Lizzard

Full Version or Dr. Martin Luther King’s Freedom speech (17:28)

As silly as it sounds, If you have a dream to make money on the Internet, don’t let anything stop you. Dr. Martin Luther King was shot just before he was due to lead a protest march.
Hopefully you wont die, but there will be hard times, but don’t give up!Another example is Rose Kelly from Waterloo Road. Now you oldies probably won’t even know her and The Gazz-man definitely won’t, because I don’t think they have Waterloo Road down in the Oz! But she is a single mother of 4, who really tries to turn her life around.

She used to be a drunken weirdo, who didn’t look after her kids, but she tried so hard to give up her addiction and got a job at the school cafeteria and joined adult learning course and a friend really helped her with it. He took her to all the meetings and so on. And the head teacher of the school always encouraged her when every one’s in doubt.
This message is that you can’t do everything on your own. You all know who helps you and one day you will be helping others. Don’t try and do it all on your own!
It’s like when your learning to ride a bike, your parents were always there holding on and you were saying “Don’t let go, don’t let go!” secretly wishing they would. And one day you will find your riding on your own, with no help. But of course there will always be times when you fall off, but you will pick yourself up again and carry on!

My last example is… Guess who! Me!! Yes me! You may skip this part if you wish; I know I can go on a bit! A bit, what is she talking about? She could go on for her life! But seriously, recently, well kind off recently! I passed my Grade 1 Oboe exam with Distinction . For those of you who don’t know, Distinction is the best thing you can get !
As I’m sure my Mum can tell you, many days I would be coming home from school being so annoyed with my Oboe teacher. But I carried on!

At the beginning of my first year at my school, I had to decide whether I wanted to play a musical instrument or not, I knew I really wanted to play the Saxophone so I wrote that down. The next day we were told what instruments we could play and Saxophone wasn’t one of them, I asked my teacher and she said we had no-one to teach it. So a few days later we listened to our Woodwind teacher play all the different Woodwind instruments. I had already kind of decided to play the flute because my cousin played it, but when I heard the Clarinet and learnt that it was closest to the Saxophone so then I decided to play that. The next day I heard the Oboe, and woah don’t they sound good! I wrote that down on my list and handed it in. I also had many people in my group come and go and it made it very hard for me not to leave. The people I am with now had learnt scales at the same time as me; this is the only reason why I did my Exam at the same time as them. What I find ridiculous (and sorry for me moaning) is that he somehow thinks he can hold it against me that when I got a bit of my scale wrong that I’ve known it way longer than everyone else!

I can’t remember how long it was, but eventually I was told I would be playing the Oboe. I was happy at first, but after a while I stopped enjoying practising. I didn’t like my teacher and the only thing that was driving me forward was the fact that I thought that soon I would be doing my Grade 1. It was really hard for me because all my friends were doing there’s and they kept bragging that they’d already done theirs and meaning that they were better than me. Also I saw on the desk a letter to hand in about doing Grade 1 with my name on it, but I never got it. He obviously didn’t want to give it too me and it wasn’t that he had forgotten.

Finally I was ready to do my Exam. I really tried to work on the things that I found difficult, but I got barely any support from my teacher so I relied heavily on my mum for support.  When I was rehearsing for my exam at the school I was going to be examined at, I mucked up one of my pieces and I was convinced I would muck up in my exam. But I did say that I was really nervous and apparently I didn’t look it!

The next month I got my results back. There were three of us taking our exam and our teacher said “Well done everyone, you have all past with merit!” He read out every one’s marks and I was the last one. Everyone had done really well and got really good marks but when he got to me he said “Oh, I was wrong you didn’t all get merit.” and I was like Oh no, great I’ve failed! Then he told me I got Distinction! Yay!

And that just about sums up my lecture (LOL). If you stick with it, even though it seems tough. It will be worth it!
And for those of you who are thinking, well I stick with things, I get to the end, but it’s never worth it! Yes it was worth it, you’ve learnt loads of things by getting to the end. If you still don’t believe me speak to my dad, he knows all about getting to the end and not everything being as you expect it. You can find him on my blog roll under cool people, he has also recently set up his twitter, I’m not sure what is it so you will have to ask him, but its worth having a chat with him he’s a wise guy!

