Duelin’ Deals Blog by Marlaine

I have just been writing writing writing lately. Mostly for eHow and Marlaine’s Musings blog. I’ve accomplished one of my goals – 75 articles written and posted on eHow! My next goal is to write and post 100! I see some people putting up 100 articles in their first month on eHow but their content is short and sometimes pointless. I have been trying to go the extra 10 miles to find out all I can about something – even if it is something I already know a lot about – and give extra tips and hints whenever I can. I do the same thing for Marlaine’s Musings quest guides and general guides for Runescape.

Someone on eHow said that they wished someone would write guides for WoW like the guides I have up for Runescape, making me tempted to go try World Of Warcraft out – but I’ve been told that it’s mostly a war game so not quite what I am looking for. I will probably look into it soon though.

I am working at putting together some kind of blog or site that I can start “managing” my eHow articles in a more logical and organized way. On eHow, they show what catagories you have articles in but……. you can’t go to that author’s articles on those subjects specifically. eHow sent a notice that they will be redesigning their tools and setup but it won’t be implemented until November. There is a lot of time between now and November. Even I am having a problem remembering all the articles. I need to store my eHow articles somehow…. So we’ve decided on a domain name of StoreHows.com. We haven’t got anything online yet but we did buy the domain name already. I’ll be working on the design for a couple of days and then we’ll start with a blog.

A friend on eHow recently lost her main account, losing over 500 articles! She has no idea how that happened but I can almost guess. If any of you have tried to earn money with AdSense – you might have experienced the “You have been banned for suspect clicks” syndrome with no other explanations or communication from AdSense once they “kicked” you. Brad and I experienced that and could never get an answer from them about why. We changed to AdBrite and they work with their clients a whole lot nicer! You can have suspect IP addresses blocked or even your own so you don’t accidentally click your own ads. I always put adblock on when I go to my articles on eHow, or when I work here or on Musings. I wish I didn’t have to use ads at all though…….

The days of submitting an article or story to a publication and selling all copyrights are over now though with the way the net works! Even when I was submitting hard copy to magazines, I never submitted to places that bought All Rights….. Selling First Rights is fine – I’ve sold to Woman’s World, Star and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, among other places, and was paid fairly well but reprints rights are still mine! (I am trying to find the best ways to use my work and eHow so far has been the best for me.)

All that aside, I suggested to my friend that she should always make copies of her work for just-in-case. I do routine backup as I work through pieces I am working on but after giving her that tidbit of advise – I checked my “database” of articles. Raised eyebrow! I shall cut to the punchline here and save the sarcasm for later – I only had 24 of my 75 articles saved as posted on eHow! Tisk! Sure, I had lots and lots of saved drafts. I gather info, write up a brief draft and then tweak and fiddle with it, adding more research and whatever. Then I start working on the final draft on the eHow site, using their extended wizard. Rarely is the last draft I wrote in my word processing program the same as the one that ends up online! I spent most of yesterday copying and pasting the articles as they appear into a special file. I set up a document file much like the My Documents that is just for my writing! Now I am backing that up on a memory stick that my wonderful In-Laws in Australia sent to me! Mum and Dad – my writing files are over 900 MB now – Thanks again! (Lordy I would be so sick if I lost all that writing!) Eventually all that content (and more) will end up online somewhere – snickering! Geeeeeeeeeee – just finished the backup and it’s 1.01 GB now – see, I have been writing like a maniac!

I am starting to plan a cookbook, too….. Easy, Quick, Inexpensive, but don’t invite the Food Police to dinner!

One of the articles I have a draft of for this blog is how to make your computer run faster. You can find it on eHow but I will put it up in here soon. For now, I have more articles to write and designs to work on……

Have a great rest of the day!

As you may or may not have noticed, our main Duelin’ Deals website has gotten a complete re-design. It is now a lot more search engine attractive and visually attractive as well. I love it! Thanks to my adorable hub, Brad Floyd! I wanted the site to look like the blog – again thanks to Brad for some serious modifications to my blog as well!

I have been so dang busy writing articles for eHow on MarlaineMarie that I have a ton of stuff to add to Duelin’ Deals! I have things to add to the recipes and the Make Your Own Lists! I am deciding on how to list other things here, too, because I am getting so many articles up that it’s getting hard to search for specific topics.

