USCity.Net Employee Blog

Double Pleasure, Double Fun, Double Blessings!

2011-07-07T17:38:00.006-04:00

We are doubly blessed here at uscity.net - Two babies in two months! This first picture is the son of Delanie (one of our submission queens) and the second is the grandson of our affiliate manager, Sue.

We wish them both health, happiness and a life of love and laughter!

Happy Fourth of July

2011-07-04T05:41:00.002-04:00

Wishing you a safe and happy 4th!!!

The Crawfords Get a White Christmas... and more

2011-01-09T16:31:00.004-05:00

It was Grandparents’ Heaven – All of our kids and grandkids together in one place for Christmas. And Santa actually KNEW where they were!

We are a born and raised in Florida family and this was our first White Christmas A large cabin on the side of a mountain and waking up Christmas morning to snow falling was like a dream come true. We were astounded by it and sat inside watching it fall all day. Some of us ventured out to play and walk in it.

We helped each other, loved each other and were reminded of what family is all about. I loved putting up the Christmas ornaments with the little ones helping me. The teamwork in the kitchen, helping each other, and taking turns cooking all added to our pleasure.

We had fun nights playing games, shooting pool in front of the fireplace (the cabin came complete with a pool table), laughing and having a wonderful time. We enjoyed playing Xbox games which we brought along too.

The snow and ice was amazing (although a challenge to drive in) – the first day we got there everything was normal, just very cold, the next day the lake was frozen and when you threw a rock at it, the ice would break and we could watch the hole it made and the air pockets that moved around under the ice, or the rock would slide across the surface and make a cool sound.

We walked in the “poof, poof” snow and hiked to the top of the mountain to check out the "Best View in Georgia" and it may very well be… very beautiful. We couldn’t figure out how to build a snowman. But we finally did it with big chunks of snow that were on the side of the road after the snowplow trucks went by – he did have a kind a cone head – but he was OURS! For some reason we couldn’t roll the snow like it shows in all the movies! Must be a northern thing.

Being in and seeing the snow-covered ground, the tree tops covered, everything white was something I will never forget, but the best part of all was having all of my kids and grandkids together in a magical place like that for a few days. Definitely a holiday we will all remember...

Happy Holidays to ALL!

2010-12-20T11:58:00.003-05:00

Wishing you a joyous, loving holiday!

Click on the link above to see our holiday wishes for you all!

Have a Safe and Happy Halloween!!!!

2010-10-27T17:44:00.004-04:00

We here at uscity.net wish all of you a very Happy Halloween. This year Halloween falls on a weekend, which means more traffic and more adult parties, so drivers, be on the lookout for kids darting in and out of the streets and parents, please keep an eye on your children, especially the middle and high schoolers who often stay out later.

Here are some other tips for making tonight a treat for all of us:

If you are driving:
1. Watch for children darting out from between parked cars.
2. Watch for children walking on roadways, medians and curbs.
3. Enter and exit driveways and alleys carefully.
4. At twilight and later in the evening, watch for children in dark clothing.
5. Remember to have a designated driver if you will be drinking.

If you are a parent or guardian:
1. Make sure that an adult or an older responsible youth will be supervising the outing for children under age 12.
2. Plan and discuss the route trick-or-treaters intend to follow. Know the names of older children's companions.
3. Instruct your children to travel only in familiar areas and along an established route.
4. Teach your children to stop only at houses or apartment buildings that are well-lit and never to enter a anyone’s home.
5. Establish a return time.
6. Tell your youngsters not to eat any treat until they return home.
7. Review all appropriate trick-or-treat safety precautions, including pedestrian/traffic safety rules.
8. Pin a slip of paper with the child's name, address and phone number inside a pocket in case the youngster gets separated from the group.

The Costume:
1. Costumes should be loose so warm clothes can be worn underneath.
2. Costumes should not be so long that they are a tripping hazard. (Falls are the leading cause of unintentional injuries on Halloween.)
3. If children are allowed out after dark, outfits should be made with light colored materials. Strips of reflective tape should be used to make children visible.
4. Since masks can limit or completely remove vision, most safety experts agree that face paint is safer than masks.
5. When buying special Halloween makeup, check for packages containing ingredients that are labeled "Made with U.S. Approved Color Additives," "Laboratory Tested," Meets Federal Standards for Cosmetics," or "Non-Toxic." Follow manufacturer's instruction for application. Remember that some children may be allergic to ingredients in face paint - "non-toxic" does not mean it is safe for skin or FDA approved. Also, washable refers to fabric, not skin.
6. If masks are worn, they should have nose and mouth openings and large eye holes.
7. Accessories Knives, swords and other accessories should be made from cardboard or flexible materials. Do not allow children to carry sharp objects.
8. Bags or sacks carried by youngsters should be light-colored or trimmed with retro-reflective tape if children are allowed out after dark.
9. Carrying flashlights will help children see better and be seen more clearly.

What the kids should know:
1. Do not enter homes or apartments without adult supervision.
2. Walk, do not run, from house to house. Do not cross yards and lawns where unseen objects or the uneven terrain can present tripping hazards.
3. Walk on sidewalks, not in the street.
4. Walk on the left side of the road, facing traffic if there are no sidewalks.

Before and After:
1. Give children an early meal before going out.
2. Insist that treats be brought home for inspection before anything is eaten.
3. Wash fruit and slice into small pieces.
4. When in doubt, throw it out.

HAVE FUN!

545 People Responsible for All of America's Woes

2010-09-14T11:23:00.000-04:00

I got this forwarded to me for the umpteenth time the other day from someone I admire and although I had received it before, I really read it this time. Of course that was after I went to Snopes.com, Googled it and checked Wikipedia to make sure it was legit and it was... sort of. It seems that people have added some of their own editing, but as far as I can find out, below is the author’s 1995 updated version.

Charley Reese was a syndicated columnist and wrote this while working in Florida for the Orlando Sentinel newspaper and according to Snopes.com, he wrote this originally in 1985 and updated it throughout the years. It’s amazing how on point it still is. Will we ever learn??

All my fellow citizens should read it now and re-read it in November before we cast our ballots.

It's called The 545 People Responsible for All of America's Woes, and I hope you like it too.

The 545 People Responsible For All Of America's Woes
By Charley Reese

Politicians, as I have often said, are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Everything on the Republican contract is a problem created by Congress. Too much bureaucracy? Blame Congress. Too many rules?

Blame Congress. Unjust tax laws? Congress wrote them.

Out-of-control bureaucracy? Congress authorizes everything bureaucracies do. Americans dying in Third World rat holes on stupid U.N. missions? Congress allows it. The annual deficits?

Congress votes for them. The $4 trillion plus debt? Congress created it.

To put it into perspective just remember that 100 percent of the power of the federal government comes from the U.S. Constitution. If it's not in the Constitution, it's not authorized.

Then read your Constitution. All 100 percent of the power of the federal government is invested solely in 545 individual human beings. That's all. Of 260 million Americans, only 545 of them wield 100 percent of the power of the federal government.

That's 435 members of the U.S. House, 100 senators, one president and nine Supreme Court justices. Anything involving government that is wrong is 100 percent their fault.

I exclude the vice president because constitutionally he has no power except to preside over the Senate and to vote only in the case of a tie. I exclude the Federal Reserve because Congress created it and all its power is power Congress delegated to it and could withdraw anytime it chooses to do so. In fact, all the power exercised by the 3 million or so other federal employees is power delegated from the 545.

All bureaucracies are created by Congress or by executive order of the president. All are financed and staffed by Congress. All enforce laws passed by Congress. All operate under procedures authorized by Congress. That's why all complaints and protests should be properly directed at Congress, not at the individual agencies.

You don't like the IRS? Go see Congress. You think the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency is running amok? Go see Congress.

Congress is the originator of all government problems and is also the only remedy available. That's why, of course, politicians go to such extraordinary lengths and employ world-class sophistry to make you think they are not responsible. Anytime a congressman pretends to be outraged by something a federal bureaucrat does, he is in fact engaging in one big massive con job. No federal employee can act at all except to enforce laws passed by Congress and to employ procedures authorized by Congress either explicitly or implicitly.

Partisans on both sides like to blame presidents for deficits, but all deficits are congressional deficits. The president may, by custom, recommend a budget, but it carries no legal weight. Only Congress is authorized by the Constitution to authorize and appropriate and to levy taxes. That's what the federal budget consists of: expenditures authorized, funds appropriated and taxes levied.

Both Democrats and Republicans mislead the public. For 40 years Democrats had majorities and could have at any time balanced the budget if they had chosen to do so. Republicans now have majorities and could, if they choose, pass a balanced budget this year. Every president, Democrat or Republican, could have vetoed appropriations bills that did not make up a balanced budget. Every president could have recommended a balanced budget. None has done either.

We have annual deficits and a huge federal debt because that's what majorities in Congress and presidents in the White House wanted. We have troops in various Third World rat holes because Congress and the president want them there.

Don't be conned. Don't let them escape responsibility. We simply have to sort through 260 million people until we find 545 who will act responsibly.

Opportunity for Change

2010-07-23T15:29:00.004-04:00

What do you do when you the economy has taken away your means of living and you are a single parent with a little girl to take care of? Well, as one of uscity.net’s newest members Lisa (owner of Hug Bug Children's Boutique in Maryland), says: You can – Number One: Sit there and cry because bad things happened to you OR Number Two: Fix it and move on!

Lisa decided to take the latter option and move on with her life. Lisa says:

“As an only parent, I wanted my little girl to see that sometimes what seems like a bad situation is actually an opportunity for change! So I filed for unemployment benefits and for my business license right behind it! After that I started just walking up to women with children and giving them my phone number and telling them my plan for a consignment/resale store for children.”

With the economy reeling, her idea took off. Within a month she was in her own store, which is run by her and her three year old daughter. Hug Bug Children’s Boutique sells name brand children's and maternity apparel, toys, furniture and anything else that applies. On the shelves and racks are tutus, pillow case dresses, bows, organize zebra baking kits, Tatari jewelry, musical instruments and more. The shop is now carrying new, as well as gently used items. At this great new shop that was built with the spirit of a pioneer - breaking new ground and not giving up - there are special discounts given on top of the already discounted prices, like 10% off every day for military families. Grandparents Day at Hug Bug is every first and third Tuesday of the month, and all grandparents get 10% off.

The store is very bright and colorful and also includes a play area!

Please visit Lisa and her daughter whenever you get a chance. The store is located at 6501 Crain Highway in Laplata, Maryland. Or you can call Hug Bug Children’s Boutique at 240-776-4655 to find out what they have in the store or what specials they are running.

Have a Happy and Safe July 4

2010-06-04T03:30:00.000-04:00

All of us here at uscity.net wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July Weekend!

Maybe today would be a good day to read the Declaration of Independence (The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America) - just click on this sentence!

