Troubleshooting on WordPress

A few months ago, I discovered that I couldn’t update my pages.  I don’t do it that often, so I wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong, or if something had changed.  I found myself going to the “help” tab to see if I could find out why I was having problems, but it didn’t help any.  Finally, I gave up.

Then, earlier this week, I discovered I was having the same problem with posts.  There was no option to attach categories, tags, or publish my posts.  Once again, I found myself browsing in the help section of WordPress, and once again, I couldn’t find out any information on what was going on.  This time, I decided to contact WordPress.

I filled out the required information, explained my problem, and sent the message off.  Usually, I don’t like to do this because of issues I’ve had in the past, mostly ebay, paypal, and a few other sites that ignore your problems, or just send you a reply that has nothing to do with your problem.  But I was pleasantly surprised by how quick I got a reply.  Not only did I get it in less than 24 hours, the answer they gave me did the trick.  They also took the time to explain to me what caused the problem.

Hats off to WordPress for realizing that customer service is still important.

The Tea Party?

Now that I live in Florida, I have discovered that politics plays a key role in people’s lives.  I myself, am not a political person.  I’m not a Democrat.  I’m not a Republican. and I’m not a Liberal, communist, conservative, etc.  I am a proud American, (although I don’t always agree about what America does, or some of the policies in place by past and present administrations), and I vote every election.  Only missed one election in 30 years.  I’m out there and I want my vote counted! 

That being said, I also have respect for the leaders of our country, whether I voted for him or not.  There have been times when I’ve been embarrassed by what some of our presidents have done, not done, or said.  But, you know, they are our leader, and as a proud American, I will not say anything bad about them.

Last week, I was invited to a Tea Party rally.  Yes, the Tea Party is now a legit political party, (I kid you not.)  The people who invited me were friends of my parents.  I enjoy hanging out with them, and like them a lot.  They are very political as are many people here in the south, and have made comments that I don’t appreciate, but I keep my mouth shut, (in most cases.)  So when they invited me to the Tea Party Rally, I just didn’t know what to say.  I didn’t want to upset them, because boy, when it comes to politics, they can be nasty.  I enjoy hanging out with them, they’re really great people.  But there was no way I was going to go to this Tea Party rally.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, more power to you if you’ve found a political party that works for you, but don’t expect everyone to share those views.  Politics is like religion.  It’s all in what you belive, and every one is going to have a different view of the topic.  And there is nothing wrong with that!  In fact, that’s what makes this world special.

Cheep Oil Change

The other day it was time for me to get the oil changed in the car.  I don’t have to do it that often because I really don’t drive that much.  Right now I have a 2006 Toyota Camry.  Yes I said Toyota, and lucky for me there was no recall for the 2006 Camry.  This is only my 3rd oil change because I was informed that the oil doesn’t really need to be changed every 3,000 mile, like we are all told, but 5,000 miles is just fine.  In fact the idiot light to tell me it’s time for an oil change comes on every 5,000 miles.  Just to be on the safe side, I try to do it every 4,000 miles.

Anyway, My step father suggested I go to one of the drive in places.  You know the one I’m talking about.  Oil change $18.99.  You drive in and ten minutes later the job is done, and you go on your merry way.  Now I’ve never done this before.  I always had my mechanic do all the oil changes, but now that I’m a thousand miles away from my mechanic, I thought I would give it a try.

I pulled the car into the garage and went into the office as instructed.  The next thing I know, the guy comes in and asks me if the mileage is correct.  You see I only have 12,000 miles on the car, and even though it’s a 2006 model, I bought the car in 2005.  Yes, the car is nearly 5 years old, and yes, the mileage is correct.  He then tells me what the recommended oil to use is, and also informs me that I was half a quart low, I should have the oil changed more often, and he’s going to have to add something to clean out the engine.  The problem is he fails to tell the person who is working on the car while we discuss it, not to start yet.  It’s now too late to do the additive, but the oil he suggested will be an added cost to the $18.99.  Fine with me.

Just before the car is finished, the guy comes back with two different types of filter, non of which is the oil filter, (I’ve changed my own oil in the past and have knowledge of what those look like).  He tells me they are both filthy and should be changed.  If I change both, he’ll give me $10.00 off one of the filters, but it would still cost me $50 more.  I’m looking at filters that are still white with some dark spots along the bottom edge.  “Yeah, you’ve got dirt and dead bugs in here.  Look how filthy they are.”  I tell him they look pretty good to me, yet he has a come back.  “They should both be pure white.  You would be foolish not to change them both.”  Sorry folks, but I thought we had the “women are dumb” thing under control, (like thirty years ago).   I thought about saying something to him, but refrained from making any comment since my car was sitting there, no oil, and other parts exposed that could suddenly turn into “major engine problems.”, so instead I told him I was low on cash right now, and would take care of it next time “he” changed my oil.

