Seniors Site

I know you guys knew I love books. They are my solace, my escape, when things get tough. They are my friends, giving me advices where I need them and of course, they give me unbiased opinion of  things that are happening and those that are yet to come. If there is one thing I won’t be able to live without, it would be books, good books, that is.

I have had my fair share of bad books too. In my honest opinion, I am quite disappointed with writers today. They sprout like mushrooms but just a few make good stories. If you are not careful enough and you just buy whatever is the hype, you are bound to be disappointed and not to mention, a few, precious bucks down the drain. I, myself, and speaking for my age bracket, I sometimes find myself going back to classics – those written way before us as I find them refreshing and more insightful. Of course, it is a great plus to be getting them legally for free from most ebook sites. Amazon for one has vast collection of free ebooks you can download and read on your Kindle, computer and even your mobile phone (NOTE: a certain amount of techiness applies). Another favorite of mine is Project Gutenburg which offers ebooks in different formats.

For list, the only authority I seek guidance from is The New York Times as their list is always good. However, they have this “100 best novel of all time” list that I kept going back to when I ran out of good books to read, I renamed it as my 100 best novels I should read at least once in my lifetime and it never failed me:

1. “Ulysses,” James Joyce
2. “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” James Joyce
4. “Lolita,” Vladimir Nabokov
5. “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley
6. “The Sound and the Fury,” William Faulkner
7. “Catch-22,” Joseph Heller
8. “Darkness at Noon,” Arthur Koestler
9. “Sons and Lovers,” D. H. Lawrence
10. “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck
11. “Under the Volcano,” Malcolm Lowry
12. “The Way of All Flesh,” Samuel Butler
13. “1984,” George Orwell
14. “I, Claudius,” Robert Graves
15. “To the Lighthouse,” Virginia Woolf
16. “An American Tragedy,” Theodore Dreiser
17. “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” Carson McCullers
18. “Slaughterhouse Five,” Kurt Vonnegut
19. “Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison
20. “Native Son,” Richard Wright
21. “Henderson the Rain King,” Saul Bellow
22. “Appointment in Samarra,” John O’ Hara
23. “U.S.A.” (trilogy), John Dos Passos
24. “Winesburg, Ohio,” Sherwood Anderson
25. “A Passage to India,” E. M. Forster
26. “The Wings of the Dove,” Henry James
27. “The Ambassadors,” Henry James
28. “Tender Is the Night,” F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. “The Studs Lonigan Trilogy,” James T. Farrell
30. “The Good Soldier,” Ford Madox Ford
31. “Animal Farm,” George Orwell
32. “The Golden Bowl,” Henry James
33. “Sister Carrie,” Theodore Dreiser
34. “A Handful of Dust,” Evelyn Waugh
35. “As I Lay Dying,” William Faulkner
36. “All the King’s Men,” Robert Penn Warren
37. “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” Thornton Wilder
38. “Howards End,” E. M. Forster
39. “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” James Baldwin
40. “The Heart of the Matter,” Graham Greene
41. “Lord of the Flies,” William Golding
42. “Deliverance,” James Dickey
43. “A Dance to the Music of Time” (series), Anthony Powell
44. “Point Counter Point,” Aldous Huxley
45. “The Sun Also Rises,” Ernest Hemingway
46. “The Secret Agent,” Joseph Conrad
47. “Nostromo,” Joseph Conrad
48. “The Rainbow,” D. H. Lawrence
49. “Women in Love,” D. H. Lawrence
50. “Tropic of Cancer,” Henry Miller
51. “The Naked and the Dead,” Norman Mailer
52. “Portnoy’s Complaint,” Philip Roth
53. “Pale Fire,” Vladimir Nabokov
54. “Light in August,” William Faulkner
55. “On the Road,” Jack Kerouac
56. “The Maltese Falcon,” Dashiell Hammett
57. “Parade’s End,” Ford Madox Ford
58. “The Age of Innocence,” Edith Wharton
59. “Zuleika Dobson,” Max Beerbohm
60. “The Moviegoer,” Walker Percy
61. “Death Comes to the Archbishop,” Willa Cather
62. “From Here to Eternity,” James Jones
63. “The Wapshot Chronicles,” John Cheever
64. “The Catcher in the Rye,” J. D. Salinger
65. “A Clockwork Orange,” Anthony Burgess
66. “Of Human Bondage,” W. Somerset Maugham
67. “Heart of Darkness,” Joseph Conrad
68. “Main Street,” Sinclair Lewis
69. “The House of Mirth,” Edith Wharton
70. “The Alexandria Quartet,” Lawrence Durrell
71. “A High Wind in Jamaica,” Richard Hughes
72. “A House for Ms. Biswas,” V. S. Naipaul
73. “The Day of the Locust,” Nathaniel West
74. “A Farewell to Arms,” Ernest Hemingway
75. “Scoop,” Evelyn Waugh
76. “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” Muriel Spark
77. “Finnegans Wake,” James Joyce
78. “Kim,” Rudyard Kipling
79. “A Room With a View,” E. M. Forster
80. “Brideshead Revisited,” Evelyn Waugh
81. “The Adventures of Augie March,” Saul Bellow
82. “Angle of Repose,” Wallace Stegner
83. “A Bend in the River,” V. S. Naipaul
84. “The Death of the Heart,” Elizabeth Bowen
85. “Lord Jim,” Joseph Conrad
86. “Ragtime,” E. L. Doctorow
87. “The Old Wives’ Tale,” Arnold Bennett
88. “The Call of the Wild,” Jack London
89. “Loving,” Henry Green
90. “Midnight’s Children,” Salman Rushdie
91. “Tobacco Road,” Erskine Caldwell
92. “Ironweed,” William Kennedy
93. “The Magus,” John Fowles
94. “Wide Sargasso Sea,” Jean Rhys
95. “Under the Net,” Iris Murdoch
96. “Sophie’s Choice,” William Styron
97. “The Sheltering Sky,” Paul Bowles
98. “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” James M. Cain
99. “The Ginger Man,” J. P. Donleavy
100. “The Magnificent Ambersons,” Booth Tarkington

