Would you feel more comfortable if you could surf the web anonymously?

Like many of us, you have probably spent more time surfing the Internet during the past few weeks than usual.

You probably shopped, sent greetings to friends and family by email, planned vacation and holiday trips, and possibly a lot more.

Whenever we are surfing, we are open to potential surveillance by unknown people.

It's possible for people to collect information about us even when we don't want to advertise who we are. This is true even if our system contains no virus or malware software.

Basically, information is intercepted and used by others to READ MORE


Seasons Greeting and Best Wishes for
a Safe and Happy Holiday


Let's visit again soon........... Richard

Vacation Travel Tips - free Newsletter

Planning to travel or take a vacation during the holiday season? For tips, ideas, and possibly a reminder or two of some things you might have forgotten - read my free Vacation Travel Tips newsletter. Here’s the link for your - free subscription
http://www.richardpresents.com/Vacation-Travel-Tips/subscribe-vacation-newsletter.html

or try this short one - it’ll take you to the same place
http://tinyurl.com/6qpxty

Holidays Approaching! Christmas Greetings and other Family Fun Stuff

If you have children and grandchildren looking forward to Christmas as mine are, you can keep them occupied at my Christmas Greetings website with gifts, games, stories, and little fun type projects.

I put this webpage together with simple things to add to their excitement and to help parents and grandparents share in this excitement.

There's stuff there just for adults, too, like special holiday dessert recipes (chocolate cake, candy and pumpkin pies), stories about the holidays to read to the children, instructions for creating some easy to make gifts and holiday decorations, and even a special coloring book that can be downloaded and printed for everyone to share.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, it's all free. I have a few more fun things to add over the next few weeks until Christmas. Want to know how many weeks, and days, (even minutes and seconds) until then?

You can check that right at the Christmas Greetings website.

Would you like your little ones to get a personal letter from Santa? You can arrange for that, too.

Enjoy

Words, Words, Words - to savor and abuse

In spite of all of the technological communication tools available to us, words are at the core of nearly everything we do. We read them, we write them, we speak, whisper, and shout them.

We can paint mind pictures, create and change relationships, make love, and make enemies all through our choice of words.

I just read a post about the use of words that I want to share, because the author, Arlene Bice has touched on another use of words - demeaning, insulting and assassination of character. So rampant during this charged time before our National elections.

And who are the offenders, read Arlene's post here Arlene S. Bice blog: Political Words

Shouldn't we all take Time to Think about the words we hear and evaluate what they are intended to portray?

Teenagers helping Teenagers understand Teenage Suicide

Two days ago I became a Great Grandfather!

Obviously, my children are well beyond their teen age years, but their children aren't. Fortunately, our family has been able to navigate through their trying 'growing-up years' without major mishap.

But a lot of families haven't. They have experienced heartbreaking incidents of automobile deaths caused by underage drinking, serious life threatening illnesses, the deaths of aging parents, etc., but the most devastating of family disruption is teenage suicide.

It's very encouraging to read about all of the organizations, churches, governmental agencies and others who are addressing the serious increase in teenage suicides.

Teenagers themselves are pitching in when they can - especially those who have experienced the pain of loss of a friend or family member, or have actually tried it themselves!

They are reaching out to each other through the Internet in teen age forums - like "Open Your Eyes to Teen Suicide" at http://www.bebo.com/OYETTS.

Parents and guardians, for a real eye opener and look into your teenager's inner thoughts, read some of the posts at this site. Many are by other teens who, themselves, have considered and even tried to kill themselves.

It helped me understand where they're coming from. Hopefully, it will help you ,too.

For more help, look into:
Teen Survivors
Prevent Teen Suicide
Speak Up Save Lives

Want to read a frightening statistic about teenage Suicide?

The Centers for Disease Control reported recently that "...the suicide rate rose more than 18% in those 1 to 19 years old, from 2.2 per 100,000 in 2003 to 2.6 per 100,000 in 2004. In those 15 to 19 years old, the figures reflected a more than 12% rise in suicide, from 7.3 per 100,000 in 2003 to 8.2 per 100,000 in 2004."

Scary, isn't it?

Even if you have no teenagers at home, you probably know many families that do.

You can help these families and their teenagers. How?

Visit the "Speak Up Save Lives" for access to information and resources to help save lives and combat the "silent epidemic" of suicide.

Thanks for caring ... Richard

How to Build A Strong Foundation For Your Business.

Seems to be the trend these days for people to want to start various types of home based businesses. For whatever the reasons, it could be because of the instability in their current employment or they would like to have a little more independence and try to control their own futures.

Are you toying with the idea of creating your own business?

One of the very first things to consider is that the key ingredient for not just your home based business, but for any type of business, is creating a strong foundation for the long term.

