GRANDSTAN

2010-10-25T09:57:00.001-04:00

HOW TO GET A JOB, WHY SHOULD I HIRE YOU?

2009-09-10T19:16:00.002-04:00

If you are trying to get a job in construction please read the last post and also this one! I started doing small jobs in school and by the time I was 15 I had a crew of 6, a new truck and a driver. That was over 40 years ago and the tips I have learned over the years still work!

These tips are no fun, but that is why it is called a job, not a vacation! THERE ARE NO EXCUSES OR REASONS ONLY RESULTS!

Sunday is a day of rest! Give the beer and other partying a rest too. This is very important, I can spot a hungover pot head at 50 feet and I can probably make a good guess how many beers you had yesterday, and whether you got high. Do you want to bet your job on it? I'll win, I always win, I'm the boss. I can drug test anybody for any reason, or just pass you up and hire somebody else.

5 AM Monday morning wake up, shower, shave, brush teeth, brush hair, put on neat, clean clothes, they do not have to be new, but dress for success! NO SHORTS! NO T-SHIRTS! Boots, long pants or jeans, a shirt with no sayings. BE PREPARED TO WORK! Act professional, Look professional, smell professional, be professional!

6 AM be looking for coffee shops with construction trucks in front, you should know what they look like! Vans and pick-ups with roof racks. Have a small pad of paper and a pen when you go inside. Don't be shy! Don't be aggressive or hyper either! Talk to the people inside, ask if anybody is hiring or where they are. Be friendly, not pushy, you want to be nice and respectful! If no luck at this place go to the next one. If you can, leave your name and phone number with a few of the guys.

7:30 AM Look for construction sites, ask if they are hiring, put in applications. Please make sure that they might need you. If they are moving furniture in they probably don't need a concrete man. If they are pouring footings, they won't want a painter.

Do not limit yourself to just one trade, most of the time all I want is a worker who does what I tell him to. If you are good I WILL FIGURE IT OUT! You will watched and noticed whether for good or bad. Be well rounded in your skills. Be a do it all, but be honest. If you don't like heights, say so. I don't like hanging off of 7 story buildings either. That's what I hire other people for.

DO NOT LET YOUR PRIDE GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR JOB! It all pays, I have done it all and still do it all. I have been the super on $200 million jobs and when the concrete guys or plumbers need help I can still run a shovel or finish! I even had to walk the owners dog and fill his car with gas. IT ALL PAYS THE SAME! If you need help, ASK!

If you are not successful on Monday, try again on Tues, Be persistent but not pushy.

GOOD LUCK AND BE SAFE!

HOW TO GET AND KEEP A JOB.

2009-08-16T11:24:00.003-04:00

This is about construction jobs, but most of it applies to any job. What makes me an expert? I have had over 40 years exp. as a foreman, contractor, superintendent.

First-- Appearance! Yes it counts a lot! If you show up wearing gang colors with your pants around your knees, you are not getting a job!
Dress neatly, cleanly, do not wear a T-shirt. Wear full length pants, and a plain shirt without sayings or slogans on it. Dress like a pro, you may become one!
Take a bath! Shave! Brush your teeth! Get a haircut! You might get a real job! Nobody wants to interview or work with a nasty stinky person.
Dress appropriately!
Be bright eyed and bushy-tailed, do not show up with red eyes and a hangover. Don't be under the influence of anything, except maybe coffee.

Second, actions! I am not BOSSMAN, HOMEY, BRO, DUDE, or anything but SIR or MISTER until you have been around for awhile, maybe never.
I am doing you a favor hiring you, you are not doing me a favor working for me, always remember that!
I DO NOT CARE about what you do after work! DO NOT LET YOUR LIFE INTRUDE IN MY WORKPLACE! If you absolutely have to take the baby to the doctor, see your parole officer, or whatever, Please tell me as soon as possible, I understand you have a life, and I have a heart and family too! BUT remember that as far as I am concerned, IF YOU ARE NOT ON THE JOB, I don't need you! I CAN GET SOMEBODY ELSE. The job will be completed with or without you.

No phone calls, no visits, no yelling, no selling, no smelling. You are here to work not socialize.

I want to work with these people:

NOT THESE:

BE NICE,NEAT CLEAN, AND COMPLETE, ON TIME, ON THE LINE AND MAYBE YOU WILL BE MINE! above all stay safe!

SHAME ON LIQUIDATION.COM - SHAMEFUL SERVICE- WRONG PRODUCTS- POOR CUSTOMER RELATIONS

2009-07-11T12:37:00.001-04:00

We recently won a bid at Liquidation.com of merchandise that when received was not from the same category that it was ordered from. A simple mislabeling of the product. If somebody would of looked in the box,maybe not even happen. Simple mistake.
I opened up a dispute and sent pictures, over a week later they ask for more pictures, no problem ,I sent them the next day, even though it took them over a week to look at 3 pictures, I don't know maybe they were studying them real good.
A day later I get an email saying that I was too slow sending them the pictures and the dispute was denied.

BASICALLY LIQUIDATION.COM SAID F*** Y** WE GOT YOUR MONEY AND WE DON'T CARE IF OUR F**-UPS COST YOU MONEY - TOO BAD SUCKER.

So I am out $400 and have a house full of junk I have to store for evidence for a lawsuit.

What are your experiences with this company?

Free EBAY photo hosting! WHATEVER you want!

2009-06-13T16:17:00.003-04:00

You can use PICASA from GOOGLE to host your EBAY or other site pictures! Over a gigabyte of picture storage,NO CHARGE! You can store your EBAY pictures on PICASA and your personal pictures on WINDOWS LIVE PHOTOS where you have a huge 25 gigs of storage and can share with anybody but not link or embed.
Now that AUCTIVA has to charge for their services due to an EBAY policy change, I've been looking for another way to list.
FREE PICASA and the free EBAY TURBO LISTER 2 are what I am trying out for now and they seem to be the way to go.
It is not as easy, but it is FREE! upload the picture to picasa, click on the picture, the links are on the right. Copy and paste where you want. NICE NEAT CLEAN COMPLETE! all done NO FEES!

Tell us what you think in the comments.

LIQUIDATION.COM - GOOD OR BAD?

2009-05-28T20:22:00.000-04:00

Liquidation.com, what do you think about that company? Have you used bid on their auctions? I have participated in a few, they auction part seems fair and reasonable. I like the 3 minute extensions that keeps it fair, no sniping!
The web site is simple and easy to follow, plain and solid, I like the way it works.
The selection is pretty broad and is from new to salvage, trucks to computer parts. just about anything can be found here. I keep looking for Brittney Spears to come up on a salvage auction, but fortunately not yet!
The pricing seems fair for the most part, some of the sellers need a reality check, when you add the $40.25 minimum s&h charge their product are sometimes priced at or above retail! But WE are supposed to be smarter than that!
The main complaint I have about this company is their packing! It looks like it was done by untrained chimps! just thrown in the box, like you empty a trash can, no attempt at all to put heavy articles on the bottom! I mean look at the auction pictures of some of the boxes! No respect for the items you are going to spend $100's if not $1000's on, its like it's trash to them. When it arrives the UPS guy complains because the boxes break and they look like deflated brown beach balls instead of boxes!
The shipping is fast, reasonable, and well tracked.
Overall, if they would train the packers to respect the merchandise, this would be a good place to bid!

SIMPLEX? OR IS IT WAY TOO COMPLICATED?

2009-05-28T08:19:00.003-04:00

What do you think of SIMPLEX? Did you pay the $19.95, just to get a phone call? It costs $19.95 plus $150.00 and a monthly fee of almost $50 just to get some prices to compare and then you just get a little list. It costs $500+ to get the big list plus a monthly fee.
Is it worth the gamble to just throw money in the dark hoping that it is competitive? Almost $220.00 before you can even compare what they have!
I think Simplex is too complicated and risky.

BUY LADY A BONE!

2009-05-11T00:13:00.001-04:00

LADY DOLLARKEEPER WANTS MORE KIBBLE!