About the Declaration of Independence

In the summer of 1776, the colonists' building desire for independence from England became an echoing call to action. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, which was then edited by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Jefferson took their edits and incorporated them into what would become the version finally adopted. A call was made and on July 4, 1776 the 2nd Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence and soon the document was engrossed on parchment and 56 representatives from 13 colonies signed it.

Should we be celebrating July 2 or July 4 or August 2?

July 2, 1776 is the day that the Continental Congress actually voted for independence. John Adams, in his writings, even noted that July 2 would be remembered in the annals of American history and would be marked with fireworks and celebrations. The written Declaration of Independence was dated July 4 but wasn't actually signed until August 2. Fifty-six delegates eventually signed the document, although all were not present on that day in August.

Remember to be safe...

As we celebrate the USA's Independence, please remember to be safe while driving and especially as we celebrate with fireworks. Here are a few tips to make us safe while using fireworks~

• Never allow young children to play with or ignite fireworks.
• Make sure fireworks are legal in your area before buying or using them.
• Avoid buying fireworks that come in brown paper packaging, as this can often be a sign that the fireworks were made for professional displays and could pose a danger to consumers.
• Adults should always supervise fireworks activities. Parents often don't realize that there are many injuries from sparklers to children under five. Sparklers burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees - hot enough to melt some metals.
• Never have any portion of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse. Move back to a safe distance immediately after lighting.
• Never try to re-light or pick up fireworks that have not fully functioned.
• Never point or throw fireworks at another person.
• Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy in case of fire or other mishap.
• Light one item at a time then move back quickly.
• Never carry fireworks in a pocket or shoot them off in metal or glass containers.
• After fireworks fully complete their functioning, douse the spent device with plenty of water from a bucket or hose before discarding to prevent a trash fire.

WISHING A HAPPY, HAPPY WEEKEND TO ALL OF YOU FROM USCITY.NET

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T15:28:00.000-04:00

To all Mothers and those who have been like a Mother to someone, USCITY.NET wishes you a very Happy Mother's Day!

May is Deck Safety Month

2010-05-02T15:27:00.000-04:00

Thanks to our Virginia member, Casa Decks, for this helpful info and links to get our decks in shape for summer:

May is National Deck Safety Month as sponsored by NADRA (North American Deck and Railing Association). The concept is to promote awareness of deck safety and to provide consumer information in order to assist in inspecting their deck prior to the outdoor entertaining season. It is important to take the time to inspect and review due to potential aging of the structures and deterioration over time.

More information about Deck Safety Month, a ten point Consumer Safety Checklist and a Deck Evaluation Checklist are available for download at www.nadra.org. Make your summer season safe by participating in NADRA’s "Check Your Deck" program.

As my cousin would say: Blessed Calan Mai (roughly transalted: Blessings on the beginning of summer)

2010-04-04T15:26:00.000-04:00

A VERY HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

Our Apologies

2010-03-18T15:25:00.000-04:00

We would like to let everyone know how sorry we are about our site being down yesterday. We are sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused to anyone. According to our IT Department, "our main power tower melted down and our equipment went off line. We have fixed the problem and our site is back up and serving you."

If you tried to reach us or were unable to use our directory, again, we apologize.

Please try us again and we appreciate your understanding.

Evolution of the Screen Porch

2010-02-24T15:21:00.000-05:00

We caught one of our new members, Casa Decks of SE Virginia, reminiscing and wanted to share it with you. I especially liked the last part about your porch being a second living room, because that is exactly how I feel about mine:

Looking back over the last 15+ years that Casa Decks has been building decks and screen rooms in Suffolk, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach; we have noticed a distinct evolving of screen porches to true outdoor living rooms (screen porches to screen rooms).

When we first started building, the standard screen room had open rafters, was constructed using pressure treated wood with stretched screen, and had a ceiling fan centered over a patio table. Often they were low pitch shed roofs without gutters. If the interior ceilings were finished, they were normally without insulation and covered with plywood or T-111.

Fast forward to today and the patio furniture has given way to padded wicker furniture with accent rugs. Ceilings are now cathedral, insulated, and covered with t&g; wood or vinyl. The ceiling fan has remained, but may now be remote controlled with recessed lights on a dimmer circuit replacing the schoolhouse light fixture on the fan.

Ease of maintenance has become standard with no exposed wood, use of aluminum or vinyl tracked screening systems, and the ceiling insulated for both sound and heat factors. Care is now taken to match the architectural style of the home and matching the trim (soffit, fascia, gutters, etc.). This trend has continued, in that a large percentage now has matching brick skirting and use tongue and groove porch flooring

The trend as we have seen it is from the porch to a true outdoor living room. More photos of screen rooms can be seen at www.casadecks.com.

Good-Bye 2009 - Welcoming 2010

2010-01-01T09:06:00.000-05:00

We wish you all a very Happy 2010 with health, happiness and that which makes you truly happy.

We also send our sincere gratitude for all who supported USCITY.NET and thank you for listing your businesses with us and using our directory to find what you want. We are committed to creating a community of businesses with values and quality products that make us happy to work hard to provide you with what we hope is the best experience in finding businesses in the USA and finding what you are looking for in an efficient way.

Our membership sign-ups almost doubled in 2009 from 2008. We are very thankful for that and we certainly hope that being listed in our directory is helping all our friends (especially our members and reciprocal link partners) who have asked to be listed in the directory. As we strive to be family friendly and the best directory in the USA, our focus this year was on the small businesses that are the backbone of the US economy and we hope that if you are a business owner or know of a great small business in your area, that you will sign up with us or suggest us to that business.

In trying to keep up with the times, this year have started a twitter account and a facebook page to go along with our year old myspace account. Tweeting is so much fun, even though I am new to the social networking arena, we luckily have some twenty-somethings on the payroll who help us out.

We have added several categories to help visitors to our site find what they are looking faster and easier. Some of the new categories we added in 2009 are Flea Markets, Foreclosures (unfortunately a sign of the times), Broadband, Audiologists, Energy with lots of subcategories like Conservation, Solar and Wind. Audio Visual, Air Ambulance, Snow Removal for our northern states and Skateboarding (a suggestion from one of our younger employees). We have lots of skateboarding shops and parks listed too.

As a service to those using our directory, we added ambulances, charities and now are in the process of adding local churches to the directory.

Some of the top cities for new website listings have been Honolulu, Hawaii; Raleigh, North Carolina; Sacramento, California; Phoenix, Arizona; two cities in Florida – Orlando and Miami and two cities in Texas, Houston and Dallas.

We are constantly updating our security and thankfully have had no major problems at all this year – Thanks to Bill, Rusty and Tyson.

Our founder, Rusty Crawford sends this message:
We look forward to another year of building the best directory on the planet. We are all committed to continually develop uscity.net into a more useful business and resource directory. The uscity.net directory is a beacon for small businesses that are lost in the web and the it's billions of pages. It is simple, and easy for any small business owner to add their listing.

Our hope to all this year is that if you do business with us, it helps you and that we make your business dealings with us as pleasant as possible. If you have a problem, please let us know and we will try and make it better. If you are happy with our service, please let us know that too. Happy, Happy New Year to Everyone!

Joined in Love - Our Darling Delanie

2009-10-27T17:15:00.001-04:00

Our darling Delanie got herself married on Saturday. She found her soulmate, her one true love, Colin Irvine, and they were married in a beautiful wedding on Spruce Creek. The couple was radiant and we wish them all the best.
Delanie and Colin, I hope that your marriage will last a lifetime and that as you share your innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams, your love grows stronger each day. Cherish each other always.

Speech Therapy

2009-09-09T08:51:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I just have to spout off--- and last week was one of those times. Following is my letter to the editor of our newspaper, which they chose not to print. And they *always* print my letters! Maybe it was the goat thing. Too much? Still, I felt better for having written it, and am passing it on to you on this momentous day.

Well, wash my brain and hang it out to dry. I do believe I've heard it all. A small but vocal faction of our citizenry, including Florida's own Jim Greer, is objecting to President Obama's upcoming address to the schools, decrying his speech as the brainwashing of America's youth, and the promotion of a socialist agenda. Huh? I thought "work hard" and "stay in school" were generally accepted,even cherished,American values. Apparently not to these folks, many of whom, in fact, plan to keep their kids out of school that day as a sort of "you can't make me" response to the President's message. This vocal minority got me to thinking about the history behind United States Presidents and their conversations with America's children.

Contrary to the reports of folks who groove on turning up the fear, like nationally syndicated talk show host Alex Jones, President Obama's address to students is not unprecedented. In fact, it doesn't earn any points at all for innovation, having been the practice of every Republican president since 1981. I always thought that those broadcasts were meant to encourage students in citizenship, patriotism, and respect for our country. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe there is a subversive underbelly to it all. I do seem to recall that President George W. Bush was reading a book about goats--a frisky little farm animal which also happens to have long symbolized the darkest of spiritual elements-- to a classroom of elementary school students at the very moment that the horrific events of September 11 were unfolding. At that time, I considered the story to be an age appropriate, curriculum related piece of literature.

But now that the power abusive, brainwashing agenda of leaders of the free world has been brought to my attention, I can only wonder--was it coincidence or conspiracy? His father, President George H.W. Bush, addressed the school children of America in 1991, urging them to--uh--"work hard" and "stay in school". Again, at the time, I thought President Bush did a pretty good job of getting an important message across to students. But now my curiosity is piqued. If I were to play his speech backwards, would it say "Paul is dead?" If memory serves me, I do believe that President Reagan also addressed America's school children, and on several occasions. At the time, I felt him compassionate and communicative, but now that the True Executive Agenda has come to light, I realize how naive and unsuspecting I was. I am seriously reconsidering my stance on this. After all, Jim Greer says that I should be appalled that the taxpayer's money goes to fund Presidential broadcasts.

It all sounds pretty silly in this light, doesn't it? Well, that's exactly what the spin on President Obama's upcoming speech is--political nonsense. Only this time, children are involved in the spin. We have come to a sorry state of affairs in our country when we polarize and propagandize our children in order to promote political agendas. And that is exactly what is going on. Is that really what--and how-- we choose to teach them?

JR

RIP Senator Ted Kennedy

2009-08-26T11:28:00.004-04:00

Ordinary Americans, like me, are deeply saddened today by the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. I consider myself a middle class ordinary American. I have never known government without a Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy was only one of a handful of politicians whom I would trust to use government for helping the us - the middle class. I fear that his passing will cause us to be far worse off than when he was watching over the laws that passed.

And, will bipartisanship ever be? Although Obama and McCain both bellowed about their bipartisanship during their campaigns, it was Senator Ted Kennedy who demonstrated it throughout his political life.

President Obama said it well: "Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time."

My sincerest and deepest sympathies to the Kennedys, Teddy's extended family and the country. R.I.P. Senator Kennedy.

Radical Honesty, What A Concept!

