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Have you got your new work agenda all laid out to carry out your new goals for this fall? You do have some goals for the rest of this year, don’t you? Hopefully also an idea of what you want to accomplish the rest of your life too.

If you have not got such goals and agenda, try to set some down this long weekend that is coming up. It is a whole lot easier to get enthused about your plans, and to enjoy your work agenda if you know what you want to attain.

Please toss out any wishy-washy negative talk like, “Well, I’d just like to get out of debt!” or, “As long as I have good health, I won’t ask any more.” It’s not that getting out of debt, or getting well if you’ve been ill is bad. If you’ve really had an extreme crisis, then that might be a big step forward for you. But listen, you’re much more likely to reach your goal if you put them more positively and in manageable bites like;

1. This weekend I will figure out the minimum I need each week/month to cover my costs
2. By the end of next week I’ll have researched and decided on a method to raise that regularly.
3. By the end of September I will have a good pattern of work going, and that base amount coming in.

or, in regards to health;
1. I’ll pray with positive faith every day, asking God for healing, starting today.
2. I’ll research and see what my options are for practical steps - by mid-month
3. By the end of September I expect to feel at least 50% better!

See? You could plan for success! Do it!

As I learn more about online shopping I’m getting more enthused about my Power Mall. (Taking time to research something online is a very smart idea!) This week I have actually looked at those online stores in My Power Mall more closely and checked out what a few items I would like might cost.

For instance, I re-ink my printer’s cartridges myself, but even so, I seem to use them up eventually and have to buy more cartridges. It used to be that they cost about $30 each in our city, which drove me to check online and discover re-inking in the first place. Now the price has come down to about $20 for a black ink cartridge, and about $26 for a tri-coloured one for my HP three-in-one.

But when I went to check for prices through MyPowerMall, I discovered almost immediately a new store I’d never seen before which is offering my brand of cartridges for $17.95.

How? I just went to MyPowerMall and clicked on “the mall” on the row of links across the top, then down the left side I went to “computers/Electronics, and clicked on the tiny white triangle beside it. A sub-menu appeared with “computers HW peripherals” (meaning the hardware stuff related to computers) as the top choice. I clicked on that, and the first store button/graphic was for All-ink.com So I clicked on that. I see they offer a 2 year guarantee and free shipping. Hmm!

A few more clicks to find my model number, and look! It is only $17.95, with a bright notice on the right column that I can have an instant saving of $10 off today. What? That means I can get this cartridge for 7.95 and pay no shipping!? Whoa, have I got enough money to buy several at this price?

But then I do a bit more browsing and find that the $10.00 off means I must join the supersaver club and pay 8.95 a month. It gives me a 35% discount at this store. Also that the free shipping is for orders over $40. Shipping on anything less is $4.95. - Okay, I can’t afford to spend the $40 today, but I am expecting a ship to come in next week, so I’ll put it off for now.

Besides, I should shop around some more and see if there is another better deal somewhere. If one online store does this, there’s bound to be others. So I vote against an impulse purchase, but am now more open to doing more comparison shopping.

The best news for you, if you’re too cautious to sign up for a FR e E PowerMall is that you can do this comparison shopping from my Mall without having to log in at all. Browse all you like, (and even shop if you like - just note that I’ll get the rebates instead of you!)

Oh yes, didn’t I mention that? If you accept a PowerMall, you get a rebate on everything you buy. The percentage varies from one shop to another, but the stores often give you good deals for shopping online, and then the Mall re-imburses you the related rebates afterwards. You save twice!

It’s getting to be more and more foolish to ignore this, isn’t it?

I’ve got promotion on my agenda and mind these days. Perhaps you are ready to put a new push on to promote your business or online program. There are many tactics to take, but I’m going to focus on classifieds for a while. I’m writing up short paragraph ads for my products and sites, and then listing them at basically two, maybe three classifieds sites that have a good reputation.

