Oliver News

Saw a news story a few minutes ago talking about food prices going too high for many to afford. It seems that the price of gasoline and the use of food growing fields to grow plants for bio fuels is making the supply a little tighter. Add to that food distributors holding on to it a bit longer to get prices higher, and what you have is a lot of hungry people around the world, and one group of people overthrowing their government (Haiti) because of it.

Rice now has armed security in some parts of the world. This is crazy. I though it was bad paying extra money for blueberries different times of the year. Could you imagine having to carry guns just to transport rice?

Just read a story about how one blogger decided to take the time and unplug from the internet, email, everything every Wednesday, this somehow has spread into a bit of a movement, online of course. People from all over the world apparently are making an unplugged day like a religious day of necessity. This one blogger says she could hear im messages that weren’t there and dreamt of blogging. Dreaming of blogging isn’t a bad thing, but I guess if I was hearing instant message popups that weren’t there I too would be a little worried!

Seriously though we all need to set some digital boundaries in many ways, and being connected all the time can have it’s drawbacks. We should all be spending more time doing physical activities and have some time for the self. Time to meditate and relax. Of course, I end up doing this Sunday nights - mainly because there is always much less news to read on those days!

There has been much in the news about the credit crisis and impending recession in the U.S. What can people do when they need credit and the process is being made even more difficult? The first thing I suggest to people is to get an education about credit. The process is different for different people, some people have no credit and need to get it established, some people have good credit and just need to find the best loans and credit opportunities that they can get. There are also a ton of people that have bad credit, and yet there are times in life when you need credit, and times when it just makes more sense to finance.
I have been amazed about how much there is to know about the credit process and the various ways and means that those in the financing industry score and keep up with people. I have also been quite surprised that so many do not know much about their credit rating and the options that they can take advantage of out there.
There are methods to getting better credit, and the main way to do that is make payments on time, if you can’t make them on time, get in touch with your creditors and see what can be done. Sometimes a consolidation loan is possible to help you make payments on time. There are also credit repair services out there that can assist you with getting it back on track. If there are items on your report that shouldn’t be there, write the reporting agencies. When you are ready to be more educated about loans look around for all the info you can find. Learning about all the options out there can save you a ton of money in the long run, just like shopping around can save you a ton of money on car insurance, it’s worth the time you put into the research.

James sent me an email about a company that sounds similar to one of my ideas I am hoping to get funding for. What OLX is doing is becoming the craigslist or classifieds site for the world. The article he forwarded me had some cool info like the fact that they white label partner with friendster and it helps their growth.

Now if these people can get tens of millions of dollars in investments and venture capitol, I know that my idea can get a million. Guess it;s time to get the idea on digital paper so the investors can see how cool of an idea it really is. Who knows that the future holds? Worldwide news and classified domination? Maybe.

Of course there is Kijji for competition - but get real - the name sucks, the domain is hard to remember and the only it has going for it is Ebay - well that’s a pretty big monster going for you, but monster.com is memorable and easy to spell, so is skype, kijjiji? No, no competition there. Neither of them are doing things the way I want to though.

I just saw a lam interview on yahoo news - this girl from trading spaces is talking about easy ways to go green with your house. I guess I was expecting some real building and remodeling tips, perhaps water saving toilets, or instant hot water heaters, instead she is talking about reusing egg cartons and saving old books by making them into art - lame.

Not at all what I was expecting when I clicked that video news link, although I did like her idea for making wallpaper out of old books - I would love to do that, of course I would like to see some pictures of other people’s walls that have it, not the kind of project I want to start and then decide it’s all wrong and needs to be redone, redoing wallpaper sucks, and wasting a book in the process would be heartbreaking.