Lady DOLLARKEEPER Is Getting OLD!

2009-05-10T23:07:00.002-04:00

Little old Lady Dollarkeeper is getting old!, She is over 19 years old in real years! She hasn't been doing real well in the past year or so. Arthritis is getting bad, hearing is gone, sight not to well, a few bald spots, but of course that could be me that's describing too! This old dog and I have been through a lot. She worked construction with me for 15 years, then one day when I called her to go to work she came out of the bedroom looked at me and hung her head and went back. Retired just like that! I wish I could do that, but I have to go to work every do to pay for her and the other one and the house notes.
Well enough about me! If you ever want a good DOG or CAT go to the shelter, I could not of asked or prayed for a better freind than little old lady dog, and she came from the Humaine society

TAX RETURN?

2009-05-04T15:02:00.001-04:00

What are you doing with your tax return?

Gonna spend it?

Invest it?

Buy for resale?

feed it to the dog?

Send it to me?

WHATCHA GONNA DO WHEN IT COMES TO YOU?

AUCTION SITES!

2009-05-02T22:22:00.002-04:00

What are your favorite auction sites?
EBAY?
ATOMIC MALL
AMAZON?
Do you do surplus and government auctions?
do you sell at auctions?

LIQUIDATION LIST: Welcome liquidators!!

2009-04-14T19:21:00.004-04:00

LIQUIDATION LIST: Welcome liquidators!!

BACK!!!

2009-04-14T19:21:00.003-04:00

Sorry that I have been ignoring ya'll, but have been busy with other projects. I am still trying to setup eBay stuff! there is a link below that hopefully in the future will be able to help us all to become financially independent!

VALENTINES LETTER TO THE US GOVERNMENT!

2008-02-14T10:58:00.001-05:00

So, today is Valentines day and I am going to write a valentines note to the US Government and the state of Tennessee! We love you both !

So, we know you are trying to take care of us, "we the children" and all. Lately you have imposed some regulations that are having a profound affect upon our lives. I know that the thought was maybe right after 9/11, but the actions are very hurtful to some of the very people you are trying to protect! A person I know has been personally and financially devastated by your actions. This persons father was a career military man who served for over 23 years. In the 60's he was stationed in England where he and his wife (also a US citizen ) had a child. Every thing was fine and dandy for a while. They moved here and there, wherever the military told them to go. The child had 2 birth certificates, one US Department of State, one English. When this child reached 12 years of age automatically he received full US Citizenship. A Good Time was had by all! Well life went on just like always, things get lost, things get destroyed accidentally, people die, thats the way life is! Well, one thing survived the Chaos of life, a copy of the Department of state birth certificate, not an original, a copy. This was just fine, worked great, got Drivers Licenses, ID, all was legal. Life was good until 9/11 and the Great Mexican Invasion Scare.

Everything was just fine until an interstate move and attempting to get a Tennessee drivers license. Upon presenting the copy of the birth certificate to the drivers services person, he was told he needed an original birth certificate and a Green Card to show legal citizenship. A Green Card for a US citizen? They took the out-of-state Drivers License and cut it in half and threw it away. They said that without a Green Card he couldn't get a drivers licence or State ID!

He then tries the US Department of State, a phone call gets the message of a two week wait on hold before an operator can assist you. Two weeks on hold? So a letter is in order perhaps? Copies of the birth certificate are made, letters are written, checks are wrote, all are mailed in. A month later it is all mailed back. "No Birth Certificates without valid state picture ID". Then back to the drivers services office. "NO GREEN CARD, NO ID" Since he is a US citizen he can't get a Green Card. He can't get an original Birth Certificate without ID, can't get ID without an original Birth Certificate, can't go to the Drivers Services without being called an "Illegal Alien". A perfect "CATCH-22".

No ID, no drivers licence, no birth certificate. On top of all of that he has been told that the Government Warehouse that the Birth Certificate was probably stored burned in 1973. No ID, can't cash checks, no licence can't drive, can't prove citizenship can't get a job, can't file for unemployment without ID. All because the father was a career US military man, his son can't have a life! Is this the way that they reward patriots? Punish their children? Isn't the burden of proof on the state? He has been accused of being an "illegal Alien" without a trial! A sentence of no ID, no job, no driving, no benefits, the possibility of deportation to a country that he doesn't remember! I'm sure England is a great country, but a US citizen would be lost there! Is this right? I don't think so! What do you think?

Times, They are a-changin!

2008-02-12T17:58:00.001-05:00

I am glad to hear from ya'll that youn's like Squirrel and my Fuzzy Family! Well most of you liked them, I did read one complaint on Entrecard that this was supposed to be a money-saving blog, not about my dog and they won't be coming back! Good! It does say we'll have some fun along the way, and if they can't, BYE. I do like Entrecard, I cruise it every day. Great people, great site! I highly recommend joining!

I bet youn's wonderin what the misspellins about. Actually, I can spell very well and spell check helps, but I live way up in the mountains of east Tennessee and that be's da way they talk round heah, whatcha allow? I've always liked dialect, accents and stuff. I've been moving most of my life, from England to Hawaii to Minnesota to Mississippi. I was an Air Force brat, and moved a lot since then.

Squirrel is from a very old local family, part Cherokee, they've been in these hills forever. I live about 10 miles from where Dolly Parton grew up, and about 20 miles from the area that the book and TV show "CHRISTIE" was about. I've been to both places, I love the mountains! Also about 20 miles away is the famous "Thunder Road" But it is blocked with traffic most of the time! Yes the old ways that they make fun of on TV still exist, but I've met these people, there are none better! Squirrels accent is very pronounced, but it's beautiful, just like her.

Being an old construction foreman, of course I like my beer and Red-neck bars. I've been to hundred's , so has Squirrel. One Sunday she and I were riding around in my fairly new Jeep Grand Cherokee with my fuzzy little dog, I'm wearing slacks , loafers and a dress shirt. Squirrel says "I'm thirsty, you want a beer?" Of course, she doesn't have to ask me twice! She says there's a tavern over yonder way, let's go there. So, we pull down this long, rutted, dirt road in my purple Jeep, (with the fuzzy little dog) and pull up in a parking lot. There is about 6 pickup trucks parked there, between them there is 4 German Shepard's and 3 pit bulls and about 25 colors of primer (thats' including what is on the 2 flat tires). Hmm, My Jeep sure don't fit in with these vehicles, and neither does little old fuzzy Lady. We walk up to the front door and 4 guy's with tattooed, shaven heads and wearing nothing but overalls walk out. Did I mention that at that time my hair was down to the middle of my back and my dress shirt was a pastel pink silk one? One of them says to Squirrel " hey cuz!" and walks on by. I m a little concerned that I am not dressed appropriately for this occasion. When I mention this to Squirrel she says " If youn's skeered, youn's kin jump in mah pocket"

Well, we made it this far, lets do this! I got bail! I "m not skeerd. When we went inside I was surprised! this was a nice, big place. It was clean, well decorated, cool, ( it was the middle of August) and the beer was cheap and cold. After a couple it was time to go home, it was getting dark. Well, we head out into the parking lot and guess what? The bald guys are still out there changing one of the flats and trying to get one of the newer trucks started ( a 77 Chevy). I'm thinking," Give me 2 steps mister, just give me 2 steps towards my door" Squirrel says "Cuz, youn's havin trouble?" "Yeup" "Whatccha needin?" "Battry wires" "We gots' some." So, I proceed to jump off their truck. While this is going on we get to talking, one of them used to work for me. With as much as 400 workers and subcontractors it's hard to remember them all. After about 20 minutes the truck finally starts. The biggest topic of discussion is Lady. "whut kinda dawg iz that?" Since even I don't know, I always answer "a little old gray one" I know a smartass to the end! These guys were nice, polite and invited us in for another beer while the truck charged up!