I consider myself luck that I left with only a $34.00 bill.  If I had done everything he told me to do, (and yes, he also insisted on rotating my tires), the oil change would have come out to about $150.

All I have to say is beware of the quick and cheep oil changes.  If you’re not smart about it, it could cost you.

This Weekend’s Garage Sale

I’ve had many a garage sale in my day, but this weekend, I learned the difference between garage sales up north, and those down south. 

First of all, no matter where you live, there is a lot of work involved.  You start off at least the day before looking for stuff, cleaning it up, and making sure it works.  Then there is the pricing of the items. (things go a lot cheaper down south).  Clean up after the garage sale is also a big deal.  We don’t throw much out afterwards, but you do need to call a charity to pick up the stuff that you don’t want to keep for the next sale, and move it to a place that they’ll pick it up.

The differences are what sells.  We live on an island, so of course the first to go is anything that happens to deal with fishing or boating.  All that stuff was gone within the first half hour.  The other difference is with haggling.  In the south they don’t do that often.  Let me tell you, soooo not true in the north.  If you have a price tag of, let’s say, $5.00, people will come and say “I’ll give you a dollar.”  Believe it or not sometimes even less.  Not in the south.  I think only three people haggled.  There were some cases where I offered to lower the price, and they said, “No, that’s okay.  I’ll pay what you’re asking.” 

Anyway, long story short, it was a great day.  I made $137.00 on sales and the rest of the stuff went to charity.  Oh, yeah, that’s another difference about the north and the south.  The night of the garage sale, people in the north come to your house and pick up the stuff didn’t sell and threw away.   (I think they put the trash on ebay the next day.)   I didn’t see that at all here.  Oh and one more thing that’s different.  Up north if you advertise it starts on 8 AM, they come knocking at your door at 6:30 AM.  That didn’t happen down here.

Turbo Tax revisited

After Spending over a week doing my taxes with Turbo Tax, I finally gave up.  I just didn’t trust the outcome of my taxes.  Most of the problem is because I couldn’t understand some of the questions asked and in order to find out what they’re talking about, I would get charged an additional $19.95.

I have friends who use Turbo Tax and they like it, but then again, they have simple returns, I don’t.  I decided to have my taxes done by a professional.  Good thing too, because the return was wrong. 

Turbo Tax should never ask people to pay for questions, especially since you have to pay for the product.  That should all be included.  So, instead of me saving money by doing my taxes myself, I spent $135.00 more then I should have because Turbo Tax was useless to me.

Lesson learned for next year.

Interview at Marineland

The other day, while I was doing my job search, I came across a job posting for seasonal employment at Marineland.  It’s part time, and I’m sure it’s paying minimum wages, but hey it’s a job, and it sounded like fun.  So I sent in my resume and a cover letter, and waited to see if I would get a call.

Sure enough, two days later, I got the call.  I was told that I was over qualified, so why would I want the job?  I explained how I had been unemployed for a year and a half, and it sounded like fun.  Still sceptical, she agreed to interview me.  Through out the interview she kept mentioning how it was only seasonal, it didn’t pay that well, and it would only be a few hours a week. 

This is just another example of how people hold your prior experience against you.  I was in the banking industry for 23 years, never worked in a theme park, or with dolphins, yet I’m considered over qualified.  That doesn’t mean I’m not going to get the job.  I did the best I possible could on the interview to assure her that the pay was fine, and all that.  I guess I’ll find out next week.

Why I Won’t Be Using TurboTax Next Year

For years I’ve been going to H & R Block to have my taxes done.  There were a lot of good reasons.  First of all, my taxes tend to get complicated because of dividend, buying and selling stock, plus I worked in New York, but Lived in New Jersey, and when you’ve got to deal with two states that you declare stuff for one and not the other, well I just can’t be bothered.  The other nice thing about H & R Block is that they do it right there, and it takes less than an hour to do all three returns.  The bad thing?  I usually spend about $380 for them to do it.