2009-06-25T10:47:00.001-04:00

"Have we become so adept at lying, that we've forgotten that we are, in fact, lying?"

On Friday, January 16th, 1999 John Stossel of the ABC 20/20 News team did a story on Brad Blanton's book "Radical Honesty: How to transform your life by telling the truth." I watched it because I wanted to find out what exactly he meant by "radical."

As it turns out, Radical Honesty is ....well....honesty. What astounded me most about the program was that people thought telling the truth was a radical idea. Don't you find that just a bit odd?

At the end of the story, Barbara Walters even warned viewers, "don't try this at home without someone trained in this." Tears ran down my face as I rocked with laughter and disbelief. Don't try this at home?!? Honesty?!?

Are we so lost that we regard honesty as a dangerous pursuit without a trained "non-liar" at our sides?? Has the world become so warped that we consider telling the truth, a dangerous exercise? It seemed extremely bizarre to me.

But upon reflection, maybe it's not so bizarre. Haven't all of us been taught that it's better to lie to someone than to hurt their feelings? That there are just some things you simply never, never tell another? We're not supposed to tell anyone when we've had an extramarital affair, especially not our spouse. And God forbid we’re honest with each other about sexual matters.

But have we become so adept at lying, that we've forgotten that we are, in fact, lying? Have we forgotten how to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Perhaps we were taught to lie because we as a society believe we actually CAN hurt another emotionally. We believe we have the power to make another person feel something emotionally. "You know how it is when you decide to lie and say the check is in the mail, and then you remember it really is? I'm like that all the time."
- Steven Wright

So who's responsible for how we or another chooses to respond to words? If you truly had the power to make people feel certain emotions, then you should be able to create other people's reactions at will. If you said the same thing to a thousand people, you should be able to get an identical emotional response from all of them, right? But the fact is, you’d get as many different responses as there are people. Each would react according to their belief systems and interpretations of your meaning.

Let’s do a silly exercise. Lets go around the country saying, "you have a big fat behind" to everyone we meet, regardless of their physical size. Men, women and children - no one escapes our little experiment.

Now, what do you think the reactions would be? You'd think most would be upset, wouldn't you? But you'll find some children will run away, and some will giggle. Some women will breakdown right in front of you and some will smile and say thank you. Some men will knock your lights out, and some
Will look at you like you've lost your mind. One statement, thousands of reactions.

The surprising thing is, the size of their derrière wont even be the deciding factor in how they respond. Some people think their tuckus is huge, even though they're tiny. In some cultures, large bottoms are considered attractive. Some people LIKE them.

So where is your power? What about your ability to make someone feel angry or hurt?

Seems each individual you spoke to, made the decision about how they would respond. People's responses are based on many factors, all of which are personal and have nothing to do with you.

If people understood everyone is responsible for their own emotions, we'd feel freer to say what we think and feel. Most times, it's our own lack of trust in ourselves to be able to deal with other's reactions, that is the stumbling block to our honesty. "How will I feel if this person reacts badly" we ask ourselves. "I might feel guilty, so I'll tell a little lie."

Because face it, sometimes people will get angry and hurt in reaction to our honesty. But the alternative of living lives filled with lies is not much of an alternative. We end up walking around on eggshells, monitoring our every word, and trying to predict how others might respond. It's a slow, awkward process of communication.

I agree with Dr. Blanton. Honesty about everything truly does open the doors to intimacy, love, and dynamic relationships. Without it, we're all just actors on a stage, reading our scripted lines. And to some degree, I think everyone knows we're pretending to be truthful. It's like we're all walking around holding dead chickens in our hands, making deals with each other.

"Pretend you don't see my chicken, and I'll pretend I don't see yours." It's a scam, but one we're pulling over our own eyes.

I have this impossible dream about everyone on earth standing up, and all at the same time shouting out, "I'm a liar!” And as we all look at each other, we could start anew and begin fresh. Then, we could continue our lives with a willingness to trust that its okay to think and feel what we do, and have
the courage to speak our truth.

Imagine being real and genuine with each other. Imagine what the world would be like if you could actually believe what people tell you. It might get a bit rocky at times, but it would "radically" change the world.

So maybe honesty is a radical idea in this day and age, but let us do our part in "telling the truth" so honesty becomes common place. The love that would follow would be far from common.

Brenda

2009-06-23T11:58:00.000-04:00

Hello!

My name is Brenda and I am a mommy of a little red head named Breanna. She is my little angel and means absolutely everything to me.
I enjoy being able to stay home with her. Working here at uscity.net gives me that opportunity. I was working for an ice cream shop but, now I'm happy to say that I was able to quit that job. I clean condos every Saturday morning. It's really good money if you do a lot of them. I just went through a divorce... that was fun... I have seven dogs. No need for a security system... come to my house and you'll see/hear why..... I enjoy going to the beach and playing pool. I ride my bike a lot which really chills me out. I just recently lost over 60 pounds... pretty proud of myself for that. I love my friends and family. I live with my boyfriend Shea He's amazing. Besides my daughter, he's the best thing that's ever happened to me. He and his family are a major blessing in my life. In the future I hope to go back to school. I'd like to get my nursing degree someday.
For now, I'm taking life one day at a time.

~*Brenda*~

New Orleans

2009-02-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

I am just back from a spur of the moment trip to New Orleans I took with my husband, who was seeing about an out of state job. We had a terrific time. We ate red beans and rice, jambalaya, muffalatos, po'boys, seafood and of course, beignets (a fried French pastry we ate at the world famous Café Du Mond). Food is a very important part of New Orleans (also something I am way to fond of!) and we tried our best to taste all we could in the three days we were there. To visit some of the websites of the many restaurants in New Orleans, click here. We rode the streetcars everywhere and it was FREEZING. We walked along the Mississippi, hung out in Jackson Square (photo above) and window shopped in the antique/gift/voodoo stores. They have great old bookstores too.
One of the really cool things about this trip was how the streetcars took us everywhere we wanted to go. This is me all bundled up on the streetcar.

I loved the live music - jazz, blues, rock, rap, opera - you name it, they got it - would you believe that the only type of music I did not hear was zydeco! I just now realized it. But we did meet a true blue French Creole who played the 'frottoir',(a washboard with no wooden frame and two straps that go on your shoulders, you strum it either with thimbles on your fingers, just your fingers or sometimes a whisk broom. We were just walking down the street and listening to all the bands - sometimes dancing in the street (mostly me dancing, and George holding me - LOL) and we did stop in one blues bar on our last night there - before we could get to our seats, the singer grabbed me and started whirling me around the dance floor while he sang to me, George didn't even know and he kept on walking to his seat, it was really funny. After their set, the bass player came over and sat with us for a while and we heard his Katrina and the aftermath story. Sadly, he had lost an uncle, the uncle who started him out playing his music. Our hearts went out to him and to all these people affected by Katrina and its’ aftermath and we felt honored to meet them, share their memories with them and learn their stories.

My favorite part of New Orleans was the people we met -- almost all of them had been through Katrina and they were so upbeat about their lives, it made me ashamed. No "poor pitiful me" for them, they were happy to be home (even if there was no physical home) and ready to re-build - their lives and their community. We met one guy who had seen dead bodies floating down the street next to the hotel where we stayed and one whose neighborhood was entirely wiped out. They are a lively, patient, spiritual bunch.

Hurricane Katrina took over 1800 lives and displaced almost one million people, many residents of lower-income areas like the 9th Ward, are permanently displaced because they have no money to rebuild. Some of these people had homeowners insurance, but because of loopholes and laws which allowed insurance companies to NOT pay them, they will not be able to rebuild and some not even able to come “home”.

According to those we met, the French Quarter was up and running very soon after the storm and the people we met, most of whom had either rebuilt or lost their home, understood that the area needed to put money into tourism because that would be the best way to bring money back to their area. The businesses on Bourbon Street and around Jackson Square were the first to open.

We also visited Audubon Park in the Garden Districtand walked around, enjoying the live oaks and swans. On our way to New Orleans, we stopped in Biloxi and went into our first casino. We liked the Hard Rock the best. We stayed across the street and lost $6.00, gambling, decided to go get some snacks at the bar in the hotel and I found $50.00 on the floor. So I guess I will take my luck where I find it. Lucky is what I feel for getting to know the good people of New Orleans and I wish for them only the best and hope that we get a chance to meet again.

On the way home, we stopped in Mississippi at a state park and ate some muffalatos we had gotten in New Orleans. Mmmmmmmmmuffalatos - what a sandwich!

For more information on what to do and see around the New Orleans area, visit the New Orleans City Guide by clicking on this sentence.

George on Bourbon Street

Kristina Launches Psycho-T

2008-10-17T09:24:00.003-04:00

Hello, My name is Kristina Mangiafico. I graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Exercise Science with the intention of attending medical school within the following 2 years. I worked as a medical assistant for a while and enjoyed helping others. I enjoyed educating patients about their medications and maintaining good health. It was a fantastic experience, and although I could have seen myself doing it as my career… the stresses, the paperwork, and all the time that a doctor has to put in and give up just is not for me! I realized I can do great things, but as far as medical school, it’s not for me.

Post graduation, I found myself confused and unsure of anything in my life. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and moved, it seemed every two to three months. I moved to New Smyrna Beach then Tallahassee back to New Smyrna and now I reside in Tampa.

While transitioning I did some reminiscing on the things I loved and made me happy. For so long, I had suppressed my creative side; I had forgotten how much I enjoyed art, photography, design, and everything that is so innately me. When caught up in studies and work, you can forget about the things that are most important in your life.

Working for USCity.net has given me the flexibility that I needed after college. Due to my ability to set my own hours, I was able to also step back and look at where I want to go with my life.

USCity.net has inspired me to pursue new avenues… avenues that I always dreamt of but never thought possible for a small-town girl like me.

I recently started designing and making clothing. I am now on the web with my website psychot.samsbiz.com and am hoping that something comes of that. If not, at least I gave it a go doing what I love. I design hand-made inkblot inspired images on t-shirts that available for purchase as well as made to order. I have a passion for creativity and I only want to take my concepts and designs to the next level.
Some of my other designs

Company Fun at the Ballgame

2008-08-18T09:14:00.001-04:00

We are just back from a uscity.net company outing! We went to Jackie Robinson stadium in Daytona Beach for a barbecue, ballgame and fireworks afterwards. It was very nice getting together with everyone. The weather was a warm, but we had a little breeze from the river and once the sun went down, it was nice. It was Dr. Carithers’ (who is one of our biggest fans and one of our favorite people) birthday, and we had a birthday cake along with the hot dogs, hamburgers and pulled pork.

And, the best surprise of the night was Koda Crawford, who came walking up (no wheelchair, no cane - just her newly healed hip and her adorable little legs!). Way to go Koda! She was walking slowly but she WAS WALKING!

Her Dad sent us the photo of her super-woman hip!
I enjoyed getting to know Linda better and sitting with Kristina, who is a blast to go anywhere with.

