Just an "Old Fashioned" Merle Rant- Not for the Faint of Heart

"Times, They are a Changing!"

When I was a kid if I even looked at my Mother the wrong way it could earn me a bloody lip.Today, that would be called "child abuse," but back then it was called "discipline." Today my mom would be serving life in prison for her past actions. Of course, back then there was actually someone home to raise the kids. That someone was called a Mother.

Today's young generation are severely lacking in manners, respect and responsibility. In our race to have it all, greed has blinded us to society's most important asset "our children." Instead of taking the time to raise them correctly, we throw things at them to make ourselves feel better for not being there. When you're busy climbing the corporate ladder it's hard to keep track of what's going on in your own home.

All of the materialistic things have spoiled kids to the point they expect everything to be handed to them and think things such as driving, which used to be a privilege, is also automatically given to them when they come of age. Don't forget the insurance and new car they demand as well.

Remember when you were younger? If you wanted to drive, first you had to buy your own car and be able to pay for your own insurance. That meant that ugly three letter word, JOB. Your parents made it obvious from the beginning if you wanted something you had to work for it. There were no "car fairies" pulling a brand new SUV into the driveway with a red bow on it like some teenagers have today.

Our cars were not new. They were usually at least ten years old with rust holes so big you could stick your head in them. Sometimes the only thing holding up the exhaust system was a coat hanger. Try getting a 16-year-old to buy something like that in today's world. If it isn't new, they don't want it. They think money grows on trees and Mommy and Daddy should just go into debt so they don't have to be embarrassed in front of their friends.

By not allowing kids to work for what they want, they never learn responsibility. Many times these are the same people still living at home at 24 years old. They're still laying on the couch waiting for the world to hand them something; usually their life. Are parents really doing them any favors by not teaching them to stand up on their own two feet? I think not.

Whatever happened to manners? That used to be something instilled during the early growing years. I called people "Mr." and "Mrs.," as my mother said it was rude for children to call adults by their first names. I said "please" and "thank you," held doors open for the elderly and actually had table manners when I ate at the dinner table.

Somehow along the way in our scurry for the American dollar, we threw manners out the window. Are these lessons no longer worthy of our limited time? I see kids with foul mouths who don't even know what "excuse me" means, let alone ever use it. They've never written a thank you note in their life and are the same people who display no courtesy on our already over crowded roadways. We've raised a generation of ill mannered kids who unfortunately have turned into rude adults.

Without manners and respect how far can they get in this world? A basic understanding of simple etiquette is essential in life. No one likes inconsiderate people, and once exposed as such those that know them will isolate themselves from further exposure for fear of catching the very disease they have.

Society now is quick to blame someone else for everything that happens to them. That's lack of responsibility rearing its ugly head. Along with the "blame game" has come lawsuits. We've become a very litigious society. Why work for a paycheck when you can simply blame others for your misfortune and take their hard earned cash? What we have going on in society today was created by a generation of two parent working households with no one home raising the children. We've brought this on ourselves, and for what? The love of money?

There's a problem here, a big problem. Everyone needs to stop what they're doing and step down from the corporate ladder and listen. Manners, respect and responsibility need to be brought back into child rearing. If it means finding the wise elder up on the hill who still remembers these values and have them teach them to our children or breaking the glass, and releasing these ancient teachings back into the mainstream. Our future depends on it.

"Amazon Honor System Allows You to Ask for Donations"

Amazon Honor System So your websites a walking wealth of wonderful information, but you don't have a product or service to sell. If only you could generate some cash for all your hard work. How about just asking for a donation? Call me crazy but believe it or not if you supply people with information that they are looking for sometimes they'll actually reward you for all your hard work.

Amazon makes it easy to add a a donation button to your web site. Make a few edits, then copy and paste the code. Even a child can do it. And who knows, maybe that site of yours will start earning its keep after all!

Make Your Own Motivational Poster

Just how motivated are you? Make Your Own Motivational Posters using your own photos. You can even choose the colors and the text you'd like on your posters. Very cool!

Add Water Effect to Your Images

Water Effect Have you ever seen a picture online where it's being reflected in a pond of water? It's a very cool effect and looks great with any landscape pictures you might have. This site allows you to upload a picture and it adds the effect instantly. Upload it to Facebook or a number of other social bookmarking services or copy the code and add it to your webpage. Very cool!

Google Adsense For Your RSS Feeds

For those of you using Adsense on your website you may have noticed when logging into your account you now have the option to add Adsense to your RSS feeds. How cool is that? Increase the amount of people who view the ads and your income should go up accordingly.

Google says "Our salesforce will sell cost-per-impression (CPM) ads directly to the largest advertisers, while the rest of your inventory will be filled with contextually targeted cost-per-click (CPC) and CPM ads. This means that more of your feed items will be sold and with higher overall revenue, than with any other feed network."

For help see:

https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=957&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-en-et-asblog_2008-08-15&medium=link

LIst of over 400 SEO Blogs

BIGLIST SEO Blogs "Here is a collection of over 400 blogs maintained by the staff at TopRank Online Marketing. This edited list includes blogs that cover a range of internet marketing topics ranging from SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) to blog marketing, marketing with social media and online public relations." If you're a search engine optimization junkie you'll want to add this to your list of favorites as they're constantly adding new blogs.

PhotoFunia- Have Fun With Your Photos!

PhotoFunia Want to have a little fun with your pictures? Put your face in places you've only dreamed of. Who says you can't have a blast with your photos. With this site, now you can.

Animated Text Generator

Online Generator Want to have some fun with your words? A quick and easy online generator that creates animated text. Pick from different colors and fonts. Perfect for your My Space page or your personal website.

Kontera- Put Contextual Ads on Your Website

Ads for Site Via In Text Advertising Have some website real estate that you'd like to make some money with? "Kontera’s ContentLink In-Text Website Advertising Solution lets you monetize your content in real-time, enabling an incremental increase in ad revenue by providing a new source of untapped ad inventory."

Sign up and they give you a snippet of code to place on your web pages. Some of the words on the page will then be highlighted and when someone hovers over them a text ad appears and if they click, you get paid. Not a bad deal.

USTREAM.TV: Make Your Own Free TV Show

USTREAM.TV Ever dream of having your very own TV show? Now you can with UStream.TV. "Experience live video. In just minutes, you can broadcast and chat online with a global audience. Completely free, all it takes is a camera and Internet connection" What have you got to lose? and who knows, you may just have some fun.

AdCenter Analytics for WordPress

adCenter Analytics for WordPress: "adCenter Analytics for WordPress Formerly known as Gatineau for WordPress
This plugin does one simple thing: add the Microsoft adCenter Analytics javascript tag to all your pages." Download it here.

No Payments for 90 days with PayPal Pay Later - PayPal

PayPal Later Something new offered up by Paypal- "PayPal Pay Later lets you take up to 90 days to pay. It’s the safer, easier way to enhance your spending power.Get approved in about 30 seconds- Spend $50 or more at participating stores. Click the PayPal Pay Later button during checkout -If you have an existing PayPal credit product, use it and enjoy no payments for 90 days If not, you’re prompted to apply/" This could really come in handy for those large Ebay purchases.