Category: Day to day

For blogs on the day to day activities

Property Taxes: The Bitter Truth

Property owners are charged yearly by local cities for overall maintenance of the city’s infrastructure. Schools and colleges are funded by the property taxes. Major chunk goes to the development of city’s facilities , salaries, and pensions. However, home owners are unable to digest the hefty bills every year.

Property taxes are the bitter truth of home ownership and if you are in one of the highly taxed states such as Illinois and New Jersey, you better get another job just to pay the property taxes! Some property owners end up paying up to ten percent of the total valuation of the property. The cycle for the property taxes is determined by a pre-defined process set by the city and state. Every year school districts decide the points to charge the city for operating the schools. State taxes may be less but the additional taxes charged by the cities for giving tax deferments to businesses makes the final rate higher. Cities with alternative income sources such as sales tax or income tax may charge lesser property tax.

You can expect a bill compared to a similar homes in your neighborhood. If you did a home improvement in a year, you must notify the city so they can reassess your property for adjusting the taxes. Commercial or business property tax may be different from residential property taxes. Check the local counties website for assessment search in your area.

Notifying the mortgage company and monitoring the city’s records whether the property tax is actually paid by the mortgage company is needed. For new construction properties, the initial mortgage may include only the property tax on the lot. Once the assessment is completed your escrow and mortgage can be adjusted to include the new property tax. Keeping a track is also necessary even if paying by other methods such as cash or check or credit card.

Property tax can be deducted from income taxes but also depends on the government tax rules. It is mandatory to pay the property tax bills similar to any other bill. Owners do maintain all the bills issued and paid. While enjoying the perks of home ownership, owners are also prepared for the yearly property tax bills. 🙂

Teenagers: Managing Highly Demanding Work with High Demands

Teenagers are still growing and are having increasing demands which are difficult to meet. They face a lot of challenges from school, peers, and sports but are equipped with confidence. Parents think teenagers have it all easy but they need more support and understanding now than ever.

Work

High school kids have daily home work that takes three to four hours every day. The advanced and honors courses leave little room for outside fun. Teenagers manage the tests, grades, ACT, SAT, activities, and so on. To meet their demands, teenagers start working as soon as they are eligible. Volunteering in a related interested field is expected at this age. Through volunteering, high school kids are able to explore the study and work choices.

Health

The frontal lobe of the teenagers is still developing. Teenagers are highly susceptible to schizophrenia and other issues.Their perception of situations and problem solving methods are different than adults. Healthy diet, exercise, and more sleep is recommended for overall well being. Social, physical, emotional, and mental health is crucial for teenagers. Any out of school activity costs a lot but there is risk of developing obesity at this age and related complications may arise due to the sedentary lifestyle. Smart phone addiction goes often unrecognized in teenagers.

Peer Pressure

Teenagers face drugs, alcohol, dating, and other situations in daily lives. Increased rates of depression and suicide among teenagers are due to the constant pressure. Cyber-bullying and online crimes on teenagers are getting out of control. They are exposed unimaginable sex and terrorist videos that are available openly on the Internet. Cyber crimes and under age charges can be filed in case of sharing nude photos.

Dating

Dating is common in high school and kids are highly anticipating for this in elementary and middle schools. Many end up marrying their high school partners for life long. However, nowadays due to the unlimited exposure, there is high occurrences of teenage pregnancies which hinders their education, work, and lifestyle. Children are exploring their sexuality and identifying their preferences. They are experimenting and knowing their limits. Too much sharing on Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, live videos, unlimited selfies, and so on take a huge toll on time and efforts. The cost of the dates also is an additional expense for the family! Some do earn through chores and part time jobs.

Demands

If you have a teenager at home, probably you have come across all the high-end demands. Smartphone, car, laptop, events, branded gear, allowance, and what not. They have to have the stuff to get along with their friends. ‘All are doing it’ and ‘All have it’ are some of the phrases parents get to hear.

Cost

Smartphone for a teenager costs $1000 or more and it needs yearly upgrade! Carrier bill of teenagers with unlimited data costs about $100 a month. High-end earbuds to listen to the music which cost another $150. Monthly music memberships for Spotify and Netflix add another $50. If your high school kid is a gamer, they will need monthly memberships, gaming systems, game remotes, and compatible head phones add another $1000.  If you have a fashion favorite at home, clothing, seasonal attire, and accessories cost another $500 per month (minimum).

Colleges

Finding a correct match for the courses teenagers wish to study and the college offering them is not decided until they join.  They are applying to colleges and scholarship and writing related essays. The application fees of the colleges and the college visits itself may add up to significant amount.

Managing all 

Teenagers are working their best to meet the work and increasing pressures. Stress management is possible through yoga, meditation, and social and physical activities. The outbursts and yelling are a way to get the stress out. Understanding the kids nature while respecting their growth is needed during their developing years. Helping teenagers take the right decisions and reminding them of the basic rules and life goals keeps them focused.

The challenges faced by current generation are never heard before and they are working hard to get ahead in the competition of study and life! Parents must show their support and encouragement while negotiating their demands.

Boy Scouts Extend Their Programs to Girls

Recent decision by Boy Scouts to extend their programs to girls has had mixed reaction from the public. Traditionally developed for boys and their development, the organization has recently started including LGBT and extended their programs to girls as well. Are they opening up their doors as part of their inclusiveness initiatives? Or are they looking to improve the dwindling attendance and head count?

Boy Scouts has excellent scouting programs for boys in grades one through twelve. Boys meet weekly once under the leadership of volunteering adults. They all plan different camping, fundraising, and volunteering activities in the community. Mostly funded by local churches, Boy Scouts has proved to be a successful program even in the remote parts of the USA. You can find an Eagle scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts, in all fields of work around you. The achievement of Eagle rank itself is considered a greatest achievement for the Boys and is a constant reminder for them to keep trying for their goals through out their lives.

Camping by Boy Scouts is family friendly event and raises awareness of keeping the environment clean. Many local camping areas are seeing development due to the camping fees paid by the Boy Scouts. Leadership, patriotism, communication, team work, achieving goals, and so on are constantly inculcated in their merit badges and programs. Special funding is available for children with Autism and ADHD to join Boy Scouts. They aim to improve the social skills of the boys by involving in the Scouting.

Boy Scouts was perceived as very strict organization in terms of rules and procedures. Boy Scouts do have venturing programs to include families and siblings. To avoid confusion in their troops, the Boy Scouts have started including LGBT in their troops. The decision was appreciated by many as that solves the common situations. However, recent decision to include girls as well is not welcomed by many.