Whenever I need to find something out, I do research, research, research. When I got my first “real” computer in 2000, I had so much trouble with it that I never did my work on it! (In fact, I had so much trouble with my first computer that Gateway replaced it after a year with a slightly bigger and better computer, telling me that I won the Stump The Tech contest!) I kept using my SmithCorona Word Processor and was forced to use floppys to save about 50 pages of text only per flop. (There are about 100 flops I can’t use because of different formatting that leaves ghost formatting even when you use conversion programs – drat!) And I wrote out my notes in long hand in spiral notebooks – in fact, I have cases of spirals full of all sorts of info.

I love doing research! When I researched the history of my parents’ house, I found 12 of the 13 names, birthdays and actual headstones (in three different grave yards!!!) of the first settlers’ children – and they first moved onto the property in 1838~! The Historical Society was flabbergasted because records were kept only from 1852 on for births in the old court house. (Oh Lordy, I wish that research was all on a cd-rw or ten instead of 20 or so spirals…) So when I put an article up on eHow, you can pretty much bet I did the research first!

If you ever go to an old court house to find records from the early settler times, if you love old wording or need old wording for a story, start with places that still have hand written records. They have huge, thick volumes written in a beautiful hand in the Racine County Court House in Wisconsin. The wording is obviously from a different age when the word “Greetings” was often written at the top of a legal document! Even as I was doing my research, the Court House was changing over to computer storage so those hand written things may disappear. Sigh……..

The latest eHow article I put up is about something so free and so perfect for this site that I am going to put it up in it’s entirety here!
That’s right – a real deal for anyone with a computer, a headset and/or mic & speaker combo, and a desire to talk to people for hours for free!

Skypee!

Here is the article:

Skype is your line to the world for free! You can call anyone from your computer to their computer – absolutely free anywhere in the world! You can run it all day and it really feels like you are in the same room with the person or people you called. My husband’s family lives in Australia and we are in Wisconsin. He calls them, they answer, and we leave the line open for hours on end! Relatives come by to say hi, too! His and mine! It’s incredible!

Go to the Skype link to find the download page and more info! There’s zero lag and the audio is crystal clear! You can use a webcam and upload videos. If the person you are calling is not on the net, just leave a message! The sound quality and stability is way beyond any of the instant messengers with almost no drop out!

The download page will automatically give you the correct type for your computer. (Skype is included in all Linux Operating Systems in the installation package managers.)
All of the following are compatible with Skype:
Windows
Windows (Business version)
Windows (Beta)
Mac OS X
Linux
Windows Mobile
WiFi phones
Cordless phones
3 Skypephone
Nokia N800/N810

Just download, install, set up an account, add others who have a Skype account, (or ask people you want to talk to to set up an account, too), click their user name, and wait for them to answer – just that easy because Skype’s simple auto detects set everything up for you.

To be honest, I was just going to write about Skype because we use it frequently for hours at a time. It gives my husband a chance to talk to his parents and family on any whim or impulse. Since his parents’ time zone is so different, it’s usually “tomorrow” there – when it’s Friday night here, it’s Saturday morning there! The reception is so crisp and clear that you can hear them in other rooms of the house – like when they go answer the door or go to the kitchen! We use a microphone and the speakers so both my husband and I can hear everything. An added benefit to Skype is that we can send documents, links to great sites, or photos over the Skype interface while we talk – hands free. This service – computer to computer – is absolutely free! You can literally “call” another computer and then leave Skype open 24 hours a day without paying one extra penny!

But….
While looking at the download page, we discovered their great long distance and business rates! Primefalcon and I wish we had known about this when he was still in Australia – we used MSN at the time and it was so unpredictable that we never knew when we might get a good connection! So we ended up using the phone and paying a fortune!

Use Skype as your basic low rate long distance for $2.95 a month and you can call anywhere in the United States or Canada on landlines or cell phones for an unlimited time and unlimited calls at any time of the day using your computer to their telephone using the Skype Plan! Voice mail is included free! Just click the link above for more info on international long distance!

Their plan for business is terrific, too, and we will get it when we get enough business to justify it!

* The connection is so good you almost forget you are on an audio device!
* You can work on your computer while on Skype with no problems whatsoever!
* The connection is so good, the person you are talking to can hear you whisper! Be careful! Smiling!

Brad and I called Brad’s parents while I was working on the above article and it just made it so easy to remember the great things about Skype! We were chatting away and our girl, Gypsy, was squeakin’ and squirrlin’ her little Happy Toy (as we call it so she goes to find it specifically in her mountain of toys) and Brad’s Dad, Norm, asked if we had gotten a bird. Because we are just so used to our happy girl playing away on her own, we had to think about what Dad might have been referring to.