Since then I have been there several times, and have had good experiences every occasion. These are hard working people and are fun to be around. I just had to remember to not stereotype people, Just had to remember, most folks is good folks. This area of the country is rapidly changing and the old ways are going very fast. Land that was less than $1000 an acre 10 years ago is now $15,000 and up. On our drives up in the mountains we see multi million dollar houses sitting next to 30 year old trailers. Everywhere I go I see new roads being cut in, the old trees cut down, the old homesteads burnt. Cocke county is still trying to hold on to the old ways, but it won't for long. Within 50 miles of my house there is over 10 Billion dollars worth of construction going on right now. These old mountains are rapidly changing, They're leveling them out in Sevierville right now. Last summer I was driving down a state highway and there was 5 or 6 huge new motorhomes stopped in the road. I start around them slow thinking maybe a wreck or something. No, it was a turkey standing by the road. All these motorhomes stopped traffic on a main local highway to take pictures of a turkey! Well I've rambled on enough about Tennessee and not about saving money.

P.S. I'm writing this wearing overalls and running my fingers through my crew cut!

And By Popular Demand! Lady and Friends

2008-02-10T21:10:00.000-05:00

A few pictures of Lady and her fuzzy buddies

Lady and Her Dollar!

SNIFF
COTTON
Well, as requested, a few more pictures of Lady! I figured her cat buddies deserved to have some pictures too! Sniff is a nice kitty, Cotton is EVIL KITTY! I would post a few more but PICASA and LINUX are not very compatible. Since I am watching a re-run of MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE with Squirrel, I'm on my laptop running Ubuntu 7.10. Later I'll see if we can get more pictures off of my XP desktop. I glad to see Lady has FANS! Maybe she should have her own Blog!

Squirrel and I were talking about the movie (Maximum Overdrive) and I just realized that according to the Mayans and their calendar this is supposed to really happen at ( I think) 10:31 am Dec. 21, 2012. They believed that mans tools would rise up against us and end the world! This would be the 5th time! Maybe Stephan King is a prophet, maybe not! We'll find out in less than 5 years!

THE GREATEST DOG IN THE WORLD!

2008-02-08T17:05:00.000-05:00

Lady Dollarkeeper has been getting some fan mail! We'll answer a few questions right out here in the open, so the rest of you don't have to go to the comments forum. Which, by the way you are more than welcome to do, please leave comments if you wish!

Almost 17 years ago, my Grandmother said "Let's go for a ride". Grandma got what Grandma wanted, so we went for a ride! We at that time lived in Gulfport Ms. Grandma kept saying "turn here, turn there, go that way". Well, we ended up at the Harrison County Humane Society. She said "let's go in and look around". Grandma got what Grandma wanted, so we went inside!

I thought she might want a cat or a dog for herself, even though she said at over 80 she didn't want any pets. So, we're looking at the cats and dogs, kittens and puppies, just checking things out. I wander up front where they have a kitten corral and a puppy pen. I might be a construction foreman, but I am not ashamed to admit I like puppies and kittens! As I wander around the puppy pen, they are all wrestling in a pile, all but 2 little gray puppies, one was all tuckered out and the other was following me around from the inside of the pen. About that time, the 20 puppy fight moves towards us and on top of this little one. She fought and clawed her way to the top and came back to me! I thought this was cute! Reaching down and picking her up, I here Grandma behind me say "You have a puppy". I laughed and said "no, I don't want a puppy, I don't have time for a puppy". She said "NO, YOU HAVE A PUPPY". Well as you know Grandma got what Grandma wanted, so I said to myself, I guess I got a puppy now.

That was a lot of years, miles, moves and experiences ago. She has been on every construction job I have been on since then. A faithful truck dog, a frequent flier for a few years! She patrolled my jobsite and made friends all over the country until about 2 years ago. One morning when I was leaving for work, I said "come on, lets go!" and she looked at me, put her head down and went back in the bedroom. That was the day she retired from construction and became a house dog! Even tough she is pretty deaf and partially blind, she still patrols the property and house keeping the cats in line and away from her toys! It was a sight to see last week when she chased 3 german shepards out of her yard! Even at 25 pounds, she is still the "alpha" female around her place!

So, the "GREATEST DOG IN THE WORLD" (at least I think so!) came from the pound! Please, if you are looking for a fantastic pet, give the little ones a chance, if you don't, they don't have a chance, millions are put down every year!

SUPPORT THE AMERICAN HUMANE SOCIETY

MORE TRAFFIC!! BETTER TRAFFIC!!

2008-02-05T20:47:00.000-05:00

I hope you liked my entries on EBAY and GOOGLE! May the wealth of a thousand websites flow down upon you! Speaking of websites, my traffic has increased since I joined ENTRECARD my traffic has gone up a bit, and the whole world is reading. The viewers are from everywhere from the Philipenes to Romania to Canada. The visits are fairly good, avg. 1.25 pages and 1.55 minutes with about 25% new visits. Some of you have been here lots of times!

Many thanks to Ohio Real Estate one of our biggest readers! Also many more thanks to Reality is over rated, A FishBlog, Fantasy Baseball and many others! You're all great and your traffic is welcomed, even you cruisers who don't read just sail on by. If I can get the cruisers to sit for 3 seconds maybe I can make a penny off of PPP. I hope it doesn't run you regular readers off!

FREE HR BLOCK TAX PREPARATION!

2008-02-03T23:53:00.001-05:00

Heres a good link for you to get your taxes done for free! HR BLOCK FREE FILE! You get free E-FILING too! This program also allows itemized deductions, This is only for federal filing, but, you can pay for state and have it done. I'm lucky, the great state of TENNESSEE doesn't have state income taxes!

MAKE MONEY ON EVERY PAGE VIEW!

2008-02-03T23:08:00.000-05:00

Theres a new way to make advertising money around now, Pay Per Play. The way it works is that every time a person navigates to your page a 5 second audio ad plays. No clicking, it's all automatic! It will be something like a radio ad. You won't hear one on every page it's on, they will not play more than once every three minutes, and then only if you refresh or change pages. It will pay into your PAYPAL account every week or $25, whichever takes longer. Some of you with more traffic could make some real money. This might be the future of the internet and a way for you to make a little more money off your webpage!

PAY PER PLAY! MAKE MY DAY!

THE GOOGLE PART! pt5

2008-02-01T23:30:00.000-05:00

So, onward to the GOOGLE part of the equation. This won't make a lot of money, but pennies do add up! You should have your Ebay.com account all set up now with your PAYPAL account. I hope you signed up for the EBAY CASH BACK too!

Now to go online and advertise. Start your blog on GMAIL and BLOGGER about your product, your SUSHI supplies or whatever your "niche" is. Write about your product, tell everybody how to and where to get the supplies (your EBAY store!). You need to set up an PAYPAL seller account also so you can sell on your own site. You can set up a shopping cart or even a donate button. It's simple to cut and paste the code into BLOGGER. Highlight the code at PAYPAL code, copy, then go to your blogs template click on "add a page element" "html, javascript" and paste and save changes. Then you can drag and drop your code where you want. Simple, you CAN do this! While your in the "add a page element" page I hope you noticed the rest of the options there, especially the ADSENSE option. This is how you can put ads on your site, a way to make a few pennies. You can get it here also. You can have it set where you don't advertise your competitors wares. Other nice free GOOGLE services are ANALYTICS and WEBMASTER TOOLS . A good way to drive traffic to your site is ADWORDS, the other side of ADSENSE. This is where you can buy advertising space on other websites. When you first sign up GOOGLE will want you to spend $50 a month on your ads, go ahead and click it to get started. After you get your account set up you can change it to whatever you want to spend on ads per month, $5 or whatever.

While we are on the subject of advertising, you can set up your own Ebay.com links to make yourself a few dollars! All you have to do is sign up on COMMISSION JUNCTION. Once you are approved you can copy and paste to your hearts content! I hope you make a fortune on EBAY and GOOGLE and don't forget LADY DOLLARKEEPER!

HERE IS A LIST OF THE LINKS

GRANDSTAN

GMAIL

Ebay.com

EBAY CASH Back!

