Cheryl Kissell

This is REALLY bad news for all small businesses and it may mean lots of lay-offs for employee’s.

Affordable Healthcare Act means IRS is gonna get bigger

And IRS is hardly an appropriate agency to deal with this matter.  Things are going to get nasty!

Affordable Healthcare Act…I don’t THINK so!  Why didn’t they just add regulations to the Corporate Insurance Companies …I agree it needed an overhaul…not a takeover!

This is the worst law congress ever approved and MOST have never even read it, they just knew they didn’t want to be part of it, so exempted themselves.  Have YOU?

READ the Affordable_Health_Care_for_America_Act

It’s been awhile since I posted and June has been an exciting month with so much going on.

I lost my internet connection for a week and had internet withdrawal syndrome.  It wasn’t even storms…it just up and quit one day and CenturyLink blamed it on the home office changing IP numbers.  I lost a ton of money since I couldn’t be online and they gave me a credit of $5. for the downtime 🙁

Then just as I get my connection back, my monitor wouldn’t power on.  I have an APC surge protector, but apparently that didn’t help the poor monitor.

Last week though…it rained every day and on just 1 day we got 10 inches.  My land is mostly sand so it seeped in, but some of my neighbors have clay soil and they got flooded…to the point where they couldn’t even open their doors.  I’m a bit on a slope, so the water is going downhill…of course that also means behind me is coming at me as it goes downhill.  No problems thus far, so I thank God for that.

All this downtime, gave me a chance to work on some writing and very soon I’ll be putting up a report you won’t want to miss.  I’m even going to attempt my first video with this one, so wish me luck.

We are now officially in Summer, June 20th marks that season officially.  So what are your summer plans?  I’m planning to launch some sites and revamp others, so no telling if I’ll be able to add some fun in the sun in there.

Time to get back to work.  So leave me some comments and especially if you have made plans already for the summer, I really want to know…perhaps I can dream vicariously through you.

I believe it is important that we ALL start our day with Positive reinforcement.  You’ll find you accomplish more with the right focus on what you want to do each day.  I also end my day with it. Enjoy! And please post any observations you get.

I haven’t been able to post to my blog as I was trying to do some fancy stuff with the theme and broke it 🙁

But I’m back now and will take it a little slower.  Sure don’t want that happening again.

So where I find I’m having difficulty is on the permissions area.  It says I can’t write this or change that…yuk!

I had several people offer to help, but they couldn’t figure  out MY mess, so I had to clean it up myself.  That’s OK by me as it keeps you learning and sharp.

Speaking of “learning and sharp”…What are you currently learning and where do you get stuck?  What do you feel you are sharp on and where are you not so? 

Obviously, I’m learning about wordpress and it’s capabilities or NOT…and yet I feel I am very sharp about the internet as I’ve been online since 1992/3.  I know html and wordpress is not that…it’s mostly php and while I have had others build me php sites, I’m very careful to not break them…it’s called don’t mess with code.

I also know a LOT about marketing and building relationships online and that is where I have the most fun.  What do you like about the internet?  What gives you the most pleasure? 

Talk to me, I want to know 🙂

It just dawned on me that while I have been writing away here, I have never introduced myself.  Hello, my name is cheryl lynn and I am from the house of Kissell.  Born in Minneapolis, MN and left for California at 16.

Currently I’m on Florida and about an hour north of Tampa in a city called Floral City.  This is horse country and I’m on 2 1/2 acres all fenced, no horses yet.  My buddy, Kratos, my german shepherd pup, really loves that as he is able to get more than enough exercise running the fence with his buddy, Sunshine, who lives next door.  He also has Lady, a husky, who visits quite often as it was love, for both of them, at first sight.

I started online back in 1993, when I was living in San Mateo, California on a commodore 64.  Anyone remember those?  Those were the good ‘ole days of IRC and less than a million websites.  As of June 2011, there are approx 346,004,403 websites, pretty astounding, eh?