I won’t even dare say that seniors are computer illiterate and wouldn’t know the difference between a computer mouse and a house rat because that will definitely contradict the study that shows boomers to be the fastest growing group in terms of new Facebook users. Interesting right? Well, I am not surprised as I have 3 fellow bloggers well on their 60s and about 50% of my class in middle school are my Facebook friends, about half of that number is actively engaged in Twitter and some can even be found dabbling on other online activities. My ancient neighbor-friend even plays online games against his grandchildren! That alone will tell you that seniors are indeed catching up, if not one step ahead.
True, most of these seniors require help getting their way around online but you have to give it to them too; contrary to popular notion, they are not resistant to learning. For “still-hesitant seniors”, do take note that you are not doing it just because it’s the “in” thing to do but you have to learn it in order for you to stay connected—and staying connected is quite important. Quite frankly, this is how the world works now, you just have to go with the flow.
Here are some of the easiest ways to connect online:
•    Facebook. Why not? Everybody knows Facebook—even the dog next door has one and if you add them today you’ll probably be lucky enough to know when he’s pooping or where he’s heading to poop. If the dog can feed you information about their personal life through Facebook—even those you don’t really want to know—then why can’t you?
•    Twitter. The beauty of Twitter is its simplicity which suits older people to a T. Aside from that, it has a very wide audience which will help seniors find their friends easier than any other social networking sites. I would like to think of Twitter as a “mini press release” site since you can find the freshest news from your favorite celebrity down to your favorite news station.
•    Emails. I’m a big fan of letters. I can still remember back when I was a kid, I used to sit on the porch waiting for the mailman to arrive and deliver my grandma’s letter for me. I would know the days when to expect it and my grandma never failed, not even once. When emails came, I was a tad disappointed but overtime I have learned to like them—although I still prefer the handwritten-in-paper kind.
•    Skype. Skype became popular because of its ability to combine two major communication means into one place, along with 101 fun things to do with Skype at a lesser price, some none at all! You can now throw away your home phone, along with that video phone because Skype can do these things for you without the cost. Chat with your friends anytime you want, talk with your kids all you want, call an emergency conference with your business associates anywhere you want (since you can install Skype on your smartphones too) –possibilities are limitless.