AUCTIVA

GOODWILL

SALVATION ARMY

craigslist

Treasury dept

ALIBABA

U.S.P.S. priority mail

FEDEX

UPS

PAYPAL seller

ADSENSE

ANALYTICS

WEBMASTER TOOLS

ADWORDS

COMMISSION JUNCTION

GOOD LUCK !

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON GOOGLE AND EBAY! pt.4

2008-01-29T15:49:00.000-05:00

I hope that this will be a shorter post, the last one was a little long! I am going to post about ebay.com shipping ,this is rather simple. The simplest thing is to use EBAY'S shipping wizard. If you have a computer with a printer and PAYPAL, it's really easy.

The service I use is U.S.P.S. priority mail. it's the most convenient way for most small packages, flat rate up to almost 80 lbs. You can get free boxes and large envelopes delivered to your door too! Larger packages you can use FEDEX or UPS, your choice.

Now what to charge to send this package out if it sells? Well a large priority mail box costs $8.95 or less to send. You need to include a handling charge, tape and supplies do add up. There has been a lot of discussion on EBAY about excessive shipping fees lately. Your item can be removed if somebody complains. So, how do you figure out the best balance between profit and gouging? That is simple, in the last chapter we talked about the completed listing search, just charge the same or less than average. Do the search, some items ship for a lot more than others, even if the packaging is the same! For instance, most LAPTOP COMPUTERS will ship in the large U.S.P.S. box. When you do your search the average shipping cost is $25.00, you can make about $16.00 profit on these on the shipping alone! You can even arrange for pickup here

Now on the question of insurance. Did you get your AUCTIVA account? Use theirs, they'll give you a small percentage back if you specify one. I always list it as an option on my sales. If you're selling a high dollar item I would make it a requirement.

Don't forget feedback! Feedback is important to Ebay.com users, the buyer usually posts first, but sometimes the seller does. If you have problems, try to work them out in Emails first. No Feedback is better than negative, but not much. For major problems Ebay has a dispute service. If you used PAYPAL the process is much easier. Remember, nobody is perfect, (except LADY DOLLARKEEPER!) mistakes get made. Try to resolve them with a smile:). Don't flame people in feedback without giving them a chance to resolve the problem. I know I read peoples feedback whether I'm buying or selling. I always keep in mind that some people like to be "Flaming Assholes". Some people if you give them a gold brick they would bitch it was too heavy and you gave it to them to throw their back out.

Thats enough for now.

NEXT: Making a few pennies with GOOGLE

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON GOOGLE AND EBAY! pt.3

2008-01-27T18:34:00.001-05:00

Today as promised, WHAT TO SELL ON Ebay.com!!!YEAH!! YAY!! I'll try to not to get too excited, I'm old, might have a stroke or something!!

The first place is your old, unused stuff around the house, I know, DUH, thats obvious, but you would be surprised! I have sold a few old computers, but I didn't get much for them. They were old and out of date, like me.Try your old books, antique electronics, old comic books, one girl in ENGLAND sold her VIRGINITY! I wouldn't go that far. I found an old, really rusty cast iron toy house in a shed I tore down. It sold for more than I thought.

AS ALWAYS, NICE, NEAT, CLEAN, AND COMPLETE!
Please, be truthful in your descriptions, take lots of pictures. ebay.com charges for pictures, but you can use a hosting company. I use AUCTIVA , They are free, and easy to use, lots of options. You can even set up your own store there. Your average listing fees for small items will just be a dollar or two, maybe less, if it sells, a small percentage of the selling price. When you buy you can use my EBAY CASH BACK! It will get you some of the listing and percentage fees back.

Now, where to find things after you have sold everything in the house. I'm not promising that you will find any virginity to sell. Here are the places that the people on ebay.com are charging for in their E-BOOKS! I'm going to give it to you. You can Thank me by using my ebay.com links.

#1 Your closet

#2 GOODWILL

#3 SALVATION ARMY

#4 FLEA MARKETS

#5 YARD SALES

#6 ALL YOUR LOCAL PAPERS, classifieds, you can get free stuff here too.

#7 THRIFT STORES

#8 craigslist , look up your locality, and check it out, make sure you look under "free".

#9 Your friends, (if you have any!)

#10 Real, onsite AUCTIONS! Government and estate auctions. I love auctions, before my hearing went bad, this was a lot of fun. A great way to spend a day.

#11 Figure out a "niche" product that you like. If you like Sushi, sell Sushi supplies, become a Sushi expert, write and sell Sushi E-books, have a Sushi blog. The list is endless.

Now, I bet you want to know how to price things, both buying and selling. Personally, with over 30 years of buying and selling stuff at auctions and pawnshops and places other than ebay.com, I know fairly close what prices are. YOU can can learn this too. Start looking, check things out, you don't have to buy just yet. Start checking out the prices of things that you like, at first you are just shopping for knowledge. As they say Thats Priceless!!

Now, what can you get for these items on ebay.com? There is a way to check! Do a search for your item on ebay.com. First look at the ACTIVE LISTINGS, to see what people want for this item. WAIT! YOU"RE NOT FINISHED YET! On the left there is a brown search box. About 2/3 of the way down there is a check box that says COMPLETED LISTINGS, check it and then the button on the bottom. Now you have the listings that are finished! This list will tell you what the item sold for, and the RED listings are the items that didn't sell.

I bet you didn't find the prices you were looking for, did you? If this was easy I'd be a millionaire! DON'T GIVE UP, KEEP TRYING! The more you try, the more experience you'll get, the more you'll learn! Not everybody will make it, but if you don't try, you won't succeed!

Don't forget to include shipping in your calculations!

WE'RE NOT FINISHED YET! Guess what? If the prices on EBAY were lower than your prices locally, you can buy on EBAY and sell locally. YES! You can do the REVERSE EBAY! I've done this. I've bought power tools on EBAY and sold them at my construction site. I've made $25 and more doing this. On a single sale! This is a way to find your "niche", sell EBAY finds at FLEA MARKETS and to your friends, if you have any that is !). I have an Indian friend that sells knives and Indian accessories at FLEA MARKETS and BARS. Yes I know it's kind of odd, an Indian selling knives in a bar, but he does it every night. He gets some of his stuff from ebay.com!

This isn't hard, you can do it! GOOD LUCK!!

NEXT: SHIPPING ON EBAY! NOT SO LOONG OF A POST.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON EBAY AND GOOGLE pt2

2008-01-27T00:49:00.000-05:00

How to get started on Ebay.com! Well first thing you want to do is get your PAYPAL account and get it VERIFIED. Whats this you say? Well this is the real world and people want to know that you really mean business. To be verified means that your account is linked to a bank account or a credit card. You also need to get your address confirmed. This all takes about a week. I trust PAYPAL, after all what does a billion dollar corporation want with my few dollars? Their reputation isn't perfect, but it is good and it's not worth it!

Now let's get started with Ebay.com! The first thing you need to do is make some purchases,but first sign up for EBAY CASH BACK!. You get some of the transaction fees back, and I get a referral fee! Make a few small purchases, like EBOOKS or some computer peripherals, maybe a HELLO KITTY mouse or something. You can start your search on the big EBAY LINK on the right also! You need a positive feedback score of at least 3 before some people will even sell to you! Whats feedback? Well, it's like this,I bought some software on EBAY, from a guy with a feedback rating of 6. It was supposed to be an original copy of MICROSOFT WINDOWS with key, what arrived was a FUJI cd with a number majic markered on it. TRASH, TOTAL TRASH! I emailed PAYPAL and they said they would investigate,in a few weeks they refunded every dime including the shipping. On another purchase of a replacement fan for my PANASONIC laptop from a seller with a rating of 5,000, I received a wire that went to who knows what. I emailed them they said "sorry" and overnighted me my part!

YOU have to be like the second seller! Just remember nobody is perfect, except LADY DOLLARKEEPER! KEEP IT NICE, NEAT, CLEAN AND COMPLETE! This is what online trading is all about, you have to build trust.