And finally I will finish with a few questions for you…

What have you had to pursue through but have been glad you did it?

What have you done that has taken a while and made you think, was it worth my while?

And finally, one to help others…  How did you get to the end?

Thank you for reading my massive lecture.

The Lizzard

As we all know everyone is trying to save money, especially because of the economic climate. Many people (including myself and my family) are using programs and taking courses to help them make money, but it’s a lot easier to save money than you might think. Many of you clever people are probably already doing this and have created your own way of saving money, but I know that some people are unaware of how small things can make a big difference.

Here I have created a list of 10 Easy ways to save money:

1. Spend time shopping:

I know I sound like a mad shopaholic. But honestly, if you spend time looking for the best price you can, you can really save a lot of money. Many people try to get the shopping over and done with as soon as possible, but if you spend a little longer just looking for the cheaper products you could find yourself with a lot more change in your pocket! Tip: Buy own branded products not the big names, as they rip you off a lot!

2. Turn off all electrical equipment when not using it:

This may seem like an obvious one, but many people don’t do it. Simply switching off a light when leaving a room (if there is no-one left in the room, you don’t want to leave them in the dark!) could save a lot of energy and money! Or even turning your computer off instead of leaving it on standby. It doesn’t take much to do these small things to save a bit of energy and money!

3. Use concentrate products:

Concentrate products usually are a lot cheaper than the normal ones, but they still do the same job! So why are they cheaper you ask, well my friends, when you’re sitting comfortably I shall begin… (Sorry I just couldn’t resist!) No honestly, they’re cheaper because they use less packaging and if they’re smaller then they use less Lorries to transport them. Simples!

4. Turn off the charger when the battery on your laptop is fully charged:

Many people might think they do this, but in actual fact they’re only doing half the job. You see, switching off the mains to the charger for your laptop, or indeed any electrical equipment, is doing two things.

A. (The obvious one) It is saving energy and money!

B. (The not so obvious one) It is keeping your battery healthy. As weird as it sounds, if you continue to put energy in to a battery that is already full, it can ruin it. This is where we come to the first line in this section where I said that people are only doing half the job. Many people are just pulling out the charger from either the mains or the laptop, but all that does is keeps your battery healthy because the electricity is still running, even if you unplug it from the mains. So there we have it, always turn it off at the mains, not unplug it!

5. Use rechargeable batteries:

Here you are going to read a short Q and A I took from www.pcursor.com.au when I was searching if it really was cheaper to use rechargeable batteries.

Q. Since rechargeable batteries cost so much less in the long run, why bother using non-rechargeable ones at all?
Peter Lee, Singapore,

A. Rechargeable batteries ARE the right choice in many high-drain applications such as digital cameras, kids toys, flashguns and so on. However, they aren’t nearly as useful in low-current or intermittent use applications such as remote controls or emergency torches.

Because NiMH and NiCd and even Li-ion batteries self-discharge at a fairly high rate, they tend to go flat too soon. If you use good-quality alkaline batteries in these devices, you’ll get up to years of life, where a rechargeable may be flat by the time you need it.
Paul Zucker
I thought that was rather useful, wouldn’t you agree?

6. Use energy saving bulbs:

 They may look expensive when you go to buy them, but in the long run they will work out much cheaper.
Here are some facts about energy saving bulbs, thanks to www.thisismoney.co.uk and www.lightbulbs-direct.com:

·     By buying an energy efficient light bulb rather than the normal ones, you can cut energy wastage by over three quarters.

·     That’s a saving of up to £9 a year for a typical 100W bulb, or £100 over the bulb’s lifetime. Energy efficient bulbs last up to 12 times longer than normal ones. 
Energy saving bulbs typically uses around 80% less electricity than normal bulbs.