Girls Scouts have their own program and empowerment agencies. They are not willing to join the Boy Scouts and want to remain independent. By including the girls in the troops, the attendance will increase definitely. 🙂 However, what about empowering the boys. Boys in general have less programs exclusively for them. They had one Scouting program and now the girls are in it as well! In their newsletter to the families, the Boy Scouts leadership has specified that the programs for boys and girls will be different and there will be no changes for the boys. In that case, how the funds will be allotted? Definitely there will be cut for the Boys programs. How about the leadership? Are they willing to recruit LGBTQ and women for their leadership positions?

The scouts are okay with the decision because girls who are gays can end up friends with the boys. That is common in schools as well. Maybe, the latest decision to include girls as well is to accommodate the previous decision of including LGBT. It is at the discretion of the local troops and churches about how they would go ahead with the latest changes. Maybe in future, they are looking for gender neutral scouts. It is uncertain about how the changes will effect Boy Scouts in the long run. Let me know your thoughts. 🙂

Scrum Teams: Powerful Way of Getting Things Done

Scrum alliance is a modern technique to improve team work and customer collaboration. With reduced levels of intermediate communication, Scrum teams are revolutionizing how things are done. Mainly created for software development teams, Scrum principles and Agile methodologies are being incorporated in to all businesses.

Scrum

Scrum is a framework of Agile model for software development. Mainly focusing on face-to-face interactions, delivering working software at frequent intervals, incorporating change at any time during development, and customer collaboration, Scrum teams are increasing in many Fortune 500 companies.

Scrum Teams

The Scrum teams are self organizing and are a group of five to nine people. The small size lets them focus more on the tasks and communication. Product owner, Scrum Master, and the development team are three main roles of Scrum teams.

  1. Product owner: Responsible for gathering requirements from customer and acts as a main collaborator.
  2. Scrum Master: Oversees the sprint and makes sure the Scrum principles are being followed.
  3. Development team: Self organizing team members focused on the development of the product.

Team members focus on empowering each other and get things done in an efficient manner. Developing, testing, implementing, and incorporating customer requested changes are all completed within a short period of time called Sprint, which is typically two to four weeks.  The teams compete to increase their velocity with each sprint. Special tools such as Jira, Rally, Trello, and so on are used to record and measure the Sprints.

Scrum teams help to avoid ongoing distractions and smart phone addictions. The daily scrum meetings and face to face communication gives every one a chance of participation and a feeling of being important. Daily scrum meetings let the scrum teams discuss tasks done, tasks ahead, any obstacles within ten to fifteen minutes. This will set the focus of the Scrum teams and team members can watch out for each other.

Team members are able to develop Scrum values such as focus, commitment, courage, openness, and respect by working in Scrum teams. Overall efficiency and work environment are seeing an improvement through the Scrum teams.

Certifications

Scrum Certifications are helping teams get familiar with the Scrum principles, key terms, mandatory meetings, and so on. You can register at any local event and get certified. The certifications provide a guidance on the implementation of the Scrum in any business.

  1. CSPO: Scrum Certified Product Owner
  2. CSM: Scrum Certified Master
  3. CSD: Certified Scrum Developer
  4. CSP: Scrum Certified Professional
  5. CST: Scrum Certified Trainer
  6. CEC: Certified Enterprise Coach
  7. CTC: Certified Team Coach

Various requirements have to be met for advanced certifications while some require an interest to work in Agile Scrum teams. Ongoing participation in Scrum events and re-certification is recommended. Find a certification event near you and get started today!

Scrum Teams in Real Life

Scrum teams have proved to be efficient in many small businesses and even at family level, Scrum teams are performing better. Typical attitude of working in a silent secluded manner are being overtaken with a more collaborative and interactive approach of Scrum.

Small businesses are mostly practicing Scrum and are Agile without being aware. However, if they practice the Scrum teams, they can be more self regulating and self organizing. Everybody appreciate the daily scrum and are in loop of whats happening. Customer appreciates the working models and can let the Scrum teams know any changes needed. The Scrum teams are also feeling empowered with the regular communication and feedback from Customer.

There are some new terms and way of working that Scrum teams must get familiarized. Once, the habit is formed, there is no stopping for the Scrum teams in software development, conducting business, as well as in daily lives!

 

 

Ford Museum and Rouge Tour: The Making of America’s Favorite Car

A visit to the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and the Rouge tour will enlighten you. The manufacturing excellence combined with innovation, self-sufficiency, and hard working labor makes Ford America’s favorite car.

Ford Museum

 

 

 

 

 

The museum of innovation has multiple exhibits and ancient displays of Henry Ford and the car manufacturing process. Insights to the development of vehicle making are displayed. At the entrance, you can find the ground breaking concrete and shovel used by Thomas Edison who came when the Ford plant was opened.

Other exhibits show the creative and manufacturing innovations used by Americans in the early days. Sewing machines, lathe machines, steam turbines, and cars are among the exhibits. You can even see the original steam turbines Ford used to power his plant!

Other interesting displays include the Presidential cars, violin collection by Henry Ford, and the Dymaxion house among many others. You can see America’s greatest manufacturing and power innovations that revolutionized the production and output.

Presidential Vehicles

Font innovations by House Industries make you wonder how much thought went into the creation of the displays and fonts. In the current electronic days, where all creations are computer based and graphics, it is hard to imagine that fonts were actually hand crafted!

Greenfield Village tour takes a day long to visit all the original properties that were moved to the city.

Rouge Tour

Rouge Tour is another interesting tour that provides the live insights of the manufacturing of Ford vehicles. Currently, they are assembling the 2018 Ford-F150 which are all sold out already! Raw material comes to the Rouge and the finished vehicle ships out. The self sufficiency of Ford’s business ensured continued supply and profits. Every Ford-F150 takes six hours to complete assembly and testing in a day.

 

 

 

Rouge Tour

In the Rouge tour, you can see an interactive presentation of Ford’s history. The lasers and the Four dimensional display of the Ford F150 model popping out of the auditorium is the highlight! You will understand how Ford kept going on towards his passion of vehicles despite the many obstacles he faced. With every obstacle, Ford developed permanent ways of removing the risk in the future.