I bet there was a time in your life when you went in early for a doctor’s appointment only to be greeted by an awfully long line of people waiting to be called. Or perhaps that time when you just would like to have your prescription refilled and the doc’s secretary put you on the waiting lounge for God-only-knows how long, seated on that totally-unkind-to-your-back kind of plastic bucket chair! This is exactly what your virtual doctor would like to eliminate when they put up a way for you to contact them without having to actually go to their offices and see them in person.

Virtual doctors are real doctors by the way, and they are your real doctors who have your records and whose offices you visit for consultation. Please don’t be fooled by websites claiming they are your virtual doctors as most of these websites are just reference sites wherein you can search an illness or condition and they will spew out definition, causes, suggested treatments and whatnot. In other words, they may be reviewed by real doctors but they are not specifically written for your condition. One good thing to remember when looking for a virtual doctor is that they are in a “group site”, meaning there will be a group of doctors who you can contact on that site:  specific doctors with names—your doctor’s name. Better yet, ask your own doctor if he or she is doing virtual services and ask for a step-by-step procedure on how to contact your doctor online. Another thing to consider when trying to contact a real, live virtual doctor is that they too have fees which you have to pay while a reference site won’t have any.

What started as an experimental way of getting medical services into far flung areas is now a path more and more doctors are starting to brave—and they never regret a single day they did since the convenience seems to be working both ways. Once all set and settled, your doctor will be able to make quick diagnoses on your health status in cases of emergency. It is indeed a faster–and might also be the cheapest—way for seniors to contact their doctors. For caregivers who experienced having to drive their seniors to and fro their doctors, especially seniors with mobility problems, well, virtual doctors are a dream since they don’t even have to go out of the house anymore or try to sound right when asked to describe a condition.

By using a webcam, the patient can now show their conditions to their doctors and get the right diagnosis and of course, the right course of action for the condition instead of second-guessing what’s wrong just because it is too inconvenient for you to travel to the doctor’s office. Although the wait could be anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, seniors who already tried virtual doctors guarantee that the wait is much bearable than having to line up 20 minutes in an office without anything to do other than wait.

First of all, internet apps are tools. The word “apps” stands for “tools”, in other words, when you say internet apps, you’re talking about internet tools. Tools that will help you make your computer days easier and enjoyable. Before we move on further, I would like to warn you that there are thousands, if not millions, of internet apps to date. Whether you’re using a Mac or running on Windows, a tech-savvy senior can indeed find useful internet apps to suit their needs—some are paid and others are for free.

However, no matter how good it sounds like, you don’t need them all. Plus, it is impossible to download them all as well. My advice is, stick with the popular ones and read reviews. Find out if it can do you more good than not since internet apps are not without glitches, especially free ones. Aside from that, you might want to practice safe downloading measures as some of them contain harmful viruses that can ruin your computer system—worst, a spyware which steals your personal info.

Like I said, it is important that when you look for an internet app, you must have an idea of what you want and need. Below are what I think will benefit seniors tremendously but safe enough to be downloaded or used.

•    Google Earth:  Planning to see the world without ever leaving your chair? Or perhaps experience running a plane via a flight simulator? Even better, watch the stars and celestial bodies realtime? All these things and more, you can do with Google Earth. Yes, there’s a free version.
•    Google Maps:  Stuck in the middle of nowhere during a supposedly fun road trip? Consult your Google Maps and you’ll be amazed how far it can take you with little planning! Basically, it works similarly to a GPS when installed to your mobile phone but it doesn’t require a receiver but you still need an internet connection, of course.
•    Skype:  Looking for ways to cut on your phone bills? Then download Skype! Everybody is on Skype, you just have to ask your friends’ and relatives’ Skype IDs, find them over Skype and add them to your contacts. Now you can talk with them for free! You can also use it to call landbased and mobile phones, of course you need to pay for those.
•    PayPal:  PayPal offers apps which you can access from your mobile phone, enabling you to send or transfer money from almost everywhere. PayPal is important for those who are planning to start their own online stores and even to those who loves shopping online as it doesn’t expose financial details on transactions.
•    Remember the Milk. I soooooo love this one as it keeps me in track. Basically it is a task manager. Think of it as your personal assistant reminding you of your priorities. It can also be integrated to popular online services such as Google calendar and Twitter.