·     To help give you an idea of how much you could save, visit http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/article/energy-saving/ and use their Energy saving bulb calculator.

7. Only use credit cards if you need to:

 Yes credit cards are a convenient way to pay for the more expensive things but it’s a lot better to use cash, or even a debit card! Let me explain, if you use credit cards you could be using money you don’t have and if you use them regularly, then you probably are!  Because the credit card system is basically a bill after each month, it’s harder to keep track of how much money you have, this can often lead to debt. So basically if you want to buy something use cash, if you want to buy something big use a debit card, if you want to buy something really big think extremely carefully about whether you should use your credit card.

8. Ask yourself: do I really need this?

Imagine the scenario. Its lunchtime and you’ve got an hour to do what you like. You find yourself in a shop and there’s a sale on. You pick up a beautifully arranged set of scented candles. And it’s half price. Now, stop! Ask yourself: Do I really need this? Exactly. Now, put it down and walk away.

9. Use your library:

The local library is heaven for the money saver. You’ll never need to buy another cookbook, guidebook or lifestyle manual again and if you can bear to wait a few weeks in the queue for the latest blockbuster, you never need to buy books again. CDs and videos are great value too.

10. Do you need all those TV channels?

Britain is switching to digital-only television and time is running out for you to choose your new digital TV provider. The choice is already confusing and with telephone, broadband and TV services now launched it’s got even more complicated. Packages range from 100 channels+, including every sports and movie channel costing around £50 a month, down to Freeview, which is free. Choose wisely.

I hope these ways of saving money will help you as they helped me and my family. But before you leave, I have a question for you, Dun dun dun!

What do you do to save money? If you could post comments answering this question, I’m sure you could help a great deal of people!

Thanks for reading, hope to see your replies soon!

The Lizzard

]]> http://lizziedickinson.com/46/10-easy-ways-to-save-money.htm/feed 11 http://lizziedickinson.com/29/why-i-started-a-blog.htm http://lizziedickinson.com/29/why-i-started-a-blog.htm#comments Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:42:29 +0000 Lizzie http://lizziedickinson.com/?p=29 The Main Reason for me starting a blog is basically because I didn’t want to waste my life away and just end up getting bored. I wanted to do something useful and interesting with my life that would keep me entertained (and to make a little money too!). Starting a blog is a brilliant idea for anyone to do, it’s nice to be-able to sit down and just write about your journey through your everyday life. I suppose you could say it’s like an online journal!

I had originally had a really rubbishy blog on a free site I had but the address name was really long and I wasn’t on Google or anything! I did try to get people on it and have a look but to be honest it wasn’t very good so they never looked at it again. I was a bit annoyed that nothing happened and I got a bit bored of just sitting around and doing nothing.

I started watching my mum on her course and watching her writing posts and on Twitter. She saw that I was quite interested and bought me a domain name. She started to help me build my site and write my blog. It was a lot better because I had people from all sorts of places coming to have a look, they had heard of my site from my mum or other people who knew my mum and it just grew and grew!

For many people starting a blog is a great way to make money whilst spending time at home with the family instead of working late hours and coming home when everyone else is in bed. It’s also great for us younger generation to do as you learn a lot and you will always be under the watchful eye of your parents, which may seem a bad thing but trust me you don’t want to be getting into trouble on the internet, there are a lot of nasty people on there.

Starting a blog can be seen as a bit of an investment at first but if you’re like Alex Jeffreys (over at marketingwithyou.com) earning $600,000 dollars last year, then it’s definitely worth it! It’s great to learn about managing your money especially for people who are still at school because that’s one of the many important subjects in life you don’t learn about. If you learn early you’ll be better later! Even if you’re an adult you can never stop learning, so don’t think you won’t get anything out of it except from the occasional pay check, because you will!

It’s good to be in a community with people that can help and support you, you can always learn from others’ mistakes as well as yours. It’s also important to have a leader, some-one who has a lot more experience and has got further than anyone else in the particular community. They are the ones that guide you most through your journey, and they are the ones you should follow most.

