Paying Bills

Have you ever paid your bills online? Well I have. Some say online bill pay is beneficial, convenient, and faster. Others say it’s unsafe, and impersonal. How do you feel about online billing?

I’m always hearing about people having their bills directly taken out, or going online to pay bill with a credit card, debit card, or e-statements. I am very skeptical about paying my bills online. I know they say it’s safe, but I personally feel like once you have it on the internet anybody can find it and access it. Some people may only use it for your money, but others than can take it farther and steel your identity.

But my sister has always paid a good portion of her bills online and she has never run into a problem with theft. It’s one less step she says. Instead of having to write out the check, and mail it in, it come directly out of your account in a very short process.

What do you find better, paying your bills online or doing it the old fashion way writing out a check and sending it through the mail? On top of that I feel like online bill pay is just one more process that eliminates interactions between people. I’m still undecided if it’s actually safe or not, but I slowly am starting to do it more.

ONE TREE HILL

                For anyone who doesn’t know One Tree Hill is the best show ever. One Tree Hill has been on tv since 2003 and is currently going to be on its ninth season. It was created by Mark Schwahn.  One Tree Hill is a story based off a Tree hill located in North Carolina. The shows first story line began around the lives of two half brothers. Lucas is one and Nathan is the other. Nathan was raised by their shared father (dan) and his new wife, but Lucas was raised by him mother and his uncle Keith who is Dan’s brother. Lucas any Nathan share a farther, but they both share the loved to play basketball as well.

The first few season of one tree hill focused on the lives of the main characters going through high school. Some of the main characters were Payton, Brooke, Hayley, Mouth, Lucas, Nathan, and Skills. It had lots of drama between people breaking up and getting back together. In recent season, it has shown the lives of the main characters grown up and how they have moved on and started their careers.

One thing I really like about One Tree Hill is how they involved musicians and bands into the show. Being and playing music on One Tree Hill has help many of artists come up. Gavin DeGraw and Kate Vogel were very involved in playing music on the show.  The show has a club called TRIC were many famous singers have guessed starred on the show and played at the club.

It’s very sad to know that this year the final season of One Tree Hill will be coming to an end. Although it’s just a television show, it relates many of the issues the characters had to issues normal people can have. I personally like the earlier season better, but overall it’s a good show. I definitely suggest if you haven’t watched it, to give it a try!

Village INN :)

If you ever in New Holstein, Wisconsin make sure you stop by Village Inn. Village Inn is an amazing restaurant. It has all different options of food. They are known for the famous steak sandwich, but they have plenty of other delicious food. They have pizza, chicken, burgers, fries, and much much more.

The best thing to get at Village Inn, is their taco pizza. It’s the most amazing thing you can eat. I haven’t found a place anywhere else that has better taco pizza. In order to eat the taco pizza you need the sour cream you top it off. Some people put taco sauce on it, but I’m not a fan of the taco sauce.  I always order my pizza, with a side of fries. The fries there are nice and crispy, but the insides are soft and yummy.

Village inn is a really friendly place; the Desombre’s are the nicest people you will ever meet. Tim is always there whenever I go and he is really pleasant. Although sometimes there services aren’t in tip top shape, they get the job done. They aren’t constantly on you, they let you breath and eat your food. Some people may look at that as bad service but I like the really relaxed environment.

Every time I go to village in, it’s a great time. It’s a restaurant that welcomes all, you don’t feel excluded when going there. They have very family friendly as well. Although they remodeled recently they now have a bar inside of it for the adults as well. So the next time you’re in New Holstein stop in at village in for the great food!

Facebook

Obviously a good portion of people have face book or some type of social networking group they belong too.  Social networking has been around for a long time. I remember when I was younger how I would msn messenger with my friends, put up my display pictures and talk to all my friends. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. As I grew older I joined other social networking site. One being MySpace, and then eventually joining face book. I wonder how much face book impacts people’s lives.

Face book has a lot of positive aspects to it. It allows you to find old friends, keep in touch with family, and share your life with people you know. It allows you to put your feelings and thoughts out there for someone else to see. I know some people say, it makes them feel better and that people care about them. I really enjoy looking at pictures of my family and friends and I’m sure many other people do as well.

Each time I go on face book, I find myself to be annoyed and seeing the negativity in it. I see girls and guys who are constantly updating their status, where they are, and who they are with.  I just think, like do these people have nothing better to do, or are they addicted to the feeling of knowing that someone could potentially like their status or comment on their pictures. These people are so involved in the social networking it scares me. It’s like some people put so much out there, that someone could easily come find them and kidnap them or kill them.  Not only bad things like that, but I see the bullying on face book, and how hurtful kids can be to each other. I’ve read the stories about teenagers killing themselves over face book problems.

I guess I’m wondering why do people get so involved in face book and the cyber world.  Will there ever be a limited to how much information you should be allowed to have out there and what you are able to say on there.  When will there be a cut off, or will the problems get worse? If you had to pick do you think face book is positive or a negative??

harmful or hurtfull?

Today, I spent some time with my family. We went to Meuer’s farm. This is a farm that has activities for kids. You could go on a hay ride, go through a corn maze, shoot corn cobs out of a gun, have duck races, go down the tube slide, and lastly see the animals. The farm is a fun time for kids. While I was there I began to recognize the use of technology.

I had gone through the first potion of the corn maze, but my 1 year old niece was getting tired, so I stayed back with her and sat at the picnic table right outside of the maze. While at the corn maze I started to observe the people.

The first group of people I observed was a family a mom, dad, and son. The son was no older than 10. The first thing I realized was how much technology they all had been using or had along. The dad has his phone with an ear piece, the mom had her smart phone with an I-pod. Finally I looked at the boy and he also had a cell phone and a pretty high tech compass. As I listened to their conversation I learned that the boy was getting yelled at for making prank phone calls with his friend earlier that day. The mom told him the dangers of his phone being traced and someone being able to find him, or the police coming and the possibility of him getting into trouble.  I thought at that point, maybe it wasn’t such a smart idea to allow your 10 year old to have a cell phone. They carried on their conversation; the dad was talking to the son about his compass and how to use it. Then I thought it was a good idea to bring the compass and a great way to teach your son about directions.

The next group of people I observed was two older women, around the age of 60. One of the women was sitting at the picnic table watching the other. She was watching the women try to figure out how to answer her cell phone. So she suggested to her friend to hit the send button, but that didn’t stop the phone from ringing. The phone eventually stopped ringing. I then thought to myself, maybe this woman shouldn’t have a cell phone if she doesn’t know how to answer it.

Then I saw a grandpa and his granddaughter coming up to the corn maze. They had walky talkies. I thought that was really cool, the grandpa was going to stand outside of the corn maze and read the clues to the granddaughter as she worked her way through the maze.  I felt using these walky talkies was a great and beneficial way to use technology.

As the day went on I kept paying attention to technology and the way it was use. Sometimes it was helpful and beneficial and in other cases it was more harmful than anything. I know when I was growing up I grew up with a lot more technology then my parents. Although I grew up with it, I still remember my parents sending me outside to play, and I couldn’t come in until way later, I wasn’t able to sit inside and watch tv or play video games. I just think as I watch my nieces and nephew grow up is technology really helping them or hurting them, not only them but society as a whole.  My questions; is technology helpful or harmful? Does it really truly benefit us?