Gypsy is over 85 pounds and nearing 7 years old but she still plays alllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the time! I wouldn’t have it any other way! What is seriously unusual about her is that she still has her first toy from puppyhood – that little brown teddy bear! Sure it’s beat up but it’s still whole! When I had decided to get a pup, I also started cruising rummages and the Goodwill store for a few “sacrifice” toys. Things that I would let the pup have but take away the second any stuffing got pulled out. (Do not allow your pup to tear anything to shreds! The pup learns a bad lesson that way! They can also get very sick if they swallow too much of that stuffing! Get a toy or two that can withstand those little needle puppy teeth!) Since I was raised with German Shepherds in an AKC Kennel, (Yes one kennel run had my name on it and I had to spend time in there occasionally!), I also had a starter toy box of things that outlasted all the other puppy-hood beloveds before Gypsy.

Take a look at her happy toy……

Noodles, alias Gypsy, uses her noodle and puts her toy up on Brad’s or my chair the second we get up. This girl will stare at the toy as if it got up there by itself until we get back. She will even keep her nose pointed at it while sneaking a peek at either of us to see if we’ve noticed her delinquent toy! When my brother visits, she gives him a toy and he puts it next to him on a table or window sill – she will stare at it patiently for a good hour or more, waiting for him to throw it for her! While getting this pic, and about 15 others, she stared at it constantly as I got the camera out, set it up and took shot after shot. Her paw is in about 8 of the pics and all the rest show her staring at it. Shaking head – when she does something, I can pretty much be sure she will wait so I can get some pics! Wish everything waited like that!

We so love our girl!

I’ve been so busy cleaning the basement and writing for Marlaine’s Musings, other various blogs, and eHow that I hardly finish an article and I have to go somewhere else. So I am taking the time to tell everyone who reads this blog to go to my link at MarlaineMarie@eHow for some really good money saving recipes. I have been adding a whole lot of tips that I learned during my “food” days in restaurants – or should I say salad bar days?

One thing though…… it is murder when you work in a kitchen during the summer! I was a chef’s assistant during one of the hottest summers on record – I never want to me that hot again. ….and my husband is from Australia! I say to Brad again —— No – we will never go visit your parents during Australia’s summer time! He came to Wisconsin during a very very hot summer in Australia – I think it was even record breaking. February 2006… People’s pcs were popping all over the place in Australia, I heard. Not only did Brad come during his country’s record breaking heat wave, I had won a trip to New York in a writing contest and we ended up in a hotel across from the Central Park Carriage Ride start point about an hour before New York’s Storm Of The Century hit!

(I won 5th place in a world wide romance writing contest – all expenses paid! One of the winners was from Scotland! One was from England!) We had three days of snow and nowhere to go but watch the drifts grow from our 46th floor room! We were supposed to have a beautiful Valentine’s Day carriage ride through Central Park but our plane back to Wisconsin ……. sigh….. talk about another whole convoluted story! I’ll have to save that for another time because I have to get going soon!

Here’s a pic from our room in New York……. That’s about 6 or 7 stories of snow down there! Dang good thing I had a good LLBean winter coat that fit him! (MUM – he can still wear it, too, so my cooking hasn’t changed him that much! Hehehehe!)

Brad and I play Runescape and that’s actually how we met. We “Tell Juna Stories of Our Adventures” in the Tears Of Guthix repeating mini-game. Our real adventures might actually entertain her more than our game adventures! Smiling………. read Marlaine’s Musings for more amusing tales of our Runescape Adventures!

Earth Day On March 29th!

Twenty six major cites and a growing number of towns and villages all around the world are committed to turning off their lights for one hour to bring global warming to the attention of the multitudes. The dark hour is set for 0900 GMT on March 29th. “Earth Hour” was founded by Andy Ridley one year ago. Cities in Australia, United States, Europe, and Canada, among others in 35 countries, have officially signed up to participate in this 2008 event.

Use the GMT clock link to synchronize your time with Greenwich Mean Time. I am posting this at about 1pm Central Standard Time in the United States on the 28th of March so there isn’t much time until the event! It’s about 6pm on the GMT clock.

Be sure nothing will be damaged or hurt by turning off your power. Refrigerators and freezers can withstand being off an hour if you leave the doors shut.

