Finished RainbowReaders.com

Posted on May 10, 2009 by Taz

After working on the RainbowReaders website for over three years, It is finally finished!

I started this site for my mother before she retired as a school teacher. She through her teaching career she became an expert in teaching students with reading disabilities. She wanted to hqv a site where she could share some of her experience with other teachers with the end goal of helping struggling readers learn to read.

While teaching, my mom developed some new methods of teaching reading. The results of her programs won her international recognition. Most of the students she tried her methods on increased their reading level by two to three grade levels in only one year.

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Back in Chinhae

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Taz

Well I’m back in Chinhae, I had a great time in Hawaii, but I was really missing Tanya and Anastasia. People keep asking me why I want to get out of the navy, my answer always has to so with how I want to be close to my family and how serving in the military just doesn’t fit anymore in my life. I have really enjoyed the last 12 years, but if my one week trip is any indication of what it would be like to be deployed for a year, then I don’t think I could handle it.

It’s really hard to believe how much Anastasis has changed in the time I was gone. She learned how to crawl, she started making a new face that is hillarious, lots of new sounds and even just her appearance. She’s getting more and more beautiful every day.

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What is required to start a business?

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Taz

While going through this TAP class I have also had a few classes on what it takes to start your own business. This is what I am the most interested in learning about before I get put of the navy. I’m not sure when that will happen yet but I’m hoping to be able to roll directly from the navy into working for myself instead of having to go find a new job working for someone else.

The basic steps u have so far for starting a business are:
1. Figure out the business idea, name, etc. The basics of what the plan is.
2. Start working on a business plan. A business plan is required to get a loan, find investors, hire employees, and really helps in laying down a path to being successful.
3. Setup a task list of all he things needed in order to get from the idea stage to making a profit.
4. Setup a financial plan including taxes, payroll, manufacturing, distribution,

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Azalea Festival

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Taz

Last Saturday I took Tanya and Anastasia to the Bisulsan Azalea Festival just south of Daegu. While the festival was vey beautiful, we were not prepared for what to expect.
For starters, allhe Koreans there were wearing hiking boots but I was wearing Birkenstocks and Tanya was wearing high heels. Next was the temperature. It was really nice in Chinhae when we left, but climbing the mountain was a different story. We luckily we did have a blanket for Nastya, but both Tanya and I got quite cold after the sun disapeared behind some clouds and the wind picked up.
However, we did get these pictures with my ladies wearing their new hats.



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TAP Class

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Taz

I am taking the Navy Transition Assistance Program course right now in Pearl Harbor, HI. So far I have learned a lot of great information that will be of great assistance to me when I get out of the navy.
Some of the most interesting topics have been the lectures about VA benefits available to me when I get out. As a veteran I have some nice opportunities available like the VA home loan, disability pay, job preference, business loan preference, education opportunities and many other great program. All that I’ve learned has helped me more confidant in my ability to provide for my family when I will no longer be getting my navy pay.

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My First iPod Touch post

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Taz

I’m in Hawaii right now for some training and while I was doing some shopping at a Best Buy, I took a look at the features of the iPod Touch and was quite impressed. So I decided it was time to upgrade from my old iPod 5g. While taking a look at the many cool features of this new toy, I found areally cool application that will allows to connect directly to my wordpress sites and edit them or create posts anywhere I can connect to a wireless network. This is my first post directly fromthe iPod. While it’s easier than using a phone pad to input text, I’m typing around 20 words a minute, which is much slower than my usual… I don’t think I’ll be replacing my computers anytime soon, but this is a great addition to my travel kit.
There are also a lot of other really cool things this can do. One I’m looking forward to trying when I get home is the XBMC remote control which will allow me to control my media center from anywhere in the house as long as I am on the same network.

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TokBox: The new face of Chat

Posted on April 24, 2009 by Taz

I don’t remember how I found TokBox, but the other day I stumbled upon a link to it somewhere and I have to say, it is the greatest Chat/Video Chat program to hit the market since Skype.

All TokBox requires for use is an internet browser with Flash 10.  For video, a webcam is also required.  One of the coolest features in TokBox is the conference video calls, an option I’ve only seen previously in commercial software.

Another great thing about TokBox is that it is also a one stop location for all your chat needs.  You can simultaneously be logged in to your AIM, Yahoo, MSN and Google Chat accounts.  The combined user list is the best I’ve seen.

I’m hoping to be able to get my family to use this sometime so we can chat together in our spread-out locations in the world.

Check it out at www.tokbox.com

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New Grid Hosting Account

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Taz

Well today I setup a new hosting account with GoDaddy.  I decided to try their Grid Hosting and so far… I’m impressed, it is a lot faster than my older premium hosting account with them.  (It’s also quite a bit cheaper $5/month instead of $13/month)  The setup seems to be similar and I have the same hosting options as before but I also have SSH available now!! WOOO HOOO!!!

Now comes the fun part, moving my sites from my other hosting accounts to this one.  I had 4 separate hosting accounts (for different organizations) that I’ve been managing for a while, each in the GoDaddy shared hosting environment.  And all 4 had speed issues.  Sometimes they would work fast, sometimes a simple html file would take 3 minutes to load.  All GoDaddy would tell me was that the database needed to be optimized.  I’m sorry, but there is NO WAY that 10 tables with a total size of less than 1MB (a standard WordPress Install) would make a site load 10,000% slower.  Sometimes I have a hard time refraining from what I want to say when people prove their stupidity…

I’ve completed the file transfer for one of my sites,  Rainbowreaders.com, which is the most pressing right now.  I did this site for my mother who is about to publish a book .  As of right now, I have about 3 days until an add for her book comes out in some magazines and the add says go to this site for more information and to buy the book.  I’m hoping I won’t let her down with this.

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