Too much tech

Guest written by our friend Katie Callahan

We got clear when I moved here and I couldn’t be happier. I love that it’s so mobile and flexible and I spend no time anymore looking for wireless networks or even looking for a Seat in Starbucks. I don’t remember when we went from not having the internet to that being ALL that there was but boy have we become a culture obsessed. You can’t go anywhere without people on their phones and women on their iPads and who knows what’s next – I read the other day about a tattoo that VIBRATES when you get a text! Can you believe some people would do that to themselves? I love being technologically savvy but at some point we’re going to have to stop or we’re all going to turn into robots. I wish we spent more time having face to face conversations and less time chatting with each other online – that’s the way it used to be and I think there’s something to be said for that way of life.

Our Money Pit

Content by Mac Kline

We just bought our first house, so we are learning as we go along. We didn’t think it would be this hard to get everything together. We thought we would move in and everything would go smoothly, but we were wrong. The first week we were in our house there was a big rain storm, and we realized the roof needed patching. Then, our master bathroom clogged up and the plumber said we needed to make major repairs. I am angry about it, but I feel like it is my fault since I didn’t catch all of these defects. I’m glad they have good DIRECT TV in West Valley City because that is the only thing that is keeping me sane. After a long day of dealing with contractors, roofers, and plumbers I sit down to watch some TV and decompress with a nice glass of wine. I hope that after we make these repairs my husband and I can start to enjoy this house, and it will all be worth it.

Only a Matter of Time

Written by my friend Betty Walls

There are several sitcoms that I love to watch including Modern Family, The Office and Up All Night. Unfortunately, they were all coming on at 8 or 8.30; too early for me to watch uninterrupted now that the kids go to bed at 9. With my phoenix direct tv dvr, though, I can now record my shows and watch them when I want. Another perk to this is I can fast forward through the commercials. 30 minute shows can now be watched in 25 minutes or less! With the time I’m saving and being able to watch whenever I want I have set my dvr to several other shows I’ve wanted to watch but haven’t been able to catch. My dvr is quickly filling up though so I need to get caught up. Fortunately the kids have not realized we have a dvr so for the moment it’s all mine. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they figure it out and fill it up with their shows!

Safety First

Guest written by our friend Mason Abbott

Safety is very important to me. Nothing is more important than doing what I can to protect my family. In addition to ordering a security system from HomeSecurityFamily.com I am thinking about other ways I can protect my family. After consulting with several professional home security experts, I have made a list of improvements I can make to my home to protect what is most important to me. At the top of my list is new outdoor lighting. I’m planning to install motion activated floodlights at each corner as well as brighter lights by my doors. I’m also going to install landscape lighting. Increased lighting is the number one way to make your home unattractive to would be thieves. I’ve also purchased new stronger locks for our doors. We’ve never given out any keys to our home but we aren’t the first owners so who knows who might have a spare key out there. I believe installing these items will take up most of my vacation week. Any time I have left I will spend with the people I’m doing all of this to protect!

Mother

Thanks for the guest post by Jonathan Curtis

I spent last weekend with my family. It was the first time in several months that I’d been home, but I can say that nothing has changed. My parents still have the same routine on Friday nights. They come home from work, change clothes, and plant themselves on the couches in the family room for pretty much the remainder of the evening. These people watch anything and everything on their direc tv, and my mother always feels the need to fill me in on every minute detail of a show. Her favorites are what I (and most people) consider guilty pleasures. She loves all the reality shows (she definitely keeps up with the Kardashians) and is absolutely obsessed with anything related to The Girls Next Door or Chelsea Handler. When I was younger I found my mother’s interests strange and somewhat embarrassing. I remember thinking that my parent’s Friday night routine lacked vitality and vibrance. But now, after spending time in the working world myself, I am beginning to understand (and even appreciate) the simplicity these nights provide. They give me rest and feel like home.

Getting Channels Now

Post contributed by Hilton Miranda

About a year ago I researched different prices so I could decide how to Bundle Clear Internet packagesappropriately for my family. I had to make sure I had all the good kids networks like The Disney Channelas well as Nickelodeon, since that's pretty much all my son likes to watch all day long and I'm okay with it since it's educational. My daughter is a preteen, so she really needed channels like MTV, so I had to make sure those were included. My husband likes sports, so the NFL network and all the ESPN's were a necessity, and I like everything home and travel related, so I made sure to include The Travel Channel As Well as HG TV. I think I got us all set up with the right package, and I actually really enjoyed having Internet included as well. I didn't realize how much I missed having an Internet connection at home, half my time nowadays sitting in front of one screen or another somewhere in my house!

Sketching away from boredom

Guest post written by Stella Mayer

My mom tells me that anytime she would take me out in public when I was a kid, whether it was the grocery store or sitting in a church service, she would always have a sketchpad for me to draw on and keep me occupied. I'm sure that fueled my imagination, which is still pretty active even now and I decided that I wanted to start drawing actively rather than just scribbles while I'm bored.

I kind of made that as a New Year's resolution to myself, so I went looking online to buy a special new sketchbook for myself. When I was doing that I ran across some information about satellite internet packages and after I did a little bit of reading, decided to CLICK HERE and sign up for one of them.

I found one that looks really nice and has tons of pages in it, which I think will serve as my sketchbook for a long time. I can't wait to fill up all those pages with my creations.

International sounds

Guest post written by Jamie Kingston

I’m kind of a music snob, but that’s the first step to recovery, right? Well, anyway one of my favorite music-related things to talk about are international bands. So I use a lot of my time on the Internet watching music videos with English subtitles and looking up the literal meanings of lyrics in languages with which I’m not familiar.