The ballgame was between the minor league Daytona Cubs, who lost and... I can’t remember the name of the other team, but remember that it shared a name with a Florida county (was it the Brevards?). The employees’ kids had fun playing games and entering contests all night long. We really enjoyed the fireworks afterwards, which were longer and bigger and much LOUDER than I expected.

Everyone I have talked to had a great time and are looking forward to getting together again soon.

Migrant Missions

2008-07-30T09:07:00.004-04:00

Here's the group after beachfront worship one night

In case you’re wondering why June had so few blog entries, with help from many, I arranged and took the New Smyrna Beach United Church of Christ’s Senior High youth group (Teens in Action) on two mission trips this month.

The first trip was to an area in southwestern Florida called Immokalee, where we helped repair a roof for a very sweet lady whose roof had been damaged in Hurricane Wilma (2005). Her roof had been repaired by a friend, but has been leaking for two years. We were joined by 35 youth from United Church of Christ Churches from all over Florida. She was living in a suburb of Immokalee. The trip into Immokalee was an eye-opener for me; we saw terrible living conditions - the farm- workers were living together in very old, small, sometimes rusting trailers and paying $50 a week each. There were reports of some trailers housing up to 12 men at a time. Some of the workers are documented and some are not. All the workers I talked to were here to work and they are not afraid of hard labor. Almost every one of the single men were working here to send money back home to their families. Hearing their stories was heartbreaking. Most were not aware of what they would find once they got here. Some saved up for years to pay someone to bring them across the border. One lady who had paid to come to America, tells of once getting here, being sold. Some came, went back and then went through proper channels to become citizens. One man I talked with told the story of coming to Florida for a vacation after graduating high school. He was able to attend school because of the money his father was sending home. While visiting his father, he came and worked a week (since that was the only way to spend time with him), went back home – found conditions in his village worse than here and came back.
IMMOKALEE GROUP (MINUS CHRIS AND MARTHA)!
Immokalee is a town that fluctuates between 200 and 1000 residents depending on where the ripened fruits and vegetables are. In Immokalee, farmworkers pick tomatoes, watermelons, citrus fruit, squash, hot peppers and more. It is a very fertile area of Florida, near the Everglades.

And it is HOT! I was so proud of the kids who were up on the roof with no shade and no complaints (and I am talking about teenagers here!). After our first day of work, there was rainstorm that evening and Margarita, the mother, told me that her little girl (going into 3rd grade), got out her Barbie doll and waited for the bowl in the living room to fill up so she could play with Barbie in the pool – she was disappointed but Margarita was ecstatic. It felt good to help someone who was in need. Margarita works at a nursing home and her husband was on the road picking. She has five children, three of them live at home and after work each day, she baby-sits her grandson so her son and daughter-in-law can go to work at night.

We stayed the First Baptist Church in Immokalee and along with some members of the community, staff from area farmworker ministries and staff of the UCC, we spent a day learning about the lives of workers and residents of Immokalee. We saw and heard from people whose children had been born deformed and with disabilities becausethe farms are using pesticides - some that are illegal. We picked oranges off of the ground and tried to lift the bags the workers carry up and down 10-20 foot ladders – very few could lift the “medium” bag which holds up to 90 pounds. The workers who picked the oranges and grapefruit were very proud of their skill at picking the right fruit, knowing how to hold the bags, their strength and their abilities to climb a ladder, pick the fruit and place it in the bins so that they will not get bruised. It was heartbreaking to think of the lack of pride so many Americans have in their jobs and see these people making less than $10,000 a year so proud of their work.

We also visited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who has been instrumental in getting big corporations to pay 1 cent more per pound to the farmworkers for tomatoes. The workers have not had a raise in pay in 20 years. With boycotts, letter writing campaigns and meetings with corporations, many big companies have agreed to pay 1½ cents more per pound with 1 cent going to the workers and the ½ cent to the grower to cover taxes. One cent per pound does not sound like a lot, but in most cases, it doubled their income.

We had a community party – complete with piñatas, Spanish beans, rice, chicken, cactus salad (mmm, good) and the most delicious burritos I have ever eaten. About six families attended with the cutest, happiest children in tow. It was here we met families, workers, volunteers and residents of Immokalee. I sat with a man who had been a life long resident of Immokalee, a member of the CIW, a volunteer from AmeriCorps and an undocumented immigrant. We talked with the Spanish speaking through interpreters.
As bad as conditions were here, most of the immigrants I talked to said it was better here than in their villages and back home, where there were no jobs available. I went around the room to ask these people what we could do as Americans for them. And some of the answers I got were: “pray for us”, “vote for immigration reform”, “tell people about us”. I was changed, I had always been aware that we needed to help the immigrants, but was more of a “let’s help the workers who come here legally and send the others back with instructions on how to get here legally”. Not any more! I am convinced after meeting the wonderful people of Immokalee that we are in dire need of a pathway to citizenship or some kind of legal status for the farmworkers. They do not report employee abuses for fear of being deported – and this is not just the undocumented workers who live in fear. Those who are American citizens, fear for their grandparents or parents or friends and are afraid to draw any attention from authorities to their families.

Two blocks from where we stood in a “trailer park” where the men were crammed in like sardines, there had been a conviction of human slavery just two weeks ago. 10 men were chained to their trailers at night and only let loose to pick. And all of this goes on one exit away from Naples, the richest city in America. I asked why people in Naples didn’t help and was told that while there are several from there who are involved with the farmworkers plight, most of Naples wanted Immokalee gone – they wanted the farmlands for developing and expansion for the multi-million dollar homes and stores that are so desperately needed by the richest among us.

On our second mission trip, we went to an area near Ruskin (also in southwestern Florida) called Wimauma. We worked at the Beth-El Farmworkers Mission and La Estanzia Apartments (also called the forgotten community. At Beth-El we dug ditches, landscaped, helped in the food pantry and gave out 275 bags of staples, organized a huge tool shed and painted playgrounds and office buildings. Beth-El is a huge ministry - besides the food pantry, they hold classes on computer use; GED classes; Bible classes in Spanish; sponsor a K-8 school with private funds so that anyone can attend; they ride out to area towns and cities to minister to the migrant communities by bringing food and coffee to the workers who get up at 4:30 a.m. to get the parking lots where the busses come to load workers up and take them to the fields; they provide hot meals, respect and love.

On our last day of work, we held a water party for the children of the La Estanzia Apartments – the kids attend a day care center in the community. This is provided by Redlands Christian Migrant Association. The day care center is staffed by volunteers and most children go home around 1 p.m. We bought two kiddie pools, one with a slide and numerous water guns – we let the kids chase us and get us wet and they were sooo happy. These kids are precious – giggling and running around, hollering "more water, more water”. We worked there last year and it was wonderful to see how some had grown and many had learned to speak better English. We can all be proud of the teens and how they loved, cared for and played with the children.

Lots of Love!

Lots of Hugs!

Lots of Fun!

The second trip was also very spiritual with worship services every night which were put on by college students, complete with contemporary music, personal testimonies and prayer. On the last night, we were asked to throw our earthly burdens in the well and accept the living water of Jesus. These kids are dedicated to making our world a better place and I believe they will! It was very moving and uplifting. I am so proud of all ten of our teens for their hard work, their best behavior and their hearts full of love.

What can we do to help? The problem is so overwhelming that I am not sure – there are so many needs. The few decisions I have made are to honor the boycotts from the CIW, pray for the immigrants, donate money to the organizations that help and definitely find out how the people who I help elect feel about immigration reform.

Successful Surgery!

2008-06-04T14:56:00.006-04:00

Come Home Soon!
Hooray!! Koda Crawford's hip surgery was successful this morning. We all wish her a speedy recovery and hope she gets home soon to take care of her new little puppy. Koda is the 12 year old child of Rusty and Mary from uscity.net. We love you Koda!

My Jamaican Cruise

2008-05-10T09:55:00.000-04:00

It was that time of the year, my family has caught the cruising bug. That’s right, we had so much fun on the last cruise that we can not go through the entire year without a week on a really big boat. Like the past five or six cruises I have journeyed, this one was no different when it comes to fun and excitement. I truly believe that every experience is about the people you surround yourself with.

The cruise was a Christmas present from my grand-mother (with me in photo to the right) that she gave to everyone in my extended family. We had 20 family members, and like many, my family is loud, kind of “out there”, and crazy; but crazy fun! We had a great time. Everyone got involved in the “Fun Ship” Festivities. We had a representative for every game: Survivor, Fear Factor, the Pool Games, the Staged Trivia Games, etc. I was the proud winner of Survivor (second year in a row)! The games were fun, but that is only part of it.

The food was amazing; I love buffets. Although I was supposed to be accompanied to the gym on a daily basis, it didn’t quite happen. Intentions were good, but were not followed by action.

Also, the cruise ports were fun. We went to the beach in the Grand Cayman Islands, where I did some snorkeling with my dad, uncle and youngest sister. We also five of us rented 15 minutes of the banana boat ride; it was the most pain-filled fun amusement I have ever encountered. Note: If you ever get the chance to ride on of these, know that you will tip over at 20 to 30 mph and when you hit the water, it WILL HURT. It felt as if I had run full speed into a concrete wall.

The Grand Caymans was fabulous but we also stopped in Jamaica. There we decided to do horse-back riding through the cruise line. Thankfully it was booked through the cruise line because otherwise a few of us would still be stuck in Jamaica cleaning up horse poo! Ewwwww! The horses where fun, and although our trip back to the boat was slightly scary. Traffic laws in Jamaica are more like recommendations. The boat had to wait for us to return before leaving, but we booked it out of there once all the passengers were counted for.

USCITY.NET's Mother Daughter Act Having Fun!
Overall the cruise was yet another success. I can not wait until the next. In fact, before departing on the last day, we were talking about the next cruise. Until then, my name is Kristina and cruising is what I do. (;

Back from Blue Spring

2008-04-07T09:32:00.011-04:00

I just came back from a wonderful, relaxing, rejuvenating few days at a cabin in Blue Spring State Park. I got to hike in the woods, swim and float down the stream from the spring. And had a really magical moment with my husband at dusk one day after the park closed to day visitors - we were walking down a path in the woods and to our right and left there was what looked like a carpet of blinking lights - almost like fairies playing in the woods. They were fireflies, but none of them were above ankle height.

There were two manatees there who had recently been released from Sea World and did not migrate out of Blue Spring with the rest of the manatees this spring (the manatees stay in blue spring during the cold months until the river water heats up), so the rangers had their hands full keeping people away from them. Rocket and Annie are always together. They are so adorable.

You can see their floating transmitters in the photo above – the rangers are hopeful that people will keep their distance, even though Annie will approach YOU – she loves people and has been in captivity most of her life. Rocket is a little more leery of us humans.

