Dear Email Friends and others.

Have you ever opened up your email program and discovered that you had over a thousand emails? I have. Not to mention, I have #Gmail, which means that to sort emails, I have to guess who they are from if there is no company listed. I tend to delete emails when I don't recognize the name. 

This started the wheels turning and I remembered when I was working for the Air Force as an Executive Assistant. I was there when we transitioned to computers from word processors. I was actually the first secretary to have a computer on my desk in our division, possible our command. After a few months, with more and more people coming on line, we realized that some changes had to be made. 

 It was a little easier there, because the office symbol was included with email from others on base. Then there were emails that involved specific tasks, so we learned to put a suspense date in the subject. When I went to the audit agency, we would enter the project number and subject for each audit. Everything became so organized, which we all know makes our lives better.

In the past 5 years since I retired, I have become increasing prolific on my computer. I do newsletters and blog posts. I also am a member of my church, the Women's Club, the Lions Club, the National Association of Parliamentarians, etc. Each one of these organizations and all the other things that I have joined on line come into my #Gmail box. Most of the time, I recognize the person's name, but sometimes I do not.  This means I might have to open it up. It does fall under the category of "UNKNOWN" like phone calls from telemarketers (which I never answer).

Then there are the sneaky marketers that squeeze under the SPAM controls with what looks like a personal email. I make sure their next email is entered under SPAM where I will never have to see it.

I am asking a favor for myself, but it may help you also, especially for those of us who get hundreds of emails a day. Could you please enter "Descriptions" for your email in the subject line? 

Examples: 
Church:

                FBC - Prayer Concerns

                FBC - Deacon​s

                FBC  - Staff

Women's Club:

                GFWC - National

                NNWC - Social 

Lions Clubs:

                NNlions - Projects

                Lions District 

                Lions International 

I would be able to organize my email easier, and so would you, not to mention, send an answer quicker. You could even "flag" the email if it is time-sensitive.

I have been known to delete emails that I didn't recognize who it was from because of SPAM, Viruses, etc.

Thanks for your consideration, 

Barbara Duke

Professional Encourager

#BoomerMom

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

HELP! HAMPTON ROADS VA - Bring your Family to Spirit Night

We really need your HELP 

HAMPTON ROADS

Come out and join the Newport News Host Lions Club on Thursday, July 24th from 5 pm to 8 pm for the Lions Chick Fil A "Spirit Night!!" Dine at Chick fil A of Yoder Plaza & Victory Blvd (near Patrick Henry Mall), and 10% of all the proceeds from that night goes to helping the Lions Club to continue to provide many great services for children and the local community. .

. Bring your kids, family, co-workers, team mates, anyone you want, and help support a great organization and valuable services. Feel free to share/print this post!! Hope to see all of you there....Wink! 

#WeServe

#PayItForward — with Lions Rose Mary, Katrina, Earl, Ray, Barbara Kevin, Jimmy, Joseph & Linda at 

Chick-fil-A of Yoder Plaza & Victory Blvd, 

Newport News VA!

COME BY AND SAY HI!

Who Buys Followers?

This is a no-brainer for me. Do not waste your time. You should never purchase followers. 

Followers that are purchased are bots and if someone checks your account for a job, there are ways to tell if your followers are real people or bots. 

If they find that your 5K followers are mostly paid for, why should they hire you to tweet for them. Bots do not buy goods, go to movies, eat gourmet food, etc. 

I have almost 98K followers and I would be willing to bet that at least 94 percent are real.

I actually unfollow people who have not been online in a couple of months. If they stay away from the Internet two months, then it was a flash in the pan to them. Unless someone turns them on to it again, they probably decided to live their real life, not their online life. 

If you were the CEO of a company trying to get your message out, why would you hire someone that only had about 20 percent real followers. It is better to have 10K real followers than 1M bought followers. 

