Well it finally has come to the surface. China is too expensive. Hold your hat. Can you believe it. American Eagle and other retailers have found that their production costs are too expensive and so now they must find cheaper labor which can be found in Cambodia and Vietnam, according to the WSJ. Think of Apocalypse Now, the movie and how both those countries played such a huge role in that war and now they are an opportunity to make cheap stuff. I’m sure our veterans are proud. I have always said that when we are done with China, we will find another country to take advantage of. When we are done with SE Asia, I am sure we can find another poor country such as that in Africa to take over.  Then read further into the WSJ to find that Chrysler is looking to lay off more and not just because no one is buying cars. They want to make room for more entry level jobs. Boy does it suck if you are over 40 years old. Now job sites are requesting no more than two jobs after college aka, the old need not apply. Friends we are going South here. The young will love their new entry level job, since they do not care about the future and live in the “now” and further, they will have to pay more into the system to take care of the unemployed 40 year old guy they just replaced. How ironic is that.

Well one of the issues as a writer we seem struggle with is better communication. Sometimes we just hit writers block or we want to draw in more customers to our site but yet we still need help in content development. I went looking for better communication skills and found communicatebetter.org. They offer great packages for bloggers at very reasonable prices. Of course, the first place I check on their site was their Customer Testimonials. I found great reviews asserting their professionalism, prompt production schedule, great writing style and that they stick with price that was agreed upon. They are very proud that they have two hundred third party verified reviews of which all have 100% satisfaction! Now that is well worth my investment for my blog, which I am ready to take to the next level. I like the packages they have put together which are at great rates. I found the Blogging Package #2 probably the best for me at this time. It includes five new 400 word articles a week for one month at $349 and on any topic I choose. Next, I enjoyed their recent article on 3 ways to develop customer loyalty with content development. Sometimes as a writer you forget that you must keep up a loyal base to be sound patrons of your craft and that where commmunicatebetter.org comes in. They will make a great change in my blogging.

Now I dont want you to forget but the Moonflower family has not yet died off. In fact we still find them roaming today. Oh yes, they did yet dawn long ago the long flower power skirts and shirts, beckoning the call of a musical muddy pit before multiple bands in upstate New York, NY but they did not go away. Life of no consequences to your actions, live and love let everything go wow what a time. I can not help but notice that they have traded in the VW van and peace signs for the SUV and the dollar sign. By some twist of fate they merged with Jones by marriage or did the Jones evolve from these very people who never lived by the rules but now make them and sit at the front of the table of the Grant family. Can my head swirl more. My simpleton Smith family looking for whom we should listen to and who will lead us.

I very good friend of mine has decided that with the new economy, it is time to make a move in career and in location. He found out that Virginia is the place to be for new opportunities especially around the Chesterfield, VA area which is very close to Richmond, VA. He was trying to find out where to find Chesterfield Homes since there are so many websites to choose from. That is when I found Chesterfield Homes.com. I did not know much about the area, and what makes the site so nice is that is more than just a list of MLS homes like we always see online. Instead, they have several pages dedicated to the demographics, geography, climate, history and attractions. If you love history like I do, you will love the Civil War and Jamestown historical sites. Anyway, my friend needs a home he can afford. The site has an easy to use mortgage calculator where you can plug in an interest rate see the payment but also see just how much interest you will pay over the life of the loan, something we all should remember these days. Finally, what he really liked was the interactive maps to find where he should live along with an area school guide because the family needs to be close to the best schools for all there children. I’m jealous that I’m not moving there.

The Grant family have been a part of the neighborhood for sometime now. They say they were once backed up in Gold and could never fail. Perhaps that is why the Gold Rush took such a strong hold on so many citizens, so many years ago. Even Custer took to the Badlands of South Dakota in search of Gold. Now, they say that standard is gone. Yet still the change in the times of the Cold War were swirling around me and knew not who to look to, the Grants, The Smiths or the Jones. Father did not say who to find. For some reason in school I only saw the Jones family. They always seemed to where just the right clothes, listened to the right music and drove just the right car. I was not one of these people. How did I know? I was reminded daily that I was not to sit in the row of the Jones family. I was to sit over there with Smith. All we had were the 501 jeans and beat up used cars to show for our wealth. It was so silly if you really think of it. Yet just another example of the pecking order we humans create.

