Athletes from all around the world, ones that have honed their training in preparation of a 26 mile, brutal RACE in Boston today, on Patriots’ Day…a government holiday for Massachusetts, were cut short of their goal. So sad. A brutal attack on innocent people celebrating such an accomplishment – finishing a marathon. All the days and months of training that goes in to training for a marathon, gone. Boom. Just like that.

America is under attack by who knows who or what or even why, again. With the constant influx of new people, you might consider thinking of America as “under construction.” Constant construction. Like the freeways here in Houston.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION. America is going through an “update of sorts.”  Just as hiccups happen when you update something like your phone, computer, website or workout program, there is no telling what is going to happen, much less how it’s going to be perceived. With all the change these dayas, I wish everyone would just take a moment and breathe. Pay attention to your surroundings – not just the inanimate objects that are not moving, but the people moving around. Your neighbors. The guy in the desk next to you. The lady next to you in the grocery line. Your kids. Concept, huh?

We are going to have to reorganize America in an intelligent way. Without getting into a gun control debate discussion, the smartest infographic I saw today was on Facebook and it really speaks the truth, regardless of the side you are on regarding gun control…..most of all the law abiding citizens that own guns, didn’t do anything wrong yesterday. It’s the CRAZIES we are spending all this time drafting new laws for. It’s just nuts. Where are the coming from? Not necessarily from outside of the US. Many are coming from right here in our own back yards.

If America would get back to basics…..God….family….prayer…..helping ourselves, maybe things would go better. Maybe. We don’t need the government to tell us to do that. We all know it….and those that REALLY believe it, need to take a stand and help get America back to where it needs to be. Let’s worry about parenting our own kids. My kids are not the governments responsibility. To keep them safe on an American level, yes it’s the good old US Government’s job. But to actually parent and feed? Now way – It’s the parents’ job.  You got yourself into this situation of having kids. Next step is being responsible.  You need to take care of them.

Sorry about the rant here. The little 8 year old boy that was killed at the marathon today, while simply standing there cheering his dad on, doing what he should have been doing, loses his life because some nut case with something to prove (definitely NOT supporting anyone, or loving anyone), goes and blows this perfect little boy up. My point here is…someone had to know. There’s a parent somewhere of this disturbed person, or persons, that failed somewhere along the way…teaching the difference between right and wrong.

And some want to leave the teaching of Right vs Wrong to the government. Uh…..I think not.

Adios – website will be back to normal soon! Stay safe! Stay strong America!

~ Mel

Any time you see an email that says “forward this on to ’10′ (or however many) of your friends”, “sign this petition”, or “you’ll get bad luck” or “you’ll get good luck” or “you’ll see something funny on your screen after you send it” or whatever — it almost always has an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of ‘active’ email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell to other Spammers. Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you’re not ashamed of God/Jesus — that is email tracking, and they are playing on our conscience. These people don’t care how they get your email addresses – just as long as they get them. Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease “how would you feel if that was your child” — email tracking. Ignore them and don’t participate!2) Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of email is, is a way to get names and ‘cookie’ tracking information for telemarketers and Spammers to  validate active email accounts for their own profitable purposes.You can do your Friends and Family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them. You will be providing a service to your friends. And you will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam emails in the future! Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listing regardless how inviting they might sound! Or make you feel guilty if you don’t! It’s all about getting email addresses and nothing more. You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT! Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached! Plus, we are helping the Spammers get rich!  Let’s not make it easy for them. ALSO: Email petitions are NOT acceptable to government or any other organization – To be acceptable, petitions must have a “signed signature” and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the email trackers. Take Special Notice of This Section: And another important point is to “delete” all previous names from your emails before forwarding!!! Send emails to your entire address list “BCC” then everyone after you doesn’t get your friend’s email address.

Tips for Handling Telemarketers

Three Little Words That Work!!

(1)The three little words are: ‘Hold On, Please…’

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then when you eventually hear the phone company’s ‘beep-beep-beep’ tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting..

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a ‘real’ sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialled the call, and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!