Help the environment by becoming more energy efficient in your daily activities. If you can avoid driving or riding in a fossil fuel using vehicle, do so, and reschedule any trips for before or after that hour. Or walk, use a bicycle, roller skate, errrmmmm – be creative, smiling!

Tell everyone you know about this event and possibly get some big businesses to participate as well. Every extinguished light bulb counts!

• This won’t save you much money on your energy bill and may not do a great deal of good this year but “Earth Hour” is destined to become an annual event because the global emissions that are damaging the ozone layer are getting increasingly worse every year.
• Approximately 2.2 million people participated in Sydney, Australia, last year and during that hour, cut their central business district’s energy usage by more than 10 percent.
• If you turn off your power for an hour, remember to reset your clocks!

We try to save energy every day. Even simple things like drying shirts on hangers adds up to a few dryer loads less a year and that adds savings to your pocket as well as keeping those shirts looking newer longer! (Clothes are literally beaten against the walls of the dryer, weakening threads every time they are mechanically dried!) I used to hang laundry outside but being in the same block with two gas stations, we get so much soot and gas smells clinging to it that I’ve stopped now.

We always combine our driving trips to get the most out of our outings… Library, Aldi’s, Pick & Save, and the post office are all a part of our usual circle and we usually hold off going anywhere until we have books in at the library!

To read other articles I’ve written, go to MarlaineMarie@eHow!

I am not a die-hard, run-around-in-a-cheese-head-hat Packer fan but this opening news page on Yahoo Sports makes me sad, yet incredibly proud of Wisconsin’s all-time most unbelievable football quarterback, Brett Favre…….

Brett Favre retires after 17 seasons

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN (TICKER) —Brett Favre has decided to end his legendary NFL career.

Favre informed the Green Bay Packers that he will retire after 17 record-setting seasons, the team announced Tuesday.

The Packers confirmed Favre’s retirement, which was first reported by FOXSports.com, in a written statement by general manager Ted Thompson.

“Brett Favre has informed us of his intention to retire from the Green Bay Packers and the NFL,” Thompson said. “He has had one of the greatest careers in the history of the National Football League, and he is able to walk away from the game on his own terms – not many players are able to do that.”

Aside from compiling a Hall of Fame resume, Favre built a legacy as one of the game’s most dynamic leaders.

A Mississippi native, Favre possessed one of the strongest throwing arms in NFL history and became one of the most revered players in the storied tradition of the Packers franchise.

“The uniqueness of Brett Favre his personality, charisma and love of the game undoubtedly will leave him as one of the enduring figures in NFL history,” Thompson said in the statement.

Favre, 38, had flirted with retirement during the past two offseasons. Many expected him to call it quits after a disappointing 2006 season, but Favre saw encouraging signs in the Packers’ rebuilding and said he wanted to return.

Favre’s decision was justified by an outstanding season, as the Packers went 13-3 en route to the NFC North Division title and an appearance in the conference championship game.

Along the way, Favre enjoyed one of the finest individual seasons of his storied career, passing for 4,155 yards and 28 touchdowns while posting a quarterback rating of 95.7 – best in 11 seasons.

During the course of the season, Favre also etched his name into the NFL record book, becoming the league’s all-time leader in passing yards (61,655 yards), touchdown passes (442), and career wins (160).

But the magical campaign ended in disappointing fashion in the NFC title game, when the Packers suffered a 23-20 overtime loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

The heartbreaking loss was especially sour to Favre, whose last pass was intercepted by Giants cornerback Corey Webster.

“The Packers owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude,” Thompson said. “He has given Packers fans 16 years of wonderful memories, a Super Bowl championship among them, that will live on forever.

“Brett’s many accomplishments on the field are legendary. He leaves the game holding virtually every career passing record, plus his consecutive starts streak, which may never be duplicated.”

The only three-time MVP in NFL history, Favre is the league’s all-time leader with 5,377 career completions. A nine-time Pro Bowler, Favre has started 253 consecutive regular-season games for the Packers, a streak that dates to September 27, 1992.

Acquired in a trade with the Atlanta Falcons on February 10, 1992, Favre led the Packers to a 35-21 victory over the New England Patriots in the 1997 Super Bowl, the franchise’s first title in 29 years.

The MVP in 1995 and 1996 and co-winner of the award in 1997, Favre has five seasons with at least 4,000 passing yards and eight campaigns with at least 30 TDs.