My first ISP was prodigy, then came aol (until I learned it was an online community and not the real internet), so I moved over to earthlink when a young 19 year old kid named Sky, owned it.  He has since sold it and is somewhere spending his billions 🙂   I’m still on earthlink and aol is still the highest charging ISP online.

Back in those early days, interactive email lists were a BIG thing and so I learned a lot.  In fact, ebay and amazon were case studies on some of those lists because they were “new guys” on the scene.  I met some very cool people from those lists. One of my favorites to this day is Paul Myers who is still publishing his newsletter, TalkBiz.

The internet has changed a LOT since those days and I am constantly learning and keeping up.  I hope to be able to share some of my insights on this blog.  If you have any burning questions…feel free to post it in the comments section and you’ll get a response.

Now I may not be able to call myself a movie buff because I don’t run to a theater to see all the new releases.  I don’t have my TV connected to cable so I can catch any of the movie channels there, yet I do have a Roku.  I bought the Roku for a one-time fee and they have channels you subscribe to.  I don’t understand why people subscribe to cable tv because tv has been degrading for the past 20 years.  The news channels don’t report the REAL news, they just show sensationalism to entertain the masses.  The networks have bought into Reality tv which to me is so close to real life why don’t you just go to the park or beach and people watch?  You’ll get enough of reality in the real world if you care to SEE it.  Sitcoms seem to cater to stupid people and I think I’ll leave it at that.

So the Roku is not tv, although you can get highlights from Fox news, CNBC, NBC and a total of 27 news channels.  None of which I have subscribed to.  Perusing the channels, it was interesting that Alex Jones of InfoWars.com has his own channel.

Roku has a total of 22 categories with approx 15-25 choices in each.  Some are paid (like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) but many and I would venture to say MOST are free (like Crackle, TED, inmoo) which means I can watch what I like on demand.

Obviously, I’m not much into TV and might get 5 hours a week in front of it, if that.  Seems it always puts me to sleep, so sometimes it takes me 3 days to get through an entire movie.  For me, if I want to be entertained at home then I’ll turn on the Roku and browse over to a movie channel.

Naturally, if a new release catches my attention (usually through word of mouth) then I can always head over to a redbox.

Since I totally ignored TV for the past 30 years, it means I have a lot of movies to catch up to, so if you’ve seen something you thought was a not to miss, let me know below.  Just “movies” though!

One of the things I love to do and would do it all day, if I could, is Gardening.  I love every aspect of it:  Getting my hands in the soil, pulling weeds, raking leaves, pruning and planting and of course watching everything grow.

Since I just got settled in a new place, with 2 1/2 acres, I missed the planting season and am mostly cleaning the yard up, starting my compost and trying to figure out what will grow in my sandy soil.  I don’t have many trees (I counted 9) so there isn’t much shade on my property.

Naturally, that doesn’t stop me from buying and growing in pots, so for now that is exactly what I’m doing.

I have an orchid tree that is doing really well, I don’t believe I’ll have flowers this year but I should next year.  They will be purple blossoms so I’m really looking forward to that.  I have an orange rose that has already given one bloom and has lots of buds, so it will be a good year for that plant.

Then I made several new purchases a few weeks ago.  Some are doing great, some not so great.

The lilies are doing great and have blossoms and buds, the Mexican Petunia are flowering (although are always needing water in the full sun of my yard), I have 2 lemon trees that are no more than a foot tall with many lemons growing already, a red oleander which is gorgeous in full bloom, a blue plumbago which was flowering and is starting to look like it needs help.

I got 2 Jasmine vines that were pretty tall already and it appears the sun is taking a toll on them, although there are some green vines, so maybe a bit of pruning will help.  Then the bottle brush trees are really confusing me as they are suppose to be drought tolerant.  I got 3 and 2 are brown and the 3rd is partly brown.  I’m hoping they’ll turn around.

I’ll try and take some pictures of my garden or should I say my potted gardens soon and get them up.

Maybe someone out there will have some advice to share?