Annie was an orphan picked up in the Halifax River near Port Orange in August 2005. And Rocket was rescued as an orphan from Blue Spring in March 2006. Annie was only 70 pounds at the time. Rocket weighed 170 pounds. After recuperating at Sea World, they were released at the park in February. By that time, they had gained just a bit of weight! Annie was about 1,055 pounds, and Rocket weighed 745 pounds on the day of their release.

We are hoping that Annie and Rocket will survive us humans and maybe join with their own kind next year. And for now, back to work - I hope everyone gets to have a little time off this year to refresh and re-energize!

Happy Days Are Here Again

2008-03-27T09:28:00.000-04:00

Lynda and Family

2008-02-13T08:10:00.006-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day from Lynda and Family!

Be Kinder Than Necessary

2008-02-12T21:58:00.004-05:00

"Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

From Sue

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

2008-02-12T21:53:00.002-05:00

Wishing You Love ... ALWAYS!
From Pam, Carol, Karen and Friends!
(Three of us work here... Can you guess who?!?)

2007 in a Nutshell

2008-01-10T15:44:00.000-05:00

Before we start looking back, I would like to explain a little bit about the employees here at uscity.net - we are co-workers, but we are also family – sometimes a slightly dysfunctional family but one that is always bonded by making our directory the best it can be and by trying to help each other. Most of our work-related communication is done through phone calls and emails. Most of us reside in Florida and see each other regularly. Some don’t. One of our employees, Lynda, lives in Michigan and hasn’t met most of us here. She is coming to Florida for a vacation next week and we are all excited about meeting her. I feel as though I already know her, we chat about her kids, her Mom, her grandkids (ESPECIALLY the grandkids – LOL), our health, our families, etc. Oh, yes, we also discuss work…

So, with that said, I would have to say the biggest thing to happen here this year has nothing at all to do with our directory – it was the birth of our second uscity.net baby, Camdyn. You can read about Camdyn’s birth at our Camdyn is Home blog.

And here is a photo of both “our” babies - that's Tiona holding Camdyn.
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Some of what we have done in 2007 includes a lot of behind the scenes stuff, like our innovative programming by Tyson that makes all of our lives easier. Continuous upgrading and adding servers to make us faster, overseen by our network engineer, Bill. Of course, of all of this is done under the direction of Rusty, our fearless leader!

If you received an iPhone as gift, head over to http://www.uscity.net/iphone - our new iPhone interface. All content is being re-formatted to fit your iPhone. New features will be added as they are developed. There are loads of features already working. Free phone number lookup nationwide is available now as well as access to millions of G-rated quality links.

In keeping up with the times, we have added some new categories to our directory. Below is a list of some of the major ones:
Go Green - NLP - Hypnosis - Wiki - Jobs

Besides the Go Green category, we added two more that we hope will help make a difference in the lives of visitors to our site and those they choose to help - Giving and Hospice.

Note that each of these categories is in every state. Our directory is set up for national and local websites, so if you are looking for a business or service that is in a certain state, click on that state directory from our front page.

We did some major re-organizing of our Wellness, Marketing and Health categories too.

One exciting new addition to our directory and one that has proven to be very popular is our new streaming news videos. We also upgraded our weather information page – TWICE!.

Shea created a great new updated front page design, which we carried over to our state pages.

If you would like a little more info on our employees go to one of their blog entires:

A New Look - Spotlight on Shea
Proud of Our Students
Lacey’s A Whole New Life
Delanie Crawford
Kristina’s A Babysitter’s View of Cruising
My View of How We Began

All the people I supervise have made my job as easy as possible and I am very proud of all of them. I thank all of you for your hard work and dedication to uscity.net. I have to add a special thank you to Carol, my assistant – who is a joy to work with and I love her very much! I really don’t know what I would do without her.

There are always so many new things happening around here, we are constantly changing, morphing, keeping up with the times, but these are the things that I believe were the highlights of 2007.

Pam

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

2008-01-08T08:07:00.000-05:00

Camdyn's First Ever Christmas

2007-12-27T16:04:00.000-05:00

Shea's Christmas Card

2007-12-17T21:28:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from Shea and uscity.net

http://www.uscity.net/xmas07/

What Going Green Means to USCity.Net

2007-12-12T20:51:00.001-05:00

USCITY.NET has just added a new category that we hope will help us all. “Go Green” is the new category and it is listed on all of our state pages. I gave the job of researching the category to Carol. She decided on the category name, content and any subcategories we might need. Carol tells me she learned from this and she says: “What I do to go green is recycle, ride my bike to the store, shop on the internet (at uscity.net, of course) and turn off lights and open window to conserve energy.”

After I gave her the project, I sent out an informal survey, mostly to our employees, I asked them “What do you think of when you hear “Go Green” and what does it mean to you?” Here are a few of the answers I received.

From Our Seniors:

Going Green.... for me is beginning the process of eliminating products we use that might be harmful to the elements or to ourselves and our families. It is a little more difficult as a senior to “let go” of all the “tried and true” products that we have used for over a 1/2 century, but we are doing it. Probably the older population will be the “foot draggers” in this new environmentally safe era.

When I think of someone that has “gone green”, I figure the products they use probably don’t work as good as the “non green” but are safer. I know that’s not a good attitude, but it’s honest. I am slowly, “going green”. What it means to me is that the entire world is going to be in agreement on at least one thing, we need to clean things up for our grandchildren and their children!!!

From the Boomers:

When I think of go green I think of how happy I am that I bought my Prius two years ago, long before the gas got to this point. I also think of recycling, which I do and conserving energy in other ways - but definitely the number one thought is my Prius.

I think it means doing stuff instead of owning stuff! And doing stuff without using Earth’s resources – like biking, hiking, swimming.

Solar Power and recycling are the first things that I think of when I hear “go green”. My biggest heartbreak is what we have done to nature, in particular the waters – like the ocean and the lakes and springs and the piney forests (I’m a Florida girl).

I visited Denmark a year ago and it looked like half of their population was riding bikes instead of taking cars. That was going green to me.

From the Young Adults:

From a recent college grad: I think of the green recycling bin that I'm going to have to put out to the road when I move back home. I enjoy recycling items such as the grocery bags at Publix, but when it comes to recycling bottles and boxes at home I don't necessary do it. It is something you forget to do after you live in a dorm, or apartments for a few years.

I think about not buying stuff that has a lot of packaging – even though it makes my life easier – I am using fewer paper plates, napkins and frozen dinners. I am eating more fresh vegetables and fruit and that is healthier too!

I think about how I am riding my bike more and driving less. Going Green to me means hybrid cars, recycling and of course “We have got to save the planet for our children’s children’s children.” (This may have been a little tongue-in-cheek, I am pretty sure he was mimicking me!)

Online Shopping

2007-12-03T10:22:00.000-05:00

Before writing this blog, I decided to do an informal survey of why and if people shop online. I say informal, because I emailed friends and family to do this survey. The survey consists of men, women and teens ages 13 to 89. The people that answered the survey come from all walks of life and varied incomes - families, retirees, newlyweds, parents, couples and singles; professionals, blue collar workers and students.

I emailed approximately 60 people and 49 responded.

REASONS TO SHOP ONLINE:

#1 Reason – (no shock to me) – I don’t have to leave home!

#2 Reason – It is easier to compare prices and items, you can compare items from different stores without traveling to each store or calling on the phone. The prices are generally lower than store shopping. A lot of respondents say that sometimes when in the store, they will ‘settle’ just so they can get on with their lives.

#3 Reason – It’s faster – no standing in lines, no traveling, faster checkout. As one new Mom put it “I can take my time to shop rather than be rushed everywhere by my kid or my man”. I can remember times when I had to deal with that too, kids want to got the toy department, teens want to go to electronics, men want to go look at tools or some other department and all I need is some bath towels!!! Shop from home and you are simply shopping for what YOU want.

#4 Reason – You don’t have to deal with grumpy customers and cashiers and pushy salespeople.

#5 Reason – It’s easier to find out information on the products you want. "In the store all you have to go on is the information on the box or - if you are lucky – a salesperson who knows about what they are selling without the pressure of a commission.

One of the retirees said:

I like shopping online because they just don’t send the big catalogs home anymore and I loved shopping like that when my family was younger. Now I go online to Sears.

One of my friends who lives up north said:
Living in the "snow and cold" just sitting in my recliner Christmas Shopping for the family, is "Hog Heaven" for me!! I try to shop smart and combine orders so I often times can get "Free Shipping" if over a certain amount. I also comparison shop and will often times open 3 or 4 screens with different "stores" on each one.

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Out of the 49 people responding, six prefer shopping in the store and their reasons were:

1 - I can’t buy clothes without trying them on.
2 - I like interacting with people at the store.
3 - I don’t like using a computer.
4 - I’ve been burned buying online before.

I must say I am on the side of the 43 who prefer shopping online and agree with all the reasons they gave. However, I am not that picky about clothes and I get plenty of interaction with people in my daily live. I also have NO problem sitting at a computer. Another reason I have that no one else mentioned, was that when I go into a store, I usually come out with more than I went in for, and that makes shopping online much more economical for me.

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Dealing with the last reason for buying in a store, here are some tips to help you have a happy online buying experience:

Do your homework on the website you are thinking about purchasing from. Make sure it is a legitimate business, one you know of. It’s not a good idea to buy from a business that does not provide contact information and I like seeing a physical address. One exception to that, for me, is Amazon.com – I have dealt with them for years and have had very good experiences with them.

Make sure the website is secure – look for “https:” at the beginning of the URL or look for the little padlock icon that symbolizes (but doesn’t guarantee) a higher level of security.

Be VERY CAREFUL if you are responding to an offer coming from an unsolicited email or do like I do, and ignore them ALL.

Also, make sure your computer has a firewall and the latest anti-virus software. And NEVER, EVER open unknown e-mail attachments, including those contained in what appears to be a company you do business with.

If you think you have been scammed, you can go online and file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center run by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and contact your local police. I would also file a complaint directly with the company you did business with.

Since part of our business here at uscity.net is online shopping, we want everyone to have a safe and happy shopping experience. If anyone has any other ideas to make our online shopping safer or happier, just leave us a comment below.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T07:15:00.000-05:00

Today is a day to share food with friends and family, and to find ways for sharing our love, friendship and food with those around us.

We should remember that food did not just magically appear and gives thanks for the farmers and farm workers who plant and harvest, and for the workers who package, transport and sell it to us.

Food and the sharing of food is the work of many people. Today, before we eat, we should think of new ways to share our prosperity with all who labor. We need to be a people of sharing and thanksgiving everyday.

peace, love and blessings!
pam

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T11:26:00.000-05:00

We wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving. Remember to be thankful and eenjoy those you are close to. Always remember, we have No Day But Today!

Namaste and lots of love to you all from Mary and Rusty!