While my Aussie hub says that our football and the way it’s played (sans padding and protective gear) is nothing compared to the high impact of Australian football, I’d have to say that Brett Favre would have been great in any game he chose to play. He struggled in the early years with the Green Bay Packers and I remember a period during the first years when it wasn’t sure if the Packers were going to trade him or not. Brett also overcame some serious personal problems with courage and honor. Favre had biggggggggg shoes to fill, too – Bart Starr! At the start, everyone was linking the two names, hoping that Favre just might be close to Starr’s caliber.

Starr’s honors include 16 years as a Packer Quarterback, a three time Most Valuable Player – once as a Green Bay Packer MVP in 1966 and MVP of Super Bowls I and II, a lifetime record of 57.4 percent completed passes and he lead the Packers to five NFL titles and two Super Bowl Championships. When Starr retired, he stayed on as the Packer’s head coach from 1975 to 1983 and was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame in 1977. (Today Bart Starr runs Healthcare Realty Management and is Co-Founder of the Rawhide Boys Ranch an organization that helps troubled boys.)

And there then was the legendary Vince Lombardi!

Our Green Bay Packers have had really great role models. Looking up to someone and emulating their ways is a wonderful way to set goals and a course in life for any person. I have a feeling that Brett Favre isn’t going to just fade away now – I feel sure that he has even more greatness coming. Good luck Brett! You are one heck of a guy!

To Bart Starr – Thank you for giving so much of yourself to others. Your Rawhide Boys Ranch does such wonderful stuff for kids! Hugs to you!

There comes a special person…

I’ve had a problem talking about this but I want to talk briefly about losing those who are dear to us. Just because they have passed away doesn’t mean it’s all over! Even if a person doesn’t believe that the soul carries on beyond physical death, that doesn’t mean that the essense of their life force doesn’t linger with us, influencing things we do after they are gone.

My mother died young but her best friend, Margaret, decided that I would need someone to fill a bit of that huge hole she left. My Mama Margaret wasn’t there to get me up to go to school or do my laundry. No, she had the much more important role of being my spirit’s special helper. Margaret Felle passed away on February 1, 2008 and it feels like the hole she had been filling increased ten-fold in emptiness. She made her own special place in my life that went well beyond replacing someone. I am honored that she called me her own and I was glad to call her mine.

She would call or I would call and talk about nothing for an hour or two. She’d tell me what she was carving or working on, almost always adding – “I’m showing you with my hands.” And I could always see what she was showing me.

I can still see her showing me and will always see her.

I love you, Margaret. I’ll always love you.

We had a white Christmas thanks to my hub’s strange Let It Snow song he kept singing before Christmas. (Any one who knows how he sings would know any song he sings would be a strange song, snickering!) It seemed to have strange snow drawing power somehow and we had more snow than normal. And we did have one white Christmas this year!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since my adorable hub is from Australia, I used to tell him how changeable our weather is in Wisconsin. Well, he certainly received a prime lesson in Wisconsin weather this last two weeks! We went from a near (nicely warm) 55 degrees with all snow and ice melting down to ground creating constant mud tracks on the kitchen floor – to 7 inches of snow… all within one 24 hour period! The best thing about mid January snow is that we know it won’t last much longer – only a couple more months!

This last snow was so sudden and thick that we went outside to marvel at it since two hours earlier I was outside noticing that all the snow was totally gone. We took Gypsy with us but…….. she didn’t really like it either! We were outside for only a few minutes, too!

It is hard to prepare for snow sometimes but we watch the weather news and whenever we hear a storm is on the way, we go to Aldi’s and Pick ‘n Save to stock up on whatever we might need for the next few days. We also make sure we take back any library books that might go past their grace days and be over-due if we get snowed in. Since we don’t have any real vices, it isn’t too hard to make sure we have milk and coffee, dog food, cat food, bird food and stuff in the big freezer for a few days. Keeping a good bag of potatoes and a bag of onions in the pantry at all times insures we won’t go hungry.

It is also good to keep the car’s gas tank full as much as possible during the winter and use “heet” to avoid ice crystals in the gas. While life is certainly different in the city, with it’s gas stations every 10 blocks or so, I grew up in the farmlands. The habits of my childhood have stuck with me and winters seem a small inconvenience to me here in Milwaukee.

Hmmmmmmmmm that reminds me of the year we had to have snowmobile deliveries because we couldn’t get out of our driveway (really long driveway!). I wonder how Gypsy would take to a snow sled harness……….. (She’s a wonderful dog but a bit of a …. – maybe I should keep that to myself!)