I started off by making printable chore charts and homeschool schedules for my children. I knew other parents could also use these charts, so I made them available online through my TipzTime.com site for free. They became so popular, that I decided to make them available on their own domain at ChartJungle.com and the site has been running and growing for years. I keep adding new charts for use in many areas of life, not just for use with kids.

Chart Jungle has now been mentioned in a few magazines, newspapers, books, and other media. I hope to see this continue since the site helps so many parents with the free charts.

I have recently begun making the charts editable online. They are also in a higher resolution version so that I can make them into books and place them on cds. This will be useful for those who have no internet or who have slow internet connections. It is also a good idea for those who don’t like to use a lot of printer ink.

I just made an announcement to my newsletter list about it… “Your wish is perhaps my command. I want to make some of the charts on ChartJungle.com available in book formats without the ads and possibly cd formats. Send me a message telling me which charts you would like me to concentrate on first. Pricing will be determined and steps taken to get started. Send in your main choices - contact me here ”

It has been a fun project to work with over the years.

One thing I like about MySpace are the music bands. I have pretty eclectic taste, so there is room for many styles of music. However, I don’t like hard metal rock or monotone rap. Everything in between is great.

Here are a few of my favorite music finds lately…

1) Brad Lebakken - especially love the songs “City Lights” and “The Sound of Doubts”

2) Acceptance - loving “So Contagious” and “Breathless”

3) Cartel - the song “Honestly”

Have you found some cool ones on MySpace too?

MySpace, your space, our space, the internet has made us all feel quite at home it seems. Or has it? I will tell you my experience with MySpace.com including the topic of Hollywood celebrities.

I joined MySpace in the beginning of May this year. Setting up the pages were pretty simple. I stuck with the basic format. I started adding a few people I know to my “friends” list and approved new friends who contacted me through MySpace. It’s quite a nice, easy networking tool.

It didn’t take long to see the good and the bad…

Bad:

1) Hollywood Celebrities. A beef I have are with the pages that are set up to make it look like Hollywood Celebrities have MySpace pages. I am very skeptical of every single one. Unless I read it in the magazines or newspapers, hear on television or speak directly with these actors / actresses that they actually have a MySpace account, I won’t believe it.

It is easy to join their ‘friends’ list and by reading the comments you will see various people either fully believe they are talking with the actors (which is sad), or are skeptical and start their comments saying, “If this really is you, then…” Here are a few possible posing actor pages : Elijah Wood : Heath Ledger : James Franco

Here’s a definite poser: Sophia Myles (according to here)

Solutions:

- MySpace can make sure that no fake celebrity sites are created, or allow sites that are labeled “fan sites.” If celebrities really do make a place on MySpace, there should be some way they make it official.

- OR as I stated in my post - ” Why Celebrities Need A Website ” - their website will help to curb gossip and help identify what places/websites they are involved in. An example of this can be found - here - See how even a one page display can make a difference? Need help with this? Contact Me.

2) Inbox spam. I received one today that said, “Wow you are very hot!!! What are you up to? ” Hmmm… is that considered spam?

3) Bulletin board spam. How many times in an hour does someone need to post the same exact thing to their supposed “friends” bulletin boards?

4) On site emails. Apparently you can send too many on site emails in a day. You reach a limit and have to wait until the next day to send new messages.

5) Predators. There are predators who look to hook up with young people. This actually happens all over the internet, but since MySpace is getting so popular, they have been highlighted in magazines and on the news.

6) Deletion. You are not allowed to use affiliate links of any kind on MySpace. If you do, your account will be deleted. An online business friend of mine had a site that was getting quite popular and suddenly deleted. He had mentioned it was probably the affiliate links that caused the termination of his space.

7) Invasion. I know of someone who had an account on MySpace, who suddenly found their account taken over by someone. This person acted like the account owner and posted bad things on their friends comment areas. I am not sure how this happened, or how often it happens. It may be rare.

Good:

1) Easy. It is easy for people who don’t know html to set up a website and post pictures, run a blog, share their favorite things, find new friends, etc.. (just be careful)

2) Networking. Some businesses use this as a way to network with new people. However, there have even been big company name brands used by posers.

