Lightening Online

I’m no tech-head.  People sometimes mistake me for one when they see how professional this site looks.  The thing is, I didn’t do it!  :)  Now my secret is out.  LOL.  You only have to have a conversation with me and you’d quickly discover how much of a tech-head I’m NOT.  I tend to refer to all things technical as “thingys” and can be overheard muttering “I hate computers”.

I actually don’t “hate” computers.  I love them.  I just get so frustrated that I don’t know how to do more with them.

My regular laptop (not this small one that has become my “main” one temporarily) is getting old and tired.  I’ve tried downloading “clean up” type programs to help it along.  I think all I achieved was to clutter it up more.

So when I was offered a trial of this system mechanic from Iolo, I figured I had very little to lose in giving it a go.

I’d love to give you the techie low down on how it works and what it does, but that’s a bit beyond me.

This is all I can tell you:

1.  It was so simple that even I could download and install it.  And use it.

2.  It has definitely sped up the speed of our computer.

I guess that’s all you need to know really, right?

Here’s a bit of info the company gave me for those who want to know more:

System Mechanic:

• Fixes errors, crashes and freezes
• Boosts Windows and internet speeds
• Restores system stability
• Cleans out clutter and junk files
• Prevents slowdowns and bottlenecks
• Plugs security holes
• Clears out private data
• Extends healthy life of PCs

System Mechanic Giveaway

Christmas is a great time of year for a giveaway isn’t it?  Well, any time of year is probably a great time of year really!

System Mechanic have offered a number of copies of System Mechanic for me to giveaway to my readers.

It’s very simple to enter.  All you need to do is fill in the form below mentioning one of the 5 top causes of a PC slowdown (as mentioned on Iolo’s website).  You can find the answers on the Iolo System Mechanic website.

(just ignore the website field on the form below - I thought I’d told it not to include that.  It’s been a while since I’ve created a cform *sigh*).

cforms contact form by delicious:days

I know it’s a busy time of year but I hope you’ll take the time to enter. Entries close end of the day Tuesday 22nd December 2009 (South Australian time) and I’ll announce the winners on Wednesday 23rd December 2009. All personal information collected will be used for the purpose of this giveaway only and then deleted.

Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned a new website and magazine called Way2Go? At the time I said to stay tuned for another announcement. Well, the announcement is finally here (albeit a little later than we’d originally planned but here nonetheless).

Way2Go are running a special competition EXCLUSIVELY for Lightening Online readers. What that means is that you SHOULD enter because your chances of winning a prize are quite HIGH.

Prizes up for grabs are:

1. The five winning entrants will receive 1 x Rebel Sports voucher (valued at $100) and 1 x one year subscription to Way2Go magazine (valued at $35.70)
2. The ten second place entrants will receive 1 x one year subscription to Way2Go magazine

So, what do you have to do?

Simply sign up to the Way2Go website and use the code word “lighteningonline” in the section “Promotional Code”. Then submit your own travel story to the website. Winning stories will be selected by the Way2Go team (check out the Terms and Conditions for more details).

You can find my first article “A Dream Is Born” on the website which details a little of our background story to the Big Trip we’re taking this year. I hope you’ll pop over there and leave me a comment (make me feel loved) and then sign up and submit your own story. I know many of you have great travel stories just busting to be shared.

Competition closes at 9am on 3 March, 2009. Unfortunately, this time round, this competition is only open to Australian Residents (apologies to my international readers - you know I still love you *mwah*). You can view the full Terms and Conditions here.

I really hope you’ll take the time to support this competition as the more successful it is, the more likely we’ll be offered other exclusive giveaways in the future. The total prize pool is in excess of $1000 which is obviously something I couldn’t offer on my own. My thanks go to the Way2Go team and James at Zing for offering this competition to my blog readers.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get over there! Oh, and don’t forget to come back and let me know about your story so I can come and give you some comment love too!

Usually I post these types of posts on Lightening’s Blogworld and I have this one but as it’s something very relevant to the types of things I post here, I’ve decided to include it here as well.

Save Water Today is giving away free water saving shower heads.

I know some of you have already tried this type of shower head (and I can’t attest for how good these particular ones will be) but I do urge you to give them a try for an extended period of time (as they take a little getting used to).

One thing that being on only rainwater (as opposed to piped water) during extended years of drought has taught me is that we CAN make quite a big difference to the amount of water we use if only try.

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I have a confession to make. While I LOVE my reusable shopping bags (including my new one), I tend to be a bit forgetful when it comes to actually taking them shopping. I USE them for all kinds of things. Like transporting my knitting, taking stuff to the gym, packing travel snacks in. And I use them at the supermarket. Most of the time.

The good thing is when I forget to take them to the supermarket, I am able to make use of those bags for rubbish and other things. So I don’t feel too bad, as long as I don’t collect too many plastic bags.

Where I feel like I’m letting the side down environmentally is department store shopping. Small boutique style stores (which I don’t actually shop in that often anyway) still provide some wonderfully sturdy plastic bags that can be used over and over again. But stores like Kmart and Target (etc of course) tend to provide really flimsy bags that tear easily and don’t have handles that make them very convenient for rubbish disposal. So they really DO end up as useless landfill.

