I am tired of T.V. shows getting cancelled after one season or for political reasons. I realize that television is a business and the companies need to make money but some very good shows have been cancelled only to be replaced by something dumb.

The ratings do not take into account people who digitally record the shows they like to watch at a later date or just don’t like watching commercials. There have been a lot of shows that have been cancelled in the “young adult” target group just because we record the shows to watch when the kids are in bed or when we finally get time. This also makes it hard to invest time into a show when there is a good possibility it will be cancelled in a year or two.

I have also heard that shows are being cancelled for being too successful. If a show does well and the contract is up for renewal, they may option out for financial reasons. It’s amazing what you have to pay the talent that makes the show what it is.

I miss the old days when a show had a few seasons to work with and get good and people could invest time into the show without fear of cancellation too soon. In our current generation of television I have seen shows gone in two or three episodes. I wish they would invest some time into making a good show and sticking with it, instead we have them throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us hoping that something sticks.

Recently, our local Moms of Multiples Club negotiated a cheaper rate with an area science and learning center called Impression 5.  The center focuses on all things scientific, whether it be in relation to chemistry, biology, astronomy, etc.  I feel this is a vital tool today as more and more children seem to become less interested in science and math.  What is great about this place is that it is geared towards children from birth through high school, but hey, parents might learn something too!

We took just our quadruplets there, since it is Multiple Birth Awareness Month and this was one of our “events”.  I was glad to see that many young children were there but we also saw a girl scout troop, which I thought was great, way better than just walking through a zoo for a field trip.

An even greater idea that I saw demonstrated was a mom who was homeschooling three of her children.  She said she uses local libraries, museums, and science centers to educate her children along with the materials from home – genius – not to mention, I am sure her kids get to go on WAY better/longer/more frequent field trips than public school children.

We stayed for about 2 hours as we were in the “First Impressions” room that is geared towards 1-4 year olds.  Our kids LOVED it.  There was a water feature table, a scenic overlook, a little people town, play mats, a play kitchen, various games and puzzles and even a little reading room if they wanted to cuddle.  They had a blast…the four of them even sat and had a little tea party (they would never do this at home, I am sure they wouldn’t hold still long enough for that!)

The best thing about this place is that a membership here allows you access to 400 other children and science museums around the nation, how cool would that be for traveling throughout the year? Especially in the Summer.

Finally, my final “wow” moment with Impression 5 is that their displays change frequently, there is always something new to look at, so you can go often and be surprised, wowed, and learn something new each time – what more could a kid, or parent, want?

I really wish VH1 would stop making all of these stupid reality shows. I feel myself getting dumber just passing by them on the guide channel. The little bit of guilty amusement some sick people did get out of watching ignorance on T.V. has long since past.

My wife used to be addicted to those shows and usually I got stuck watching them with her. It didn’t take long for me to refuse to watch anymore and would get up and leave. I started making my wife record them and watch them at a different time because they were on all the time. “Flavor of love”, “I love New York”, and “Americas next top model”, to name 3 out of about 5 million. People declaring their love for a celebrity just because they are famous or a super model telling young wanna be models that this is very serious, important, and tough work they do is sick. I am sure all the doctors and police officers out there can relate to how tough and important it is to be a model.

I know not all of these shows are on VH1 but they have a lot of them and they took the worst qualities of the others and made them worse. I love mindless humor and goofy stuff but that is in fictional movies, not real people showing how “special” they are. I truly believe these shows are the beginning of the end for all of us as an intelligent, moral, society. My wife has since woke up and stopped watching these shows so there is hope for her.

My mom has been with my step dad for about 20 years, they have always seemed to be happy. I don’t know if I have ever seen them disagree about anything let alone argue. They have known each other since they were kids, got married (to different people), had kids, got divorced, and met back up later in life.

After 20 years I still don’t know what to think about him. He was an alcoholic and hasn’t had a drink in over 20 years; I have great respect for that, and he worked as hard as or harder than anyone I know. He treats my mom well and loves her very much.

My issue is you can never tell what he is thinking or what he thinks of you and I am pretty sure he is partially responsible for my mom kicking me out at the old age of 14. I don’t think he does well with kids because he doesn’t understand them and has very little patience. I am sure he doesn’t or at least didn’t like me; I remember one Christmas he called me a loser which is a good indication, overall just very cold and distant to me and others.

