AA Blog

Authored by Oswaldo Blackburn

Easter Sunday, 2007 for the first time I was able to see “Roots” the number one Mini-Series in America for the first time, due to us finally getting satellite TV specials. I had heard about the show, but never had the chance to see it.. I was riveted as the plot unfolded, amazed by the story line and even ashamed at times at how our ancestors could have been so cruel to our fellow-man.

The show starts out in Africa with the capture of 15 year-old Kunta Kinte, played by LeVar Berton. As he was gathering wood with other young boys, they are captured and brought to America on a slave ship. The story continues to follow Kunta’s life as a slave and his children and grandchildren through-out the years, as they deal with slavery, the civil war, and emancipation.

The re-airing of “Roots” in 2007 marked the 30th anniversary of the first showing, and was hosted by several cast members including LeVar Burton and Lou Gossett, Jr. On the last day of the show, five former stars of the show gathered to pay tribute to Roots author and creator, the late Alex Haley.

According to the Nielsen ratings in 2007, they estimated that over 36 million households once again watched the 30th anniversary of this classic and historic mini series, reaching a whole new generation, and reminding us how unjust and inhumane some of our ancestors actions were.

Thanks for the article from Robin Woodard

Who remembers Malcolm in the Middle? It’s quite a few years old now, and all the actors have moved on to bigger and better projects. But thanks to direct tv, I can still catch reruns of this gem whenever I want to.

Malcolm in the Middle is about the insanity of one high-strung family full of dominant personalities. Three boys – all trouble – and an overbearing mom and somewhat useless dad. Typical sitcom, really, except what made it shine was the character of Malcolm. As the middle child, he was often overlooked and underappreciated by his family, which gave him ample time to talk to the camera. Macolm was a genius who tested at high levels and had a wickedly funny vocabulary usually unnoticed by others (except us, the audience). As seasons went on, it was revealed that all of the family were smart in their own ways, it’s just that Malcolm was the sensible, studious one of the bunch – older brothers Francis and Reese preferred using their talents for making mischief, and younger brother Dewey was so smart he only played at quiet and assuming to escape attention. Devious!

A friend of mine from collage, who runs a software company recently purchased a building in NYC to house his growing company and asked me to fly out there to help him with the renovations and building out of his new headquarters.  Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity and went out there.

The first and most important thing that needed to be taken care of was the cabling installation on the old building he had purchased. We decided to go the route of a single contractor as opposed to getting different companies for fiber optic installation , data cabling installation, cable contractor or even a electrical contractor. This turned out to be the best decision we made.  We only had to deal with a single point of contact to get all of the buildings cabling done.  And the best thing was the fact that the job was finished on time.

I was glad I went.  I got to see my old friend and learned some very valuable lessons in regards to building cabling and its importance.  It’s funny how we never think about things like this until we need to go through them ourselves.  I guess this is what experience is really all about.

Making a little extra money on the side now a days is something everyone can attempt to do.  The opportunities are there for you to invest in and make extra income in the just about anything from on-line opportunities to traditional investments in real estate and rentals.

One of the easiest way to make some extra income is by signing up for adsense revenue sharing programs where you can use the power of Google to direct web surfers to what they are looking for.  This is a proven method and can start off easily but has the potential to turn into something big once you get the hang of it and understand how it works.

Some other, and more traditional methods of making money include looking into buildings that offer  HUD apartments for rent.  These will guarantee your rent payments as they are subsidized by the government.  This type of investment requires major capital, but if you have it, the return is almost guaranteed.  Another thing that one can do is go into selling structured settlement that you or others may have.  In a nutshell, this is about paying someone the present value of a guaranteed stream of income they may have, like a lottery payout, or even severance pay.

I can not begin to tell you how important choosing the right website hosting company is.  This is the LIFE BLOOD of your company!!!  Think about it, in addition to your website being up, your emails, your company’s lines of communications, are part of this. A fact that is often forgotten!!!

Some other money saving tips include that fact that along with hosting, free domain names are also often provided.  So getting your hosting package with a reputable company will truly be a one stop shopping experience.  Some other things that you may be able to get for free are Free Yahoo Marketing and free Google Adwords tokens.  With these, you will be able to set up your website, and begin marketing it immediately.

There are a lot of choices when it comes to hosting, but you need to think it through and make sure that the service level agreements you agree to are within your required minimums.  Spend more time doing your due diligence and pick a hosting company that will be able to grow with you, not because switching to a different company at a later time is such a big deal, rather the time and effort it will take to migrate to a new hosting service is often very time consuming and you will experience down time.  Ask yourself…can you afford that?