(3) Junk Mail Help:

When you get ads enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these ads with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

When you get those ‘pre-approved’ letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular postage, ‘IF’ and when they receive them back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage costs have increased

and it is according to the weight. In that

case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these postage-paid return envelopes. ]]> http://theraggedymom.com/index.php/2012/12/great-advice-from-snopes/feed/ 0 http://theraggedymom.com/index.php/2012/12/tis-the-season/ http://theraggedymom.com/index.php/2012/12/tis-the-season/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:19:29 +0000 Melanie Ledbetter-Remy http://theraggedymom.com/?p=587

Want to read more....]]> Tis the Season for what? REALITY? After spending three days in College Station at Texas A&M’s completely awesome Student Recreation Center’s natatorium, coming back to “reality” was a bit of a shock. With no computer (on the kids’ computer now), trying to work off the iPad has proven to be a bit of a challenge. Luckily it’s going easier as I wait for my new computer. Impatiently.

While I was at the swim meet I had plans for doing my Christmas cards, online shopping on my iPad, finding an “I” gift (more later) and good ole Aggieland pulled the WiFi right out from underneath all of us (seems we overloaded their guest account capabilities). And you know what….we had FUN. Wow. Being unplugged made some of us nervous, but you know what….we got over it…and we SOCIALIZED. WHAT? I know you must be dying laughing right now. I actually got to talk to some people that I just work/volunteer with and never really get a chance to get to know. And I have to say, I had a good time. Granted we were talking about work, Thanksgiving, what kids were asking for for Christmas…like iPads, iPad minis, Kindle FireHD…phones…seriously? And a few of us decided that we, as parents, are just feeding the fires.

What has happened to wanting a new basketball or football or doll? Now it’s $70 XBox games, $500+ e-readers…..geez, these kiddos aren’t even asking for TV’s. I would have KILLED for a tv in my room. I just have this feeling we are really messing up. These kids can’t communicate much less socialize in a normal way.  A lot of parents can’t as well, and we all know that apples don’t fall far from trees, but some of this, I can’t help but believe, is electronically driven! After talking to some of these parents, I do have to ask myself, where did their kids’ personalities go? The parents are fun. If apples don’t fall far from trees, WHERE’S THE PERSONALITY?

I’ve written about this before……we ALL need to unplug every now and then and get back to having to talk face to face. The kids need to get outside and play. Since Bizopia sells websites and search engine strategies “face to face” and provides customer service “face to face,” we HAVE to communicate. But it’s getting harder. Most everyone in our company is 40+ (except for our 2 babies – love ‘em), we remember times with NO electronics. We all started in sales having to actually sit by a, God-forbid, land line, and wait for a client to call us back to schedule an appointment. Remember that? I would be SO IMPATIENT. Like I am now, so often.

I hope at some point during the holidays, everyone gets a chance to unplug a bit…..at some point. I really enjoyed just chatting with a lot of the First Colony Swim Team’s parents. Refreshing.

Off my soap box now. Going to hunt down a new computer as Apple can’t get me one before December 14. The nerve……..

“Any time you see an email that says “forward this on to ’10′ (or however many) of your friends”, “sign this petition”, or “you’ll get bad luck” or “you’ll get good luck” or “you’ll see something funny on your screen after you send it” or whatever — it almost always has an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to. “

Explanation: The sender is grabbing the new forwarded email each and every time it gets passed on, they are then are able to capture lists of ‘active’ email addresses to use to send you more SPAM emails or sell to other Spammers. This EVEN pertains to that demand that you pass on the email if you’re not ashamed of God/Jesus — This is a TRAP! Chances are, that the email has some sort of tracking program attached to it. I’m quite confident God is NOT going to punish you for not passing something on. Just sayin’.

My wish is that these people that are smart enough to write these programs that pray on the innocent, would get a REAL job…that being said, they are probably making more money that you and I. HA! These people don’t care how they capture email addresses so every day they’ll try anything because that’s what they are getting paid to do.

I thought this was a VERY GOOD TIP from Snopes.com:

“And another important point is to “delete” all previous names from your emails before forwarding!!! Send emails to your entire address list “BCC” then everyone after you doesn’t get your friend’s email address.”

I have friends and family that share some really funny stuff, but they almost always have close to their entire contact list on the email. What if just ONE of those people assigns a blind copy and one of these spammers gets a hold of it. Protect your contacts, delete the forwards OR better yet, copy the text and paste it into your own email. Your friends will appreciate it.

Have a GREAT day!

Melanie Ledbetter-Remy

I can’t even imagine having to pack like they are. When Katrina took dead aim at Houston 7 years ago, I put pictures and keepsakes in large plastic tubs just in case we lost our metal roof. Didn’t happen with Katrina obviously, but it did happen with IKE and i was prepared. What a pain. But it was a roof…not a house. Not a loved one or a life. Just a roof. I would imagine there are plenty of roofing supplies being shipped to the area by companies like Bison Building Supply and plenty of companies like Home Remedy of Houston gearing up to help provide labor and resources for those in need.