Next, you will be routed to a self-guided tour of the assembly of Ford F150. You will be astonished by the skill and perfection of the people working. The parts move on a continuous chain belt and the workers assemble the parts by standing at their stations. They work at the speed of one truck per minute! If they miss the vehicle by few seconds, the belt moves along and they miss the chance! There may be some extra measures and precautions to stop the belt though. 🙂

 

At the end of the Station 2, you can try out the steering wheel display where you will be asked to assemble a model steering wheel. You can take the elevator to the Station 3, where you can see the Factory overview. They have installed Living green roof on the top of the Factory’s manufacturing units to promote clean and healthy air for the workers. The species installed on the roof are self-sufficient and require minimum maintenance. Through the Observation deck, you can identify the units such as the painting unit, furnace, and so on. Ford has taken care to to clean the Rouge river and maintain the environment. Friendly associates will help you navigate the factory tour but do not mention their competitor who took the bail out (GM) with them though! 🙂 At the end, there are different shining models displayed for visitors to take pictures.

There are combo tickets for the Ford museum, Rouge tour, and the Greenfield village. Locals do take year round pass for $250 for frequent visits. They run free buses from the museum to the factory. My favorite Ford models were the Mustang, Hot Rod, the Golden Rod, and the Ford-150 with the moon roof. I was convinced to book the Ford F150 but realized that it was out of my range. 🙂

Have You Booked Your Solar Eclipse Viewing Party Yet…

Its not too late to reserve a solar eclipse viewing party near you. August 21st is the total solar eclipse and whole world is excited about the natural  celestial event. Weird stories including Lizard men in South Carolina and sold out Porta Potties in Oregon make us wonder more about the Total Solar Eclipse.

Solar Eclipse

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: NASA

Solar eclipse is the natural event in the space when the moon comes in between the sun and earth. Then, the people on earth are unable to see the sun for a few minutes to hours. You may remember that the earth rotates on its own axis and revolves around the sun. Moon revolves around the earth and during the solar eclipse, it appears that the moon is blocking the sun. Only few parts of the earth are able to view total solar eclipse, while others can see partial solar eclipse.

 

Viewing Parties

All the public libraries and museums are arranging viewing areas to see the solar eclipse. Private groups are getting together to see the solar eclipse. In Oregon, all the Porta Potties have been pre-booked for the solar eclipse viewing parties. In South Carolina, police are warning people not to kill the Lizard men that may appear during the solar eclipse. Lizard men are weird humans similar to Big Foot and police are requesting to report any sightings. 🙂

Some cultures ban viewing the solar eclipse as it is perceived to be bad. Some prevent cooking or eating during the eclipse as the bad rays tend to spoil the food. Some pregnant women avoid going out during the eclipse as it may harm the baby. Scientists are arguing that the plants and animals may behave differently during the solar eclipse.

After 38 years, the United States is getting an opportunity to view the total solar eclipse though there were partial, annular, and hybrid eclipses after 1979. Electric and solar operators are concerned about the operation of the solar equipment and power plants during the solar eclipse.

Safety

NASA is emphasizing the safety during the solar eclipse. Experts are warning not buy cheap solar glasses and normal sun glasses are not suggested for viewing solar eclipse. Organizers of the viewing parties are arranging for safe glasses that are good for viewing the solar eclipse.  Cheap glasses can be spotted by holding them against car head lights at night. If the light is passing through the glasses, they are not safe for eclipse viewing and can damage the eyes. Special eclipse glasses are manufactured that can block the ultra violet and infra-red rays during the eclipse.

Solar Eclipse Viewing 

Solar Eclipse of 2017 in the USA is first visible in Oregon at 9 am. The eclipse will pass through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. The maximum time of 2 minutes and 38 seconds eclipse can be viewed in Carbondale, IL. The eclipse will end in South Carolina at 2pm.

Some eclipse chasers are tailgating the path in the USA while others are travelling out the country for different experience. Special Amtrak trains to Carbondale, IL are already sold out! About five hours drive from the Quad Cities, Carbondale is having the largest viewing events.

Quad Cities Solar Eclipse Events

In the Quad Cities, local libraries are passing out safe sunglasses and arranging the viewing areas. Some libraries are having preparatory events before August 21.

  1. Moline Public Library: 11.30 am to 2 pm. Sponsored by Popular Astronomy Club Quad Cities
  2. Putnam Museum: The event is sold out, but you can check for any cancellations. From 11 am to 2 pm, there will be presentations and live casts.
  3. Rock Island Public Library: 11.30 am to 2 pm. Offering free eclipse glasses for first 100 viewers.
  4. Davenport Public Library: 12pm to 2 pm. Making pin-hole cameras and eclipse viewing
  5. Bettendorf Public Library: 12.30 pm to 2 pm. Free glasses available or make pin-hole cameras.  Special presentations about the solar system

Next total solar eclipse in the USA is in 2045. Some parts of the world may not see the solar eclipse at all. For kids, this is a right event to view the science they studied in the text books. Some universities have declared holiday for the solar eclipse viewing on August 21, 2017. So, gear up for the grand solar eclipse this year and let me know how it went. Many are complaining that the solar eclipse is falling on a week day, but we can’t control the sun ha 🙂

John Deere Classic – Great Golf in the Quad Cities

John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run is the largest sporting event in the Quad Cities. It is held annually since 1971 and is an official PGA tour event. Professional golfers from around the world visit the Quad Cities for top golf. Hundreds of volunteers help out for successful completion of the event and the golfing event also sponsors the Birdies for Charity fundraising.

TPC Deere Run in Silvis, IL is a top golf course in the area to host the annual John Deere Classic. The premium event is a summer special which hosts professional golfers from around the world. The sporting event is a huge boost for local economy.

Hundreds of volunteers help organize the event. Local city leaders, school groups, employees of John Deere Manufacturing company, charities, and so on get together for this event. Birdies for Charity is one of the largest fundraising event that supports local charities during the John Deere Classic.

The prize money for the winner this year is $1 million. Some of the recent past winners include Steve Stricker, Jordan Spieth, Zach Johnson, Ryan Moore, Brian Harman, and so on.

John Deere Classic is excited to host several local golfers who have roots back in the Quad Cities area. Organizations can sponsor the event by advance registration. Volunteer opportunities exist for different committees. Advance signup is recommended for volunteering. Volunteers can win special prizes and event freebies.

Birdies for charities is a fund raising for charities who meet certain specifications. Matching amount can be won from the earnings of the event. Official food vendors are assigned every year for concessions.

Spectators are expected to follow certain guidelines during the event. Sharp knifes and firearms are prohibited at the event. Having a course map handy is essential. Following a group or staying in your stand are two methods of watching the tournament. Autographs can be sought out at a pre-approved time early in the week. Security guards are present at the gates to maintain the safety. Emergency medical services are planned for any situations.