So what I want to know is why did you start your blog? What inspired you to do it and what drove you forward? How do you plan to move forward in the future? What are your plans for the future? Knowing this will hopefully help others who are more at my stage to move forward and get better. As I have said before you can learn from others’ mistakes and one thing I don’t think I have said yet, which is as equally as important, you can also learn from others success!

Anyway, isn’t it weird what we see kids do these days, many adults think it’s all of us kids who do that dorky stuff. But they are all wrong! It’s the *geeks* that do all that stuff.

Now before you get any ideas I could only make these lists of what *geeks* do because there are tons of *geeks* at my school and not because I am one! So here’s a list of what crazy things *geeks* do in their spare time (if you can call it that!):

• War Games. Gosh those games annoy me! All you hear is *geeks* shouting “Die Die Die!” and guns shooting. Should they actually be doing that?!
• Making algebra puzzles for their geeky friends to do later. How boring! I asked some *geek* once (at school this is) why they were doing algebra when a. we hadn’t learned it yet and b. we didn’t have too! And guess what he said, “Because it’s fun!”. And I was like what the heck!
• Fixing things that don’t need to be fixed. *Geeks* often find fixing things intriguing because they can find out how things work. There is nothing wrong with that of course, but when you do it every day of the week every week for things that don’t need to be fixed, it’s a bit stupid really!
• Warhammer. A classic hobby for *geeks*, painting tiny figures and playing with them, what could be more fun! There’s nothing wrong with painting stuff and playing with them, but with most things that *geeks* do, it turns into an obsession.

 So if you think you or your friend might be turning into a *geek* because these are the sorts of things you do in your spare time, take a look at these classic signs of a *geek* to see if you or your friend officially is a *geek*. Not that there is anything wrong with that, (cough cough!).

Classic signs of a *geek*

• Spends hours on Learning games

• Wears glasses because they spend so much time staring at the computer screen or homework/coursework/work
• Does extra homework/coursework/work
• Can’t stop reading
• Is always reluctant to do any kind of physical activities
• When asked for a definition of a simple word, comes up with an answer even more complex than a dictionary
• Usually can’t face being wrong
• Always rushes to a class, job interview e.t.c even if they are early
• Is absolutely fascinated by anything (even the boring stuff like dust!)
• Cries if they do something wrong or gets told off

So why is it that people become *geeks*? Well experts say there could be something called the “geek gene”, but I’m like yer as if! So what is it really? Well mainly it’s the upbringing, how a parent acts often affects how a child acts. So say if a mother loves to read, it’s most likely for the daughter to love reading. Or if a father loves to play rugby, then it’s most likely for the son to love it too!  So what I’m trying to say is if you’re a *geek* don’t worry, it’s not your fault, it’s you’re parents fault or their parents fault or whatever! But it’s not yours! 

Or it could be something to do with the person is good at maths or science or whatever and they love it when they always come top. So it kind of turns into an obsession where the person has to be the best and will do anything to be it! Then all they do all day is sitting at the computer doing geeky stuff that *geeks* do.

So what I want to know is what do you think about being a *geek*? Do you think it’s good that people spend so much time doing work and staring infront of a screen and always get top marks in everything?

Or maybe your view is that it’s good that people always have an interest in anything and that they always have a positive attitude. Maybe there is nothing wrong with  being a *geek*, that its good because they are very smart people and always want to learn and keep getting better at things.

Or do you think that people should enjoy their life by just relaxing every now and again? But I suppose *geeks* think that studying is fun? There are many sides to this, debate shall we call it? But I want to hear yours! I won’t bother going through all the possible sides, because I’m sure you could think of much better ones!

Thanx for bothering to read this Lol. Please comment with your views J.

Till next time…

Toodles!

The Beach is free and it’s a great place to spend time with your family or friends. There many activities that can be done on the beach, such as beach ball, sand castle making (for younger children), Swimming in the sea (depending on how warm it is!), Surfing and Body boarding. At most beaches such as Cornwall or Blackpool there are piers or arcades, these offer a wide range of things to do and they don’t have to cost a fortune. The downside to this is that in the winter the beach is less enjoyable but it doesn’t mean you can’t wrap up warm and go for a walk!

