It’s another very hot day on the panhandle of Florida, and me and the kids have vegged
out most of the day, watching TV together mostly. I’ve not felt well today mentally. Not
sure why, just feeling fearful and distracted today. Some days are like that.

Fortunately, I did get an unexpected visit from my Dad and stepmom, Barbara. They
brought a basketball hoop over for the kids (a very nice one too! It reaches 6 feet
fully extended if I’m not mistaken.) They brought over cupcakes and plastic balls for
the kids too. My kids really enjoy these visits, and I think I do too. It was definitely a
good break from a pretty boring day.

Warning: This is a rambling post.. but it does have a point… err, several in fact.

I don’t really quote people or movies much, but I think I might change that, starting
with one of my favorite quotes. From the movie, ‘Never Been Kissed’…

“I’d like to tell you that we all grow out of it, but that’s a lie. Some of us will always
be rattling cages.”

So, tonight, I’d like to share some thoughts on a long, thought-provoking conversation
I had tonight with a friend (and fellow online marketer.) Basically, some women, like
me, plow right into a busy life filled with multiple kids and a variety of demands.

We spend so much time trying to appease other people, letting other people guilt us,
and sticking around things that make us truly miserable that we don’t even notice how
miserable we have become, and that how we act as a result affects the people most
important to us.

My friend pointed out some mistakes she made and regrets heavily, and I recognize
some of these same mistakes in my life. I’m making them now. I have to say there’s
nothing more eye-opening than hearing someone recount regrets in their life and to
realize you’re living at that moment the same way they’re recounting. It’s sobering.

Life is fleeting. Kids grow up.

I’m pretty sure I’ll always be a rattling cage and I’ll probably battle depression and
anxiety for the rest of my life, but I think it was very refreshing to realize very clearly
that at this very moment, I have a choice and a chance to make a difference in my
own life (and in others.)

With that in mind, I have some plans to improve my life — changing certain behaviors,
not doing certain things (losing my temper so often), doing more of other things
(praising my kids and boosting their confidence), and still other things I could do to
make the world a better place.

I think somewhere along the line alot of us lose sight of how much power we have
in our own lives and others’. One person really can make a difference, I’m beginning to
believe.

On that note, while I’m thinking about it, I wanted to point out a very worthwhile
cause championed by fellow Online Marketer (and pediatric heart surgeon), Dr. Mani
Sivasubramanian. It’s called The Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation and its purpose is
to raise awareness about Congenital Heart Defects and to raise funds for life-saving
surgeries for children from poor families suffering from CHD.

I’ve participated in the activities organized to raise funds for the children’s surgeries,
and I’ve seen what a wonderful person Dr. Mani is. He helps save children’s lives on a
yearly basis, and I’ve seen for myself firsthand what a generous person he is. And I
think there’s a lot to be said for people like him that care about helping others.

You can learn more about raising funds for those little angels by visiting the
foundation’s site at: http://www.chdinfo.com/foundation/ You can find the link on my
blogroll where it’ll stay for the lifetime of this blog.

I spent a couple hours on the phone this afternoon helping my Mom set up her blog.
She’s really excited about it — other than social marketing sites (like Myspace,
Facebook, Wer Kennt Wen, etc.), this will be my Mom’s first major presence on the
Internet.

She’s always been very writing-inclined and much like me, she writes conversationally.
So, reading what she has to say is pretty fun. I’m looking forward to seeing what she
writes.

Her boyfriend is in the military and is scheduled to go to Afghanistan for another
deployment. I’m hoping the ability to blog about what’s going on will provide her
comfort through the trying times ahead.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been looking to change the look of
this blog. In the past, I’ve made minute changes, but never really been all
that happy with the look of the blog.

Well, I’m happy to say that I finally found a theme that agrees with me,
and managed to put together a header I like as well.

For those interested, a couple of tidbits behind these new changes:

- The little girl in the header is my 5 year old girl, Tatem.

- The phrase ‘good grief’ has dual meaning for me. I’ll explain that in a later post. Suffice
it to say that my Mom used a lot of interesting language when I was growing up and she
was very animated about it.

I’m off to go watch some machinima with the hubby. Plan on updating the blog some
more tomorrow!