Craigslist.org (start with your own city first)
AdlandPro (choose free advertising if you don’t want to pay)

I’ve been feeling rather disillusioned with SearchBigDaddy for their tacky ads and emails, but I see they have now set up a classifieds site too, and it seems to be empty on my link. I’ll let you know if it rolls into action and becomes a worthy place for ads. Or you can poke around for yourself at BigDaddyPays.com/

I’m as curious as the proverbial cat, and I’ve just found out what some of the directories and folders in an Linux operating system are for - so of course, I’m eager to share this information with you. That’s assuming you are as nosy as I am.

Still at the command line in your terminal… or if you’ve left, you open the terminal window again with a click on that monitor screen.

Let’s explore some of the system directories and see what’s in them.

At your command prompt type; ls
(that’s a small l, not the number 1 and it means ‘list the files in this directory”)

This should give you a list of all the files.

You can swiftly switch to other directories by typing; cd [and the dir] and hit [enter]

For instance, if you type; cd /user
you will be in a directory with files that are needed by all the users on this computer.

Try: cd /boot
These are the files related to starting up your computer and system.

Try; cd/root
Now you are likely to run into a warning that you don’t have permission to go there. If you become the super-user or “root” person, you will have access, but this is locked up so that only those who know what they are doing can go there. (This doesn’t touch the fact that you might be a novice and be the owner and root of a system you don’t fully understand - yet).

Another directory like that is sbin. Try it just so you will remember; cd /sbin
Yes, it wants you to be root. Okay. If you are root and know the password, then you can still get to see those files. Type: su (that stands for Super User) and hit enter. When it says password, type in your root password, whatever it is; ********
Hit enter, and lo, you can now try the other command.; cd /sbin
and you will be in promptly.

These are the files that run your whole system, so you only want to peek, not do anything with these files just yet.

Here’s a few more to explore; cd /tmp
This is the directory for temporary files. They are suppose to disappear when you shut down the computer. I’ve noticed that isn’t always true.

Try; cd /var
Your computer stores files that have variable lengths and sizes in here.

Try one more; cd /lib
This stands for libraries. Many programs share the library of files they need to run, and they are all found here. The programs depend on these files, so sometimes they are referred to as dependencies.

Let’s go back home to your user’s files - the ones you have created and most often are looking for; cd /home/[yourusername]

Once there, let’s say you want to find the hidden files that start with a . dot - type; ls -a
Interesting, eh?

Oh, there are some more directories if you have things like a floppy drive, a cdrom drive, a DVD drive, etc.
/floppy
/mnt
/cdrom

However, we will explore those some more next time. We’ll also learn how to shut down and reboot you computer without messing up.

Has your business sort of tumbled into the ditch over the summer? There are so many things going on in our personal lives over the summer, and if you have children who need entertainment and direction, it’s harder than most of the rest of us can imagine.

But the summer is winding down and the fall season of school and schedules is going to start soon. Take hope from the fact that you can always set yourself a new pace and schedule at such times of change, and you CAN start over! Fresh starts are always in order, and often they are the turning point for your improvement and success.

I’m rejoicing these days because as life starts up over for me in a new place and pace I am seeing God’s hand of blessing and provision over and over again. The last couple of weeks I had a sore thumb to slow me down, but now that is clearing up and my energy and enthusiasm is revving up. I’m eager to get on with all my business plans.

I’m still clearing up some loose ends, but aside from caution in case I take on too much at once, I’m rarin’ to roar!

For many years now I’ve said that I’m not much of a shopper. Meaning I don’t shop very often. But that’s because I’ve had almost zero income while I was caregiving for my parents. I fought temptation to feel sorry for myself, by simply not hanging out in stores any more than I had to.

Even when I went online in 1999, I stayed away from shopping sites because I knew I couldn’t afford to order/buy much. I focused on the things I could learn to do for free. I think I could write a book now on all that you CAN do to start a business on a shoestring too short to tie around your finger.

Despite all that, I am coming around to admit that I’ve learned to be a wise and frugal shopper, with self-discipline. This is a good thing to be! As I am focused more on growing my business and doing more things online, I discover that I am a shopper after all, but not so frequent and much smarter than spendthrifts who blow whatever they have on whatever strikes their fancy.