Since I’ve been unemployed for a year, I thought I’d save myself some money this year and do it myself.  Since I haven’t done my own taxes in years, (probably twenty or so, when my life was simpler), I decided to get Turbo Tax.  The cost for the deluxe version, $59.95.  What a bargain, or so I thought.

I knew it only came with one state return, and you would have to pay extra for any additional states.  What I didn’t know was the additional state was $39.95.  In addition, although you can e-file your returns, the Federal is Free, the state is $19.95 each.  And if you have questions for the tax expert, well you can tack on an additional $19.95 to ask a question.

As for the filling out the form, It took my two weeks, because I couldn’t figure out what they were asking.  Sure, some questions were easy, but in general, there was five or six questions I had no clue what they were asking, and when I went to the Help Center (That doesn’t cost anything) they didn’t answer the question.  In fact what ever I typed in, it kept saying “Not Found”. 

After two weeks, it was done.  I refused to spend another $40 to e-file the state, mostly because I had to pay New York (which I figured I would, and I was getting back only $70.00 on New Jersey).  So I printed out all the forms, 38 pages worth of forms, and started to read the mail in instructions.  Another joke. 

The New Jersey form doesn’t show anywhere what I’m getting back, and included a homestead rebate form to be used for tenants only.  I wasn’t a tenant, I owned my home.  The Federal tax form was included with the new Jersey, and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to mail that with the Jersey taxes or not.  It also printed out an additional Federal Tax forms, that I know needs to be mailed with about 6 different schedules.  The New York return is also confusing, and I’m not sure what to mail.

Oh, and one more thing.  When you finish your taxes on TurboTax, you can take a survey.  When you’ve finished the survey, it sends you to a website where you can purchase the same TurboTax for half the price.  First of all, why would I purchase something I already have, and second, why is it half price?  A bit late to tell me about all that now.

Question: What’s Wrong With Volunteers

I enjoy volunteering for organizations I feel good about.  recently I joined two more organization that I do Volunteer work for and I was very shocked when each told me “Wow, you’re fantastic. I can’t believe how quickly you picked up on this.”  Where as it sounds like I’m tooting my horn, the truth is far from it.

I started volunteering at The Council on Aging in the beginning of February.  I was given the task of receptionist.  Basically, I answer the phones and transfer the calls.  Not much to it, although I do have a new found respect for receptionist all over, especially when two to five lines light up at the same time.  I picked up the phone and transferred it one day, when the full time receptionist employee told me that I was fantastic and caught on quick.  What?  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do that. especially when I’m only there to pick up the phone when she’s already on five other lines.

Then there is the St. Augustine public Library, where I shelve books.  All the books are in alphabetical order, author first, then title of the book.  If you know the alphabet, you can pull this job off.  Yet again, I was told, I can’t believe how quickly you pulled this off, and was assign to help the technical department out because I’m “smart”.

Look, folks, if you are volunteering for something, put your all into it.  If I’ve been told I’m a rocket scientist because I know the alphabet, or I know how to answer a phone, there has to be some of you who are volunteering, but don’t really care about what you’re doing.  If that’s the case, why are you volunteering?  Find an organization that means a lot to you that you will put your all into, and don’t waste every one’s time.

One more thing.  If you say you’re going to be there, Be there!

Earthquake In Chile

Once again, I find myself giving my thoughts and prayers to the victims of an earthquake, this time to those in Chile.   My thoughts and prayers go out to those family member and friends of the victims in Chile.  We are all thinking about you.

Clarification Regarding Credit Reports and Job Scams

Recently, I wrote two posts, one about job scams, and the other about the importance of credit reports while looking for a job.

In the post about job scams, one of the things the scammer was requesting was a copy of your credit report.  Under no circumstances should you provide that to a potential employer.  First of all, the scammer said that the report was going to be used to check your job history.  That is not the purpose of a credit report.  Second, if a potential employer needs your credit report, they should get it themselves.  n order to do that, they will need your social security number, and I would be cautious about giving that out.  The best time and place to do so, is when you are sitting in their office on a first interview.  This way, you can be verify that the person is who they say they are.

As for your credit report itself, keep it in a safe place.  There is a lot of personal information on these reports including your social security number, a list of all the loans you have and a list of all the credit cards you have and the status.  This report is something that you don’t want to get into the wrong hands.

I feel very strongly on this topic, and can’t stress enough on this topic about the importance of keeping your financial information safe.  Scams will continue to happen as long as the scammer is successful.  Don’t be a victim.