NEXT TIME I PROMISE,WE'LL GET INTO WHAT TO SELL, after you get your rating up!

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON EBAY AND GOOGLE pt.1

2008-01-23T14:44:00.000-05:00

Well, its time to start making money on the INTERNET! I have spent a lot of time researching this subject and now it's time to post my opinion on whats the best and whats not. A lot of you will ask who is this and what the hell does he know that I don't?? Well, I'm nobody, and you could probably find this out all this out on your own, given enough time, research, PATIENCE, and luck!
THIS IS FOR BEGINNERS, JUST A FEW TIPS AND TRICKS I LEARNED.

KEEP IT NICE, NEAT, CLEAN, AND COMPLETE!

#1 Get a GMAIL account, it's free and easy. It will help
you manage your GOOGLE accounts later on. You can
put them all on one account! Lot's of storage, over 6gb
now and rising! There are lots of things to use there,
GOOGLE DOCS is what I'm using to type this.

#2 While you have your GMAIL open, click on "more"
in the top toolbar. Click on "BLOGGER" and now you
can start your own BLOG, free! Two of my blogs are
GOOGLE blogs. I find them easy to use and you can
easily customize to get your unique look.
You can edit the HTML easily ( thats the code that
runs the page, for you that don't know this already ).
The basics of HTML are easy to learn, but don't mess
with it until you are sure what you are doing! Very easy
to put ADSENSE on it, you can do this! To see what
ADSENSE does click on one of my BLOG ads and
I'll make a penny or two!

#3 Sign up for Ebay.com, use the link on the right,
if you can't see it turn your AD-BLOCK off,
FLASH-BLOCK too! If you use my link I make
a commission that won't cost you a dime. I'll tell
you how in a later chapter. You can do this too!
Use your GMAIL address to keep things simple!

#4 While you're on Ebay.com sign up for PAYPAL
it's easy and it's safe! It's the safest and most used
way to transfer money online. While you're at it
you can donate to me if you like what I write :)
The button is at the right! You can do this too!
We'll get more into this later too.

ALL THIS IS EASY! I DID IT, I'M NO GENIUS!

Bookmark this page to come back for more chapters,
or just sign up for the feed at the bottom of the page!
feel free to link to my page!

NEXT: WHAT TO SELL ON Ebay.com

, AND HOW TO FIND IT!

EBAY SAVES THE DAY! (again!)

2008-01-22T16:29:00.000-05:00

About 20 years ago I purchased a
Kenmore sewing machine from GOODWILL.
I buy a lot of things there.
I needed a sewing machine because I
work construction and I'm hard on clothes!
Yes, I'm a guy and yes, I repair my
own clothes. I'm cheap! Well anyway,
I got this old machine and it was great!
All cast iron and brass, built to
last forever. The only thing wrong was
it only had one bobbin spool. It was a
different size than the usual ones.

I looked everywhere for years, even at
SEARS! NOT AVAILABLE! It was first
purchased in 1950, so parts are hard
to come by.

The other night I needed to mend a work
coat and I thought, why not try Ebay.com?
I posted on "WANT IT NOW" including the
model number and a description of what
I needed. Within an hour I had a response!
An EBAYER informed me that the last 3
numbers of the part number said it was
manufactured by WHITE SEWING MACHINE.

A search turns up 175 entries for them.
Browsing through the listings, I found
A machine that resembled mine and
bobbins that appeared to be identical.
16 bobbins $12+$8 shipping! I purchased
them through my "EBAY CASH BACK" link
to get some of the fees returned! Thanks
to Ebay.com my 58 year old sewing machine
is just as convenient to use as a new
one and should last me the rest of my
life. DOLLARKEEPING IS FUN!

THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS

2008-01-20T19:08:00.003-05:00

A long, long,time ago in a place far, far away
(southern Mississippi, 1975), there was a 15 year
old white boy. He was making enough money
mowing yards that when his Dad retired from the
Air Force that he would start a lawn care company.

Through hard work ( and the fact that his father
kept half his money for him) by the time he was
15 he had a brand new pick-up. He didn't have a
driver's license,but he had a bright, shiny, new
truck! Still mowing, but with a crew now,
his father hired a driver for him.

The man he hired was an 80 year old black man
who had uncommon knowledge, even for a man
of his age!He taught the young boy the
SECRET OF HAPPINESS.

One bright, sunny day they were going to
another job.On their way they passed some
people who didn't look like the average people
in Mississippi at the time.The boy, with the
wisdom of his age, (not much!),made a nasty
comment about their appearance and that
they should go back where they came from!

Then the old man uttered the words that are the
SECRET OF HAPPINESS.

"Is They Botherin You, Or Is You Botherin Youself?"

More profound words have Never been said! As you
may have guessed that boy was me, and the greatness
of that statement has echoed through out my life.

If more people asked themselves this question and
answered it honestly, and then acted on this,
the world might just be a little happier and less aggravating!

2008-01-18T22:21:00.000-05:00

One of the best spyware programs out there,the new version
SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY 1.5, has gone through a
nice change in it's graphical user interface (GUI)!
Now you can actually see the registry choice pop-up,
this makes it even easier to use. This new version features
a lot of improved detection mechanisms (which in parts were
already made available through the regular 1.4 updates in the
past months), improved Operating System support
(Windows Vista integration, restored support for Windows 95,
more compatibility with Wine, support for bootable Windows CDs),
improved browser support (e.g. for immunization) and much more!

They've also come up with a list of software they recommend.

Software

GnuPG

GnuPG is an OpenPGP compatible GNU
variant of PGP.

Mozilla

a fast and comfortable browser alternative
to IE.

Opera

a fast and comfortable browser alternative
to IE.

PGP international

(means Pretty Good Privacy) Encryption and
signing software. Integrates into Outlook Express,
Mozilla and other mailers. Spybot-S&D files
are signed with PGP signatures.

Proxomitron

This popup and ad blocker also works with
every browser. It has by far the most
configuration options, making it difficult
to control for newbies, but the perfect
tool for advanced users. Free.

WebWasher

A popup and ad blocker for Windows that
works with every browser (as a proxy).
Does also remove referrers, WebBugs, and
filters cookies. Free for private use. By Siemens.

GRANDSTAN LAND!

2008-01-16T18:50:00.001-05:00

TREE BORERS ARE KILLING THE EAST TENNESSEE TREES!

I live down there in the brown house with the blue FORD VAN!!

CHEAP PICTURE SLIDESHOW! FROM OLD COMPUTER

2008-01-15T01:10:00.001-05:00

A couple of years ago, SISTER TERESA gave me an old
DELL laptop that was in nice shape, but really too slow
to be of much use.
It's a DELL CP, 133mhz, 32mb ram, 20gb hard-drive.
It was even too slow for her daughter, GIRL-CHILD!!
You know the whole 12 year-old thing, HELLO KITTY blogs
and the latest fashions , boy bands and stuff,
no slow junk for GIRL-CHILD! She has a desktop for that.

So this little Dell laptop has pretty graphics, You know what
the saying is!
NICE, NEAT, CLEAN AND COMPLETE!
What to do? What to do? I could sell it on EBAY,
but I'd probably only get$10-$20 for it.
It was a gift and all, so what should I do with it?

Then while I was cruising EBAY and watching T.V.
one night my laptop went to screen saver. then it hit me!
I could make a picture show for SQUIRREL!
With a 20 gb hard-drive it could hold a lot of pictures!

Well this machine is somehow running WINDOWS XP PRO,
so I knew what to do and how to do it!

"START"

"CONTROL PANEL"

"APPEARANCE AND THEMES" or "DISPLAY,"
then "SCREEN SAVER."

"CHOOSE A SCREEN SAVER"

choose" MY PICTURES SLIDESHOW"

ADJUST TO WAIT 1 MINUTE

UNCHECK" on Resume, password protect"

in "SETTINGS",
"HOW OFTEN SHOULD PICTURES CHANGE",
--15 SECONDS (or what you want)

"HOW BIG SHOULD PICTURES BE?"
--100% OF THE SCREEN

"USE PICTURES IN THIS FOLDER:"
C:\Documents and Settings\(your account)\My documents\My Pictures
(MAKE SURE YOU EDIT YOUR PICTURE FOLDERS!!!!!!!)