I adore my slow cooker, in fact, it is cooking something right now. When I get done here, I will be enjoying a cornish game hen with lots of vegetables and probably a merlot.  Dessert, too, as I deserve it.  Probably strawberry shortcake since that is what is in season here now.

I usually use it at least 3x a week and sometimes 5.  There are SO many things you can do with your crock pot, it’s amazing.  We all know how tender and flaky any meat comes out.  We also know how it brings out the vegetable flavors.  Did you know that you can actually bake a cake in a slow cooker?  Candy, too!  Then there are also beverage, other desserts, bread, even jam and butter recipes you can make.  You wouldn’t believe how delicious souffle’s are!  Crock pots are truly versatile.

Some of my favorite recipes are Ribs, whether beef or pork, as they always come right off the bone.  I also prefer cabbage in the slow cooker as there are so many tasty ways to do it from sauerkraut to stuffed.  Brisket is also one of the mandatory meats I slow cook.  MMM…Good.  (getting hungry here).

It doesn’t matter if you’re eating breakfast, lunch or dinner…there is a slow cooker recipe out there that you will find delicious, nutritious, satisfying and always easy.

So are you using your slow cooker?  Do you have questions about it?  Maybe a favorite recipe you’d like to share?  Here’s your chance to talk to me, I want to hear from YOU!

I reside on Citrus county florida and today is a rainy day.  I actually love rainy days because it allows me to stay focused on things inside that I may have neglected.  Other than the distraction of LOUD thunder, now and then, I find the pitter patter of rain quiet calming.  Do you?

I also absolutely love Lightning and here in Florida we get some really good shows.  I remember one particular show last year when I was surrounded with lightning and literally could see all around me the lights in the sky.  One side was flashing orange and pink…I actually tried to video it…but the sky was too dark so it didn’t come out.  It was a really fantastic showing of lightning that I had never seen before.  Almost like fireworks.

Did you also know that Tampa, Florida is the lightning capital of the world?  I hear one guy has been struck by lightning 3 times there…and I always heard that lightning can’t strike twice.  Guess that’s a myth.

Another fascinating fact about lightning is that it helps plants green up.  So when you see a lot of yellowing grass, you know that they need lightning really bad.  When I lived in California, northern, we hardly ever got lightning.

Also, lightning can be hotter than the sun’s surface…now that’s extreme heat!  And I understand that’s also what creates the thunder.  So if you’re hearing thunder…it means lightning is crackling somewhere.

So while I may see lightning as breathtaking, dazzling, even sensational, it is very dangerous.

Do you have an experience or thoughts on Rainy days or lightning?  Share them with me.

I just got involved in a new mentoring program with John Thornhill and his method of teaching is step-by-step.  I’ve had some blog training in the past, but most of it was way over my head as the whole concept was new to me.

My biggest challenge with a blog is that I get stuck when I write.  For those who know me, that probably sounds crazy, since I’m never at a loss for words.  It’s different though and maybe you’ll be able to relate?  When you have a conversation there are 2 people so you Talk…when you write it’s just you (in your head) and that’s when I get stuck.  (like now).  When you are in a conversation and you pause, it creates an opening for the other person to talk. but when you write and you pause…well…ummm…duh…

OK, so let me write about “Taking Steps” because I’m a firm believer that if you want success you have to get into action and that means taking a step and a series of them.  I like to call it “Next“, because basically their just tasks you have to get done.  When you know what you want you always get a plan in your head and for me I like to begin with the end in my mind.  Then I simply work it backwards to the first step toward it.

Obviously each step can and will take time and that varies.  So I like to have a plan for my time first and set that.  I actually use a timer, too.  It’s called Action Enforcer and it allows me to put my daily actions/steps on a calendar with the timer.  I have found it keeps me focused…as the internet can be a huge distraction and time stealer…  I also feel it has increased my productivity since it helps me manage my most precious asset-TIME!

Success is always just a step away and if you can get disciplined into taking them it will absolutely and positively change your life.

So what do you think?  What does “Taking the Steps” mean to you?