3) Publicity. It is great exposure for music and movies. There are official music videos, artist areas, movie websites. Will took advantage of this : see the Cowboy Smoke account. See the way they can have a place to list the ‘official site’?

Again though, there are posers who act like they own a movie site. *sigh Just make sure the content is announced by MySpace as their official content.

4) Address Book. I just noticed a neat feature that allows you to see if your friends who use Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Hotmail are on MySpace.

5) On site emails. I find it very neat that I can message someone on site and they can’t see my email address.

6) Features. You can see when your friends are online at MySpace, if they have a birthday coming up, and more.

Just be careful as you would anywhere on the internet. MySpace seems like a fun place to hang out in your spare time and find new friends, music, film, and more.

If you have a MySpace account, and want to be added to my friends area, go - here - and my hubby Mike is - here -

-Article Copyright © Wendy Shepherd - http://www.wendyshepherd.com
**May be reprinted with permission, credit, and link

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Comments:    1.

It is always something going on online isnt it Wendy???
everyone needs to be so careful on here and pay attention at all times.
Thank you Wendy for the advice and for doing all that research on My Space.
I appreciate all the time you take to help all of us out.
Blessings, Stephanie

Comment by Stephanie — 6/18/2006 @ 6:07 pm
2.

Our church has sounded an alarm to parents of teens regarding MySpace.
There is another issue that has been a negative of MySpace and that is many unassuming young people are just one click away from Porn. This has been the one reason I haven’t gotten more involved with it.
It seems because MySpace isn’t registered as a place where there is porn, most protective software doesn’t block the site. So even though its there, young people are indeed in a place that doesn’t seem in the slightest, worried about its content.

Comment by Barbara (Xerraire) — 6/18/2006 @ 9:06 pm
3.

I joined MySpace to see what all the hype was about with my teenage daughter…..shortly after that I had my computer crash…..the guy who fixed it said that website is causing a lot of problems with many computers…..I don’t know specifics but all I know is I had to get mine fixed and you might want to look into it.

Comment by Ninette — 6/23/2006 @ 9:47 pm

I have been watching ” The Apprentice ” again this season and have watched each season, except for the very first two. Monday (tomorrow night) , June 5th is Donald Trump ’s “THE APPRENTICE” SEASON FINALE and it will be the most star-studded Apprentice ever with Jason Priestly, Jamie Pressly, Michael J. Fox, Denis Leary, the Barenaked Ladies and many, many more! It will be rebroadcast on Wednesday. I am really excited to see this show since the last show left us hanging. There are two guys left, Lee and Sean. A sad thing happened with Andrea, a past Apprentice participant. She was selected as one of three to help Sean in the final task, but she had to leave and go to a doctor because she was coughing up blood in the last episode. I am anxious to see what was wrong with her. I hope she is alright.

The Apprentice shares a lot of “lessons learned” in business. After watching the third season, which was my first time seeing the show, I gained an interest in Trump’s books. So, I purchased the book, ” How to get Rich “, which is now online. I read through it quickly and enjoyed it. Trump included business advice, including how to : invest wisely, impress the boss and get a raise, manage a business efficiently, negotiate anything, and much more.

I also read ” Think Like a Billionaire .” Trump gives more business advice about success, real estate, and life. There is a section of the book where he gives a day by day blow of what he does for a week. He tells the time of day and what tasks he did during that time. As I was reading this part, I realized how it was similar to an online journal or blog.

Now Trump has started a new website, called TRUMP UNIVERSITY . What better way to learn than by interacting online, eh? Trump University is a dynamic business education company that delivers the knowledge and experience of Donald Trump and his hand picked team of experts in a world-class curriculum. Topics include: real estate, entrepreneurship (that’s me), management, wealth creation, and career. Trump even has a blog! I have signed up for updates myself, and I do plan to hang out at the site to learn what I can.

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Comments:    1.

Wendy,
Thanks for telling us about Trump’s blog and e-mail blast. Hopefully, I can learn some useful things.

Ken

Comment by Ken — 6/6/2006 @ 1:14 am

I am really liking Wichita, Kansas, and I haven’t even been there, that I can think of. A subscriber, Nita H., wrote on May 26th to let me know my Chart Jungle .com website was mentioned on the KEYN 103.7 FM radio station.