Recently I agreed to accept a free Online Mall with over 1000 stores. To look for whatever I thoughtfully want in these stores first, is a smart move. I can get rebates up to nearly half of the price of the item. There is much more selection than just what’s in my city, and I don’t have to get blisters on my feet, walking through three or four malls in my city. I can do my comparison shopping online, sitting right here in this chair.

In fact, the owners of this powerful mall are setting up a system whereby I can “load” a debit card and reload it when used up, to do all my shopping, including for groceries. This gives me discounts and rebates twice over. (I’m wondering if that gal, Ginny, has been down the path of my life ahead of me).

Surveys prove that online shopping is catching on like a world-wide epidemic, and for some people that’s bad news because they do NOT have the self-discipline to shop wisely. However, if you think of yourself as a frugal and careful shopper, then this is a great blessing. Here’s just a few basic advantages to start with; save on gas (no driving around), save time (all those frittered minutes in malls when you could be doing something productive), save money (because online stores offer better prices, and often free shipping, plus this mall provides rebates too), much greater, wider selection (even from outside your country), and you don’t have to carry your purchases home - they are delivered to your door!

Perhaps what we need now is a site or book to teach people how to become better shoppers, and to take advantage of these fringe benefits.

What do you think? Have you got shopping tips and lessons you could teach others? Have you ever thoughtfully looked at your shopping habits to know whether you have techniques that might helps someone else? If you do, let’s pool some and see if this works out to be a good idea.

If you would like a free online shopping mall, I’ll be happy to give you one. But I advise you to check it out first so you know what you are getting. Look it over and watch the video here, if you can; MyPowerMall (I’ve already given away three such malls, and I have not really tried yet to spread the word, so it’s not very hard to do. Ginny does an excellent job of explaining it for me).

Thank you for your patience as I’ve been off on very practical and heavy-duty responsibilities with my Dad’s estate and with moving myself and all my stuff into a wee little house in the city.

I am now buckling down to work again. So I’ve just been checking to see what I was doing here before, and where I left off. As I see it, I was working my way through an online course in Linux on the linux.org site, and then summarizing the key thoughts or lessons I feel are important to share with others on this learning curve.

There is so much you can do in Linux that is much like in Windows. You click links or icons and things happen. But there is much more open to you if you are willing to learn some basic commands at the terminal. I confess, I have mixed feelings about that. I want to be a smart guru type too, but knowing what cryptic codes to type at the command prompt is plain scary.

Let’s plunge in. It’s bound to get easier once we understand some of it.

You click on that icon on the perimeter of your screen that looks like a TV or monitor. Up comes a window with a command prompt. (Do you recall working with a DOS computer yeas ago? This is a lot like that. Only instead of a C:/ prompt, you now are in a BASH shell. That’s an anacronym for “Bourne Again Shell” - named after someone.

You’ve most likely set up a user for yourself, so the prompt is likely to be your user name, and your IP address, like this; ruth@207-47-212-213:~>
It can be other things too, depending on your setup.

Let’s try out some basic commands. AT that prompt type;
cd /

That brings you to the top (or bottom, depending on how you look at the system tree) of all the files in your computer. Most commands have to be made while either at the root of your system, or in the directory where you want to affect the files. So we’ll be needing that “cd” command quite often.

But if you now try this command;
cd /root
which is different from the one above…. you now get a “Permission denied” response. Huh? What’s with that?

It means that you can’t get into that directory without first switching into your role as root user. We’ll get to that in a bit. Here’s some other basic commands you can use as an ordinary user;

ls
(that’s a small L and an s) It stands for “list the files please.” If you include a switch, -a, as in;
ls -a
it will provide you with a list of all the directories and files in that directory, including the hidden ones that start with a period, .

Now that you can see what’s in there, type;
cd /bin
See? That has got you inside the bin directory. Now type;
ls
Hmm! Before the list was all in blue (directories), now we have different colours for the files.