John Deere Classic allows some special provisions in some years and some years end up with a tie. Regardless of the outcome, the entire event is planned, organized, and implemented with top standards. The golf event is a festival time for Quad Cities and is a must see.

New Construction Quad Cities

Quad cities is the bursting market with opportunities. With booming development in between Chicago and Des Moines, QC is the top favorite for many. The lack of custom homes is a challenge in the area and the demand for new construction homes is rising rapidly. Realtors and builders are working along with property seekers to accomplish the new construction homes in Quad Cities. If you are a first time home builder, you are prone to many challenges. Here are some insights.

Quad Cities

Quad Cities may first look like typical MidWest area where nothing ever happens. 🙂 However, QC is developing rapidly and everyone is having hard time to cope up. John Deere, Alcoa,  and local school districts, are some of the major employers in the area. Greater Quad  Cities is also seeing  many new manufacturing, construction, highways, bridges, and small business developments.  Prospective home owners in the QC are seeing shortage of new homes. Some are surprised to find the cost of living in the Quad Cities same as cities such as Dallas, TX or Columbus, Ohio. Some big city home owners are amazed to see the quality of the homes we get in our area when compared to the price they put in the big cities.

New Construction

Home is one of the largest investments and many of us have a very careful approach for a new construction property. Buying an existing property with established facilities and landscaping is a popular choice. Due to the shortage in the Quad Cities, many opt for a new construction which turns out to quite daunting to some. 🙂

  1. Budgeting: Home owners must have a clear budget on the new construction based on the family income. Down payment, mortgage, property tax, HOA fees if any, and home improvement costs must be considered before starting out for a new home. Expect to cross the budget during the complete construction process. 🙂
  2. Area and Builder: Choosing the lot according to your preferences such as proximity to work and school districts is crucial. Next step is choosing a builder who can complete your dream home. Select a new construction builder or a general contractor who specialize in custom homes. It is better to choose the builder with appropriate permits and insurance. Some builders offer to take the construction loan for you or others may direct you to the banks that offer construction loans. Anyway, you end up paying the construction loan interest. 🙂
  3. Contract: A contract need to be signed after reviewing the estimations. You can choose to have a realtor based on the builder. Some avoid realtors to escape the cost of seven percent. Most builders in the QC charge a builder commission fee from ten to fifteen percent. Your negotiation skills may come in handy at this time. Other components are charged same by most builders depending upon who they subcontract. It may be essential to add change clauses and late delivery clauses.
  4. Design: Expect one or two months to finalize the design. Some initial idea is needed as how much square footage the home is going to be after leaving the required offsets. Type of vault, Room sizes, bathroom placements, media room, and any customized options need to be brainstormed at this time. Owners may not be surprised that the design keeps on changing as the construction progresses. 🙂
  5. Selections: Home owners are required to select many aspects of the house. The basics such as foundation or drywall material will be common in the area. Some external selections such as roofing or siding may be mandatory depending on the HOA or city rules. Crucial selections that have huge impact on the final cost include flooring, cabinets, electrical fixtures, landscaping, plumbing fixtures, appliances, paint colors, and so on. You can upgrade to advanced options or select the basic ones provided by the builder. It may seem confusing and daunting, but it is required to look up the options and check out the samples and reviews before finalizing. It will be like a selection marathon where as soon as you are done with selecting one item, you will be presented with more options to finalize another! 🙂 You will always skeptical about how the total cost is going to change if you choose a particular selection.
  6. Waiting: This is the most killing aspect of new construction homes. Expect delays as the new construction is extremely dependent on weather and labor. Rains are the show stoppers for all exterior work. Any high end work is dependent on the availability of the labor. If one of the subcontractors who committed has any emergency, that task will be delayed. This is true with big and small builders alike. Phased out tours are planned for big builders and small builders let you visit every day.
  7. Locking the mortgage rate: You are required to lock the mortgage rate before 30, 60, or 90 days of your closing. Banks and financial institutions do allow some time to lock and if any delays occur, you need to notify the bank so they can extend the rate lock for another 30 days for a charge. Banks also do require you to finalize a home insurance provider before processing the loan pre-approval. Skip this step if you are paying cash. 🙂
  8. Appraisal: Banks send for a neutral appraisal before processing the mortgage. The appraisal is a mandatory process which will decide how much that property can be valued for. The entire appraisal depends on many factors such as similar homes sold in the area during past six months or the facilities such as wood flooring or deck.
  9. Inspection: The property needs to pass several inspections from city and HOA. Those approvals are necessary and also assure that the property is being built in a safe and acceptable manner. Any recommendations must be completed before closing. An Occupancy Certificate will be issued if all the requirements are met. A Temporary Occupancy Certificate may be issued which must be corrected later.
  10. Closing: A final walk thru before closing is suggested with all the involved parties. Check every light, tap, door, and so on to note any discrepancies that need to be fixed. Your banker and realtor will prepare all the necessary documents required at the time of closing. All documents can be shared electronically and signed on the closing day. You are required to pay the down payment and closing charges at this time. If you have opted for a for-sale-by-owner, you both can hire individual lawyers who can take care of the paper work. It is your responsibility to check for the accuracy of the paperwork as the lawyers do tend to have mistakes in their forms.
  11. Post-moving checks: Once you move in your new home, keep checking the house interior and exterior for any issues. Within the one year warranty that is common in the Quad Cities, you can ask for any faults or bad installations. Note down the warranty period on the appliances and HVAC so you can seek out the fixes. Minor cracks in flooring, walls, paints, and so on can be fixed.

New construction homes are definitely a thrill to enjoy but do expect some out of pocket expenses every month. You will be tempted to make changes with the change in seasons. Peer pressure in terms of improvement and buyer remorse  when property bills arrive are common side effects. An extra fan, an upgrade in the doors, added landscaping, and so on will be needed in the first year or every year. 🙂 Let me know any other tips for new construction homes in the Quad Cities.

