help from. There’s no way to know when you’ll reach the next gas station or roadside diner.

It’s a good thing that most new model cars out in the market come with GPS navigation systems. For older cars, there are GPS kits which are easy enough to install in one of the slots on the dashboard.

These navigation aids show a map and general landmarks as well as your current location. Some units can even be programmed to show the route to take when going from point A to point B. A very convenient device for those who don’t like asking directions.

In the current financial crisis, the first thing you have to remember is that it’s not a good idea right now to ask a bank for a loan. However, it is still good practice to keep track of your credit rating.

However, checking one’s credit rating affects the credit rating. That’s part of the metrics for a personal credit rating. The credit rating gets a hit every time a financial institution takes a look at it because it’s presumed that the person is looking to take out a loan. And since he wants a loan then there’s some financial need or reason behind the loan. It’s like a dog chasing it’s tail. It does stabilize after seven months of no change or financial activity.

But if a person is really curious or just wants to make sure that he still has a good credit rating, but doesn’t want to pay for the credit report, there are several internet sites which offer a free online credit report. These credit reports could not be used for the loan itself, but it can be used by the person to judge whether to take out a loan or not.

Scrapbooking is currently a common pasttime or hobby for some. And some teens have gone to accessorizing their bags and clothes using scrapbook accents. Common elements of scrapbooks are multi-colored buttons, some pins, small leather thong ties, etc. And these have found their way to bags, vests and jackets.

I find this amusing because when I was in my teens, we also accessorized our clothes with our designs. There were the designs which used a lot of safety pins and studs. We also used patches a lot. But these were cool embroidered patches. At least it felt cool to have original authentic military patches sewed on the side of the pants or at the back of the jacket.

Though these are just ordinary patches, they were cool in the sense that they added a sense of cool to an otherwise drab leather jacket, fishing cap or denim pants. It’s how you wore them that made them cool.

With the widespread availability of internet access, a computer is now a necessity. And almost all households have a PC or two for use by all the family members. Computer use is no longer limited to the writing documents, or working on spreadsheets and databases, emails or games. Increasingly, the computer is becoming net-centric, and used as both a communication device and an entertainment hub.

Being a multi-purpose device, computers nowadays are not just stand-alone devices. In most cases, a PC is not just a single device either. Computer accessories are as much a part of the system as the CPU, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Most PC owners also have other devices connected to their computer. These include scanners, printers, speakers, USB flash drives, external backup drives, webcams, headsets, LAN appliances and others.

There are lots of other computer plug-ins and related items which were designed for the computer. And these accessories and appliances will continue in grow in number and diversity as users have more and more applications for the computer.

With the proliferation of digital cameras, there are now a lot more still pictures being taken and printed than ever before. The funny thing is that, once printed, the owner usually has a problem of keeping these pictures. Obvious choices are to place them in an album or to give them away. Another choice is to mount them in frames.

The problem there is that picture frames are more expensive, on a per picture basis, than picture frames. But if you’re really determined to display your pictures, you can always create your own picture frames or buy inexpensive ones.

Although cheap picture frames may turn out to be not too durable, they do serve their purpose: keep a picture mounted. And if they’re cheap and affordable, then you can buy more them allowing you to mount more pictures. In no time, you would have your house, mantle, walls all peppered with mounted pictures.

For most suburban dwellers, the energy crunch has hit hard. With high gas prices, some activities which were formerly taken for granted (like driving around the neighborhood) has become an exercise in logistics and finance. And the way things are going, it’s doubtful if gas prices will go back to their former levels. All forecasts point to more expensive fuel.

There are several ways to go around this, not least of which is to get an energy efficient vehicle, one with higher mileage, or get a hybrid or an electric car. Another alternative is to plan the use of the car. An extreme measure, of course, is to do away with the car.

There are lots of ways to get cheap gas. It’s only a matter of being determined to find ways to save on fuel expenses by finding promos and other offers for gas. Although not much advertised, there are promotional offers for cheap or free gas. It does need some research to find them.

Almost everyone has a cell phone. Communication on the go has become the norm for most people. And with such a common personal device, these have become personalized and accessorized with all sorts of add-ons. It’s a wonder how such a small device could have a wide range of accessories.

There’s every kind of cell phone accessory including designer skins, lanyards, neck straps, wrist straps, earphones, wireless earphones, hands-free sets and others, but none more important than the cell phone battery charger.

Being mobile, it’s very common to have a charger at home, at the office and another one for the car. This feeds the need to have a cell phone which will not have it’s battery run out in the middle of a phone call.