So you want to start saving some cash? start with looking into reducing your auto insurance.  The process is very easy and you will be surprised as to how much you will be able to ultimately save in one year.  Could be upwards of $1,000.00 yes, that is over one thousand dollars!!!

The first thing you need to do is get a car insurance quote comparison so that you can see side by side what you are currently paying as opposed to what your new rate may be.  Also a piece of information to keep in mind is that fact that different rates will apply to different cars.  For example the cost to insure a saab 9-5 will not be same as the cost to insure a saturn.  Different car makes will fetch differing insurance rates.  These two vehicles fall under differing car insurance groups and will be assessed differently.

Once you have a comparable quote for the identical coverage you currently pay for, the decision to switch will be made for you by simply looking at the bottom line dollar amounts that you are paying now vs. the potential payment you may be able to get.  If your monthly payment becomes $100 less, that would translate to $1,200 in savings over a year.

Author: Isiah Williams

Put together by Tom Hanks and Ron Howard following the success of their movie Apollo 13, From the Earth to the Moon is an HBO miniseries that chronicles the history of the American space program as it worked to put a man on the moon. It is primarily based on the book A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin, which chronicled the history of the Apollo space program. The series itself is one my favorite miniseries both because of the interesting subject matter, and because of the stunning special effects used to make the history come to life. I always enjoying catching the series replaying while watching the channels we get through California DIRECTV deals.

The miniseries itself won several awards, including both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for best miniseries. The series is broken down into 12 different episodes, each with a unique take and perspective on one part of the space program’s history. Doing it this way was a brilliant move by Hanks and Howard, as it kept the story fresh and engaging instead of turning into some boring history lesson. For example, one episode is told from the perspective of the astronaut’s wives, while another is from the viewpoint of the media covering the Apollo 13 crisis. Tom Hanks himself only acted in one episode, the very last, where he played a 19th century French filmmaker who made a movie about a trip to the moon, this was included in the story in order to contrast how far civilization had come in such a short time frame.

If you are thinking about helping out with a charity, you need to look into the charities that help out and work with Multiple Sclerosis. This debilitating disease needs to be eradicated and fast!!! Science and research are the only way we will get close to forever getting rid of this disease. By volunteering and giving to charities you will be able to get the word out and raise awareness.

Once Ms Symptoms start to appear measures can be taken to deal with this horrible disease.  The biggest and most important thing is to adjust ones Ms Diet and start eating correctly and the right foods.  Taking care of your body and being strong mentally and emotionally are the keys to success in anything that we do, so this is no different.

The advances in medicine over the past 25 years have been tremendous and with more research I really believe diseases such as this will eventually become non existent.  We just need to make sure the finances for research do not stop and at the same time provide hope for the future for anyone afflicted with this horrible disease.  We must educate people and make sure that they realize  they are not alone.

Guest written by our friend Jan Chandler

Florida is one of the most popular places in the world for going fishing. The water temperature in the winter and early spring along with the natural vegetation make it a perfect spot for Black Bass to grow. When it is time for bass fishing my favorite spot is Lake George where I can find plenty of Florida Black Bass. It is a tradition for my brother and I to head down to Florida from Long Island once a year for our annual fishing trip. Our families come along with us and stay in town. We always set our alarm that we got throguh one of the Coral Springs FL adt carbon monoxide detector before we go fishing. Among the various vacations we take, this is our favorite one of the year. Fishing is so relaxing and there is very little hype about getting ready for the trip. We simply pack our normal clothes and go. We fish for our food and my brother and I get a few days to catch up on the world. The best part is that by the end of those few days the two of us have solved all of the world’s problems. To bad we forget to write them down every year. However, the fishing is fabulous, the weather is fantastic, and going fishing is just as great as a Caribbean vacation, if not better.

Now that my kids are grown up, I look back and thank my parents for hounding us to get and install Baby Gates at our house.  While it took some time to get the house completely child proof (well, as complete as you can get it), the time and money invested in installing Child Safety Gates and Stairway Gates really proved effective and worthwhile because we never had to deal with any accidents.

The inconvenience we went through for a couple of years was well worth the prevention and peace of mind we got when our children were crawling and walking around the house.  As all parents are aware, child safety is so vital because kids always have a way of getting in to things and turning what you thought was “safe” in to an accident waiting to happen.  Just check out the KidSafe Blog and see what dangers lurk in your house for children.

The best way to see the kind of trouble your children can get into is to actually get on your hands and knees so that you are at the same eye level your toddler would be, and walk (crawl in this case) around your home.  You will be amazed at all the holes and cracks they can get their fingers into.