Proud of Our Students

2007-11-17T07:03:00.000-05:00

USCITY.NET is proud of our college students and we are very supportive of their education. We are happy to be able to work around their school schedules and wish all of them the best of luck. Here is a little bit about them and their schoolwork:

LACEY in her own words:
Currently, I am attending DBCC and enrolled half-time just taking prerequisites. This semester is almost over but I'm taking Psychology and Art Appreciation. Next semester I'm taking Intro to Health and Oral Communications. I intentionally wanted to pursue a degree in radiography to be an x-ray tech, which is still my ultimate goal, but due to some circumstances, that is put on hold for right now. I was supposed to start the program in January; however they only accept 10 students each year. The program required 40 hours of school a week for 2 1/2 years, with some odd hours, and I'm definitely not ready to put my 14-month-old in daycare.

Tiona

Luckily right now I can work online (thanks to uscity.net) and do most of my school online also, which I'm enjoying each day while it lasts. So in turn, I changed my degree temporarily so I can get a career under my belt and be in a position to support my daughter and I. I applied for the dental assistant program, which starts in June and only lasts 10 months. I figure that I'll stay in the dental field for a little while and who knows, maybe I'll really like that and go on to pursue a degree to be a hygienist. But if not, then I can always go back to be an x-ray tech. I'm still young and I have plenty of time to experience and chose the best career path. A main thing to keep in mind is trying to think of something to keep my family financially stable.

DAVID:
David is studying "Digital Media & Graphic - Design" and next semester will be taking Web Design I, Typography, and Graphic Design Studio I & II. David says, “Hopefully when done with school, I can find a good designer job somewhere, and maybe someday run my own legit Graphic/Web/Media design studio.”

WADE:
Wade is taking general classes and working towards and AA degree at the Daytona Beach Community College. He’s not sure what he wants to do, but knows that a college degree will be helpful, if not necessary in his life. Wade is hoping that something will “grab him” while in college and he can steer his college education in that direction. Wade adds: “Too bad there is no Doctorate in Surfing…”

Wade Surfing

KRISTINA:
I am a recent graduate of Florida State University with a degree in Exercise Physiology. Even after graduation, I am still taking classes at FSU: Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry Lab, in preparation for medical school. It would be ideal for me to matriculate into a medical school beginning in 2008, but it is a competitive field, and so I may have to take a year off. In the mean time, I continue to work part time with Uscity.net, and volunteer in a medical setting.

Last January, I was offered the opportunity to get training and certification as a medical assistant; I will complete the class in less than a month in December. If I am unable to get into medical school for the 2008 year, I hope to get a part-time job as a medical assistant. I triage patients meaning I take their weight, blood pressure, heart rate, respirations, and get their reasons for their visit; I love interacting with patients. I also give immunizations, and injections, EKG’s, call patients, and anything else the doctor may require. It’s good experience toward the medical field and the career I ultimately want to have.

Happy Veterans Day

2007-11-11T08:56:00.000-05:00

We, here at uscity.net want to wish all veterans, veterans' families, loved ones, those who pray for them, those who send letters and packages to them and everyone who keep them in their thoughts a HAPPY VETERANS DAY!

The guys and gals who serve our country do not do it for the medals or the glory and they choose to serve (unlike some other countries around the world). The do their job to the best of their ability they are all heroes.

To all our veterans from whatever era, thank you for your service and we wish you a Happy Veterans Day!

Here is some military humor sent to me by a colleague that I hope will bring a smile to your faces!

Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.

The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions:
a. When they're ready.
b. When you're not.

If at first you don't succeed, then bomb disposal probably isn't for you.

"Aim towards the Enemy" — instruction printed on US rocket launcher.

When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is no longer our friend.

Cluster bombing from B-52s is very, very accurate. The bombs always hit the ground.

If your attack is going too well, you are walking into an ambush.

We hope you enjoy your day!

Halloween Bumble Bee

2007-11-04T20:34:00.000-05:00

Lacey's daughter, Tiona - Halloween 2007

Hit This Like

2007-11-01T10:40:00.000-04:00

All of our employees have a great sense of humor and some are very creative - one of the creative ones is our Lead Graphic Artist. Shea and his buddies, Danny and John are launching a new TV show “Hit This Like”. Click here - http://hitthislike.com/ to take a peek at some funny video and see why you should NEVER, EVER TAPE BREAD TO YOUR DOOR!!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T08:06:00.000-04:00

We here at uscity.net wish all of you a very Happy Halloween. Here are some tips for making tonight a treat for all of us:

If you are driving:
1. Watch for children darting out from between parked cars.
2. Watch for children walking on roadways, medians and curbs.
3. Enter and exit driveways and alleys carefully.
4. At twilight and later in the evening, watch for children in dark clothing.

If you are a parent or guardian:
1. Make sure that an adult or an older responsible youth will be supervising the outing for children under age 12.
2. Plan and discuss the route trick-or-treaters intend to follow. Know the names of older children's companions.
3. Instruct your children to travel only in familiar areas and along an established route.
4. Teach your children to stop only at houses or apartment buildings that are well-lit and never to enter a stranger's home.
5. Establish a return time.
6. Tell your youngsters not to eat any treat until they return home.
7. Review all appropriate trick-or-treat safety precautions, including pedestrian/traffic safety rules.
8. Pin a slip of paper with the child's name, address and phone number inside a pocket in case the youngster gets separated from the group.

The Costume:
1. Costumes should be loose so warm clothes can be worn underneath.
2. Costumes should not be so long that they are a tripping hazard. (Falls are the leading cause of unintentional injuries on Halloween.)
3. If children are allowed out after dark, outfits should be made with light colored materials. Strips of retroreflective tape should be used to make children visible.
4. Face Design Masks can obstruct a child's vision. Use facial make-up instead.
5. When buying special Halloween makeup, check for packages containing ingredients that are labeled "Made with U.S. Approved Color Additives," "Laboratory Tested," Meets Federal Standards for Cosmetics," or "Non-Toxic." Follow manufacturer's instruction for application.
6. If masks are worn, they should have nose and mouth openings and large eye holes.
7. Accessories Knives, swords and other accessories should be made from cardboard or flexible materials. Do not allow children to carry sharp objects.
8. Bags or sacks carried by youngsters should be light-colored or trimmed with retro-reflective tape if children are allowed out after dark.
9. Carrying flashlights will help children see better and be seen more clearly.

What the kids should know:
1. Do not enter homes or apartments without adult supervision.
2. Walk, do not run, from house to house. Do not cross yards and lawns where unseen objects or the uneven terrain can present tripping hazards.
3. Walk on sidewalks, not in the street.
4. Walk on the left side of the road, facing traffic if there are no sidewalks.

Before and After:
1. Give children an early meal before going out.
2. Insist that treats be brought home for inspection before anything is eaten.
3. Wash fruit and slice into small pieces.
4. When in doubt, throw it out.

BOO!

2007-10-19T05:26:00.000-04:00

Our Babies...

Tiona Holding Camdyn

Camdyn is Home!!

2007-10-18T17:14:00.000-04:00

We have a new baby!! After a much anticipated arrival and a little later than planned, Camdyn Michael Crawford-Irvine made his debut Sunday, October 14 at 8:23 p.m. Camdyn weighed 8 lbs, 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. He had a huge crowd there to meet him, including Mom (Delanie), Dad (Colin), Gamma (Mary), Gampa (Rusty), Mimi, Papa, Aunt Koda, Aunt Kyra, Uncle Shea and Cousin Jackie Lee. First time Gamma tells us that he was very aware and quite awake as soon as he made his arrival. And she might have mentioned once or twice that he was BEAUTIFUL too!

Camdyn got to come home on Tuesday afternoon to his new home with Mom, Dad and Baby-Dog. Everyone is doing great and we are all very happy for the entire family. Rusty, Mary and Delanie are all part of our family here at uscity.net, and so all her honorary aunts and uncles here are just as pleased as could be.

Our other”uscity.net baby” - Tiona - just turned one year old recently. Perhaps we can have one every year!!

Personal note to the Crawford-Irvine family: I am so happy for you all, sending you blessings, peace and love and I can’t wait to see Camdyn in person.

Here is a poem I have had tucked away for a few years, not sure who wrote it but I think it’s appropriate for today:

Babies are Angels that fly to the earth,

their wings disappear at the time of their birth

one look in their eyes and we're never the same

they're part of us now and that part has a name

that part is your heart and a bond that won't sever

our Babies are Angels, we love them forever.

Love to all,
Pam

Upgrading USCITY.NET Servers and Security

2007-09-23T18:38:00.000-04:00

We have completed our server upgrades to make our site work even faster. According to an international statistics site, we are “VERY FAST” – in the top 5% of internet sites for loading time. We often get positive feedback about our speed. That goes along with our motto: “Find What You Are Looking For – Fast and Easy!”

And now we are faster than ever - thanks to our networking/programming departments, and of course, Rusty (our resident genius)!

Updating our security measures is an ongoing process here at uscity.net.

Why we need to continually upgrade our security measures is something that has always bugged me. I supposed that we were trying to stop people from hacking us. So, I went online to find out why people do this. A few things I found out were that the way I was using the word “hacking” and the meaning of hacker is different. The main definition for hacker (in a computer related sense) is: “Computer Slang. a. a computer enthusiast. - b. a microcomputer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems.” [dictionary.com]

I also found out that the ‘good’ hackers call these other people crackers. I guess because they try to crack the code to get into another person’s computer.

What irks me, besides taking up valuable time from people who are trying to make a living, enhance people’s internet experiences, etc. is this: if you are smart enough to hack into a system, why not just get a job programming or networking, do something worthwhile and get paid for it?!?

Well, that’s my rant for now!

Our wish is for everyone who uses uscity.net to have a good experience and we want you to let us know how we can make your use of our directory better. If you ever have any comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Just leave us a comment below.

Our reciprocal link program is doing very well and we have also upgraded our sign up system to make it easier for everyone. We really do want our site to be faster and easier for everyone. These are not hollow words like some company mottos.

We hope you will find our site easier and faster to use now.

Have a great day all!

Pam
USCITY.NET

Server Upgrades

2007-09-05T15:18:00.001-04:00

As we strive to keep up with our growth and make everyone’s experience with USCITY.NET easier and faster, server and cluster upgrades are needed periodically. Our recent upgrades may have brought about some technical issues that possibly caused your listing to be accidentally delayed or incorrect i.e. no city listed.

Please manually check (it must be manually checked, because automated queries are not allowed) your listing(s) for accuracy and let us know – contact@uscity.net – if you have any corrections to make. If you cannot find your link, please resubmit your listing.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused to anyone.

- From the entire USCITY.NET Team

Delanie Crawford

2007-03-09T09:11:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone! Well, my Dad (and my boss) and Aunt Pam (another employee) came up with the idea that I will be doing blogs about everything that has being going on, and that is going on, here at Uscity.net headquarters. For those out there reading this who do not know me, I'm Delanie Crawford, Mary and Rusty Crawford’s eldest daughter.