2. The Park:

The Park can be a great place for new families to interact with one another in outdoor games or sports. It is also a place where many people go, meaning that anyone can meet new people and even meet up with friends without knowing it! It is also a place to take pets especially dogs were they can run around with children or other dogs, without getting into trouble. The park is free and often a nice place to have a picnic as it is a very friendly environment.

3. Hotel Pools:

Generally hotel pools are for guests only, however many hotels will let you bring your friends and family so long as you don’t disturb the hotel guests. Many hotel pools can also have full scale amenities such as bars, restaurants, and additional activities for the friends and the family to enjoy.

4. Rent a movie:

Renting movies can be very expensive or cheap, it’s finding the right company to rent from. Blockbuster usually has good deals that aren’t too expensive but really it depends on how much you have to spend. If you find the right company renting movies can be ever so much cheaper than going to the cinema and you can get popcorn for about a pound instead of three! It also means that you can watch it again and again until you have to give it back, and you can pause it if you need the loo! But the best thing is there isn’t half an hour of trailers before the film!

5. Host Get Togethers:

Most people enjoy the intimate atmosphere of a few friends getting together and will bring drinks and other goodies to the get together. It’s a good idea to ask friends to bring their friends with them too, meaning that you can meet new people. It’s a chance to have fun without spending a fortune and it can start and end when you like!

6. Spend Time With Your Family:

Family is perhaps the most important thing in our lives and too many times we take advantage of what we have and do not appreciate it until it is gone. Make a concerted effort just to spend time with your family and inform them what is going on in your life. At any moment a family member can be taken away from you and you will regret not having spent the time with them.

7. Playing board or card games:

Playing board or card games can be great fun, you can play them with your family or friends or even work mates! There a wide variety of games that you can play, from ages 6-7 to 60-70! Many people think of these sorts of games as childish, but really they’re not, because there are so many different games that they haven’t even heard of yet. You can even make up your own!

8. Workout in Your Neighbourhood:

Your neighbourhood will provide you with all the terrain and challenges to get a full and quality workout. From running through the city or countryside to doing push-ups on a park or bus bench, your full body workout can be achieved for free.

1. Talk about it

Don’t keep your resolution a secret. Tell friends and family members who will be there to support your resolve to change yourself for the better or improve your health. The best case scenario is to find yourself a buddy who shares your New Year’s resolution and motivate each other.

2. Reward yourself

This doesn’t mean that you can eat an entire box of chocolates if your resolution is to diet. Instead, celebrate your success by treating yourself to something that you enjoy that does not contradict your resolution. If you’ve been sticking to your promise to eat better, for example, perhaps your reward could be going to a movie with a friend.

3. Track your progress

Keep track of each small success you make toward reaching your larger goal. Short-term goals are easier to keep, and small accomplishments will help keep you motivated. Instead of focusing on losing 30 pounds, say, focus on losing that first 5. Keeping a food diary or a symptom journal may help you stay on track.

4. Stick to it

Experts say it takes about 21 days for a new activity, such as exercising, to become a habit, and 6 months for it to become part of your personality. Your new healthy habits will become second-nature in no time.

5. Keep trying

If your resolution has totally run out of steam by mid-February, don’t despair. Start over again! There’s no reason you can’t make a “New Year’s resolution” any time of the year.

Try those 5 tips and you should find it easy to stick to your resolutions. Now for those of you who haven’t got any yet, never fear for look at what I have here!

 3 simple steps on how to make some New Year’s resolutions you can stick to!

1. Think of what bothers you and/or others the most that you do. Think of only a few other ways or you’ll find it all too much too stick to.

2. If it’s something like losing weight or cutting down on something think of how much you want to lose/cut down on and make sure it’s reasonable!

3. Use the Top Five Tips above to make sure you stick to your resolutions!

And there we have it, as simple as One, Two, Three!