By now, you must have guessed that I am a book lover. Yes, a bona fide bookworm, if you must call it that. As a kid, I used to scour newspapers for comic strips since I didn’t know how to read back then. As soon as I started to read, I often end up at libraries, borrowing books of any kind just to get me through the weekend. I started with big, easy-to-read letters then as I get older, the smaller the letters get. When my eyes started to fail, I got to a point when I bought a magnifying glass—small, of course—and that little clip-on book light so that the one sharing my bed could get his goodnight’s sleep while I read the lights away. Me, never had a problem falling asleep, books lull me to dreamland and it never failed, not even once.

One thing that bothers me though is the amount of dollars I spent on books and the unbelievable amount of space it commands of my home. I hate to see them go so naturally, they tend to accumulate overtime and take almost half of my home. That’s when the better half usually steps in and take them all to donation areas without me knowing it—and he’s been doing it since the day we got married.

So you could just imagine the joy I felt upon discovering ebooks and ebook readers. Let’s just say, it solved all my problems with paper books. No more magnifying glasses over reading glasses, no more clip-on lights and no more cluttering inside my home! Best of all, no partner nagging me to cleanup or else he will throw me out of the house! I still buy paper books every now and then since addiction is pretty much hard to treat but I must say—and say proudly—ebooks improved my reading habits tremendously.

So why switch to ebooks? Here are the benefits of ebooks vs. paper books:

•    Special discounts for seniors like me!
•    Very environment-friendly since it doesn’t require cutting of trees just to give you a decent printed paper.
•    Easier to keep. You can just buy a pen drive and store your ebook collection there, then have it uploaded and saved online for backups. Have someone to teach you if you are not too familiar with that.
•    Possibilities are endless. It’s so disappointing to visit a bookstore only to find that the book you are looking for is not available. Ebooks never run out of copies.
•    Ebooks are cheaper. Classic ones can even be legally downloaded from reputable sites.
•    Ebooks are very flexible. Their font sizes can be changed and their background colors adjusted. They can be customized according to your reading convenie

It’s amazing how the senior market responded to Apple’s latest product, the iPad. For those who have been living under a rock for quite some time now, iPad is basically a tablet PC, netbook and ebook reader rolled into one. If you’re to ask me, it’s like a smart phone (internet capability and all) but has bigger screen and a lot of ease of use. I really think that what got our group’s attention is iPad’s simplicity, no complex installation and configuration, no weird, color coded wires to stick into sockets just to have it up and running and best of all, we are no longer limited to ebook reading since we can also use iPad for surfing the net and checking our emails—something that is remotely possible with a simple ebook reader—but still at almost the same size.
Ebook readers were an instant hit then, enabling seniors to read with ease since they can adjust font sizes and look up words without having to reach for their dictionaries. For me, ebook readers have been a real space saver, since I am a packrat at heart. If you could just see my book collection amassed during pre-ebook reader era, I bet you would say I can put up my own bookstore and have it running without a supplier for a whole year! That’s how crazy things were during those times and if not for my partner threatening to sue me I wouldn’t have donated them to a local library!
So more or less you get the idea where I am coming from. My love for books and my eternal bond with the internet were enough to have me waiting in line for just a glimpse of the ever popular iPad. Men and women of different sizes and ages were there with me, patiently waiting and hoping to get our orders in. So, does it appeal to seniors? The answer will be a resounding YES.

Upon closer look, iPad has features that will definitely benefit seniors, even those who are not into internet stuff. Applications, for one, are enough to entertain seniors. There are health applications which prove to be valuable for seniors. This includes applications for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, blood pressure, health tracking plus a handy locator for those who are quite lost in finding the nearest pharmacy.

Having a hard time with your eyes? Don’t worry, iPad has an audio feature which basically reads whatever you touch within its screen, making it very easy for seniors with poor eyesight to create emails and send them to friends and relatives or do whatever they want with it. Of course, there are hundreds, if not thousands of audiobooks you can play with your iPad. Possibilities are indeed endless!

