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December 2021

Regina's Personal Blog

Monday, December 27, 2021

WiredShops, Game On.

As previously discussed, site promotion for the new QiSoftware shopping site, WiredShops, was cancelled for the upcoming holiday season. The site went live the beginning of November (2021), however because of problems with payment processing and shipping times, the decision was made to forgo heavy site promotion.

Though the site has been live since November, there have been no sales. If you feel this is in error, please contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

The site is driven by the Opencart platform. At any given time, the Opencart administration panel reflects the number of visitors to the site.

Payment processing issues included problems with non-registered PayPal buyers. For some reason the payment processing for these types of purchases would hang and not process debit and credit card information.

Tests showed, buyers registered with PayPal accounts had less problems.

At this time, PayPal is a cost effective solution which protects both my commerce enterprise and buyers. I have no immediate plans to switch to merchant services offered by my business bank, even though this option is available.

Since mid-September, I have submitted 5 separate orders to my suppliers to check products and understand the process. I am pretty happy with the products I received and received all of the items ordered.

The early orders seemed to take forever to arrive, so I have tested other shipping options with better results. A big reason for the "no holiday promotion" decision this year, I wanted to understand how to correctly select shipping options.

The items I ordered as holiday gifts, using revised shipping options, arrived well before the holiday. I did not use next day service, and the order took about 12 days. WiredShops does offer next day service for an additional fee.

Abstract noise has provided that I have other problems that I would like the proper authorities to look into. Since, I cannot prove any of the allegations, I am looking into other ways to have this checked.



Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Alexa.com Retiring

I was surprised to learn the site ranking resource, Alexa.com, I have relied upon since 2002 (qisoftware.com registered June 28, 2002), will retire May 1, 2022.

I am not sure why this came as a surprise. In March 2020, I developed a quick reference tool using Java Servlet technology to access the Alexa API. Below are illustrations of the tool's output.

In this business blog (Remix) post, I discuss new tools I developed that would be installed on my sites at a later date. The Alexa site ranking tool was one of the new tools.

I have too many security issues to install all of the software tools I develop. In this case, an additional problem related to Alexa API access costs.

This tool was slated for installation on the WiredPages Technology page. I felt the tool would have added another interesting resource for visitors to the site. I am sorry, I probably will not have the opportunity to install this tool.



Friday, December 10, 2021

Yesterday, Why?

Although I am not promoting WiredShops this holiday season, I have been trying to work out shipping and payment issues that are not as smooth as I would like. This, the main reason I decided to skip heavy promotion of the site (at this time).

I have also been ordering items to see whether I want to add them to my shops.

Last month, I ordered a dress that would be great for holiday parties, or year round cocktail events. I would love to list the dress, however decided not to. Why? Because I was asked to pass on the dress.

Below are photos of the dress and how it looks on, though you can only see the detail that I really love about the dress. The transparent area around the neck, sleeves, and upper chest.

Yesterday, I ran errands all day. I was out the door just after 10:00 am and finished about 2:30 pm. The photos below show my hair and makeup yesterday. Sometimes I think I have issues with mistaken identity and so every once in a while I show who I am (good, bad, etc...).

I had on a long black wool pleated skirt with black suede 3 inch boots that reach to just below my knee, a sweater with a v-neck with a loop tie, and a short black jacket. If I did not have my black sunglasses on, I had on black readers, as shown above.

I took all of the photos in this post last night when I returned home from my busy day. Note, one of the errands required a positive ID so this is part of the reason I publish posts like this. Sometimes I feel I need more public notices/confirmations than are actually needed, nevertheless I believe it helps to avoid misunderstandings or games I am not up for.



Thursday, December 09, 2021

CD Rates Are Getting Better...

In March 2020, because of COVID-19, spending outside of normal upkeep was only done if absolutely necessary. Some years earlier, I setup all of my accounts in in the Microsoft Money Sunset Business version. I have 4 banks, PayPal and at any given time, several accounts associated with each bank, including checking, CDs and savings accounts. Today, I have 8 bank accounts, including the funds I maintain via PayPal.

All of my accounts are linked, in that I can easily transfer funds between external accounts if needed.

In 2020, I started handling all my mother's accounts. Mainly, because the trip to HR & Block was a trip she did not want to make at the time. My mother has 3 banks, however she is not a business owner, so I setup her financial data in the Microsoft Money Sunset version for personal use.

Before my father died, I used to do their taxes. Because of my own legal issues, I stopped doing my mother's taxes about 5 years after his death, then started again in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Quick frankly, my business does have assets, so mostly to avoid any legal issues where tax filings were concerned, in April 2021, I setup legal assurances to ensure everyone was protected.

I have always had my mother's permission to act on her behalf, as many of her household account organizations i.e., electric, phone, cable, etc. can attest to. I also set her up so she could pay bills online. She likes checks and the USPS.

Me, when I write a check, I use a form I created using Microsoft Publisher and blank checks I ordered from Amazon. I seldom write checks. The last, a redacted copy as rendered by Microsoft Publisher is shown below.

The check was deposited from my personal checking account to my business savings account before I linked all of my bank accounts.

I am very happy with Microsoft Money, in terms of cost to own, and the power it gives me to track everything to the penny for both me, my business and all of my mother's personal accounts. She has many.

Over the last 2 years, interest rates on CDs have not been great. I used to routinely, setup 12-18 month CDs at Synchrony (one of my banks) with rates well over 1%. The only CD I have now is a 5 year CD I setup in Sept. 2017 at my business bank. The rate is only .35%, however I set it up to ensure I avoided a $14.00 monthly maintenance fee on my checking account.

At the time, if I maintained $10,000 or more in combined accounts I could avoid the monthly checking and savings account fees. So I set up a CD for $10,000.

Since then, my business bank has revamped their charges (COVID impact), and now the fees are under $10 however I continue to maintain the combined balance to avoid maintenance fees, altogether.

CD rates are picking up again. Both my mother and I maintain too much is low interest bearing checking accounts and I have been researching ways to invest in CDs with higher rates. Why not stocks? I like more guaranteed returns on investments. When setting up savings accounts with the corporations I worked for, i.e., Boeing, GE, Rockwell, I always selected guaranteed returns though I could have invested in higher return options with less guarantees. I never gamble with money. Not mine, not my mother's.

When I setup the legal paperwork for handling financial planning, I was taking a real estate course and did quite a bit of research into the types of legal documents I needed to protect all parties.

I am told, I did a great job with the legal documents I created which were notarized in April 2021. Actually about 2 years ago, it was a customer service rep with BG&E who suggested this legal solution.

Why all of the transparency? You would not believe the legal issues I have had over the years, or maybe you would. I am owed an explanation from DOJ.

FBI, over the many years I have maintained my business (since 2004), I have noticed anomalies where my business banking is concerned. This is a legal notice of shorts. I am aware you have looked into some of these issues. I am hoping you are still looking into these issues.





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