But what about the elderly? How do they pack their electric wheelchairs and the charging stations that go along with JUST the wheelchair. What about those on oxygen? They are having to leave their comfort zone and flee to areas that are barely out of danger. Both of my grandfathers ended up on oxygen for the last years of their lives. They had to carry around portable oxygen tanks JUST TO BREATHE. And they weren’t under the gun of a hurricane. I can’t even imagine.

I just wish all the best of luck through the rest of today and tomorrow. Looks like it will be starting to settle this time tomorrow. Prepare….don’t Panic….PRAY PRAY PRAY…okay that’s five p’s.

So many SEO (search engine optimization) “experts” (and I use that VERY loosely) want a book, better yet, a single post telling us how to best use Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter and others to enhance online marketing strategies. Instead we get just enough information to make us all dangerous. Or at least we think.

With black hat SEO people on every street corner (or cubicle) it’s very hard NOT to get caught up in all the hub-bub with Google’s zoo of updates – last being the Penguin Update and possible changes with Facebook . How is Facebook going to play into future endeavors of Google to keep things “white hat?” Who knows? All I know is it’s fun to watch people scramble for the “next” big thing….regardless of whether it’s black or white hat marketing. So many just don’t care whether or not their marketing strategies are legal in Google’s eyes….but man-on-man, they sure are scrambling now. Video after video, blog after blog – there’s a TON of people out their whining about how their rankings tanked when the Penguin update hit. Is it their fault or Google’s? How are they really playing the game?

WPO…my new favorite term. Web Presence Optimization. Too many people see their website, Facebook page, Twitter account and other social accounts as totally INDIVIDUAL pieces instead of the whole. My friends that read this, will laugh, because I’m constantly saying – that person has the WHOLE PACKAGE (nice, good looking, good kids, good job, good manners – you get the picture). With web presence, you need to have a well built, easy to navigate website. You need to have all the appropriate social media outlets covered (Twitter, Google+, Facebook and now Pinterest). You need to be updating your website whether it’s a true update/overhaul OR via a blog. The whole package needs constant attention…..it’s a lot and can be overwhelming.

As spring comes to an end – it’s just OVER here in Houston as it’s hot already – I’ll try to visit a small part of web presence optimization every few days in attempts to make the concept of “the WHOLE picture” less overwhelming. Til then……

Whether you like it or not, Google IS king when it comes to web searches and you have to play by their rules. While Google does not share EXACTLY what you should do, they offer up quite a few things that you SHOULD do. There are some incredibly creative people out there that have tried to circumvent the system by utilizing spammy, link farms where you write one article and they push it to many, sometimes thousands, of websites with RIDICULOUS names in attempts to gain “inbound links.” The purpose of INBOUND links is to get them from a trusted source, not a link farm. This business owner admits he did pay for the links in an effort to gain back his rankings. In my mind, he should be willing to suffer the consequences.

According to Google’s Matt Cutts, a Google engineer, “…The Penguin algorithm update was designed to reduce Web spam, which is when websites try to get a higher search ranking than they deserve by deceiving or manipulating search engines. In many cases, the affected sites had been spamming for a long time.”

Enough said. To be totally above board with your website optimization, my advice is to think about and consider what COULD happen if you utilize some of these “bad” tactics. It’s just like you’d tell a kid: if you cheat, you might get caught. Google is getting closer and closer to catching the bad ones.When we train our clients on search engine optimization, website maintenance and social media, we talk to them about a few things that can seriously ruin your whole day. My first warning is always “don’t borrow information for other sources” – otherwise known as duplicate content. Just don’t steal – basic concept. Be truthful and engaging about your posts, tweets, and blog updates. If you don’t do it or can’t do it, don’t talk about it or suggest that you can. Again, basic concepts. And lastly, know what you are paying for. Internet marketers and search engine optimization specialists (SEO) are a dime-a-dozen these days, and they don’t have a CLUE what to do. If they don’t take the time to read and research and almost INUNDATE you with information requests, you might be dealing with someone that just doesn’t know what they are doing. If they are promising number one rankings ever……RUN. RUN FOREST RUN!

My favorite food metaphor for the relationship between search, social, and content is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with SEO [search engine optimization] as the peanut butter, social media as the jelly, and content as the bread that holds it all together.