So now without being too specific, starting any type of business usuallydepends on some of the interests that you have. It only makes sense that you should try to establish a business that can revolve around some things you enjoy doing. This is supposed to be long term so you don't want to lose interest.

That could spell disaster a year or so down the road.

Think about some of the skills you have - are they going to be a part of your business or do you need to learn new skills? Or maybe just some upgrading. The skills you have now usually play a role in what type of business you choose.

If you need to learn or upgrade some new skills, then maybe one of the first steps you should take is doing some ground work or research for your chosen business. There is probably a lot of information you can find using your computer, although in some cases just getting out there and talking to people that might be related to your type of business is never a bad thing.

All the research you do in the beginning will give you a better idea if you are going in the right direction. Not to mention it might open a few more doors that you didn't expect and can also close some that you thought where open. Either way, it might give you a different perspective towards your goals.

So doing some research is a very important part of building the strong foundation that is needed for any business. More research can make your initial start up less stressful and it will go a lot smoother. It can also give your business a better chance at succeeding to meet your long term goals.

Another ingredient of course is your finances. Are you going to borrow money for start up costs? Even if you have your own money, talking to a business consultant or your financial planer might not be a bad idea.

What ever your situation might be, just take your time, do your research to make sure that a strong foundation is in place.

Resource

Finding Your TRUE Niche The TRUE Facts on Setting Up and operating your Successful Online business – includes "Foundations for Business" – the 2 part eBook that gives you specific directions for setting up a successful and professional online business.

Be Prepared with The Emergency Financial First Aid Kit

Are you familiar with this free resource? I recently downloaded my copy and have encouraged my friends to get their 'kits'.

You are welcome to download a copy for your family using this link:

http://www.ncua.gov/Publications/brochures/EmergencyFinancialFirstAidKit.pdf

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Citizen Corps, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and USA Freedom Corps encourages everyone to obain 'The Emergency Financial First Aid Kit' to help minimize the impact of a natural disaster or national emergency.

It's a simple tool designed to assist you and your family in maintaining financial stability in the event of an emergency. The 'kit' helps identify and organize key financial records and provides a quick reference file for your most important financial documents.

Get these 'FIVE TIPS TO PREPARE FOR AN EMERGENCY' with simple worksheets to help you summarize Your Personal Information, Important Legal Documets to have on hand, and EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE NUMBERS:

Click here to download your free kit.
http://www.ncua.gov/Publications/brochures/EmergencyFinancialFirstAidKit.pdf

It's a direct download of a pdf file. You don't need to sign up or leave your name. After downloading, you can easily print a copy - there are only 16 pages.

I put my 'kit' is a inexpensive Report folder, the kind available in most office supply stores for under a dollar.

Be prepared -
Richard

Summer in just a few weeks and kids will be home from school. Everyone will anxiously be looking forward to a Summer of FUN!

Now's a good time to complete your plans for a safe Fun Filled Family Vacation.

Family Fun - there's just no way that every possible fun activity could be covered in one website. Even so, there are many activities that can be shared to bring pleasure, appreciation and togetherness for your family.

Visit my 'Family Fun Stuff' site. I shared a bunch of the family fun activities that helped create a loving and fun filled environment for our family - like RV'ing to our National Parks and Monuments, gardening, antique collecting, camping and much more.

http://www.RichardPresents.com/family-fun-stuff/

Make extra effort to have a SAFE fun filled family vacation. Be sure to check the three safety and security items near the bottom of the webpage.

Like everything else there, they are FREE.

Have a Safe and Fun Filled Summer.

Richard

Taking "Roughing It" Out Of Family Camping

Years ago when our family was young, going camping in the great outdoors on a family camping trip often meant several days of roughing it with few of the amenities of modern living - like sleeping on the ground in blankets and cooking over an open camp fire after carrying everything in a backpack before finding a suitable wilderness location.

The facilities of home that were automatically given up when camping in those days, such as music, televisions and other "essential" gadgets of modern living, are often now a part of wilderness family camping life, thanks to RV Camping.

Today, far from living off the land, a family camping trip can mean driving right to your campsite and living in conditions like a home away from home. Some families prefer traveling in a recreational vehicle or motor home, fully equipped with all the comforts of home. Those that still prefer family camping in a tent can more comfortably enjoy their weatherproof lightweight cocoon, with built-in floor, zip up doors and windows, even separate compartments...

There are ever so many wonderful ways a family can have Safe fun camping together. I put a bunch of ideas, and links to exceptionally helpful resources in a short report on "Taking Roughing It out of Family Camping" - great for the RV and Truck Campers. Read More HERE


... and for the tenting campers and back packers, check out Family Camping Tips for even more ideas and free stuff.

Have a great Summer

Free Quality Reports - Join Now (Really?)