"STRETCH SMALL PICTURES"

"SHOW FILE NAMES" if you want(I didn't)

I checked the "TRANSITION EFFECTS" button.

"ALLOW SCROLLING WITH KEYBOARD",
you can go back to see that picture again!

press "O.K."

Now you are on back on the Display Properties screen,
PRESS "POWER"

I set all the "PLUGGED IN" settings to 3 HOURS
(you choose)

I set all the "RUNNING ON BATTERIES"
settings to 5 MINUTES (again your choice).

press "O.K." and again press "O.K."---
YOU ARE NOW FINISHED WITH THIS PROJECT!!

You can do this with any computer,
even the one your reading this on!!

It doesn't have to be a dedicated "PICTURE SERVER".

THATS ALL IT TAKES! It's rather random,
mine likes GIRL-CHILD dressed as a witch!

SITTING BY THE ROAD, ABANDONED, SO SAD.

2008-01-13T12:39:00.000-05:00

There I was driving down the road, there it sat,
all abandoned and neglected, just wanting a home.
I drove by just like thousands of other people that day.
I went on, going to the store to buy MILLER HIGH LIFE
and SALEMS. As I made my purchases, I thought about it,
it just wants a home, somebody to take care of it. When I
returned to its lonely spot by the road, I stopped, I got out,
walked over. There it sat all white, and neglected,
but not in too bad of shape. There was a tag on it that
said SCOTT, but nothing else. I scooped SCOTT up, took
it home, thinking, this might fit in with the others!

When I got home with SCOTT, I took it into the office
to check it out, see whats the problem was.
You know, let's take a look under the hood!

Well I opened SCOTT up to see what was wrong and to see
if there were any pieces, parts to keep the others going.
SCOTT was COMPLETE! 6gb hard-drive and all!
I have never heard of a SCOTT computer before!
Please don't leave hard-drives in your computers!

Well SCOTT had an AMD K-6-2/400mhz processor,
384 RAM, CDROM, FLOPPY, and a 6gb HD with a
corrupted copy of WINDOWS 98. The main problem was
the power supply was dead. I had one laying around,
so we plugged it up! SCOTT booted to the WIN 98
splash screen, but no further! I tried everything to get SCOTT
resurrected, but it doesn't look like this one will
make it. live CD's, straight install, new hard-drive,
new power supply, nothing works. So sad. SCOTT'S SCRAP.
So, even

PUPPY DOESN'T SAVE SCOTT!

FIRE HYDRANT PUPPY RESCUES OLD COMPUTER!

2008-01-12T00:05:00.000-05:00

Well, in the course of cleaning the "cave" I ran across
an old COMPAQ DESKPRO 2000 that was a thrift store
treasure. I've had it running before. It's old and slow,
200mhz processor, 68mb memory, 40gb hard-drive.
No power, lots of space! I've had it running on DSL,
Grafpup, with which it ran well on the live CD's, but were
lacking in graphics, at least for me.

I have also been able to install to hard-drive UBUNTU 7.10
and even WINDOWS XP PRO.The forums said it couldn't be done!
Now I know what they meant was it shouldn't be done!
10 minutes to boot, 7 minutes to start FIREFOX, 4 to load a page!
SO SLOW, IT WAS A NO GO!!

So being a DOLLARKEEPER I just set it aside to play with later.
Yesterday was later, I drug it out, and cleaned it up, and turned it on!
Still works! Still slow! I played with it a little, gave up again.
Last night I figured that there must be something a little larger than
Damn Small Linux or Grafpup, but not resource hogging, like the others.
I searched and scratched, scratched and searched and I found the O.S.!!

FIRE HYDRANT PUPPY! It had all I wanted and was small too!
FIREFOX, THUNDERBIRD, all the rest of the toys that I like,
and pretty graphics too! Its fast enough for an auxilary web cruiser.
SUCCESS! Linux saves the day again!

SQUIRREL says I really needed another computer running in here!
I say EIGHT IS NOT ENOUGH!

NICE, NEAT, CLEAN, AND COMPLETE!

2008-01-10T15:48:00.000-05:00

Well, today Lady Dollarkeeper with GRANDSTAN
have decided to make our internet experience
NICE, NEAT, CLEAN, AND COMPLETE!
We've been trying to straighten up "THE CAVE"
and do a little computer maintenance also.
As you know computers and other electronic equipment
needs regular cleaning. I do know mine get pretty dirty!

Every month or so I get out my little air compressor and
turn the regulator down to 10 lbs to blow the cat and dog
fur out of the casings and grills. I stole one of SQUIRRELS
clean make-up make up brushes to persuede the stubborn stuff.

I have anti-static wipes for the out side of the cases, and for the
display screens. PLEASE HAVE ALL EQUIPMENT TURNED OFF!!

When every thing is nice and clean and reassembled,
I then get to the the operating systems. On the Linux boxes
we run their respective update managers. Some times we run
an ant-virus, but have never found any thing!
Its a different story on the WINDOWS partitions!
UPDATE
RESTART
ANTI-SPY
ANTI-ADWARE
ANTI-ROOTKIT
ANTI-MALWARE
ANTI-VIRUS
DISK CLEANUP
DISK DE-FRAGMENT
CCLEANER (CRAP CLEANER)

This can take awhile! Some people wonder why I LIKE LINUX!
All of the above programs are available for free, don't buy THEM!
BE A DOLLARKEEPER!
In computing, as in life, as always keep it:

NICE, NEAT, CLEAN, AND COMPLETE!!!!

THE DOLLARKEPER CAVE!!

2008-01-09T11:25:00.001-05:00

My zone of creativity! After many requests to see what I built
with my EBAY treasures, I decided to post this picture of my
multimedia system. We definitely don't have here is a
FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE!
2 VOIP phones
2 cellphones
2 faxes
9 computers online (4 not pictured)
cable t.v.
1000 watt rms surround sound system
6 scanners
4 printers
Well over 1 terabyte of hard drives
1 vcr
5 keyboards ( I use a KVM switch)
8 mice
I have no idea of how many cables this took!

Most of this was bought used from EBAY, or a thrift store
such as GOODWILL. If you follow my suggestions
you too can build your own version of the
DOLLARKEEPER CAVE, it's not that expensive or complicated!
Experiment, ask me questions, use EBAY! follow my links!

I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT, I DID!

Take it easy with GRANDSTAN!

2008-01-08T16:10:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't have much too do today, so I worked in the
garden today as it was in the 70's and sunny today
in east Tennessee!
Gardening doesn't really save money unless you do it
on a large scale. If you get large enough you can make a
few dollars. My little garden is just to get me a few
green beans and some corn, much better fresh!
All we did today was till-up last years mess. But gardening
can be a good way of releasing stress and getting
back in touch with nature. My family has been farmers for
generations and I have farmed too. No longer a farmer,
construction and the internet now! So click on a few links
and I'll plant some seeds for you!!Sign up for Ebay through
my links and I'll plant a tree!

MORE FROM GRANDSTAN AND LADY DOLLARKEEPER LATER!

LADY, KEEPING HER DOLLAR!

2008-01-07T20:12:00.000-05:00

I took this picture of my little old dog, LADY.
Sunday was her birthday, she is 16 years old!
Far from being old and decrepit (like me!) she is
still very active and loves this cold weather!
As you can see she loves to keep her dollar!

2008-01-06T21:08:00.000-05:00

Want $300? How about a used MONITOR for $10 or LESS!!

