America's Most Wanted, still strong

Thanks for the guest post by Eugene Fulton
Even though it has been around for years, America's Most Wanted is still one of the strongest true crime shows airing today. John Walsh has been the host since it began in the 1980s. The show is specifically designed to focus on criminals who are on the run, and by America seeing the faces they are then able to help capture them.

John Walsh started his crime fighting passion when his son was brutally murdered. John pushed to find Adam's killer, however it was not for 27 years that the killer was revealed. Unfortunately by that point the killer could not stand trial, as he had died before it being known.
If you haven't seen America's Most Wanted it may surprise you to know that they use recreations and any video evidence they find. They explain the story and profile the fugitive, then provide a phone number that you can use to call in the tip.
I normally watch it on my DirecTV Tivo, so that I can be sure to really view the information. To date 1125 fugitives have been captured thanks to America's Most Wanted. It may be worth checking out, espcially if you're already reasearching the best cable deals in your area.

Satellite: Hope for Ancient Televisions

For the past several years, there has been a lot of news about the dtv transition. What's that? It is when the analog television broadcast signal was shut off in favor of digital. In many countries, this has already occurred. In the US, after several push-backs, it happened in July of last year.

However, there are some areas that still transmit a low analog signal. As of this writing, there is no known date as to when every analog signal will be off the air. This, of course, is bad news to folks with old vintage television sets. I say "vintage" as they are not "old junk" but maybe something large and collectible. Folks that have restored their home to circa 1968 glory may very well be in trouble.

However, there is a "work around." Ever time direct satellite tv offers end up in my mailbox, I check them out. If you have satellite tv, you have a chance of prolonging the life of you tv. The best thing, of course, is if a tv is HDTV ready, but there are converter boxes for that.

The nice thing about being hooked up with a satellite company such as DIRECTV by DirectSatTV, you will always be up to date as you swap your converter box every few years for the latest technology. You will never be in the dark with something obsolete.

Can I guarantee that your 1950s RCA will work forever and ever? No, I can't. I can definitely say that the tvs with more input and output ports have a better chance of being technology-friendly. If you are insistent in your televisions being from the same year as your house, what about getting a small flat screen for the den or in view of the bubble bath? You can mount it in the closet and open the door when you want to watch. I won't tell anyone that you crumbled to modern conveniences. I promise.

Virtual baby updates

The following is a guest post written by our friend, Whitney Morrison.

Last Christmas my family and I went in together to by my shut-in grandmother a laptop. Although I don’t get to visit her nearly as often as I’d like, I’m able to keep in better contact with her through it.

This was particularly important a few months ago when I had our first baby, Oscar. The earliest that we could fly with him to visit her is over Labor Day weekend so I wanted to make sure that she still felt a part of our milestone before then. My husband used my satellite internet service Colorado to mail her pictures of the three of us right after Oscar was born. Grandma was so excited to see them and since then we’ve been sending her updates every few days with new pictures of him that she can see with her wildblue internet Missoula Montana.

My husband’s great-aunt also lives far away but they’re very close so we send her many of the same updates that she gets through wildblue West VA.

I know that they both really appreciate including them in on all of this and it’s going to be even better when Grandma sees Oscar in person on Labor Day!

Back to School Divas

The following is a guest post from our friend, Heriberto Sanders

Being a single father is rough when your daughters are both divas who have to always be wearing the latest fashions and being color coordinated. I am terrible with picking out matching outfits, and even worse when it comes to knowing what is in style or not. If I made the girls wear to school the things that I think look good, they would probably never come home.

Luckily we have this new hughes net internet in Californiaconnection up and running at the house so the girls can get online and check out all the fashion sites. Once they know what's in and what's out for the next couple of months I let them get on target.com, amazon.com or childrensplace.com and fill out their wish lists. Having them do their own shopping and then letting me approve it saves a lot of time for me and a lot of tears for them.

Luckily the girls are stylish but not trendy. So I didn't have to waste money on the shoes that have the roller skates built into them, the bracelets that look like animals when you take them off, or the shoes that have the holes punched in them. Both of the girls have really good taste, and my credit card bill proves it thanks to huges net.

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