It’s actually more common to have multiple chargers, rather than have multiple batteries. And besides the charger is cheaper than the extra battery.

There’s a financial crisis right now. And in times like this, most people are averse to keeping their money in banks or stocks. Instead there is a growth in investments in gold and precious metals. These investments are not just in mining shares of futures but also in owning gold in tradeable form, like Krugers, jewelry or commemorative coins

On the other hand, for people who don’t want to go into investing and speculation they would rather be liquid, keeping cash in hand or under the mattress. Just in case you’re one of these pragmatic types, it’s easy enough to be liquid by selling gold.

It’s not necessary to go to the pawnshop to convert gold to cash, there are internet sites of reputable dealers who promise cash for your gold. These sites have also taken it upon themselves to secure the trust of their customers and educate them on how to sell their gold, and keep the money.

Selling gold is one way of taking advantage of the current gold rush.

Being green is not just a slogan, it should be a mindset. And some of the things a person can do is to recycle. There are a lot of things which can be recycled. Corporate awareness and fiscal policy warrant the recycling of computers and cars.

For the ordinary citizen, another way to help the environment is to extend the useful life of non-biodegradable items. This is relatively easy to do and will also give some savings. This includes electronic devices like cell phones, mp3 players, watches, radios, computers and others. To do this you only need to buy second hand items.

With the fast turnover of designs, there is a lively market for used electronic devices. In most instances, there really is no need to buy the latest model, when you can buy last year’s model cell phone. No one would notice the difference. And you are helping the environment a lot when you buy used cell phones.

A person’s personality can be seen in that person’s most private space. I’m not talking about the bedroom but of the bath room. People are either very compulsive about their bath room or totally don’t care about it. Either way, the things a person keeps in the bathroom reflects a lot on what anyone’s true identity.

Don’t take my word for it. The most representative items for anyone are the various bath room accessories. These items are unique and you would only see them in the bath room.

A simple rundown of the things you would find would include the regular shower curtain, bath soap, shower gels, loofa, back scrub, holders for the bath paraphernalia, gels, lotions, mirrors, lighting, and so on. Some people have lighted mirrors, or multiple accent lamps. Others have automatic sprayers and deodorizers. There are some who have candles and rubber duckies, or bath room sandals.

Makes you wonder what you have in your bath room which other people don’t.

I don’t bake. But I do have an oven which I use mainly for roasting, and for cooking bacon. I know that cooking bacon is very much frowned upon by a lot of health conscious people. It is a guilty pleasure and I make sure that it’s not as un-healthy as some people keep on saying.

It’s a simple brainless thing I do. I place the bacon strips on one of my state-of-the-art, teflon-coated baking pans, set the oven to roast and give it 5 minutes, or until crisp with the pan full of the fat which dripped out. I take the bacon out and lay them on paper towels. This way, the fat seeps out and is soaked by the paper towels.

This way, I have bacons which are as fat-free as possible. And then I use the fat on the pan, to fry eggs sunny side up for breakfast.

A sign of our times is the common practice of joining a forum for discussing things. Almost any topic is discussed in forums. This is the modern equivalent of the old practice of chatting while sitting on a fence, or visiting neighbors or barbershop talk.

Funny but in most community discussion forums, a topic is that of breastfeeding in public. There’s always a lively discussion of this thread, with multiple posts and opinions arguing for or against public breastfeeding. My opinion of the matter is aesthetic, nutritional and economic: there should be nothing wrong with public breastfeeding.

The alternative of course is to feed the baby with baby formula. I have nothing against the bottle. I think that it’s a great invention. It liberates the mother so she can continue and have a career. But still, it doesn’t have the beauty and bonding of breastfeeding. Though I do agree with the bottom-line that it’s more of a woman’s decision to feed from the bottle or from her breasts.

There are a lot of things you take for granted living in the modern world. Everyone is on internet time, where almost everything is updated not on a regular basis but continuously. Everyone synchronizes their watch more to the correct time based on an atomic clock somewhere.

In the old days, you wound a clock once a week, and that’s that. You trusted the that it kept the time and you wouldn’t mind being wrong fifteen minutes either way.

There are still lots of antique clocks for sale, even in the age of the atomic clock. There are still clock manufacturers which make clocks the same way these were created a hundred years ago. You can buy real antiques, created a century ago; or you can buy clocks which look like antiques and use the same mechanism as old clocks; or you can buy a clock which only looks like an antique, but uses batteries or electricity to power the clock and the pendulum. You’ll just have to choose which one you like best, authenticity or modern accuracy.