One of the more difficult products we will buy are announcements for babies, business and weddings etc. I know that we have to make a baby announcement for a relative and of course its time to already think about graduation announcements too. I went out looking for help and found www.vistaprint.com. I love this site. I know my nephew is graduating soon so I walked through the process. Here I clicked on the Select Design button, which then took me another page where I fill out the necessary information, click approval and I am done. They make it so easy and have pages of designs to choose from! I can even upload a photograph to include in the announcement. How vistaprint.com really stands out in my opinion is their Creative Services. Here you can use their professional designers and copywriters. These guys can even create a website for you! Another favorite option is the Free Logo Design. Simply type in the name of your company or whatever you are creating, they will then immediately pop up some ideas based on what is most popular or related to your industry etc. I am not the most creative guy in the world, so using a site like this will save me time and money because they have already done the leg work or will do it for me.

Now the Smith family was not mine but looking back it could have been. They spent much of their time chasing the Grants and never seeming to find them. It was an allusive goal because the finish line changed by the season. The Grants did not own anything, but the Jones family did and seemed to have the Grants backing. Our little Smith family could see the Jones family from the front door, up on the hills with a very nice cars in the driveways. I did not care too much for the car, but their cable television stood out as a must have! For some reason, we could not become close enough to the Grant family and only those of privilege and luck could. Our father worked very hard with very irregular hours, that it took a calender with lines from 3 different colored pencils to keep it straight. I knew that red was graveyard, blue was swing and green was day shift. No one else at school had heard of it much less lived a unpredictable yet ironically, very predicable lifestyle. I always knew when dad was at work, at what time and what time he would be home. I did not know how the days would go because it would depend so much on my poor father’s strength who would run the shift work rotating every week and every month would run a complete cycle. It was our normal, but not normal at all. The Grants did not care, however, they did not seem to do all the favors for the blue collar family as for the while collar family next door and their new mazda rx7 who had much of the Grants favor.

I was just informed that a close friend of the family is not suffering from heart disease. I went out the web to find more information on heart issues such as irregular heart beat and found great information at www.heartlibrary.com. I was so impressed because it was St Jude Medical who has produced this site, who are a leader in heart disease. This website is full of educational videos, presented by real doctors and with detailed information you need along with visual aids to help describe the specific condition you are researching. The target audience is regular people like you and me, so the doctors speak in layman’s terms to help us understand the intricacies of the heart. It is a very well laid out site, with good patient feedback stories, FAQs and a doctor finder. This is a must see if you or if know someone who has heart disease!

Introducing the Grant family. I was very young, well a teenager, when I first came to learn of the Grants in the neighborhood. We never really knew them deeply, just that so many neighbors wanted to know them better and better. They were the talk of the town and so it seemed, the talk of the nightly news. “Tear down this wall Mr Gorbachev” was exclaimed on the television from our great leader President Reagan and next the finish of the stock market and finally, “that’s the way it is and good night.” The pressure cooker is heard simmering ready to give way at any time and the sound of ice hits the bottom of the glasses, now I know that dinner time has come and the news will be switched on and again three times each half hour for all we knew was network news and the Grant family.

The Grants never moved. The family was mentioned at the dinner table as ruining our lives yet we needed to know them better to survive. It seemed all so crazy. They said it was a decade of decadence and overabundance of the self. The Grants wanted to be a part of family and we were told they would come, but at a trickle.

I have recently began shopping for some new furniture for my home.  One piece that I really like and need are new storage beds which can be found at a very nice website www.furniturefromhome.com Their furniture is just amazing and is not the cheap stuff that we find far too often. You immediately see very nice images of a great product including living room furniture and bedroom furniture. In fact, they include free white glove delivery on their beds and bedroom sets! I just love the dark wood finish on these sets. The website is well laid out, easy to use and most important for me are the images so I can get a good idea what the furniture will look like in my home. I think you will be just as impressed as I was!