Bread. Most people think of the bread as the most important part of the sandwich. While it holds or binds things together, it wouldn’t be a  SANDWICH without it. Right? As with websites, you can’t have a page without content to let clients know whether or not they have found what they were looking for. Content is EXTREMELY important. That being said, just throwing some “content” on the page isn’t going to keep users engaged, which is REALLY the entire intent of a website. Yes? Offering something, whether it is a product, news or a service, is usually the purpose of a website. You HAVE to keep the visitor engaged and using BORING content is NOT going to help you reach your goals. We’ll have to do further elaboration on the FRESHNESS of bread later.

Peanut Butter. I’m SO sorry for those that have allergies to it (sorry Kayla), but my family couldn’t live without it. It’s just a staple – on bagels, on toast, on apples, eating it straight out of the container – it’s just a staple. Just as Search Engine Optimization should be a staple to any website marketing venture. SEO can be broken down into so many different parts, but it all boils down to optimizing the page for exactly what you are attempting to share on THAT page. It waters down the search results when people put too many things in their titles, H1′s, and descriptions. In the long run, you should optimize correctly. FOR PEOPLE. Google/Yahoo/Bing doesn’t buy your product or your service, REAL people do. If “bots” could shop……wow!

Jelly. Yes, you could eat a plain peanut butter sandwich with just peanut butter and bread, but that’s not interesting. Why not jazz it up a bit with some jelly? Jelly is sticky and messy and requires some maintenance – like extra napkins. So does Social Media Marketing. With 900 million people using Facebook (not to mention Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest – my personal favorite), companies NEED to use social media as a way to engage with new and potential clients. But it’s messy, just like jelly, requiring attention and almost constant maintenance. Kind of like eating a PB&J Sandwich with white pants on. I know, it’s  a lot to keep up with, but you just need to do it. Or pay someone to do it.

When the combination of good to great content, social media, and proper search engine optimization, the search engines can drive a TON of traffic to your website. Isn’t that what we are all trying to do? Just remember, it’s not a peanut butter and jelly sandwich WITHOUT any of the parts. Gotta have the bread (content), peanut butter (SEO), and that messy jelly (social media) for it to be a good website. OOOPS – I meant sandwich.

I just read a wonderful blog post by Brooke de Lench, an contributing author of MomsTeam.Com – Sports Blog, about an interview she had with the New England Patriot’s quarterback, Tom Brady Jr’s  father, Tom Brady Sr. WOW. This blog post is a very interested read pertaining to youth sports and coaching – it’s a short, informational read about how Tom Sr. NEVER talked to any of Tom Jr’s coaches about playing time, troubling situations, times Tom Jr wanted to quit, etc. Take a moment and consider what the type of successful athlete Tom Brady Jr is.

Tom Brady Sr. discussed how he always supported his son’s sporting decisions. That means, he always believed he was arming his son with the confidence and ability to discuss things in a mature way that were troubling to him, as a student of the sport. I’ve written before about how I’m worried about how the younger generations of today and that they are incapable of organizing things themselves, because WE, as parents, have always done it for them. Club this….select that. Gone are the days of “pick up games” in the front yard or driveway, or banging on doors until you find enough players to have a game of kickball down the street. Parents schedule “play dates” for kids instead of the kids FINDING something to do or someone to play with.

It seems that just about every day, I hear of a parent whose first reaction is to “go talk to the coach,” blister the coach on behalf of their baby,”  beg for more playing time, or worse (in my opinion), discuss OTHER athletes. It never ceases to amaze me when I hear about a parent setting up meetings with their kids’ coaches to discuss things outside of what – in my opinion – is important, their child. While I think meeting with a coach is a good exercise especially when a child is struggling with something and the parent believes the coach could either aid the child in a decision process or in understanding a what’s going on. I really think interfering with day to day coaching (unless it’s hurting someone – and feelings are NOT included in that statement) and ……discussing OTHER ATHLETES should be TOTALLY off limits.

Time after time I hear how a parent “went to bat” for their athlete for more playing time or for their child to be placed on a different team, but I’m always amazed when other athletes are brought into the discussion. Maybe another athlete was blasted in the process in attempts to make their child look “innocent” or “better” than another athlete – where’s the maturity in that? You can’t control parents – my frustration comes in to play WHEN COACHES ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN and react sometimes “to get someone off their back.” Thus the struggle. Do I go to bat for my child “because others have”? Am I doing my child a disservice by NOT talking to the coach? My stance has always been, in the long run, these kids’ with parents that “micro-manage” their lives, from social to sport situations,  will NOT be able to function in the real world….because their parents have always done it for them. I tell my kids that “they’ll get what’s coming to them” all while hoping my children are learning something from the process.