The biggest news in my life is that I have recently found out that by the end of this year I am going to be a mommy. YAY! So that makes two young employees for this company with little ones. No offense to the other mommy's though.

Like Lacey once blogged about, we used to be neighbors, and her mom has always worked with us and for us. But back then, we could have NEVER imagined that what was once just a dream would become such a hit. And I give high congrats to my father for being such a genius. Anyways, back to the blogging project. My most recent success and goal was the "State Info" Pages. Soo below is a little update about what went on with that: As you all know, Uscity.net hosts the 50 states, and all the information you could ever need to know about them. If you’ve never taken the chance to look, each state has a "State Info" page, telling you about capitals, state icons, annual weather, and so on. Since it was time to update all the information, we decided to also make the pages more attractive. My Dad made a template for me to work with, so that what I did was go into each state, add all the information, and make sure each state had an updated seal. Doesn't sound like much, but boy it was more than you could have imagined. It would probably take a regular employee a couple days to do it, but since I am new to this, it dragged on. I finally finished after running to the bathroom maybe 100 times (I have BAD morning/night sickness), going dizzy from looking at the screen for too long, and getting side tracked by all the things my little sisters wanted me to do for them (like science projects and taking them to the movies).

But now the new state informational pages are done and you can access information for each state on population, size, the day it was admitted to the USA, whether it was the 21st state to be admitted or the 50th, major cities, and updated weather. For instance, did you know that Alaska is the largest state? Or that Colorado is bigger then Florida? Even though Florida's population is almost three times the amount of Colorado's population? Well hey, now on the page you can find that all out! Sooo, make sure you go and check it out. Just click on the state of choice, when the directory comes up look for the link "state info", click and Voila - there you have it!

Love to All,

Delanie

A Whole New Life ...

2007-01-31T14:18:00.000-05:00

My name is Lacey and I'm attending DBCC. I am majoring in radiography, so by the time I'm 22 I will have my career in the palm of my hand. I'm a new, proud mommy of a five month old baby girl, Tiona! She is my pride and joy and the most beautiful thing in this world, and of course my whole life revolves around her now. I only want the best for her, even though in this world these days, that's going to be pretty hard, but I'm am going to try my absolute hardest. When she was three months old I tried to go back to work at a local pizza parlor, I like to waitress and it is good money. Since I'm breastfeeding, it didn't work out; she couldn't be away from me for that long and would NOT take a bottle. So within the first week I had to quit. I needed some kind of work so I turned to Rusty and Mary Crawford, hoping they could give me something. And they did! I currently work with USCity.net, thankfully, which is the most PERFECT job for me. I can make my own schedule around my daughter and school, and it's fun, educational and entertaining.

I get to surf the web and look for helpful sites, check sites for accuracy and make sure we are the best directory we possibly can be. I'm also the Volusia.com calendar administrator which lists information on daily activities in our county. I also get to do other interesting jobs that pop up from time to time. I work 30 hours a week, go to school three days and two nights, and just being a full time mommy for now! Which is the best of the best. So I definitely stay busy all the time.

It's ironic how it all started though... The Crawfords lived two houses away from me for many years. I grew up playing with their four kids; Shea, Delanie, Kyra and Koda. Meanwhile, my mother was working for them. I was too young then to understand what she was doing, and little did I know I would be working for them when I got older too. I think it's pretty cool how the site works... so much information and helpful links, like the phone number lookups on the front page (it is so much easier to use than a bulky printed one), and the weather information. I think it is cool that my Mom was there from the beginning and now I am working for them.

And, FINALLY, we are now buying a house (my boyfriend and I that is). After renting for a year and a half, we can actually call the place our home. It's a very nice house with my absolute dream kitchen! So we'll officially be starting our real family journey together.

My life has completely evolved into something entirely "new", and only for the better, and I'm so thankful for everyone that has helped me get to where I am now.

2006-12-28T10:26:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

Blogging... Retirement... Friends... Me...

2006-11-30T08:58:00.000-05:00

I have to admit I am a total "dunce" when it comes to the "blog thing". I want to learn and I will, but right now I really don't know what I'm doing!!! So I will just do some "blah blah" and see where it goes from here.

Every morning when I get out of bed, I slide the window open, no matter how cold it is, and take a deep breath to see what the day is going to smell like. I immediately feel grateful for my good health (just the fact alone that I am able to breath is wonderful!!) and the beauty of nature. I started this routine without even realizing it and as I have grown older I have become much more aware of how lucky I am to have all that I have. To many folks it would seem like not much, I'm not rich, or beautiful or shapley or brilliant. But I am soooo lucky to have myself as my own best friend. I take the best care of myself that I can, I pat myself on the back when I do good and yell at myself (very gently and in private, that is) when I don't do so good. I watch for danger for myself as well as those around me, I try to take care of people that seem to need me to take care of them, I try to help those that need some help and respect the privacy of those that don't.

When I began my "so called" retirement several years ago, I felt like I had given all that was necessary to the world out there. I was ready for a rest!!! Then I found myself trying to find ways to make a little extra $$. I worked on Ebay, I crocheted and sold my works, always trying to make a little extra. My son put me in touch with a friend of our family and from there it's history. I work for a great group of folks who have organized themselves into an outstanding "National Internet Business Directory" called USCity.net and it's been history for me!!! Keeps me current and got me to the "blog place" too.

I don't do politics. I hate arguing and put the TV on mute if someone starts. I make my own decisions about who is right and who is full of it, and try not to push those opinions on those around me.

Road Rage scares me, infuriates me and disgusts me. To me it's the easiest way to get killed, either by crashing or sending your blood pressure off the charts.

I fell in "one sided" love a couple of times in my life. You know the kind where you can't eat or else you’re eating the wallpaper off the walls!!! Both of them turned out very bad. One of them I married, the other I didn't. I will never fall in love like that again. Very painful.

I love my "quiet time", my "alone time" and my "private time". I'm very protective of it and cannot help my irritation when it's disturbed, especially when I have been doing way more than necessary for the people around me. I like my own company, probably more than I should.

Friends. Wow, have I had some friends/pals/buds/sisters in my life!!! I could tell you stories that would make you think that we probably should all be institutionalized. My friends have been the one true joy in my life that rarely ever failed me. Years later, even though we have parted ways and live in different places, when we talk we laugh. Always a "belly laugh", always!!! Always a shoulder to cry on, and an ear to bend, someone who understands!! My gal pals have, many times, been a life line for me while I was going through the labors of living.

Some time I would like to write about being a parent. It won't be "gushy" and "wonderous", but it will be factual and very scary. It's been many years and it still scares me to death!!!! I'd also like to write about my mom. How she helped to bury her son. How strong she is, even though she would like the world to think she is totally helpless!! I'd love to write about my grandson too, but that would definitely bore anyone and everyone, as he is wonderful, perfect, handsome, brilliant, blah blah blah!!!

So it goes for now!!!
Hugs, Lynda

Be Thankful You Can Make A Difference

2006-11-22T19:40:00.000-05:00

Hi Happy Thankgiving to everyone from

all of us here at uscity.net!

I am getting excited about having a lot of my family around me tomorrow. My son works at a restaurant, so he will be working a double shift and one each - niece and nephew - will be working at Disney. But I should be surrounded by lots of love and fun. My sister-in-law and nieces and nephews on my hubby's side are busy taking care of my newest grand-niece, "Cami" a beautiful, dark haired beauty who arrived yesterday! So they will be staying 'down south' this year.

Just wanted to share some "thankfulness thoughts" with you all.

I am thankful for all the love I have in my life - from family, friends and people I don't even know.

If you haven't said "I love you" to someone today, do it! (If you have... do it again!)

I am thankful that I CAN make a difference - and so can YOU.

Not only that but you have an obligation to make that difference, even if it as simple as volunteering once a month or smiling at someone lonely.

I am thankful for leaders who can remain focused with their eyes on social justice; those who motivate people and orchestrate programs to help others less fortunate than ourselves.

Let somone who motivates you know they are appreciated.

I am thankful for everyone who has helpled me in trying times and for those that have led me in the right direction.

Thank someone special in your life.

I am thankful that, unlike most of the people of the world, I have so much: a safe place to sleep at night, a car to drive, all the modern conveniences such as refrigerators, stoves, air conditioning, access to health care, computers, sound systems - things that we often take for granted.

Stop for a minute and think about all the people all over the world that do not have these things.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving is a day in which we gather to reflect on our bountiful blessings.

This year, perhaps we should begin the celebration by reflecting on those things that might not be so obvious because, ironically, they are sometimes too obvious to see.

Love to all,
Pam

USCity.net Employee Blogger Returns

2006-11-14T11:12:00.000-05:00

OK – Yeah I know I have been very negligent in keeping my blog up and apparently from what I have seen, good bloggers blog at least once a week and some of them do it every day. So I am not the best blogger in the world, but here are my reasons (read ‘excuses’): I work 40+ hours a week. I am on the Community Thanksgiving Committee. I am helping to try and start a homeless coalition in our area. I run a youth group that meets once a week and does community service and fundraisers on weekends. I am married with child. I help with the care of my mom (Doctor’s appointments, banking, etc.) and my mother-in-law. I teach Sunday School... well, you get the idea.

My boss just sent me a link to another blog that mentioned uscity.net, and I am not sure but I think it was a subtle hint. Like “where are the blogs you were going to do every week?” He is too nice to come right and say “You dropped the ball” but I did. And I apologize. ‘My bad’ as my 18 year old son would say. Of course, I have also asked other employees to help out – but so far only two have responded! (not so subtle hint to Mary, Rusty, Carol and Sue!)

So what has been going on around here and in my life for the last month, you want to know?!? Right?

At USCITY.NET things are going along pretty much as usual, we are working right now on weeding out some dead and nearly dead links. We have added some great new categories:

Camcorder - Career:Training - DSL - Loans:Student

- MP3 Players - Special Event -

Our reciprocal program has really taken off and keeping Kristina busy. We seem to be on an uphill swing as far as new signups are concerned, so our marketing department is happy.

Also, I just got back from a WOW (Women On Waves) cruise with some of my friends to celebrate my fiftieth birthday! More about that later...

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, too!

New Weather Page

2006-08-31T10:26:00.000-04:00

We are excited about our new updated weather page at uscity.net. It is really cool. We have all been checking it out and so far, everyone loves it! I love the satellites – the looping so you can get an idea of how the storm or weather system is moving and how fast it is coming towards you. The animated pages are excellent.

Everyone here agrees that one of the most important and probably will be the most used feature is at the top of the page where you can type in a city or zip code and get the current conditions, and a forecast for that area. Carol can’t wait to use this when she goes on vacation. Just type in Honolulu and find out what it will be like when you get there. (just kidding, she isn’t going to Hawaii … yet).