Now he has lung cancer and is on his second round of chemotherapy. The treatments are taking their toll and he is showing signs of it. Since they have moved back to Michigan he has been a lot more sociable and warm and I am wondering why now he is choosing to be involved in the whole family. Did the cancer make him realize what he was missing or is it that he was living so far away for so long that he actually missed having people around? I think it is sad that it takes a life changing event for someone to realize the value of family. At least he did figure it out, which is more than I can say for my real dad, but that is a whole other talk show.

April 22, 2009 marked the celebration of Earth Day.  With many events planned in the area, including a special big event where I work (on the government side of the Environmental Sector) I decided it was time to bring my daughter to work with me to see what we do to help the environment and to learn about recycling, etc. as well.

It was also take your child to work day where I am employed, so the whole day was open to adventures.  There were numerous exhibits detailing things like what a water molecule looks like (a bit over her head at the age of 5, but she still had fun) and there were numerous living (snakes, cockroaches, frogs, turtles, sheep) and preserved (possum, raccoon, butterflies, bugs) to look at both in plain site and also via a microscope.  My daughter was able to view first hand the eyelashes of a bug  under a microscope.

When the pesticide company took out their cockroach to show to her, she screamed and hid under a nearby desk, the man smiled and said “you will be my best customer one day”…he couldn’t be more right – I’ll be his second best customer – bugs, eeewww.

She received a tree sapling to plant at her grandparents house and also donned a pair of rubber gloves so she could “fish around” in murky water filled with various rocks to better understand different types of sediment.  It was educational, but fun as well.  She was able to pick out her own fishing lure (minus the hook) and take it with her.  It was a green jelly type fish and she adopted an Australian accent (compliments of seeing Finding Nemo too many times) and I had to address “the fishy” the rest of the day if I wanted to speak to my daughter.

To sum up, it was a good educational day and she also learned a few things about working in an office.  She was pretty bored by all the office work, reaffirming my belief that humans aren’t meant to work in little cubicles inside a building with windows that don’t open.  Whereas I don’t have a choice, she was able to leave at the end of the day and go outside to play.  All in all, it was a great Earth Day.

Well, it finally happened.  Lil’s bodacious booty could save her no longer.  May I suggest a backup career in the following three areas:

1.) A video vixen.

2.) Giving “hey girrrrl” booty shots via web cam.

3.) An end table (this last position would be only for her derriere, not the rest of her).

As for Anoop, whom America listened to and decided Ahhhh Nope!, he has finally exited stage left.  I suggest a backup career in the following three areas:

1.) Stunt double for Burt from Sesame Street.

2.) Roadie for Snoop Dogg.

3.) Spokesman for Nair hair removal cream (this last position would only be for his unibrow, not the rest of him).

As Idol moves on in the competition, I notice that Kris is getting more impressive, albeit all of his songs sound the same (and hard to understand).  I predict the top three will be Adam, Alison, and Kris.

My husband thinks that Adam and Matt will be the top two finalists.  But what does he know? Only time will tell.

I Love You, Man is a comedy along the lines of Knocked Up and Role Models. It is about a guy who asked his girlfriend to marry him, and then realizes he has no friends to stand up with him at his wedding. He then sets out to find a friend, not just for the wedding but because he wants a male friend.

The movie stars Jason Segal (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Paul Rudd (Role Models) as friends to be in this very funny movie. I have to admit that these are my favorite kind of movies; I love the shock value and extreme methods used to get a laugh. It wasn’t hard for me to like this movie, I found myself laughing out loud in the theatre at the extremely well done “mindless comedy”.

Most of the laughs are from the very awkward/embarrassing situations the stars put themselves in, but what I liked the most is that Paul Rudd is constantly saying stupid things. His timing and mannerisms are brilliant and really made it believable and reminded you of the times you were in situations like that. The cast as a whole was put together well and the script is funny without being too offensive, I personally don’t get offended but to those who do, it’s not too over the top.  I give this movie a 7.5 out of 10 which doesn’t sound like the movie I just reviewed but I watch a lot of movies and I am one who believes in an accurate scale where a 5 is average and a 10 must truly be an amazing movie that I am still thinking about obsessively a week later so a 7.5 is pretty good.