There are programs that can check your followers to see your percentages. I was hired for a social media advocate job a couple of years ago because even though I had a good reference, they checked my Twitter account. I had 90 percent active followers, 6 percent inactive followers, and 4 percent bots.

I did not know they could check this, but I wanted to follow each one of those people myself. I did not want to have a bunch of sex-crazed perverts following me. I check each one and if there is any sexual innuendo, profanity, or hate speech, I block them. I do not want to see that, and do not want my name associated with them. 

I like nice, kind, positive people and most of my followers are nice, kind, positive people. If they are not, I engage and see if I can help to change their attitude about how Social Media should be handled. If they continue to cause me a problem, I block them. I do not tolerate rudeness. Would you?

One thing I never do is argue with people online. I do not tell them what I think lots of times, I just bow out of the conversation. Life is just too short to be at odds with other people. 

The message is this: Put in the effort to get your own quality followers, you will thank me in the end.

Barbara Duke 

Brand Advocate

Professional Encourager

Thoughts of Pink

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

Jimmy Fallon Makes me Laugh

Tonite, Tom Cruise is on the Tonite Show. He is such a handsome man. Jimmy and Tom are talking about his new movie, Edge of Tomorrow, with Emily Blount. Looks like and interesting movie, but just a little violent for my taste. I really liked him most in Top Gun and I love Jimmy Fallon because he makes me laugh. 

I heard that laughter can make you feel better and even in some cases really make you heal better. It is exercise for the internal organs. It is also such a positive thing for your brain. I try to watch things that will make me laugh. Jimmy Fallon makes me laugh. Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmell, David Letterman - Not so much.

My favorite!

I saw a new program the other night "Last Comic Standing." It was so good. Rosanne Barr is one of the judges and I was surprised at how good she looked. She may be older, but looks younger than she did 20 years ago. I laughed and laughed. It was on prime time and not unnecessarily profane. I never could understand why dirty words are considered so funny. Most jokes would be just as funny without the profanity. It is really not necessary. Profanity kind of gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I used to swear when I was younger. I had a girlfriend that swore with every other breath. My husband at the time mentioned it to me and said that maybe I should stay away from her because I was picking up her barroom language. I do not think that she had ever been in a barroom, but she was from the mountains in West Virginia and not only did she swear, she did it in the most hideous Southern accent.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

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Here I Sit

Here I sit in front of my computer wondering what to write, even though my right hand and arm are in so much pain, I had to double my pain medications this morning. Rheumatoid Arthritis is the pits. 

You wake up, and before you can even get up to go to the bathroom, you lie there and think of all the things you want to do today. Do not think too fast, check out what is going on with your body. Can you get up? Wiggle your toes. Can you walk? Flex your feet. Are they numb? You have so many questions in your head before you can even lift it off the pillow.

I sit up and turn to get up; I feel the pain in my feet and hands. This morning, there is also that awful pain in my back and shoulders. I raise myself up and the headache hits. Ouch! I make my way to the bathroom and wash my face and take care of other things, then on to the kitchen and coffee.  I am so glad we have a one-cup at a time machine. I couldn't lift a whole pot of coffee. I find my protein bar and go to the recliner.

Mitzee - Shipoo

My husband is sitting down and reading the paper. Mitzee decides she wants to go out, so I walk out with her. She decides to wander around the yard and I end up going after her in my socks. She runs to the back door, leaving me to make it back up the steps. Oh, well, she doesn't know how I feel. We are having trouble training her to poop outside. I guess that when our granddaughter sent her, we should have considered giving her to someone else. She was so tiny then, and I just loved her from the minute I set eyes on her.  

SnowBall (MaltyPoo) w/Mitzee

I know what you are thinking. What is wrong with Barbara today? She is just boring. Well, I guess I feel boring.