As a coach (not that I always do it right), I always dreaded the “explain why you didn’t play my kid more than you did” discussions, especially post game and in heated “loss-related” situations. I HAD A REASON at the time. Normally there was a reason, and sometimes maybe it was just oversight on my part. It happens as we are all human. As a coach, you question yourself enough as it is, “if I had done this, would the outcome been different?” And as a “demand-er of respect,” I at times have been known to bench a kid  that was disrespectful to another teammate (or me) or just in general, a complainer, but NEVER because of the actions of a parent. It’s just not fair, in my opinion, to penalize a child because of the actions of their parent. But wow – is it ever hard to just sit back and take it.

My goodness people. Teach your children how to defend themselves and to ask questions in a respectful, mature way, and stop butting in. Let the coaches do their job. Ask questions when necessary but NOT in a threatening way – think about it. Do YOU want to be backed in to a corner? Everyone now and then, let the kids “handle social situations” themselves. Really, they’ll learn from it. Teach the to be respectful of others whether they like them or not, and to NOT burn so many bridges. And WHY, WHY, would you blast another child to a coach as it is about YOUR kid right? It just makes YOU look stupid, right Coaches? Come on guys…….RIGHT? It’s not just about you and your child……..and remember – what goes around, comes around!

Off my soapbox now! Adios!

My fired up state got started while watching the Today Show this morning, when Ann Curry (whom I love by the way) – as NEWS – discussed all the “upset people that felt betrayed” by Deen’s lack of honesty. WHAT? Why exactly do these public figures owe us anything “personal?” Really. She has built quite a business with her amazing cookbooks and television shows. You know why? SHE’S ENTERTAINING AS ALL GET OUT! She’s as much an entertainer as she is a chef. That being said, why is she EXPECTED to share her personal health news?

My fired up state increased as I climbed in my car to head to work and turn on my favorite radio personalities on 93Q – Tim Tuttle, Kevin Kline & Erica Rico – and they guys were TOTALLY bashing her. Erica was the only sane one in the group. I’m paraphrasing here in a big way, but Erica was fighting on Paula’s side by stating that she is not MAKING you cook her food. You think? Tim & Kevin, well – mostly Kevin, were talking about how bad her cooking and about how much butter and sugar she uses. So. The Jersey Shore reality show stars drink all day every day – does that mean you HAVE to go behave that way? HuH?

Has anyone ever read or heard of Paula Deen beating anyone over the head with her REALLY CUTE pots and pans all while forcing them to make a recipe from one of her books with multiple sticks of butter and cups of sugar. Of course you haven’t. Anthony Bourdain – star of “No Reservations” on the Food Network called Mrs. Deen, ” the most dangerous person in the world.” I guess the intelligence behind that statement explains why I’ve never heard of the guy and don’t even recognize him. Wow. The most dangerous person in the world? Think that’s a bit dramatic?

OK – so she has signed on with a diabetic drug company as a spokesperson. So she’s stands to make some money from these endorsements. Is that wrong for her business wise? Can you blame her? Think of all the stuff Trump has done, does he still have a high ranking tv show? Of course he does…..because he’s entertaining to watch. Watch one of Paula’s shows or catch her on the Today Show….she’s pretty cool. You’d want to sit and have a chat or two with her – but then I tend to like people that have BIG personalities.

I am so tired of everyone blaming these stars for how they are affecting the youth of today. Here’s an idea. TALK TO YOUR KIDS. Tell them that’s not right to suck down a stick of butter or 5 Red Bulls everyday. Or marrying someone you don’t know or don’t love and expect to spend the rest of your life with. Or drinking and driving. OR taking a gun to school and not dropping it when the cops tell you to. OR letting yourself tip the scales at 300 – unless you have a medical condition that causes you to gain weight, try pushing back. Trying exercising. Trying taking responsibility for yourself. Try not hanging out with a “bad influence” or “bad crowd.” Parents are so quick to blame everyone else for their own kids’ issues and missteps…..try parenting. It’s a concept that is lost on a lot of people.

Moderation. Only make ONE of Paula’s recipes a week OR only on holidays. It’s just like everything else. Most things won’t hurt you in moderation. Disclaimer…..I said MOST things.

Off my soap box now. Back to work! Anyone need a website or blog to VENT – ha!