Kristina was impressed with the projected path of Tropical Storm Ernesto which was headed our way yesterday. There was an hour by hour projected path that was great. We are all very happy with this new updated version of our weather page – and you can click on a link at the top of any of our uscity.net pages to get there. Go check it out and let us know what you think!

And while you are there, this would be a great place to just let us know what you think about our site in general. We are always looking for ways to update it and make our site the best directory we possibly can.

Miss Pam

My View of How It All Began

2006-08-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

This is actually a reprint of something out of Miss Pam's blog, but I have had a couple of people ask about it, so here it is on the "official"uscity.net employee blog spot:

It has been a crazy week – our assistant database manager - went on a cruise and I have been doing her work and mine too. She is the best – and I realized this week how much she does without ever making a big deal of it. Thank You Carol ;-) I love you!

As I promised when I started this blog, here is a little bit about…

My View of How It All Began

This began as the brainchild of our founder, Rusty Crawford – who I like to refer to as the ‘father’ of USCity.net. He is a genius who always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else I know. He taught himself basic programming language in the early 1980’s. About ten years later, Rusty taught himself HTML and Perl coding, Rusty started building websites for businesses in and around Volusia County, Florida.

That was when he came up with the idea for a local county-oriented business directory called Volusia.com (incidentally, that is where I first started working with Rusty and his wife, Mary). At Volusia.com we listed local governments, schools, wrote histories of the area towns and answered numerous emails about the area.

At the time, Yahoo only linked to Volusia.com, our information site, but would not link to any of our business sites. So sprang the idea of a nationwide directory of the United States.

And this took a LOT of preliminary preparation. One of the aspects I was involved with was finding and typing in the names of every county, city and town in the United States. I know there was a lot of programming and behind the scenes work then, but I really don’t know what all was involved then.

I know that he wanted a ‘G’ rated directory that would allow smaller ‘Mom & Pop’ businesses to be found on the web along with the larger companies like Disney, Dell and Sharper Image.

I believe that Rusty, his wife Mary, Sue and I were the first four employees. With a lot of trials and tests, we finally got it! We got our second server, dedicated just for uscity.net in 1999 and went online (we now have 25 servers).

In the beginning, much of the coding and data entry was done 51 times – once for every state and Washington D.C. Often that process fell in my lap and I sometimes felt a little bit like a robot. One compliment I remember Rusty giving me was calling me up one night and asking me if I was working or not, because he thought another computer was trying to get into our site. I told him "NO, it's just your human robot working away!"

We took every effort to make USCITY.NET a safe place to browse and shop (and still do!) and we added information that would be helpful to our users along with businesses, both local and national.

We all work very hard to bring you to bring you the best directory in the United States.

Everyone in our company takes pride in their work and we all want this to be a directory that is practical, easy to use and helpful to our visitors.

We welcome comments and suggestions to make your experience even more pleasurable.We all work very hard to bring you to bring you the best directory in the United States.

My Gym is Closing!

2006-08-10T07:21:00.000-04:00

When I learned that the Leach Center would be closed for the next two weeks, I was crushed. What was I to do; two weeks without a gym workout, how was I to thrive?

See, the Leach Center is the student gym at Florida State University, and being the exercise nut that I am, I wasn’t quite sure what to do.

But than I realized, about 3 or 4 months prior to my present upset, I participated in a 5k race, and came in 2nd (out of the girls participating) with a time of 20:03 (meaning 20mins and 3seconds). For my placement, I received one Free Cici’s Pizza Dinner (that I still have yet to use), and a 3 months membership to Women’s World.

Women’s World was the ticket to my gym crisis. I figured, I would go and they would have exercise classes and maybe some dumbbells. That would do for the next two weeks. To my surprise, though, it was a ‘fully-loaded’ gym; I really love this place. Not only do they offer classes and dumbbells, but also they have treadmills, elliptical machines, bikes, and a few other cardio machines; they have a sauna, a tanning bed, the typical exercise machines and so much more.

I didn’t think things could get better than the Leach, but Women’s World may have just done it for me. Although, I don’t think I will renew at the end of my 3 month period, due to the student gym, after school, I will need to have a gym membership somewhere. And wherever my life may ‘run’, I hope it has a Women’s World Gym.Kristina

I enjoy working out and being physically fit -- and that translates to not only being physically healthier but I also receive the benefits of a better attitude and mental alacrity in all aspects of my life: my sports, my education and my work here at uscity.net.

A Great Way to Babysit - Cruising

2006-07-31T10:16:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone!

My name is Kristina Mangiafico and I attend Florida State University. GOOO BOBBY!! Football season's coming up, and what an exciting season it will be. I can not wait for the festivities; it is probably the most exciting thing about the college experience. It really brings the student body together. Besides football, I participate in intramural sports like kickball and softball, and I play club soccer for FSU. As if studying, football, intramurals, and club soccer, aren't enough, I also hold down a job. I work on-line for Uscity.net, which is an internet business directory for the US. Check It Out!

MY VIEWS ON CRUISING:
If ever you have the opportunity, you should take a cruise. This year, I have been fortunate enough to have been on three; my first being in March during spring break. The second cruise I convinced my family that it was the best way to vacation. They bought it, and loved it. Finally, the third for the year, was just two weekends ago, and this opportunity was given to my in a very strange situation. My sister and I were invited by my aunt and uncle to go to the Bahamas via Carnival Cruise Line, if we babysat their two boys. For all those babysitters out there, I think you would have to agree this is the best location for a sitter job.

All three cruises were great. I traveled on both Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Ships, and I have to say I enjoyed Royal Caribbean’s service a little better. They seemed to have more activities going on for the “days at sea” (this is where you spend the entire day cruising without stopping). The activities are hosted by the cruise employees and involve group and individual activities. I try to participate in everything offered, in order to make the most out of the cruise. Besides that they were equally relaxing and equally stuffing. And when I say stuffing, I mean there is enough food on these ships to make you feel like a stuffed turkey when you leave.

This type of vacation is the perfect getaway, because you really do getaway. It’s a transport to paradise, and I hope that everyone gets the opportunity to experience it whether with family, friends, co-workers from uscity.net, or to baby-sit your cousins.

Space Shuttle – Fourth of July – Category Clean Up

2006-07-07T18:42:00.000-04:00

We hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July. I must be getting old - I didn’t see any fireworks this year (not even on TV), and didn’t really miss them. My family and I DID see a beautiful shuttle liftoff over the blue skies of Florida Fourth of July afternoon. This was the first-ever space shuttle launch on Independence Day. We wish the crew Godspeed and a successful mission.

We have been busy here at uscity.net cleaning up our directory. This has been causing some errors to our visitors, but it is necessary to keep our directory up to date and to get rid of unneeded categories. We first started creating categories in the late 1990s and some of the categories still had no links in them last week. We decided that if no one had signed up in over five years, it was probably best to just get rid of that category. To make the directory more manageable and easier to use, we are cleaning it up. We apologize to everyone who has been getting errors from this process.

Earlier this year, we got rid of several categories that were not really consistent with our “G” rating, such as gambling and alcohol sites. We also took out categories such as “Surveys and Polls” as we found that the most of the links in this category required someone submitting their email address, these types of sites frequently sell their email lists and these are often misused by spammers.

Our first priority is making this the best directory we can, so we deleted several categories last week and have also added a few throughout the last month.” How do we decide what categories go in?” you ask… Sometimes we get suggestions from members as to what to add. One of our interior decorator members suggested a Faux Finishing category and we thought that was a good idea, since adding it a few weeks ago, we have had several companies and decorators sign up under that category. One of our employees thought we needed a Digital category, and after adding that – the directory grew with additions in that category too. We also found that several subcategories would make finding what our visitors want easier, so we added Audio, Camera, Products and Software as subcategories under the main category of Digital.

Another way to make our directory easier to use is by adding subcategories and we recently added a bunch of subcategories under Restaurants.

In March, we took our Home category, which had well over 100 links in it and added several subcategories. This makes it easier to find something for the Kitchen, the Bedroom and Bathroom or the Yard.

Other recent additions:

Maternity
Car Loan
Computer VoIP

We always welcome suggestions for making us better and easier to use, so just leave a comment if you have one for us.

Miss Pam

Jennifer's First Blog

2006-07-05T11:13:00.000-04:00

So, it looks like I may be the first one to blog on our new employee blog page! I’ve never done this before, and I’m not very good at writing about myself, so cut me some slack! J

For starters, my name is Jennifer, and I am a junior at UCF. I live in Orlando with 3 guys in one apartment. YES, please feel bad for me that I am the only girl in this apartment! I think I’m the only one who knows how to clean around here! I am majoring in elementary education, and have about a year or so left until I finish. When I first moved here my plan was to obtain a degree in Chemistry, and to go on and get my doctorate in Pharmacy. WOW! How things can change! After failing my first Chemistry class, I decided that Pharmacy was probably not a good idea for me, and I changed to elementary education. I am so glad I did, because I love every class, and I can start interning this year. I will be doing that with Pam’s sister, Donna, who was my 5th grade (and favorite!) teacher. She will be an excellent teacher to intern with since she is so creative and has great teaching skills and ways of working with children. I can definitely learn a lot from her. And, along with changing majors, I also decided to move back home when my apartment lease is up in August. I can take all of my education courses at UCF in Daytona, plus I will be saving at least $500.00 per month in rent! It will be a bit of a change since I have been living on my own for the past year, but I really believe it is a change for the better.

Well, that’s me in a nutshell! That’s my life, crazy as it is, but I love every minute of it!

Now, all about USCITY.NET - aren’t you really curious as to how I got started here?! I bet you are!! :)
Here it goes: When I moved to Orlando, I had a really hard time finding a job in this huge town. After about a month, I finally got a job on International Drive at a big tourist shop selling helicopter flights to people who wanted to see all of Orlando from up above. Sounds cool, right? WRONG! It was the worst job I could ever imagine! You wouldn’t believe how rude some people can really be! Not to mention the shifts were 12 hours long! I was calling my mom every night crying and crying because I hated it so much. After about a month or so of that, she remembered that Carol told her that she and Kristina were working for Pam at USCITY and that they both loved it so much because it was an at home job and perfect for college kids like Kristina and I. That’s when my mom called Pam, and asked her if there was room for me at this company. And, sure enough there was, and here I am today!! YEAH! Thank you Pam and USCITY! You saved me from the worst job ever! I can’t tell you how much I have appreciated this job! College can really take up a lot of your time, and having a job like this makes the ride so much easier and smoother since I easily work around my classes and homework that gets piled up.

I enjoy the job I do here very much. I’ve really learned a lot about the internet business and how we function since I’ve started working here. I hope by doing this blog, all of us employees will be able to share ideas and different ways of doing things with each other.

I look forward to reading about everyone else, too!

uscity.net blogging on the way....

2006-06-28T19:56:00.000-04:00

blogging from uscity.net is on the way! invites coming soon, fellow employees!

Love to all,
Pam