2008-01-06T06:31:00.001-05:00

Another way to keep some of your dollars is to
buy used monitors locally. Now, I am just like
everybody else, I want a 21 inch LCD monitor for
my computer. The problem is even on EBAY they run
between $300 and $3000! I'm too cheap for that!
My personal source is GOODWILL, I've picked up
some real nice CRT's for $10, one was a real nice
17 inch DELL, with a great screen. Yes its huge,
but the hit to my wallet wasn't! The two things that
you need to remember when shopping for a used monitor
is a cord (they are all wadded up in a ball in the
back of the store) and more important is screen burn.
Screen burn is where an image is permanently etched
into the screen. This happens when the monitor
is left on for for very long periods of time with the
same image on. You can see this even when the monitor is off!
One of my back-up monitors has 12:00:00 etched in,
but you can only see it in bright light, not when powered up.
That monitor was free, so not out much! 8 out of 8 times
that I bought a used monitor I was very happy with it!
They are definitely well worth the $10 gamble!
Just remember to use a screen saver and CRT's will last
a long time!

MORE TIPS FROM THE DOLLARKEEPER LATER!!

USED vs NEW, EBAY vs.STORES! EBAY WINS!!

2008-01-03T17:04:00.000-05:00

Well, one way to keep your dollars in your pocket is to
buy used equipment on EBAY! I am not a computer genius,
in fact I didn't know how to turn one on until just a few
tears ago.So, being a hands on person, I just dove in.
I bought a 3 ghz HP,on the advice of SISTER TERESA
( more from her later!).This HP PAVILLION had all the
toys on it, I love it !You'll never forget your first!!
I still have this WINDOWS XP machine as my primary
workhorse, even though she is high maintenance.

As they say you can't have just one! Not being a rich man,
I started searching the flea markets, thrift stores,
Goodwill,and found a few old computers and brought
them home to play with.
Most of my early tries were complete and total failures!

Enter EBAY to the rescue! After weeks of research
reading the descriptions,and applying some
common sense,I figured it out! During my foray into
junk computers. I did some research into alternative
OPERATING SYSTEMS.
I found PUPPY LINUX, DSL,UBUNTU,OPEN SUSE,
RED HAT,and that there were a lot more out there,
literally hundreds of FREE OPERATING SYSTEMS
out there!! NOW I HAVE A DREAM!!!
A massive computing system of my very own!!
What I did was decide on the bare minimum of
computing POWER that I would be happy with.
The figure that I came up with was !/2
my HP PAVILLION, 1.5 ghz 512mb memory.
(the pavillion has 3gb memory)

Onward to EBAY! I looked and searched,
thought and researched.Then I came up with a PLAN!
Buy several identical computers!
That way I only need to learn one machine!
PARTS, for the most part interchangeable.
What I decided on was a DELL GX240, P4, XP COA,
512 mb memory, no hard drive DELL XP RESTORE DISK
INCLUDED!!

I bid on it, won it for $68, $45 shipping. I waited 3 days
and it arrived!Guess what ? I forgot! no hard drive!
So back to EBAY!
I Bought a used 40GB hard drive for $15, $8 shipping.
When it arrived I went to town on the poor old HD!
DUAL BOOTING WINDOWS XP and UBUNTU!
A fantastic start!$113 for the computer, $1.99 for a keyboard
and optical mouse from GOODWILL, $23 for a hard drive
from EBAY, $2.99 for a17 inch DELL MONITOR from a
thrift store. Buy CRT monitors local ,shipping is high on them!

A COMPLETE DUAL BOOT SYSTEM FOR LESS THAN $141!!!!
I did this 7 times! (I did give some of them away!) After the
first one I had the DELL WINDOWS XP restore disk.
I also had my choice of other systems too! I did get most of the
computers for less, but I spent more on bigger hard drives.

We'll get more into this at a later date! Now a word from:

SISTER TERESA!

Another way to find DEFRAGMENT!

Go to "Start" click on My Computer
Right click on "C" Drive
Go to Properties
Click Disk Cleanup
Click "OK" then "Yes"
When done click on the "Tools" tab
Click "Defragment now"
Then click "Defragment"

THATS ALL FOR Y'ALL FER NOW!!

FREE WINDOWS SOFTWARE!!

2008-01-02T21:18:00.000-05:00

MORE WAYS TO KEEP YOUR DOLLAR!!!!
From the DollarKeeper,

If you are running MICROSOFT WINDOWS on
your computer, don't forget the constant maintenance
that Windows requires! You need a few things to keep it
NICE, NEAT, CLEAN, AND COMPLETE!!

1: Windows needs a separate ANTI-VIRUS program,
I use AVG FREE from GRISOFT

2: To protect yor privacy from keyloggers and other
such mean nastiies, I recommend for your computer
SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY from Safer Networking.

3:To clean out your registry, browser files and other trash,
I use CCLEANER, formerly Known as CRAP CLEANER,
It does just that! By Piriform Ltd.

4: Always use the backup option, and get an external
hard drive from EBAY and back up all your files to it!
You never know when yours will fail! You can copy
important files on cd or dvd and store them somewhere else,
just in case.

5: DEFRAGMENT, you dont need a seperate program for this,
WINDOWS has it onboard!
A: Click START

B: CONTROL PANEL

C: CATEGORY VIEW

D: PERFORMANCE AND MAINTENANCE

E: REARRANGE ITEMS ON YOUR HARD DISK

F: DEFRAGMENT

Then go to the store, this takes awhile!!!

YOUR COMPUTER WILL RUN A LOT FASTER,
MAYBE YOU WONT NEED A NEW ONE AND
YOU CAN KEEP YOUR DOLLARS IN YOUR POCKET!!!!!

GRANDSTAN is ALL BY MYSELF (with LADY DOLLARKEEPER!)

2008-01-01T21:41:00.000-05:00

Well GRANDSTAN spent the day at home all by myself.
But don't be thinking I'm singing that sad old song yet.

So you young,beautiful, wild, rich, exotic women,

Please don't be knocking on my door, stalking me or anything!

Squirrel went back up into the mountain Hillbilly country for the day.
She should be back soon to take care of the grouchy mean old man.
Ive been composing my new E-BOOK that should be ready soon.
Until then,You'll have to be content with the FREE BIBLE !!
Don't worry no preaching, no sign up, just a few ads, all yours to keep!!
My NEW YEARS gift to you and yours!!, well back to my favorite subject.
I've been trying to set up a couple of web sites, and get a few things going
here on this WORLD WIDE WEB. I've set up GRANDSTAN,
trying to set up a affiliate store with another company, dollarkeeper.zilostore.com
I've been trying to set up DOLLARKEEPER.COM and DOLLARKEEPING.COM
but as I am not finished yet, I wont link those just yet!
With thanks to E-BAY I am able to have a fair amount of computer power!
ITs a strange mix! HEWLETT PACKARD, DELL, COMPAQ, PANASONIC, ACER,
HARMON-KARDON (no little computer speakers for me!1000watts 7.1 channel!)
I have 6 monitors, only 1 of which I spent more than $15 for.
THRIFT STORES! especially this time of year,
people get new equipment and give away the old.
PLEASE!! SELL OR DONATE your old hardware and software, unless it is total trash,
then RECYCLE! DON'T FORGET TO WIPE OR REMOVE YOUR HARD DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!

Remember DOLLARKEEPING! its fun!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! from DOLLARKEEPER

2008-01-01T00:39:00.000-05:00

Well being in the Eastern time zone ,

I am happy to tell you HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It is a happy new year for me, my houseguests

are gone and won't be back. Now I guess

I am really a mean old man, TOO BAD!

WELL, I really wish a happy and prosperous NEW YEAR

for each and every one of you! LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!!

May you be a DOLLARKEEPER of outstanding success!!

and have outrageous good fourtune, while having fun, ALL YEAR!!!!

SAVE MONEY WITH YOUR COMPUTER!!!!

2007-12-31T19:51:00.001-05:00

There are lots of areas to save , let me count the ways!!!

1: Got a smell? google it on your DELL

2: Thinking of a goatee? look it up on your HP.

3: Want to make a tonic? research on the PANASONIC!

4: How about Yahoo! Yoo-Hoo on your VOODOO?

5: Price Snapple on your APPLE.

6: EBAY a hibachi on your HITACHI.

7: Hamburger bun? Look with your SUN!