Lilly Singh a.k.a Superwoman

Lilly Singh also known as Superwoman on YouTube is one of the fastest growing YouTube star earning millions of dollars through her YouTube channels and shows. Once suffered with severe depression, Lilly Singh now is the hardest working female YouTuber to achieve stardom and fame. Superwoman won many awards such as People’s Choice awards and Teen Choice awards. She is also known for her philanthropic efforts and was recently chosen as the Global Goodwill Ambassador for United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Lilly Singh

Lilly Singh was born in Canada and her roots trace back to India. She studied Psychology but choose YouTube videos as a career due to the popularity of her videos. Her perspective and opinions resounded with billions of viewers around the world and won millions of subscribers. Superwoman also is a writer, vlogger, actress, singer,  motivational speaker, and comedian. She plays the roles of her parents to represent the contrasting views of older generation. Her ethnic diversity also brings in immigrant perspective in to the videos.  She puts out her life so much in the videos and I think no one in her life can escape from the YouTube channels. 🙂

As the fame and earnings improved, Lilly Singh works harder to achieve more. Competency and talent made her collaborate with other YouTubers and celebrities. Lilly Singh’s encouraging speeches around the world tours are famous. Lilly Singh encourages people to break barriers and not limit due to fear of what other people will think.

Working Always Like a Superwoman

Planned events and non-stop work has contributed to Lilly Singh’s success. Being a female top earner through YouTube channel is a rare achievement.  She continues to work to maintain the excitement in her vlogs and channels. Breaking all the barriers in terms of gender, nationality, roots, opportunities, mental health issues, and ideas have led to more views and fame.

Lilly Singh’s book How to be a Bawse explains the tips to overcome difficulties in life to achieve success. Lilly Singh was also criticized for some of her work nevertheless she continues to work learning from the mistakes.  Social media such as the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so on are also a part of the YouTuber’s success. Her smartphone app Unicorn Island helps connect with fans during tours.

Lilly Singh is a strong supporter of female empowerment and girl child education. Lilly Singh partnered with different organizations for fundraising. As a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, Lilly travels around the world to promote awareness and help solve issues.

As a successful business woman Lilly welcomes new ideas and challenges in the world of entertainment.  The recent Game of Thrones White Walker video is an example of Lilly’s hard work. You can reach out to Superwoman on YouTube if you want her to discuss any issue or topic. 🙂

 

 

The Death of Crypto Currency

Investors were all frenzy earlier this year with the enormous growth of the Crypto Currency such as the Bitcoin and Ethereum. Working on the blockchain methodology and peer-to-peer payment systems, the Crypto were attractive as an alternate currency. The lack of fees for local and international transactions proved to be a rebellious way of paying. However, the software fork updates this month has made the Crypto Currency loose billions of dollars.

Crypto Currency

Crypto Currency is a term widely used for digital currency or virtual currency which is independent of any bank or financial institutions or country. It is just a process of continuous verification of transactions through software and hardware code. For every verified piece or block of code, a unit of digital currency is issued. Some Crypto Currency such as the Bitcoin and Ethereum have become the official currencies in some parts of the world. Organizations and regular stores have started accepting the Crypto Currency as a means of payment. Individuals with appropriate technology set up are able to mine the Crypto Currency in their homes. Some opt for pool mining, some investors set money in exchanges, while some buy the stocks reserved for the Crypto.

Crypto Currency can be bought with real-time currency worldwide. Several exchanges such as GDAX and Coinbase have made buying the Crypto Currency easier. In some parts of the world, Crypto ATM’s are made available for users with which they can buy the digital currency. There are fees for the transactions on the exchanges. Anonymity of users and transactions are possible in the Crypto networks. High security of the software and hardware have led to billions of transactions. Users may see a delay between when the time of order and the processing of orders due to the continuous verification.

All exchanges follow minimum Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering policies. Since the network is driven by software and users themselves, the investments are not secure. Recent software glitches made users loose money due to the issues. The exchanges do not guarantee the money lost in the wallets. Also, during the software updates or forks, the money may be lost which cannot be recovered.

Investment

This year, the IRS has exempted transactions in Bitcoin up to $20, 000 in Coinbase. New regulations are being developed worldwide for regulating Crypto Currency. Billions of users are investing in the Crypto Currency due to the rapid growth. Bitcoin has risen from around $100 to up to $4000 since its inception in 2009. Similarly, Ether which is preferred by the organizations also seen a huge growth from about $8 to around $403 this year.  Early investors have seen growth up to 400 per cent. Short term investors have lost some amount due to the volatility of the Crypto Currency.

The network users and miners have started to have disagreements on how the transactions were processed. Some believe that the transaction processing can be outsourced to third parties for faster processing. Some say that all transaction processing must be within the network. Several updates of the software fork SegWit have been introduced in to the system. Investors do withdraw their money during the updates as the software may be unpredictable. In the past, users of MtGox, a popular exchange, lost all their money due to the difficulties in the exchange. All exchanges lock the withdrawals during the software updates.

With every update and the differences in the system, investors are suspicious about the Crypto Currency network. Some believe that after the network is stabilized, the Crypto will reign. Some are getting in to panic mode and avoiding Crypto altogether. Finally, the Crypto Currency has huge scope to grow as it fell rapidly this year. Users can invest while it is in low and hope it will rise again from death.  Let me know your experiences with the new found luck – Crypto Currency. 🙂

 

Why do Small Businesses Need a Website?

Yes, small businesses do need a website to promote their business. Many argue that the Facebook page they have will suffice to give out the basic information. But, that information may not always enough to convince your customers to choose your business. A complete website is required to improve the web presence of a business. A website will give customers a chance to know more information about your business, services, FAQs, and also about the owners. Even if you are the only provider in the area and the customer has no choice, they will have hard time trusting you. A website can improve the trust with the customer by giving complete information about your established products and services.

Small businesses are leveraging Information Technology to improve their sales. A website is a precious asset which can be used to market your services and products. A website can give detailed description about your processes, vision, mission, goals, social responsibility, and any other information. A website also can improve your business in the search engine crawling as there will be relevant tags such as location, hours, contact information highlighted in the Search Console of the Google while setting up a website.

If your business is a family owned business and is passed down from earlier generations, you can include all the information in the website. If one of your products or services is exclusive in your area, you can highlight that aspect. People who move new to your area, which is quite common, are less likely to know about your business. If they google your business, they might find only sample information from Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and so on. This will give a brief introduction about your business. However, if you own a website, new comers can get a complete picture about your business including your history, goals, and overall services or product information. The social media act as additional resources to know the latest happenings, coupons, promotions, and so on. If you want people to call you, you can make that happen with the website. If you wish more customers could walk in your store, you can make that happen. The opportunities are endless in terms of generating new sales using a website.

