Newtown High School of Elmhurst, Queens NY Class of 1985 40th Reunion just got a boost it badly needs! While the reunion is still a few months away, on October 4, 2025, we will soon have to pay deposits for the DJ, photographer, etc. As an incentive for buying admission tickets, each 1985 alumni will get a chance to win a vacation package from Holiday Inn Express in Cambridge, MA.
You have to spend money to make money, it is true. I like to save money, or make some extra money at least, and occasionally peruse those articles on the topic. Like many things on the Internet nowadays, some are scams, others may be real. Scammy things to me are those that tell the reader to switch car insurance or some other service and here's a convenient link. Then there are real things but can be a pain, like installing some survey apps and spend hours to make pennies. Something I haven't seen that regularly, but I must have come across at some point, is taking Defensive Driving Class to get reduction on car insurance. Yes, it is uninteresting to say the least, the verification process is a total pain, but cough up $20 to $40 to get a 10% reduction on car insurance, that is a good deal. In case you don't know, because many people are inherently cheaters, these courses require voice verification. You cannot just give your username and password to someone then have them take the class for you. You have to record your voice once, then each time you resume taking the course you have to say something the computer verify you based on the voice. You still need to sign-in. What I absolutely hate is that they offer the ability to reset should you fail the voice test. So they know it's a difficult test, yet they try to make money off of it. If you are one of those people who racked up many points, the course can also help reduce them. I was off on Friday and decided to sign up for an online class on the topic. Eight modules and I am done with three. I have more than 28 days left to finish but I plan to do a little everyday just to get it done with. They already took my money, I would hate to get distracted and completely miss the chance to finish it. You can take the class every few years, so as soon as I am done with this one, I will make a reminder in my online calendar to take the next one. I don't remember when I last took a similar course, more likely already missed an opportunity or two.
" Your phone fell in the water, quick, put it in rice!" So goes the popular belief. The rice would absorb all the moisture overnight and the next day the phone would work again. Recently, my son's Android phone showed the water droplet icon and would no longer charge. He tried vacuuming and blowing air into the power port but nothing worked. Before going the rice route, I read a bit about it and there were actual articles saying that it does not work. Little bits of stuff in the rice may get into phone's port(s) and make things worse. But packets of desiccant would make a good alternative. I've been working in the computer industry for a while now. New computers and computer equipments normally come with little bags of desiccant, to absorb moisture and what not during transit. At one job, someone told me he wanted them, since we were throwing the packets away after unpacking the computers. Ever since then, I started to save them, too. Yeah, I save too much crap to use some rainy day. But recently that day came! I put a few of those desiccant bags in a rectangular food takeout container - two instances of re-use! - and then the "wet" phone. Placed a heavy book atop the container, waited overnight. I am not 100% sure if that did the trick, but next day my son's phone worked again. It's been more than a week now, so far so good. My mother had a similar problem a few weeks earlier. I did the same for her recently but when I asked her if it helped, she just rambled on about something else and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. I will have to see it for myself this weekend, sigh.