I was skeptical, but I joined anyway. Why not - it's free.

The "Free High Quality Reports" headline attracted my attention,
even though my first thought was "Yeah, sure. Free AND
High Quality!" - was this just more hype?

So I joined with healthy skepticism. I had to see if this was
another of those sites offering more low quality stuff churned
out from some remote article farm.

However, I found my skepticism melting away. In fact,
I was quite pleasantly surprised by what I found. You
can look it over here -

http://www.butterflyreports.com/

First, I have to say that this site is quiteingenious.
Branded, high quality reports you get to give away -
and make money from.

For real! So far, I've downloaded 3 reports, branded with
my name and website addresses.

They are much more than just "thrown together trash".
In fact, quite the opposite. I feel very comfortable about
offering them to my website visitors.

Along with the reports supplied by the staff writers of the
site, I plan to contribute some of my own reports. As a
free member, you can contribute one of your original
reports every month.

After a while, once you have contributed a few reports, you
will see how viral this concept really is.

My advice to you is simple.
See for yourself. It's all Free - Join. Now. Why wouldn't you?

http://www.butterflyreports.com/

To your success
Richard

If you're considering writing to brand yourself as an Internet personality,
possibly as a recognized authority in a field for which you have a special passion, but haven't yet taken the daunting first steps -

- my free report on "Creating your own Rewarding Web Presence - Personal Branding" will guide you from just thinking about it to actually doing it.

You might like to express your thoughts and opinions about current events, support a favorite cause, freely share your knowledge to help others, or sell a product or service.

Article Writing has proven to be one of the more effective ways to create an authoritative image - or personal brand.

Good Content Reigns Supreme and the foundation for success in any of these activities is the ability to write articles and reports in an easy to follow and understand style that will attract and hold your reader's interest.

The Internet is probably the best place for ordinary people to spread their knowledge and express their opinions... and it can be done with little or no cost.

"Creating your own Rewarding Web Presence - Personal Branding" is loaded with most of the tools you'll need to outline your branding program and get started.

You can blog for Free, build free websites, post to other people's blogs, join with millions of others in social networking, and with care and a little bit of guidance, you can actually sell your products or other peoples products online.

• Learn 5 steps to Writing Captivating Articles
• Review Basic writing styles in the report "Article Writing Styles Explained"
• Get your free eBook "Expert Guide to Article Marketing"
• Another free report explains how to create professional looking eBooks in Word and PDF formats
• and another half dozen reports (all free) that you can read, print and add to your personal library.

Click Here to get your personal Web Presence Development Report

Securing the Home Front for our children

Law enforcement and governmental agencies have active programs to protect our children from Internet predators.

As parents and guardians of teenagers, we can support their efforts by working with our kids to strengthen our "home front" defenses.

We can update our awareness of the threats to our mobile and connected children by reviewing articles and reports available in many newspapers and web sites published by security minded people who don't want to see our kids, and their families get into trouble.

To make your search for this information a bit easier, I have collected some of my most recent family and children's safety articles in one place for you.

Starting with a half dozen relating to the threats and security risks faced by our teenagers, and concluding with a few specific to computer safety, you'll be able to refresh yourself on what's happening in the battle against cyber crime aimed at our kids.

Read these free articles at Secure the Home Front

And if your children are either too young to surf the Internet yet, or have progressed into early adulthood, you probably have friends with teenagers - please share these articles with them.

Let's protect our kids on the "Home Front".

Another Look at Security Threats to Teenage Cell Phone Users

Cell phones are extremely popular with the younger generation. We all know that there aren't many teenagers around who do not have their own phone to keep in touch with their friends and family. It's their modern way of life.

New advanced features have increased the potential risks to a cell phone user's privacy and security. The main problem for teenagers with internet on their cell phones is that they are not being monitored when away from home and a careless moment could jeopardize theirs, and their family's privacy and safety.

Protecting against these threats can be a rewarding family project if all members - parents, siblings, and grandparents - pitch in.

Read the short but vital article here Personal Security Threats Especially to Young Cell Phone Users

Can you imagine being paid every time someone visits your website?

Better yet, suppose 100 percent of your visitors earned money for you just by visiting - no buttons to push, no links to click, no forms to fill out.

Sounds really COOL, doesn't it? Take a minute and learn how it works
Get Paid Every Time Your Website Is Seen

And the fact that you can get in on this program for free makes it even more exciting!

Hurry and check it out - you'll be one of the fortunate Early Birds.

Personal Security Threats to Young Cell Phone Users

There aren't many teenagers around who do not have their own cell phone in order to keep in touch with friends and family. Technology has improved their cells dramatically providing many advanced mobile features which have increased potential risks in terms of both privacy and security. Parents and teenagers alike need to be aware of these threats.

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