My wife is a member of CAMOMC  (Capitol Area Mothers of Multiples Club), which is a group for moms with twins, triplets, quads, etc. They were looking for someone to take over management of their website and to make it prettier. My wife thought this would be a good way for us to do something together and took over the site.

She asked me to build the site from the ground up and said that she just wanted a simple site, nothing special. She kept saying that we needed to get it started so it could be up and running in April, but never initiated the start, I assumed she was going to sit down with me and give me direction on what she wanted for her new website, so I waited. After a few weeks she finally came to me and asked if I was ever going to get started because it had to be done in two days, I didn’t realize we had an actual deadline, and I told her I had been waiting for her so we could get started.

After a bit of heated debate over who was at fault I got started, alone, I never really looked at the original site to see what needed to be transferred over. It was a lot for just being a simple site, I spent quite a few hours transferring over all the meeting notes, contact info, and everything else I thought would be useful.  Finally I completed it on the final day just to have her critique everything for the next two days and have me change things that she didn’t like. If she just would have worked with me to begin with, it would have been easier and maybe I would have felt at least a little appreciated rather than like a whipping boy doing her bidding. Business is business and personal is personal, it is never a good idea to mix the two.

The other day, I ran into a friend who was distraught because she had just been laid off. Her husband had recently taken a pay cut and was afraid of losing his job any day. They have mortgage payments to make, 3 children to raise… you know the rest of the story.

Now I knew that this lady had been working as an office assistant in a construction company. Her eyes lit up as I gently suggested that she explore working at home as an virtual assistant. Of course, she had a lot of questions and rightfully so. It’s no joke to venture into a home business after years of employment.

Since this situation is becoming more and more common with the current economic downturn, I thought I’d share the questions my friend asked and some quick answers to them:

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant or VA is a self-employed, home-based entrepreneur who assists other businesses, often in administrative work. In other words, a VA is an office assistant who never has to step into her client’s office! In addition, most business owners have particular tasks that they will turn over to their virtual assistants, and these can go beyond basic office or business administration.

What skills do I need to become a VA?

The basic skills a VA needs are office and business administration skills. A VA also needs to be highly organized, communicate effectively and pay careful attention to detail. Some clients look for additional technical skills, such as writing, marketing, social media, blog or website maintenance, and multimedia production – even podcasting!

The skill set you’ll need as a VA depends on the type of clients you want to work with. Find out what they NEED and build your skills to respond effectively.

What kinds of work does a VA do?

VAs commonly do office-related stuff, such as:

- responding to emails
- making travel arrangements
- sending out faxes
- researching and compiling information
- business writing
- typing up notes or transcribing audios

In addition, VAs nowadays are often expected to be able to:

- write and publish or schedule blog posts
- work with autoresponders
- rewrite private label rights content
- optimize a website for search engines
- create a slideshow presentation
- update websites
- set up social networking profiles/pages
- create videos and publish them online

Is being a VA a good option for Women?

Oh yes! A lot of work at home moms and women I know are VAs and they make good incomes from the comfort of their home, without having to leave their children in the care of others. Virtual assistance is a home business, which means it’s flexible. You decide how many hours a day you want to work, on which days, what type of work you want to do, and even whom you will work with.

On the other hand, if you have small children, remember that occasionally you will need to be on the phone or webchat with a client, supplier or other associate. In this case you’ll need somebody else looking after your small children so you can have some quiet and be able to focus on the call or chat.
How much money can I make as a VA?

The hourly rate of VAs depends on several factors. These include their skills and experience, whether they specialize in certain services or a particular industry, and any certifications they may have (those who are certified by recognized institutions charge higher fees). VAs’ fees vary widely, ranging anywhere from around $15 to $70 per hour. So you can see, it’s entirely possible for a VA to make a full-time income working at home.

Ok, I’m interested. Where do I begin?

You can try and figure everything out yourself, of course. But better yet, get the guidance of experienced VAs who have successful virtual assistance businesses. Two such VAs are Jen  and Nell ____ who have a combined experience of over 5 years in virtual assistance. They share their success stories and step-by-step tips in the Just Add Sweat Guide To Becoming A Virtual Assistant.

The guide includes:

- an audio course on everything from setting up your VA business, to marketing your services and finding and keeping clients
- a workbook to get you into action
- 5 videos teaching essential Internet skills
- and more.

This is the guide that will get your VA business up and running in no time. Who knows? Becoming a virtual assistant may be the next perfect “job” for you.