A website also can be treated as an asset which you can transfer any time when you sell or transfer your business. A website with proper SEO and content can show you first to the customers who are searching for similar products in the area. Another advantage of a website is that you can include marketing campaigns such as Adwords. A basic contact form can get you sales leads directly to your inbox. Another advantage of a website is that you can include your product/service gallery with images and videos. Small businesses can publish blogs relevant to their business and increase the customer retention. Every day, businesses are encountering unique opportunities and challenges which can be very well captured in the blogs. All this can be accomplished in Facebook or Twitter but those are limited. Moreover, if you have useful content on your blog, you can link this to the Social media accounts that you have. All the social media have widgets which you can showcase on your website as well.

If you decide to have a website, make sure you have a mobile friendly one. Google started penalizing the websites which are not responsive to multiple screen sizes. That means, even if you have a website, if it is not mobile friendly, google will not show your website on the top searches. The cost of owning a website is considerably become cheaper which I think is wonderful. The hosting providers are having mobile templates which you can customize according to your needs. If you do not like the monthly fees, you can buy hosting and develop a website according to your choices.

Contact the website experts at sales[at]kuulstuff[dot]com if you decide to set up a website for your small business. The investment proves to be a great asset for your business. We are experienced with multiple hosting providers and business domains. In addition, a website for small business can be seen as a first step towards integrating Information Technology to improve your business domain and stay ahead of the competition. 🙂

 

Contact Forms Comparison

Contact form is an integral part of any website. It provides a medium for the customer to connect directly with the users. Traditional html forms always work but Wufoo, Google Forms, WordPress Contact Form, and so on are the latest contact forms taking over the website world. They are equipped with inbuilt functionalities which otherwise require hours of programming.

HTML and PHP

Traditional HTML Contact forms involve creating forms with ids and capturing them via php and storing in database. The values from the MySQL database could be later retrieved in to a Excel sheet or a web page. This version works fine even now. The developer needs to take care of SQL injection, blank values, naming the fields in the database, and so on. With HTML 5,  the inbuilt validations come in handy for developers. A lot of code needed to store and retrieve values from database. Further, the out put where the values are displayed or stored must also be taken care of. Sending the form values to an email via the mailto function is the safest and simplest way to achieve the goal. Adding recaptcha is another safety measure for added security. In addition, blocking spam bots at server side is good for securing your website and contact forms.

Wufoo

Wufoo is another way of adding contact form to your website. However, the entire data and control is with them. Wufoo has four pricing options. The basic version of the form lets you add the fields and put the code on your website. The form also comes with captcha so you don’t have to worry about any additional coding. The data is stored on Wufoo site which can be accessed via your Wufoo login. Wufoo lets you create three forms and three reports in the basic package. The reports are awesome too and you can customize any way you want. The report can further be downloaded in to a Excel file or as a CSV file for further processing. Wufoo forms are great for basic requirements. But, if you want the paid versions you can buy Wufoo membership depending upon your requirements. The basic version also leaves the big message about ‘Form created with Wufoo’ message on your website. You can remove that with paid version. Wufoo also has surveys and emails which can be added later with paid packages.

WordPress ContactForm Plugin

Another gem is the WordPress ContactForm plugin, which you need to set up to be used on your website or blog. The ContactForm plugin is free and can be set up by downloading the plugin from the WordPress Plugins. You can have multiple forms with this plugin and can set up the colors and fields based on your client’s requirements. It comes with captcha for added security. But, ContactForm 7 needs to be updated for latest bug fixes and releases. You can send emails with contact forms in them using this plugin. However, you need to be aware of how to set it up otherwise you will end up with lot of errors. This has to be tested in multiple browsers and devices as the form throws an error if you give invalid input names that are reserved in this plugin. I think this ContactForm is great again and the data can be import or export data from the WordPress admin tools.

Google Forms

If you are a big fan of Google and use Google Apps for most of your web business and data management, Google Forms are a great way. With your google login you can create the form and get the code in your website. Once you submit the form, thank you message from Google Forms remains on the screen. You can edit the colors and fields and set up is easy. You can limit the number of responses, include surveys, send confirmation messages,  and so on. The plugins available for Chrome make the set up even more efficient. If you want to send an attachment with the confirmation message, you have to set a trigger for the function on the form submit. First, save the document to be sent in your google drive, then get the id of the document by opening it in a new window. Set up the Google script to send the mail with subject, body, and attachment to the email specified in the Google Contact Form. You may need to test it out multiple times before you can successfully send the attachment. Spend some time to get a hang of the Google script and related errors. Google Forms Example shows that the data can be saved in an excel sheet on your drive or you can specify the format required. The beauty of the Google Forms is that the Contact Form data sheet on your drive is instantly updated. Sending confirmation messages and sending mail to self is also simple. You can set to send you daily or weekly reports as well.

Let me know how you incorporated Contact form in your website and which you think is the best! Here is one so you can contact me. 🙂

 

Quad Cities Summer Events 2016

Summer of 2016 brings record high temperatures to Quad cities along with annual events. Music, art, fair, carnivals, festivals, and so on make QC the greatest place to spend the summer again! Here are my top picks for summer 2016.

  1. Rock Island County Fair – July 19 to 23: Enjoy the unlimited rides and don’t miss the fair food and the demolition derby on Friday and Little Monster trucks on Saturday! See the farm animals and feed them.
  2. MVValley Fair – Aug 2 to 7: Take the fun stands pass to enjoy the entry for five days including the grand stands! Rascal Flatts and Alabama are in the line up this year
  3. Tug Fest – Aug 11 to 13: Don’t miss the fireworks on Friday and the great tug on Saturday. Cheer for your local teams and enjoy the action! Signup your kids for the kids tug to make it more interesting
  4. River Roots Live – Aug 26 to 27: If you like loud music and street food, this is the place for you. Bring a lawn chair and enjoy the music! Visit the many stages and enjoy all kinds of music
  5. Quad city balloon festival – Sep 23 to 27: Enjoy the hot air balloon ride over the QC and fly in the colorful balloons. Donate a canned or packed food item for free entry

Do visit the Putnam museum and Figge art museum during to check out their special exhibits. Say hello to the mummy in the museum and create art at the Figge art museum. Ride the channel cat water taxi to cross the river. Ride the river cruises and dinner cruises on the famous Celebration Belle. Go to the movie in the park or the movie marathon in the theaters early shows.