Seniors who are dabbling with the internet long enough to know that internet shopping is really the “in” thing nowadays must have experienced once or twice the joys of online payments. I must admit, the first time I experienced a successful online transaction, I was instantly hooked! From then on, I tried to resist the temptation of buying online. Just consider this:  prices are almost cut down in half, convenience in paying for these things, no need to go out and risk foot injury at the end of the day just by inspecting rows upon rows of stuff—most of them you don’t even need, and most of all, just wait for your parcel to be delivered right at your doorstep—no matter how big or small your item must be! I say, for a senior like me, online shopping is one of the most valuable things made possible by the internet–EVER!
So you could just imagine the excitement I felt when I discovered that my bank actually encouraged their members to pay bills online—and they are giving away rewards for doing so. E-payments are the next best thing that ever happened to seniors like me who are having a hard time ordering checks from a bank, mailing it to pay their bills as well as the cost that comes with it—that is, stamps, checks etc., then let’s not forget the risk of losing the check on its way to the billing company. All these can add stress to an already stressful senior life every month, whereas paying your bills online is as easy as few clicks on your keyboard!
If security is your problem, rest assured that most banking institutions are triple safe than your regular online shopping sites. However, just to stay on the safer side, here are some online bill payment practices you need to remember:

• Your password is the most crucial. You need to change them on a regular basis so that your account won’t risk being cracked by identity thieves. Try to do combinations of letters and numbers that are not in anyway connected to your personal information such as birthdays, anniversaries, and even names.
• Never pay your bills on public computers since you can never be sure if these computers are safe or if they are infected with malicious programs that can steal your bank information.
• Never respond to emails requesting for your information such as username and password. If your bank needs these things, they will wait for you until you personally access your account and will make you do updates while you are in the site itself.
• Make sure you are doing transactions with the right URL. FYI, URL is the address of a website located at the upper bar of your browser alongside reload, back and forward buttons. This usually starts with letters “http”. Consider this as your home address or the address of your bank for that matter. Payments should only be done within the bank’s premises.
• Always check your account balance so you can spot discrepancies at once. Report to your bank whenever you feel funny about something.

What I really , really love about computers, internet and indeed the world wide web is the ability to share valuable information without having to go out there and work your way against obstacles. I will tell you about the first time I fell inlove with the technology: back then, there’s no internet, just your simple desktop computer and few gigantic, impossible looking laptops. What amazed me was the convenient it had brought me while typing, saving my files and printing, not to mention a few selection of fonts you could play with.
Then came the internet. Although it was quite limited back then as compared to what internet has now become, still I considered it a breakthrough. I began emailing my friends, instead of writing them letters all the time—I still do that when I feel like it though. Now, I would like to call this phase as a “sharing era” when everything can be shared—and apparently, learned. There’s no limit now, you can find virtually everything over the internet. From your grandkid’s homework to your daughter’s Facebook to your neighbor’s famous apple pie recipe, they are all just a few clicks away. That’s not all, to top that, almost everything you can find over the internet is for free!
The latest trend however would be e-learning. For seniors who would like to learn something—anything—this late in their lives but are having a hard time figuring out how to go out of their houses and attend classes, e-learning is for you. E-learning usually doesn’t require anything for seniors to join. Some are conducted as formal classes where you listen to an instructor/teacher and throw questions at the end of each session. They can be in form of webminars—seminars that are conducted over the interent—or video recorded classes wherein you can view them anytime you want. Tests are also given to ensure you get the right feel and of course, to assess if you’re able to learn something from it. Tests are usually submitted through emails as well as correspondence between professors and students. Paid courses are usually credited and can be added to your resume, if need be. Some of the most popular courses are:  web animation, website design and web programming.
If you are interested in joining e-classes, there are some few things you need to get you started. First, you need a good internet connection—preferably fast enough for video and audio downloads—and a little know-how on clicking the play/stop/pause buttons. Seniors might also want to buy a separate USB stick to save files to as backup or to view them offline, although it is not required.