I’ve been looking for a different look for my blog for a while now. I hadn’t
really had much luck before, but I seem to have stumbled onto some nice
free themes. Wanted to share the love (providing links) and explain why
the blog may be changing from one minute to the next.

Those links (and more to be added as I crawl the web):

100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes, care of SmashingMagazine.com

21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant Wordpress Themes, also care of SmashingMagazine.com

13 Magazine-Style Wordpress Themes, care of Drweb.de (this is a German site)

Wordpress’s Free Theme Directory (Lots of new themes, I’ve noticed!)

Most del.icio.us Wordpress themes from around the blogosphere, care of Tech-buzz.net

Huge list of various types of free Wordpress Themes, care of WittySparks.net

More to be added shortly…

In the wake of the death of the King of Pop, I wanted to post something
about his passing. Like countless others, part of my childhood was spent
listening and dancing to Michael Jackson songs. A lot of great memories
attached to those songs. Still developing good memories attached to
specific MJ songs (like ‘Beat It’ which is a favorite of my kids. We listen
to it frequently in the van enroute to doctor appointments.)

I’m very sad to hear of his passing, especially at so young an age. He
was just a year older than my Mom! Here’s to remembering him the way I
saw him when I was growing up, listening to his music.

If you’ve read some of my older ebooks and seen my Myspace recently, you might
catch my name listed as ‘Kimberly Crawhorn’ or ‘Kim Crawhorn-Enders’. There’s a
reason for that.

Kimberly Crawhorn. Kim Enders. They’re both me; one’s my maiden name that I
used while writing (before getting married) and Enders is the last name that I use
now. When I first starting working in online marketing, I was dating my husband.
About a year after I started in online marketing, I got married.

I also include Crawhorn in my Myspace profile so old friends (from high school,
etc.) can find me more easily.

Just a tid bit for those that were wondering.

I’m happy to report that I’m going to be online, working more often. I’m not sure what
happened, but something seems to have clicked in my head and my writer’s block is
gone. Woot!

This means more ebooks, more blogging, and probably some life being breathed into
my ezine.

I have a tendency to keep up with the news via online news sites. Seems like I very
easily get engrossed, reading about what’s going on in the world today. And a lot of
what’s going on can be quite depressing.

So much violence, hate, greed and tragedy out there. In the past, I thought it had
a lot to do with society’s gradual turning away from a previously of-utmost-importance
sense of honor and social mores.

But the truth of it is that there have always been a huge amount of tragedies, warring,
and many negative elements of human nature on display worldwide. The history of man
is wrought with wars and unrest.

It may seem like the abundance of problems we face, to include economic problems,
fear and resentment over where our (U.S.) government is headed, and obvious stressors
from other parts of the world are spurring an increase of tragic incidents with people
killing themselves and their families.

However, alot of this stuff has been happening through the years anyways.

In my opinion, the striking prevalence of murders, kidnappings, murder-suicides, gun-downs
and all that has become so blatantly obvious because of how widespread the news has
become, thanks much in part to the Internet.

News travels so much faster via web and it’s so much more profuse in web form. (You can
only include so much in a printed newspaper.) With the Internet, space is not really such
an issue. (This, of course, doesn’t take into consideration many other outlets for spreading
news these days — including but not limited to the radio, magazines, tv, etc.)

I guess the point I wanted to make centers on a little blurb I read on a youtube video for
the Cranberries music video of ‘I Still Do’, uploaded by Youtube user, RealPerfectness. Her
blurb reads:

“we live and we die ^^ so stay cool and live with happyness
and being useless is living sad =)”

I found a tremendous amount of wisdom in this simple blurb and I wanted to share it. We
live in a rough, oftentimes scary world… but that doesn’t mean we can’t live our lives
meaningfully and attempt to live with at least an ounce of happiness.

Just some food for thought.

So, 12 pages later, I’ve written out a full report on my brush with a nasty malware and how I
fixed it. I also included a ton of tips and brief how-to’s. I plan on sprucing up the report with
screenshots, graphics and probably editing it a few more times before I release it.

For regular readers of my blog, I’m offering a by-request review copy.

If you’re interested, I’d like you to do 2 simple things:

1) Leave a comment on this blog.
2) Open a ticket at http://www.kimenders.com/helpdesk. Include your name and a valid
email and I’ll send a complimentary copy your way.