Forecast Fun

Friendship is a gift of God. Some of us are blessed with good friends. But as it happens, these friendships are taken for granted in some cases and not valued. It is similar to a case of two couples. Say one has no child even after many years of marriage and the other has many children, more than they can manage. What do you think? Will the couple with many children value the children as much as the couple which has none? Everything is relative in life. We value what we don’t have and give less valuable to what is freely available with us. Friendship is one such relationship.Why should we value friendships? What qualities does a good friend bring in our relationship that makes the friendship so valuable? Let us examine some of these.

Judgment - a good friend is rarely judgmental. We can be open in our behavior with our good friends because we know that they will not judge us. We can enjoy this freedom only with friends. It is nothing short of a blessing, because with other people our actions and behavior are always calculated and guarded and that takes away lot of pleasure from our life.

Share Sorrow and losses - A friend can be depended upon to share all our problems and sorrows. This sharing may not reduce the impact of loss but helps us to unburden ourselves. This is no small gift of friendship. Once I saw the image of a man left alone in the village after an earthquake. The whole village got killed except this man. With who, will this man share his sorrow? A friend gives us this gift.

Hope - During our times of trouble, only a friend comes forward and gives us encouragement and hope. With that inspiration one begins afresh. At times in life when we feel totally devastated and hopeless, and when our self-esteem reaches a big low, a friend helps us regain confidence in ourselves.

CD Mohatta writes for messages in screen-savers, desktop wallpapers, and egreetings. He writes on living, inspiration, romance, business management, etc. You can download screen-savers or send greetings at these websites with his writings: every day inspirational screensavers, friendship greetings and love ecards.

Jack Karpawack here.

I’ve taken to the road…

Life can be simple,and life can be hard on the road, but mainly it just makes your butt hurt having to drive so far to pursue the call of the fish.

I’d like to say I am in some hip chic coffee house this morning, getting a pulse on the urban mainstream here in Twin Falls Idaho, but……

……I’m writing from a not so cheap motel-because free internet access doesn’t come cheap-ya know. (And my wife and daughter wouldn’t have it any other way)
Specifically,I’m writing from the bathroom, since for some reason it’s the only place I can “log on”.

On my way to the Henry’s Fork river in Idaho. Yes, the famous one. It’s a little early for prime time fishing on the Henry’s Fork, but with a trip to Yellowstone planned, I just had to see what all the broo-ha is all about.I may even get a few casts on the Madison, but if I do,it will probably be one of those “drive by” fishing attempts, that only help you strike up a conversation in a bar somewhere. “Yeah, I fished the Madison once up in Yellowstone.”

Anyway, if I can find or poach access to the internet on this trip I will give you an “on the road” report from the Henry’s Fork. Of course, it may be tough to log on from a Yurt up in the mountains of Idaho!!If not, well, I will give you the recap when I get back from the trip.

Not much to report yet.

Just the usual racing over other trout filled streams between Southern Oregon and Twin Falls.
Driving by rivers and wondering what kind of fish are in there. Mentally casting a line into a riffle that looks good at seventy five miles an hour, and YOU KNOW has a monster 25 inch Rainbow in it!!

It’s easy to be a good fisherman at seventy five miles an hour.

Well, it’s time to go, no time to write, got to get license and build up the local economy with some misguided purchases of flies.”Give me a couple of those Henry’s Specials a couple of those Henry’s Pale Morning Duns, a couple a…”

The evening’s hatch awaits and I still have miles to go before I cast!!

Until then, watch out, because I may be mentally casting behind your car…at seventy five miles an hour….

A.J. Klott
Author, writer of fishing humor,and “fly tack” peddler.A.J. writes about the people,characters and modern day events that surround the fishing world. His first book is due out in December of 2005.
If you need a laugh or a fun gift, visit his website at:
http://www.twoguyswithflys.com

If you’re online using a dialup Internet connection, you’ll probably want to download one of the free call alert software applications like Callwave or AOL Call Alert that can answer, record, and forward incoming calls to your home, office or cell phone. In fact, if you run a small business, Call Wave also offers a dedicated business fax service too. These software offerings are fully reviewed online at http://www.callalertreviews.com.

Call alerts are important if you live in rural area or simply can’t afford access to faster online connection speeds. In that case, you may want to consider using these alert services to avoid the cost of a second phone line while having the power to decide when and how to answer incoming phone messages.

Stay Online and Stop Missing Calls

The real benefit of an alert service is you don’t miss important calls - especially if you have kids who are constantly online.

Another benefit is that you hear who’s calling while you’re online without having to pick up the phone.

With alert software on your computer, when a call comes in you’ll get an alert window on your desktop that tells you when you have an incoming call. Think of this as electronic telegram for phone calls. These alerts can be customized too. You can choose to receive an email alert with the Caller ID of whoever calls so that you’re not bothered with alert windows. You can also configure this feature to notify you of calls that came in while you were online. This added feature gives you a list of calls you received.

In addition to having call notifications sent to your email, alert services gives you the choice of sending alerts to your cell phone - if it’s enable for text-messaging.

I personally like the added power of being able to screen incoming messages. I get alerts forwarded to my work email when I’m at the office and get a call at home. It’s really a neat call service feature that shows the phone number, name and time of when someone called.

Of course, you can also use the alert you download to block telemarketing calls too. The free alert service automatically requests the removal of your phone number from these telemarketer phone lists. This a great free benefit of using these services.

Here’s a summary of the alert’s core features:

TAKE THE CALL: Lets you take important calls while you’re online.

TAKE A MESSAGE: Your callers can leave you a message up to your set message length.

MESSAGE ALERTING AND DELIVERY: Have alerts sent to your email or cell phone. You can even have messages delivered to your email.

PRIVACY MANAGEMENT: Blocks telemarketers, and gives you the power to know who’s calling even if their caller ID isn’t available.

CALLER GREETING
You can personalize your outgoing message by recording your own name or greeting.

How Call Alerts Work and What they Cost

There are free 30 day trials that I encourage you try so that you can decide whether or not you want theses service. After that, most of the call notification services run about $5.95 per month with additional charges of approximately $1.00 from local phone companies for call forwarding.

The technology behind the alert’s is actually pretty simple and these software applications works instantly without having to buy or install other hardware. You don’t need to be a computer nerd to smoothly run these services. Here’s an easy overview:

1. First, get a reliable Internet service provider or ISP. I recommend downloading Netzero or Netscape Internet service.

2. If you already have an ISP, it’s time to download your free alert software. This takes about 1 to 2 minutes. I recommend Call Wave but you may also want to try AOL alert service too.

3. Restart your computer. The applications will automatically generate a welcome window.

4. Follow the simple window messaging to customize your software.

It’s really that simple. So, if you’re tired of missed calls, it may be time to do a little comparison-shopping to find the right alert service for you.

Todd Tweedy is no stranger to Internet call waiting services. He launched the first web-based caller notification software for America Online in 2003. He also manages a site dedicated to Internet call waiting services — http://www.callalertreviews.com. Todd is also the president of The Tweedy Group. You can learn more about his caller alerts insights by visiting his site.