If you want to venture out new adventures in the Quad cities, try out the Scuba Adventures and get certified in the live water swimming. Don’t miss the Slide the city on August 6th which is sure a fun to do and watch as well. A must visit is the Bust out live escape rooms in Bettendorf which is a perfect team building activity for family, friends, or office. the Quad city sky diving is open for season and test your luck out there as well. 🙂

Participate in the marathons, races, triatholons, RAGBRAI, and so on in 2016. Or just enjoy the river walk. Let me know what you did this summer in the Quad cities! 🙂

New Pokemon Nintendo game

On November 18 the new Nintendo Pokemon game called Pokemon Sun and Moon will come out. The legendary Pokemon are called Solgaleo and Lunala. There is also a mythical Pokemon that looks like Diancie called Magearna which is said to be made by humans a long time ago. The starter Pokemon are called Litten the fire type, Popplio the ater type and Rowlet the grass type.

gallery-1464873431-solgaleo gallery-1464873635-lunala

image credit: digitalspy.com

1st picture: solgaleo

2nd picture:lunala

I am very excited to play this game.

First blog, yeah!

Walking: The Medicine for All Pains

With the onset of warmer weather in the Quad Cities, we started seeing more people walking, running, and biking. I think walking is the best medicine for all the pains. If you feel more pain in your back or knees, go out for a short walk. Similarly, if your mood is not feeling right, go for a walk. As simple as that. Your pains and moods will be immediately transformed in to another pain or mood! 🙂

Walking is good in the mornings, evenings, or late night. Doctors suggest morning walk is the best but I think walking is good any time of the day if you are able to do it. You can reduce your stress levels, blood sugar levels, and put the limbs into action. Walking lets you test your limits and increase the resistance to pain and workout. Your endurance levels will be higher if you take multiple short walks during the day. One mile is the optimum distance that you can walk or split it into two short walks.

Ask a friend or family member to join you for the walk so you can catch up on other things. That will be relaxing for both you and the walking buddy. Check out the neighborhood landscape or enjoy the warm weather.  Walking is the best alternative if you are unable to go for the high stress workouts. You can walk according to your own pace and no matter how fast you walk it is going to be ultimately beneficial. Add some music to your walk to make it more entertaining and relaxing. Experts suggest that brisk walking helps and also engaging your hands during the walk also helps. You might burn some additional calories if you walk twice a day and get back to fitness level by the Independence day vacation!

If you don’t workout on a regular basis, you might do just fine for your day to day activities. However, if you keep your body working out daily, you will be ready for any high adventure activities for the summer. Your limbs and body will be prepared for all the hiking and extra travel during the summer. In addition, your body will also ready for any hormone changes due to the aging. Do not just refrain from walking because you have that pain or this work. Keep the work out going on and keep walking!

Lake of the Ozarks: A man made attraction

Lake of the Ozarks was created 72 years ago to create hydro electricity from the Osage river by building the Bagnell dam. The Lake of the Ozarks covers 55,000 acres and has 1300 miles of shoreline and is close to Jefferson city and St. Louis. The man made attraction is popular for its water activities, two State parks, and the Osage Premium Outlet shopping!

Lake of the Ozarks is a perfect destination for spending quality family time. The Lake of the Ozark State Park and Ha Ha Tonka State Park (free admission) are near to the Lake of the Ozarks which offer natural attractions. Rent a log cabin in the woods for a natural living experience or camp out in the many campsites available. Parasailing is one of the popular activity in the Lake of the Ozarks. Dinner cruises and narrated cruises on the water are good for enjoying the nature. Boat rentals and jet boats can be taken for your personal use. Golfing, fishing, and camping are other fun activities.

Bridal cave is under the Thunder mountain park and is believed to be a place where native American couples got married. You can reserve a spot there for your wedding too. The Big Surf Water Park is famous for its water rides and beaches. If you are adventure enough, you can try the stand up paddle craft at the Super Daves paddle rafting. Kiddy kayaks, canoes, and paddle boats are also available there. Zippy’s ziplines are great for trying out their three creative zip lines and picnic areas!

Wineries are plenty in and around the Lake of the Ozarks where you can relax an try out different drinks. Visit the Willmore Lodge near the Bagnell bridge for a brief peak into the history of the area. Camden county museum, Miller county museum, and Morgan county museum are the other museums open for visitors. All the museums are free of charge! There is plenty of shopping along the shores and around the area for purchasing unique items in that area.

Lake of the Ozarks is great for enjoying the nature and spending quality time with family and friends. It is a popular destination from visitors all over the country. Visit Mark Twain museum and caves in Hannibal Missouri on the way to the Lake of the Ozarks if you are travelling from the Quad Cities area.

 

Waze : A new way to travel

Recently, a friend suggested Waze app while traveling. I remember seeing ads about Waze, but never looked in to it. This time I decided to try it out.

Waze is a mobile app which can be downloaded in App Store or Google Play. What it basically does is navigate your drive from place A to place B. It is just like a GPS or google maps. In addition to the navigation, Waze is driven by community. Other drivers or ‘wazers’ will help you reach your destination without much disturbances. Other wazers will post a road block, object on road, vehicle stopped on shoulder, reroute, construction zones, traffic delays, and most importantly Cops! Yes, your fellow drivers will post any thing they observe during the drive and you can get alerts while you are driving. How cool is that! You can like or dislike a post. You have to be a wazer in order to post an event. You can view other posts and comments even if you are not logged in as a wazer.

If you are a member, the app shows fellow wazers and the speed with which they are driving. Track other wazers along your drive and bump them. We even got few honks from other wazers on our drive! How cool is that. I mean there is no more privacy in your own car and in your pleasant trip! 🙂 If you have bored teenager or preteen, this app could come quite handy to engage the kids. They might help you with the directions and as well as any upcoming police vehicles. Remember, the app consumes a lot of mobile data. So, keep that in mind. However, this app replaces all other devices on your drive such as the GPS, Police scanner, radio, and so on. Waze app even has commentary by your favorite artist. If you are visiting a city with major events, the Waze app will give you live updates, traffic rerouting, marathon routes, and so on.

If you discovered the Waze app recently or you are a long time wazer, let me know what your thoughts on that! Happy Wazing, Wazers!

Fan Review

Shah Rukh In and As Fan is another evidence of the actor’s peak acting skills. The makeup and cinematography made the double role blend naturally but Shah Rukh’s action proved the negative role also is correct. 🙂 Only to his fans though!

With the technology, information is being transmitted at the finger tips before an event actually happened. Social media has made private lives public for common people. For celebrities who are under constant vigilance of the paparazzi, there is no more privacy. Stalking of celebrities are a common news now. Pictures of extreme private nature are being freely transmitted on the web. People getting in to the properties of famous actors, booking rooms adjacent to theirs, hacking in to social media accounts, emails, and so on are similar examples.