8: Find the right highway with your GATEWAY!

9: Cheap silverware with the ALIENWARE.

10: Getting boney? recipies on your SONY!

11: Tickets to Beersheba on a TOSHIBA.

12: Trace her with ACER!!

Pretty lame ,huh? Well after my day today, thats all folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DOLLARKEEPING, less agravation!!

2007-12-30T13:25:00.000-05:00

O.K. I am a little upset with myself for a situation
I got myself into! My girlfriend, "Squirrel", talked me into letting
her 26 year old son, his 23 year old girlfriend, and a 2year old and
a 5 year old, stay for a couple of weeks while they saved enough
money to "get a place of their own""get a car" "he'll get a job".

First thing that happened was that I lost use of my Jeep
( I do have a work truck) Her son "borrowed" her car, Squirrel took
my Jeep! A couple of months later, much bitching on my part,
they borrowed a car. He still didn't find a job, the girlfriend does though.

I told Squirrel that I wanted them out by the first of December.
My water bill has gone up $30, my power bill has gone up $50,
they ate all the food in the house. Then it was "fastfood",
coming home at 2 am, sleeping till 3 pm. Blocking my car in the driveway.

"WE HAVE TO SAVE FOR THE BABIES GIFTS" was what I heard
about the Dec.1 date. I am not heartless so I said O.K. (mistake)

"THEY CAN STAY TILL NEW YEARS" (GUESS WHAT?)
( pause,----------- wait for it,------------ you guessed it!)

"WE SPENT HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS ON THE BABIES"

"WE HAVE NO MONEY TO MOVE OUT NOW"

Still he has no job, they have no car, no place to live, I have no privacy,
I said the deadline was New Years, thats final, TOO BAD, not my problem.
Now I am a heartless mean old man. I mean get real!
I gave them months to get their life together, what did they do? SLEEP!

You know the cigarette burns in the carpet, running up all the bills,
lack of privacy, general aggravation I can put up with.
But not trying to get a job, sleeping all day,
and especially spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars
on gifts for the kids just puts the iceing on the crapcake.

I tried, I tried, but I can see that this will drag on forever. I'm over it!!

SO MY ADVICE TO YOU IS, if you need to help someone,
set out a timetable of events, a plan, deadlines.
STICK TO IT!!!!!

IT WILL HELP YOU KEEP YOUR DOLLARS AND YOUR SANITY!!!

Money! Lets save some Money, let's make some!!

2007-12-29T13:00:00.001-05:00

Be A "DOLLARKEEPER"! A "12 STEP PROGRAM FOR DOLLARKEEPING"

1: Use "FIREFOX" A great, free, safe, fast, open source browser.
It has a lot of add-ons, great features. It has an "EBAY" edition,
a student edition, and you can personalize it thousands of different ways.
Much easier and better than "Internet Explorer".

2: Get "THUNDERBIRD" This is an E-MAIL APPLICATION thats much
better than OUTLOOK or OUTLOOK EXPRESS. It's free, secure, easier, with
a better feel! Brought to you by "MOZILLA" the same people who developed Firefox.

3: Download "OPEN OFFICE" A free office application, it can do anything
Microsoft Office can do and its FREE!

4: Revitalize that old computer using "UBUNTU" or other free Linux platform,
there are plenty out there, I'm sure you'll find one that you like!

5: Sign up on EBAY lots of good cheap stuff there,
but make sure you know what it's worth, and watch the shipping!

6: Sign up for PayPal its a safe way to spend online.

7: Find a "GOODWILL" store and shop or donate!
Its always a good place for cheap monitors, keyboards,
connectors, and such.

8: Another good place is the "SALVATION ARMY" my personal favorite!
Ive seen the work that they do, it's admirable!

9: Cook at home, remember that veggies are cheap! (especially BEANS!)!!!

10: Plan ahead when you shop! I go to the store once a week,
it saves time, aggravation, money, gas! If they sold cigarettes one at a time,
my girlfriend would go to the store every hour!

11: Get a "VOIP" phone (voice over internet phone), much cheaper than
standard phones, I can call half the world unlimited minutes,
less than $25. a month!

12: get a prepaid cellphone! Buy the highest minute, double minute,
one year service plan. Don't use it!!! Tell them to call you at home!

You are done 12 stepping now go outside and play! I mean it!

BE A DOLLARKEEPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

XP, $200, VISTA, $400,LINUX, PRICELESS!

2007-12-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

Did you get a new, faster computer for Christmas?
What are you going to do with the old one?
Are you going to throw it away?
Are you going to give it to me?
If you dont want it because it is slow, why not try linux?
It's a free OPEN SOURCE operating system that belongs to everybody.
I like OPEN SUSE but there are others that are just as good.
KUBUNTU, UBUNTU are two that I also like.
If your computer is really old try DAMN SMALL LINUX (DSL).
I have a few older computers that are dual booted with XP.
They are a lot faster running Open Suse!
All you have to do is down load the ISO image,
and burn it to a CD or DVD with an ISO burner program.
Get a free ISO BURNER from ALEX FEINMAN, its good and its FREE!
Then put the disk in the tray, restart, follow the instructions, easy! really!
If you still want the old tried and true WINDOWS XP,
its still available, it sells in the DOLLARKEEPER affiliate store.

But if you just want to get rid of the old thing, at least wipe the hard drive,
or remove it completly. It looks like a wrapped silver and black poptart.
You can wipe your hard drive by installing any operating system
over the top of the old one. Linux or Windows it doesnt matter.
This is not fool-proof but it should be good enough.

I am a scrounger always looking for computers and such, the day after
Christmas I found a computer that somebody threw away,
It still has the hard-drive in it! how stupid! I will wipe it for them.
PLEASE, SELL IT ON EBAY, GIVE IT AWAY, RECYCLE IT> DONT THROW IT AWAY!!
ALWAYS WIPE OR REMOVE YOUR HARD-DRIVE!!!!

KEEP YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION, LIKE YOUR DOLLARS, IN YOUR CONTROL!!

EBAY CASH BACK!

2007-12-26T16:15:00.000-05:00

Well there are many ways to keep (or earn) money.

One way is to use this site I have linked to. Ebay and others have

basically hired this company to refer people to there site,

and they return a small percentage of the sales back for the referral.

The way it works is you go to their site first, then go to Ebay and buy.

They get a referral fee and return some of it to you, it can add up!

There is a lot more to it than that but you can make money this way!

Please link from my site to sign up for free! It doesn't cost a thing,

and the referral helps me without costing you any thing!
"
LOOK AT THE UPPER RIGHT FOR THE "EBAY CASH BACK" LINK.

ALWAYS HELPING TO KEEP THOSE DOLLARS IN YOUR POCKET!

It's Christmas, did you spend all your money?

2007-12-25T20:29:00.000-05:00

Well, this is Christmas, an expensive time of year.
I have thought of a few ways to keep a few dollars in the pocket,
and a little aggravation out of the head.
One problem is expensive software, even annoying browsers.
One way is to install Firefox from Mozilla, it has great security and
fantastic add-ons.

If you want high speed, low drag, few add-ons, just small widgets, Opera is
the browser for you!
I personally use FIREFOX and am looking forward to v3.

I am lucky enough to have several computers,
with different operating systems on them,
windows xp, windows xp pro,
and lots of different flavors of linux.

The old laptop that I am writing this on is a 900 mgz Panasonic Toughbook
with UBUNTU 7.10 and firefox and it is faster most of the time
than my 3ghz desktop, with XP and IE 7, cruising with my
STUMBLEUPON button! great add-on!!!!
See the world one site at a time!!

MORE WAYS TO KEEP YOUR DOLLAR LATER!

FIRST ONE!

2007-12-24T22:24:00.000-05:00

Maybe we'll have some fun with this one!

Well, I'm old and I'd like to share a few things with y'all.

The biggest thing to remember is that before you get aggravated with somebody or something,

just ask yourself this one little question.

Is this really bothering me or am I bothering myself?