I keep thinking it would make sense for me to take my own sturdy bags. I know I *should* keep them in the car. Part of my problem at the moment is that most of my “shopping” bags are in use!!!!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking it would be handy to have a reusable bag that I could easily carry around in my handbag. Then it would always be with me. Now, if you’ve seen my handbag (and what mother doesn’t have an overflowing handbag????), you’ll understand that fitting something into my handbag is no easy feat!!!!

So I was pretty excited when I saw these an article on these Ecosilk bags on Australian Women Online recently. They have a range but the ones that caught my eye were the rosette bags that come in my FAVOURITE colour!!!!

I took one for a spin while we were away and it was FABULOUS!!!! I used it 3 times (so saved 3 plastic bags so far) and felt quite glam walking down the mall/shopping centre with my bag. And no horrible plastic cutting into my fingers either. It certainly made me smile!!!!

I’m thinking these might make some nice Christmas gifts for hard to buy for people this year.

Shall I get to the GIVEAWAY part now?

Well, I do happen to have one of these bags in my favourite colour to giveaway:

Isn’t it beautiful?

All you need to do to enter is fill in the form below answering the question about what other colours the rosette ecobags come in. They have some fabulous names for some of their colours too! Why the question? Well, ecosilk bags were kind enough to donate this bag for me to giveaway (no, they are not paying me to write any of this and I contacted them because I LOVED their bags so much).

Entries for this giveaway will close Wednesday 7th May and I’ll announce the winner as part of my Smiley Saturday post on Saturday 10th May. And yes, you can enter no matter where in the world you live (as long as Australia Post will allow me to send there). They will also ship overseas (if I understand their site correctly) so if you don’t win, you don’t HAVE to miss out.

Let me know what you think. Do you like the look of them? Is this the kind of thing you would find useful?

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Image via WikipediaToday (26th January) we are celebrating Australia Day. For those who aren’t real sure what Australia Day is all about, you might find the following links somewhat interesting/informative/enlightening:

About Australia Day

Australia Day History

The way I explained it to my children was that it was kind of a birthday celebration for Australia. It commemorates the arrival of white settlement here.

What do we do to celebrate? Not a lot really which sounds very unpatriotic doesn’t it. We had a chat with our children about it being Australia Day today and have decided to have snags and lamb chops on the barbie tonight as our “Australian” meal.

Most towns and cities put on breakfasts and presentation ceremonies. If we lived in town, I’d take our children. Distance makes it a little tricky right now.

So, what about Lightening Online? How are we celebrating Australia Day here?

I thought the best way to celebrate would be with a good old Aussie Bloggity Giveaway!!! I have not 1, not 2 but 3 very exciting prizes to giveaway…….. Okay, they may not be all that exciting…..but you can pretend just for a minute can’t ya????? For me?

Are you ready to hear all about these rather exciting prizes? You are? Well, read on……

3rd prize……

……is this great set of Aussie Flag stickers!!!! Show your patriotism (if you’re Australian) or show off to your friends (if you’re not Australian - you could make you friends jealous by pretending you’ve been here ).

2nd prize……..

……is a LOVELY pair of Aussie Flag SOCKS!!!! (Did I hear you say WOW!!!!!) Sssshhhhh…..don’t tell anyone they’re made in China!

And the BIGGEST and BEST 1st prize is………

……drumroll please……

………..an Aussie Flag Bandana!!!! You can’t get much more useful than that!!!!

Note that all these prizes feature our great Australian Flag!!!!

Okay, I know, they’re not the worlds greatest prizes but hey….free is free is free right?

So, now I have you all DYING to know how to win one of these fantastic great little giveaways…….let me tell you how you can do just that!

1. Leave a comment on this here post. That will get you 1 entry.

2. Post about this little competition on your blog OR via a forum or yahoo group somewhere (be sure to leave me a comment to let me know where you posted). That will get you 2 entries (yes, if you post about it on several forums you’ll get 2 entries for each one).
International visitors are ENCOURAGED to enter. That’s not to say all my lovely Aussie readers aren’t encouraged to enter too. I just know that I’m hesitant to enter some blog competitions if I *know* that person lives overseas because I’m not sure if they really want to post prizes overseas.

This competition closes Saturday 2nd February and winners will be announced on Monday 4th February.

Please help me spread the word my lovely internet friends. The more successful this little giveaway is, the more likely I’ll do more in the future!!!!

STOP PRESS: This Giveaway has GROWN!!!!! Marita has kindly offered to add 3 Australian Calendars to the Giveaway, making it a total of 6 PRIZES!!!! How cool is that? Thank you so much Marita. A comment on her post is also worth 1 entry so if you’d like to increase your chances, pop over there and leave her a comment. Actually, pop over there anyway cos she’s such a lovely thing and I’m sure would LOVE to have you visit.

On the subject of giveaways, Jenn (who’s blog was recently featured on this site) has a giveaway happening right now. Pop over and leave a comment on her “Giveaway” post to enter.

Jenn also makes mention of a bloggy giveaway carnival happening right now. So if you’re in the mood for more giveaways and contests you might enjoy checking out Bloggy Giveaways. I am number 457 so there sure are a LOT of giveaways on offer. Have fun!!!!

If you are interested in free online learning you’ll find it on the web. With a diversity of resources on all sorts of topics like maps of the world and arts and crafts movement, there’s almost nothing you can’t learn about. Come visit now and show off you new knowledge.