This situation has been showcased in the movie Fan. Shah Rukh is a famous actor in the movie and his fan is madly worshiping the hero since childhood. The craze continues in to adolescence and adulthood. Similarity in facial features adds to already possessive behavior. The fan imitates the actor in all walks of life and is often encouraged by the annual acting competitions held locally. Finally, the fan decides to meet the actor and sets off to visit him. However, the actor is having thousands of visitors everyday and is unaware of the fan’s behavior. People at that stage are used to the fan behavior but the actor is unprepared for this particular fan.

Situations turn worse and the fan is neglected by the actor. Fan takes actor’s professional rivalries as his own an ends up beating up the actors rival. There are viral YouTube videos about the incidents. However, this behavior is not encouraged by the actor and warns the fan to stay away from him. I think this was handled in a subtle manner. Most cases, immediately there would be police complaints and or security concerns. Now, the fan takes the matter very seriously and starts attacking the actor posing as his impostor. People start criticizing the actor for the impostor’s actions and the actor sees the issue.

The actor tries to handle it in a different manner by teaching the fan a lesson. But at the end the fan dies by committing suicide post shuffle and dialog exchange. The actor still kinds of remembers the fan whenever he sees the deluge of his fans. The ego and power establishing nature of the star has been shot very well and Shah Rukh is a natural. The craze and madness of the fan are acted out very well by of course our own Shah Rukh again.

I think the movie is depiction of stalking in real life as well. The never-ending trolling of people online and in person. The unnecessary imaginations and attachments lead to one situation or the other. One wise person said – “Love is another form of stalking”, which is true. But, love is suppose to set the other person free and like them no matter what. The relationship (if any?) which is shared between a fan and actor has been exaggerated in the movie. After all, it is just a story. Shah Rukh makes all the bad roles he acted such as in Baazigar and Dar look correct according to the character’s perspective. Similarly, Fan is also showing the same case subjectively.

Also, notice that there are no songs and no major female lead actors in the movie. You are all set to become Shah Rukh’s fans after watching the movie. Let me know what you think! 🙂

Integrate a WordPress Blog to Your Bootstrap Website

So, you built a great website in bootstrap. Your site is live and great, works fine in all devices and browsers, everything is perfect. Now, your customer wants to add a blog to your website. WordPress has great themes for blogs but none of them are going to look like your custom website. Here is how you can integrate the WordPress blog into your website and make the blog look same as the rest of your website. You can create your own WordPress theme!

WordPress Blog

WordPress blog is great as it is perfect for content management, backend, and frontend. You can add multiple users, media, plugins, comments, and so on. Backups and versioning is great with WordPress blogs. Corporates have been building full fledged websites using WordPress Divi themes. Inorder to integrate a WordPress blog to your HTML site built using bootstrap, you can follow certain steps and achieve same functionality.

Settings in the cpanel

  1. First install WordPress in your root folder and give the folder name blog.
  2. Download bootstrap and save in the wp-content-themes folder.
  3. Save additional css such as font-awesome and other css you used in your Bootstrap website in the same folder as bootstrap css
  4. Create new index.php, home.php, header.php, footer.php, sidebar.php, functions.php, page.php, single.php, style.css. Each of the files have their significance in creating your theme in WordPress.
    • index.php: Loads your blog
    • home.php: Loads the blog posts from the database
    • header.php: Loads the header in every post when the get_header() function is called
    • footer.php: Loads the footer in every post when the get_footer() function is called
    • sidebar.php: Loads the sidebar contents when the get_sidebar() function is called
    • functions.php: Needed to load the jQuery in wordpress package to this website and also the sidebar contents
    • page.php: Loads the page you create and can act as a template for every page in your WordPress blog or Website
    • single.php: Loads the individual post which the user clicks in a page with comments function
    • style.css: Loads the styles for this blog
  5. Edit header.php and copy paste the content including the navbar from your existing website template. Edit the css href to php function bloginfo. Load the stylesheet_url using the function. Add wp_head and wp_enqueue_script to load jquery in this page. Save header.php. In the navbar list, add wp_list_pages function to get the additional blog page you created in the WordPress admin login. This way, your WordPress blog will be at the end of the menu items in your website. After the blog is setup, go ahead and edit all the pages of your website and add menu item blog to link it to the blog page.
  6. Edit footer.php and copy paste the footer section of your website template. Remove all the javascript functions at the end and add wp_footer() function. Save footer.php.
  7. Edit sidebar.php and add the function dynamic sidebar to get the sidebar content on all pages and make the sidebars widget friendly. It will load the sidebar contents if there are any existing. Save sidebar.php
  8. Edit index.php and load the get_header() function first. Next, in a loop check the posts and load the posts and the title and content using the the_title and the_content functions. If there are no posts display a message, saying there are no posts. At the ends, load the get_footer() function.Save index.php
  9. Edit page.php. Load the header and footer contents. Divide the page into two columns and load the posts in the left column and the sidebar in the right column. Save page.php
  10. Edit functions.php. Add function to register the scripts such as bootstrap.min.js and script.js in the page. Then enqueue the scripts of your page. Add another function to register the sidebar contents and the before_widget, after_widget, before_title, and after_title style of the sidebar contents. Save functions.php. You can override the default jQuery that comes with the WordPress install with a latest version in the functions.php.
  11. Edit home.php and load the header, footer and sidebar. In a if condition, check if there are any existing posts. For every post, get the post title, links, content, and date, using respective functions. If there are no posts, display a message. Save home.php. WordPress uses home.php to load the blog posts. Save home.php
  12. Edit single.php and and load the header, footer and sidebar. Get the contents of the post and get comments section. This page will be loaded if a single post is clicked. Save single.php
  13. Edit style.css and import the bootstrap, font-awesome, and other css used in your website. Edit the navbar and footer styles to load exactly the same way as the rest of your website. WordPress uses style.css to load the style for your blog. Save style.css.
  14. If you have multiplepages in your blog, you can have a front-page.php and load the header, footer, and sidebar there.

Settings in the WordPress login

Login to your website and blog using the WordPress credentials. Delete the existing page and create a new page called Blog. In the Settings, go to Readings and set the page to load the latest posts. In the appearance settings select the new them you have created. Go to Live Preview and test the site if it is loading properly. Make your current theme as the default theme for your WordPress and start writing blogs. Voila! you are almost done.

Keep checking for the WordPress updates and backups. Test it in all devices and browsers for responsiveness. Maintain your site and the WordPress blog at the same time with minimal distraction to the user. Add some ads to your blog to make some dollars!! 🙂