Incidentally, I’ve learned that bin is a very important part of our linux system. You might associate that word with garbage bins. Think of it instead as storage bins in your estate’s warehouse or special pantry. Your wealth is carefully sorted out and stored there.

Do you want to know where all the “gears” are? Your configuration files? Okay, you can back-track by typing;
cd ..
which gets you back out of bin and then you can type;
cd /etc
But a short-cut is available too. Just type;
cd /etc
and there you have leaped into this other folder. To see what’s there, you type, naturally;
ls
Whew! here’s a lot of files!

We’ll pick up and learn more next time…. I don’t want to overwhelm you all at once.

Hello. Remember me?

Thank you for your patience as I’ve taken off the last two and a half months to focus on moving to my new home, and to wrap up my Dad’s estate. It has all taken longer than I had expected, but the heavy-duty work stage is now behind me, and I’m returning to my full-day office hours. This comes with considerable joy.

If anything, I have a thing about finishing the things I start. I did all this moving and estate cleanup work willingly enough, (and discovered that my strength increased from all the effort, thanks be to God), but - at the same time, I reached a point of being very glad that it was coming to an end. Enough is enough.

Perhaps you are in a situation which is wearing you down. Do not give up just because you feel tired of it. Determine what your goal is, and when it will be over, then keep at it doggedly, and eventually it too will come to an end.

That’s when we can stop to celebrate, and shift our attention in a new direction.

I’m just pondering now, how to add this accomplished task to my resume. I don’t want to open myself up to another project like that, but it would be nice to put up a marker to celebrate that I did it.

(Incidentally, I did a number of photo stories showing my progress. If this interests you, poke around on my blog; RoseBouquet )

If you were to hire the ideal employee, what would you look for? Or supposing you were going to train someone else to take up the skills that you have learned or taught yourself? What kind of person will you most like to be in that position?

I’ve started to think along these lines, and at the top of my list are four basic traits I will seek for in interviews.

1. Willing to learn and try new things.
I’ve run into some people that are so hung up on doing only that which they’ve done for years and years, that they are blind and resistant to learning anything new. Such a person would be a huge disappointment to me. A burden, in fact! In my initial interview I would look for clues that this prospect is willing to learn and try out new things with some eagerness.

2. Positive, cheerful, hopeful outlook.
A complainer is soon as old and bothersome as a festering open wound. I don’t want someone like that around. This person should see some possibilities, and be upbeat and cheerful at least most of the time. We can all get a bit down when things go wrong, but we need our coping skills in place, so we don’t stay there. If this person catches the vision and purpose of the job, and gets enthused, so much better.

3. Persistent, faithful, willing to stick-to-it-to-the-end.
Who likes to mop up a job after others have quit? I don’t, but I’ve had to do it often enough. My Mom made me finish the things I started, and it has become a way of life for me. If I’m to invest my hard-earned skills in someone else, I want that person to also finish what she starts. Much of life boils down to the boring details that have to be done for the over-all project to succeed. A person who pulls back or drops out when it comes to the slough-work is not likely to succeed on their own, and although I’m willing to help someone learn to be faithful to the end, I do NOT want to be stuck with someone who is going to leave all the grunt work to me. Better to discern this at the beginning and to not even let him start the job.

4. One who tries to be accurate, follow instructions, but able to admit mistakes.
There are always those who can appear to be tracking with you, and yet behind your back, they slack off, and get sloppy when they think you are not aware. No Sir, I’d rather they be honest and careful with the details all the way through. That’s not to say we don’t ever make a mistake. I know I do often enough. (Several times a day!) The important thing then is to be humble enough to admit it as soon as you catch it, and confess it to those involved. Then be ready to correct it if possible.

Sometimes only the employer or teacher is able to unravel a bad mistake. Even then, it’s best to stay nearby, not groveling in self-abnegation, but ready to learn from the mistake, so it never happens again. It may also mean suffering quietly if the superior has to vent some frustration.

Now a person with all these traits would be my ideal intern, disciple, or employee. I wonder what the chances are of finding this ideal person. Would you qualify for your ideals?