I asked her what was mentioned and she said “It was on either that morning or the morning before. They were discussing getting family life under control and asked the audience if they scheduled their childrens’ days. One of the listeners called in exclaiming how wonderful your site is.”

My husband mentioned that it seems Wichita has a great network of parents helping each other. I think it is great!

-Thanks to the listener who called in!
-Thanks Nita for letting me know!
-Thanks KEYN 103.7 FM Radio!

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Comments:    1.

A household name now for sure. Congrats to you Wendy. :>)

Comment by Stephanie — 6/3/2006 @ 4:52 pm

I was talking with actor Mike Lutz today. He was having problems logging into the blog area of Cowboy Smoke. We went back and forth through email and couldn’t find the problem. He just couldn’t log in. However, I could log in under his account fine. We finally spoke by phone and I walked him through the process, only to find out we still couldn’t get him logged in. I then thought that perhaps the problem had to do with a browser cookie. I figured if we cleaned his “cache” it would help. I talked him through the process on the phone and once the old cookies were deleted, he was able to log in fine!

Since some of you may have no idea what I am talking about, read on…

Browser cookies, images, and webpage files are stored on people’s computers by websites they visit in their “temporary internet files” or “cache.” If someone surfs the internet a lot and visits many websites they may notice their computer getting “slower.” This is due to the “temporary internet files” getting too full and taking up valuable space on the hard drive. Sometimes browser cookie files can be corrupted or not updated correctly, which will cause problems logging into membership sites. Periodically, everyone needs to clean out these files to improve their internet browsing.

Here are the steps for you to clear your “temporary internet files” …

* In the Internet Explorer Browser

Step 1 - See the top of the browser window where it says FILE | EDIT | VIEW | FAVORITES | TOOLS | HELP ? Click on TOOLS

Step 2 - On the drop down menu in the TOOLS area, click on INTERNET OPTIONS

Step 3 - Delete Cookies Button. NOTE: When you delete the cookies, you will have to type in your membership username and password again for any membership sites that you have joined. This button deletes all cookies that remembered that information for you.

Step 4 - Delete Files Button. NOTE: When you empty these files, you delete images and files from websites you have visited in the past. Those files will be reloaded on your computer when you visit the website again. This isn’t a bad thing unless you get too many of these types of files. Having the files on your computer helps reduce your load time for frequently visited sites.

Step 5 - Settings Button and then the “View Files” Button. NOTE: If you only want to delete CERTAIN files from your “temporary internet files” folder, you can click this button to find them and delete them individually.

In this settings area, you can also set the amount of disk space you want these types of files to use by moving the bar and changing the disk space megabytes.

There may be different ways to clean your “cache” through other internet browsers which you can search Google to find the directions for. There is another way to get access to your “temporary internet files” through your C drive folders as well, but I don’t want to go into that right now and possibly confuse anyone.

-Article Copyright © Wendy Shepherd - http://www.wendyshepherd.com
**May be reprinted with permission, credit, and link

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Comments:    1.

Thanks again Wendy for yet another cool computer tip.
This is why your sights ROCK!!!!!!!!!!
They are so helpful in every day life.
Stephanie

Comment by Stephanie — 6/4/2006 @ 2:55 pm
2.

Thank you for the information. I will have to do this on my computer. I had no idea about this as I have learned by myself on what I know on the computer or what others have sent me. And I will be sure to let others know. Thanks ever so much.

Comment by Martha — 6/5/2006 @ 8:40 am
3.

Wendy, this little trick has often kept my PC humming nicely.
Cleaning the temp files also helps as I have been told by my cable company, when calling them regarding slow connection, that, often times, its one cookie not coping well with the other. So on their suggestion, as they knew service in the area was running fine, I cleaned my temp files and they were right, my slow connection went back to being super fast.

Comment by Barbara (Xerraire) — 6/6/2006 @ 7:10 am
4.

Another usefull cleaning up would be to hit the start button, put curser over find, click files or folders.
type:”*.TMP” in the named field (without the quotation marks) then type on the location line: C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
Delete all except for the current date.

Comment by Heather Howie — 6/6/2006 @ 8:14 pm