See, I just don’t like listening to the music, I like to learn the context in these respective bands’ cultures in which their lyrics and music fit through an internet provider I found as a satalite internet special. That helps me better understand their message and motivation behind their art.

I’d say that my guilty international music pleasure is Rammstein, you know the German band that sang the songs “Du Hast” that was really popular and featured in the Vin Diesel movie “XXX.” They’ve remained pretty popular since then and have a long back catalog of music.

Another foreign, but very different band that I like is the French band Pheonix. Although a lot of their songs are in English, I still like to look up information about the band’s background and early career.

The Emmys

Contribution by Stevie Kirby

The Emmys generally air live in September on tv through cable television deals around Boston. They honor the best in the television industry. The host and the presenters are different every year. The host is usually a nominee or someone from a nominted show. The Emmys are divided between Comedy, Drama, Made for Tv Movies and Mini-Series and each aspect of the shows are represented (acting, writing, directing, lighting, make-up, casting and wardrobe). The acceptance speeches have to be the best part because you never know what they might say and there are usually some surprises. For example, Kristin Chenoweth won for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy last year and her show wasn't on anymore and she gave a hilarious speech about being unemployed and listed some shows she wanted to do. Although, most people probably tune in to see what the stars are wearing and if they look good or bad. But, they have a habit of honoring the same shows and actors over and over again like Frasier winning Best Comedy 5 years in a row and Kelsey Grammer winning for Best Actor a few times. It is always a fun night for people who really love television and it is great to see the actors be themselves instead of the role they play on tv.

A Movie To Talk About After It's Over

Posted by Darwin Garza

There's a good reason The Shawshank Redemption is the perfect date night movie. It's not a romantic comedy like most date night movies, but it offers something much more valuable. Romantic comedies are good for a few laughs during the movie, but after the movie, the conversation can die easily. There's nothing to talk about. My girlfriend and I watched The Shawshank Redemption on Direct tv last week and we had plenty to talk about afterward. This is an intense movie on some levels, but it's also poetic and rewarding. A man has a difficult plight, but finds the strength to deal with his situation. He has the help of an unlikely friend and this friendship proves to be beneficial for both parties. This isn't only in reference to escape, but also in regards to life. Both of them lost everything, so it's a friendship they both value greatly.

As far as after the movie goes, there's plenty to talk about. How did they end up in such a predicament? How did they manage to get out of it? How did they know to meet in the same place at the end of the movie? Another cool topic is the poster, which has become a famous scene. This is one of the few movies that both men and women have loved. It really does cater to all audiences.

Walk if you want to

Guest post written by Alex Wharton

Exercise is extremely important to me, especially now that I’m retired. I always like to work out early in the morning but it’s dangerous to go walk outside then with morning work traffic so I always go to the mall and walk around instead. At least with that way I don’t have to worry about wearing sunscreen or braving the elements except for my commute there and back.

The other morning I was walking around and saw a sign offering a hearing test. I had never really thought that I need a hearing aid, but it piqued my interest and I went into the center after reading some hearing aid reviews. Ends up I did need one, so I got equipped with one.

Now when I’m walking in the mall I can hear the little sounds I missed before of janitors mopping the bathroom floors, and store employees rolling up their stores’ security gate and lining up their merchandise on the shelves.

I guess mall walking benefitted my health and well-being even more than I originally thought!

The Real World

This was written by guest blogger Krista Rhodes

I absolutely love watching "The Real World" on MTV. This is one of the best shows that has ever been invented. I watch the show every chance I get on the channels my best cable tv offers. I love this show for many reasons.

This show is great, because it exposes college students viewing the program to a variety of cities. It takes place in a different city every year. Because I am a college student without traveling funds, I find this show educational for the way it shows me the nightlife and culture of cities like Manhattan and Los Angeles. I also love "The Real World" because it is entertaining and filled with much drama. You will never hear someone talk about this show without mentioning the word "drama." The cast is always dating one another and ultimately tensions run high throughout the seasons. I love watching young people try to resolve their differences, basically without killing one another! MTV always picks people with completely different religious beliefs and cultural backgrounds and puts them together to live in a house for 6 months. It truly is fascinating to see how people bond with one another, despite their great differences.

The Real World is the best show to watch, especially for students that may be home during summer vacation or on spring break. There is nothing better than watching this show!

The First Day of a Disney Vacation

Thanks to guest blogger Monica Holmes for the post.

Last summer my husband and I went on vacation to Disney world. As soon as we got our car packed we set our home security alarm that we got with home security cameras in South Carolina and headed to the Airport. Since my husband and I love flying, the plane ride to Florida was part of the fun of our vacation. Once we landed in Florida we had the magical express bus take us to our hotel. We stayed at the pop century hotel. This hotel was decorated brightly and had three swimming pools.

As soon as we got our bags packed we caught a Disney bus to Epcot. As soon as we got off the bus we headed to our favorite ride Soarin. This ride makes the riders feel like they are hang gliding over California. After we rode this ride twice we deiced to go to Epcot's World Showcase. We had dinner in the Germany section of World showcase. The food at the dinner buffet was excellent and my husband enjoyed some German beer. After dinner we found a spot by the water to watch illuminations. Illuminations is a fireworks display that Epcot puts off in the evenings. The fireworks were amazing, but by the time they were over my husband and I were very tired. We couldn't wait to go back to our room and get our rest for the next day.