I have a cousin, many times removed, who won the lottery up in West Virginia years and years ago. I was still a teen when this happened. He and his wife opted to stay in the same house they lived in before they won, but they made sure all of their immediate family had all their homes paid off and never really had to work again. I think they were wise with their spending, though I was not keen on their decision to take structured settlement payments. When you do that, you end up with far less money in the long run than if you had just waited things out.

Their house is just up the hill from my grandparent’s home, but I don’t see them all that often anymore because now that both of my grandparents have passed away my uncle decided to rent the family home out to some friends. It made me kind of sad, because the land has been in the family for hundreds of years and the house my grandparents were living in was the original farmhouse, albeit updated. I even found one of the original square nails that were used to build the house in a box of old photographs.

I never saw any of that lottery money, by the way – not that I’m entitled.

Wow. Can you believe that today marks the 50th birthday of those funny little blue guys, the Smurfs? They were a huge part of my childhood pop culture in the early 80s and I suppose for some reason I thought they were completely contemporary to the times. I had no idea thy have been around for so long.

The Smurfs were created in 1958 by Belgian Pierre Culliford, known by his pen name “Peyo.” They were initially introduced as Schtroumpf; but the rest of the world knew them as the Smurfs. The little guys started out as supporting characters in Peyo’s 1958 “Johan and Pirlouit”, which was set in the Middle Ages., but by 1960 they had their own comic strip. It was in 1981 that the Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon most of us grew to know and love was introduced.

In celebration of the 50th birthday of the Smurfs, there is a whole lot being planned. We could see 3-D animation film by next year and even new comics and a remastered release of the 80s cartoon series. At 50, these guys aren’t Over the Hill at all. They are just gearing up for a whole new generation.

My homeowners association does some pretty cool stuff to try and build a better sense of community. They have movies on the green, blocks parties, pool parties, comedy night, picnics, the list goes on. One of the events that they are planning now is a casino night. If this works out, it is something they want to sponsor on a regular basis. They are even going to get a babysitting coop together so more adults can make it to the event.

The big picture pan is for the association to actually purchase most of the equipment. There is no need to rent poker tables over and over if we are going to use them six to twelve times a year. Plus, the committee in charge of planning the events feels like we can rent out the town hall and the casino equipment to people in the neighborhood who want to have parties of their own. We can purchase Texas Hold’em tables and even game chairs online for a lot less than the local dealers we’ve found so far. And, since we are one of the nicer communities in the area, there is the possibility we can lease our hall and casino goodies to other associations in the area that do not have community facilities. We’re actually hoping to get a lot of use out if the setup.

Personally, I am all over this for fundraising. I think it would be an exciting way to raise a little cash for some of our other events like the annual Easter Egg Hunt and craft days for the kids.

If you are a kid, then MySpace is just a regular part of your daily social interaction. Everyone has one, right? My sister and her husband insist on having the login info for their 15-year-old daughter’s MySpace and they monitor the activity and friends list from time to time, but each parent has their won way of keeping tabs on their children.

The popular social networking site is great way for kids to keep in touch with one another, but unfortunately it is like a bug light in a room full of mosquitoes when it comes to the attraction is hold for child predators.

So, it is big news that MySpace is making design and policy changes to protect kids from harmful images and unwanted contact from adults by creating create an Internet Safety Technical Task Force. They also plan to make a registry of e-mail address4s for parents who want to restrict their kids’ access to the web site. This comes after attorneys general in many states have lobbied for stricter controls for networking web sites in order to protect kids from predators.

MySpace will also make a closed access high school section for users under 18 and make profiles for 16- and 17-year0old private by default.

National statistics one of seven children between the ages of 10 and 17 will be sexually solicited online, according to Florida’s office of the attorney general.

While it is wonderful that MySpace is taking a better look at the sexual predator situation, there are still hundreds of networking sites out there. Often, kids don’t fully understand how dangerous it is to post personal identification and pictures out there where it can be seen by anyone.

Parents, it is still your right and your responsibility to make sure you know what your children are doing while they are online, who they are communicating with and what sites they are visiting. There is spy software you can add to your home computer to track everything down to the last keystroke. It might just be the best option for some families. Try and keep an open line of communication with your children. If they are willing to share their passwords with you; all the better.

Advertising on the Internet has its own unique set of trends. You have absolutely got to be on top of those trends or you are going to miss out on what it is that is attracting surfers to any given website.

Of course, for the past several years the trend has been solidly in the camp of text-based contextual advertising. That means ads that are primarily text only (not banner graphics) and that appear on a site based completely in the content those sites are already displaying. That way, the ads will reflect the interests of the visitors to that site and convert into clicks based on actual interest.

Make way for the newest incarnation of contextual advertising – audio contextual advertising.

The gist is to run 5-second audio ads upon page load. The ads will aim to be as contextually accurate to the existing content as possible. The difference between these ads and traditional contextual advertising is that the publisher is paid for each time the ads play, not merely when a website visitor clicks on an ad. Publishers earn from every visitor 25% of whatever fees the advertiser has paid.

The program is still in beta testing, so right now they are pushing for accounts that will play the ads and collect data. They are also offering an affiliate program with this early sign up. These ads can be played on any website, even Facebook and MySpace, so the actual potential is limitless. If you have solid traffic, think about what you could earn from every visitor to your site.

I did sign up to see what the program’s full potential might be and will share my findings as I learn more.

Rudy Giuliani is banking in a big way on Florida. He hopes to win the primary here in order to put himself in a position to stay in the race for the Republican party’s Presidential nomination.

The bad news for Rudy is that although he was leading in Florida polls just before Christmas, a new Quinnipiac University poll says Sen. John McCain now has a lead. McCain has 22 percent of the likely votes, but in all actuality the margin or error really puts McCain and Giuliani too close to call. At least, that’s the way I see things. Past state primaries have shown us that the polls are not as accurate as we might hope.

Remember that 4.6 margin of error and then consider that the polls gives McCain 22 percent, Giuliani 20 percent, and Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee 19 percent each. Now, tell me who is ahead? It’s impossible, right? At this point, I would say it is anyone’s race.

On the Democratic side, Clinton shows a 52 – 31 percent lead over Obama. Of course, one must remember that when I say Clinton I do not necessarily mean Hillary, since it sure looks like Bill thinks he is the one running. That man needs to sit down and let his wife run her own race.

My dad is one of those people who adore antiques. While my antiquing skills are nowhere near as honed as his, I have still inherited his fascination with antiques in general. I tend to look and admire more than I buy.

I have a friend out in Oregon who has been pestering me to get on a plane to come out for a visit. Next month there is a festival in Lincoln City they Antique Week. It happens every year and the myriad of antique stores and dealers in the area get together to offer sales, an appraise-a-thon, seminars, historic tours, and even a vintage fashion show. This year Harry Rinker (of Discovery Channel’s Pop Nation: America’s Coolest Stuff and HGTV’s Collector Inspector) is going to be there to give talks and sign books, among other things.

If I am going to be out there, I’d just as soon secure an Oregon Vacation Rental right on the beach. I know I live near the beaches here in Florida, but a beach is not a beach – they differ widely from region to region. Oregon beaches are nothing like the beaches in Florida. I know it is the wrong time of year, but the central beaches have a huge whale population between June and November. I think it would be fascinating to be there to see that. And, while shells are plentiful on Florida beaches, I’m not going to find floats, agates, and driftwood here like I would on the Oregon beaches. I’m particularly keen to get out there and find some agates.