I have been watching TV all morning and one thing that really bothered me was the women on #TheTalk. They are trying to ruin Justin Beiber's career again. Someone put out a video where he sang about the N-Word and the KKK. It was obvious that it was made when he was around 14 or 15, when he was still living at home in Canada. Hopefully, he has a little more Moxey now, and isn't intentionally degrading any people or race. The thing that really bothers me, is that #theTalk and  #theView are getting more and more picky, raunchy, and racist. They are looking for things like this to stir up controversial subjects.

It almost seems like they are just doing it for shock value and ratings. 

I used to love the programs because they discussed pertinent women's topics, not just gossip. I have always had tremendous respect for Julie Chen, but today when she was talking about Justin Bieber, she looked almost evil.

Now, there is my soapbox issue for the day. Who cares about pain when there are so many issues around that people do not give a hoot about.

GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME! GOD IS GOOD!

Religion in School?

A good friend sent the following to me. If, in fact, it is true, I wouldn't like it either. You can paste the link to a friend. I just don't want to put this email; I think it would considered unseemly.


"Did you know that Hilliard, Ohio, has a special room for Muslims to pray? In the High School........................YES, call the school if you aren't believing....

Sorry NO CHRISTIAN, Jewish, or any other religion available..........

This was checked out on Politi facts and Ask and both confirmed.

I can't begin to tell you how livid I am over this. Our children are not allowed to recite The Lord's Prayer, not allowed to bring a Bible to school, not allowed to wear a Christian themed T-Shirt, not allowed to have Bible study classes at school, not allowed to display a picture of Jesus, and now this Peace of Crap President, is going to use federal tax dollars to promote Islam to our children.

Enough is ENOUGH ! Where are all these "Christian-hating, separation of church and state" athiests? Why aren't they lining up the to sue the federal government over the use of federal tax dollars to promote a religion in our public schools? I would be willing to bet that nobody will hear a peep out of the "Freedom From Religion" organization.

Obama Administration Announces Nationwide Muslim Outreach Program For Children Grades K-12.

American children gathered around a Muslim learning about the Quran... For school credit.

Washington DC: At a press conference Friday afternoon, President Obama announced plans for the first ever federally funded Muslim outreach program.

The program will be available nationwide for all elementary school students grade K-12 beginning February 1st, 2014.

• The program is designed to educate children about the fundamentals of the Muslim religion and Islamic belief. President Obama spoke with reporters to explain why it is so important that these outreach programs exist. The Muslim community deserves our full understanding and respect, Obama said. We have killed millions of Muslims overseas since the September 11th attacks.
• These folks are not all bad. In fact, most of them are hardworking citizens just like you and me. I encourage every student in America to participate in your schools Muslim outreach program. Learn about the Muslim community, the beauty of the Sunnah and the magic of the Quran.
• 35-year-old Paul Horner, a teacher at Starks Elementary School in Louisiana, told MSNBC he is excited about the new programs. I think anything a child can learn is good. We need more learning in this country. And, these classes are not mandatory but children can use them as extra credit towards other classes.
• For example, if Becky has a D+ in math she can simply take a three week after school class on the Quran and now Sally has an A in Math. How great is that?
• The Muslim youth outreach program is designed to help young people from different cultures work together to break down ethnic barriers. Their goal is to help promote a greater respect for other cultures, understanding while at the same time learning about all that culture has to offer.
• Khaled Matei, who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Party, told CNN he is pleased with Obama and his actions. I spoke with President Obama by telephone yesterday and personally thanked him for what he is doing for the Muslim community, Matei said. This is definitely a step in the right direction I explained to him. 

1. Do we do this for other cultures and religions? NO
2. Do we federally fund religion for other religions? NO"

(Just another way to mess with our freedoms. If we cannot have Bible Studies at Public Schools, we should not be having Muslim training at them either. Muslims are a minority in this country and if they want their children to be trained in their religion, they should train them in their own temple or at home. Barbara Duke) 

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

John 14:6-7

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

BTW, if Sally gets an "A" because she took a Muslim training class, it is a real pity that she still won't understand math. I know because I took classes to avoid math.