As much as there are seniors who might still be in the dark when it comes to Twitter—or any other social networking site for that matter—let’s not forget those who are already conducting their businesses online, and quite successful in doing so. If you’ve been in this arena for quite some time now, you know how Twitter can help you with your “branding” needs, and yes, it can be used for other purposes too, aside from just gathering friends and making your product known.
In Twitter, influence is important. In fact, IT IS more than important! Measuring your Twitter influence will help seniors know if they are doing fine in the Twitter community or if you are better off spending your time on other areas of your business. For one, keeping a Twitter account active can be time consuming and if you are not paying enough attention, you might find yourself in a dead-end. Your influence, like your own stat counter, gives you an idea where you might be lacking and what areas need some pushing.
·    Following-follower ratio. This is important. If you have a very disproportionate following-to-follower ratio, it does reflect bad practices you must be applying nowadays. Twitter requires certain amount of effort on your part, finding the right people and following them, but if a senior Twitterer starts following people (and I mean lots!) even outside of his or her market, they will only end up following a tad more people as compared to those who are following them. Doing this will make a senior look like a spammer, while having a high follower and low following ratio means you are interested in connecting with other people. Of course, having a higher number of followers indicates you have an influence there.
·    Number of lists under your name. Getting listed is one of the most important things you need to secure in Twitter as it indicates you are doing great in “branding” yourself. In other words, you are a great influence in your area and they know it.
·    Use Twitter tools. In truth, Twitter can be confusing, especially for us seniors. Good news is, there are about a hundred Twitter tools out there for you to use. What’s more, some of the good ones are for free! Just Google them using the search words “Twitter influence”.
·    Response to your tweets. This indicates you are getting enough attention with your tweets. If there is a healthy connection going on within your circle, you must be influential.

When you talk about virtual offices, virtual assistants are never too far out of mind. In fact, it would be the next big thing you’ll ever do for your virtual office, especially as your business expands. Many seniors may frown with this idea as it is a fairly new way of conducting business and it requires certain level of techie “know-how”. However, hiring a virtual assistant has many, many benefits and it, like a virtual office would, can save you a lot in the long run!
Somewhere in this blog, I have discussed how out-of-work seniors can explore the many possibilities of freelance work, both online and offline. It includes virtual assistance which I find both flexible enough to handle and challenging enough to keep your aging brain in working order.  On the other hand, seniors need not to be on this side forever, as more and more retirees are starting out their small businesses and eventually will need services of an assistant.
I understand it can be doubtful at times as you will be working with someone remotely, and it is very possible to not meet your virtual assistant personally EVER. It can be scary especially scams infest the internet in overwhelming proportions but believe me, when you finally meet your match, you are most likely to tell yourself that the risk you have taken is all worth it.
FIND YOUR VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
There are many online marketplaces today which house different kinds of virtual assistants from all over the world. If you are comfortable working with someone through emails, chats and calls only, then you can hire someone from faraway countries such as India and the Philippines. These countries usually charge lower than other foreign countries which can definitely save you a lot of money. However, you can also hire someone local for a much cheaper rate than having them go to the office everyday! What’s more important is that the hiring senior knows exactly what he wants from a virtual assistant prior to the scouting process. Best stick with reputable marketplaces when posting for a VA job.
HIRING YOUR VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
After posting the job, you are sure to get bids. Depending on the job description you posted, you can receive at least 10 candidates up to a hundred within a minute. Now you can look at their profiles and assess if their skills are what you need. Their profiles are most likely to have their work history, time worked if the marketplace is an escrow service and feedbacks from their previous clients. These things will help you make the right decision in choosing a provider. Rates also vary depending on the extent of work and expertise the virtual assistant may have.  Like traditional office setup, you will have to set an appointment for interview so take note of the time differences. You, as the hiring party, should be able to set rules such as what you expect from your VA and what tasks are to be done.
LAST NOTES
Connection is very important as your virtual assistant will be working with you very closely. In fact, he or she may know way more about you and your business than your partner so make sure that both of you are on the same page. Give your VA a probation period of one to two weeks, and make sure she knows it. By that time, you’ll be able to determine if she’s good for you or if you need to go look for someone else all over again.