Thanks to Roman May

When I was starting my business, I had the big picture stuff in place. I had a business plan, I had my capital that I needed, and I had a trusted partner to get my company off the ground. I failed to think about the little details, though. I didn’t put a lot of thought in to the logistical details until my mentor sat me down one day and told me I needed to focus on the little things before I could tackle the bigger ones. I sat down that day and made a game plan for office space and phone and internet service. The office space ended up being a little more involved, but the phone and internet were a breeze. I did a quick search for Phoenix T1 and had service in no time. I did finally locate a building that I could afford and we got our little company off and running. We’re growing in leaps and bounds these days, and I love not having to think about the little details anymore! I’m more of a big picture person anyway.

On this day in 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address or "fireside chat," broadcast directly from the White House.

Roosevelt began that first address simply: "I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking." He went on to explain his recent decision to close the nation's banks in order to stop a surge in mass withdrawals by panicked investors worried about possible bank failures. The banks would be reopening the next day, Roosevelt said, and he thanked the public for their "fortitude and good temper" during the "banking holiday."

At the time, the U.S. was at the lowest point of the Great Depression, with between 25 and 33 percent of the work force unemployed. The nation was worried, and Roosevelt's address was designed to ease fears and to inspire confidence in his leadership. Roosevelt went on to deliver 30 more of these broadcasts between March 1933 and June 1944. They reached an astonishing number of American households, 90 percent of which owned a radio at the time.

Journalist Robert Trout coined the phrase "fireside chat" to describe Roosevelt's radio addresses, invoking an image of the president sitting by a fire in a living room, speaking earnestly to the American people about his hopes and dreams for the nation. In fact, Roosevelt took great care to make sure each address was accessible and understandable to ordinary Americans, regardless of their level of education. He used simple vocabulary and relied on folksy anecdotes or analogies to explain the often complex issues facing the country.

Over the course of his historic 12-year presidency, Roosevelt used the chats to build popular support for his groundbreaking New Deal policies, in the face of stiff opposition from big business and other groups. After World War II began, he used them to explain his administration's wartime policies to the American people. The success of Roosevelt's chats was evident not only in his three re-elections, but also in the millions of letters that flooded the White House. Farmers, business owners, men, women, rich, poor--most of them expressed the feeling that the president had entered their home and spoken directly to them. In an era when presidents had previously communicated with their citizens almost exclusively through spokespeople and journalists, it was an unprecedented step

We have arrived in The Philippines!!  It was such a long trip from Denver.  We took a filght to LA and stayed overnight near the airport. We then woke up early and took a taxi to the airport and got checked in at the airport.

Our flight from LAX to Seoul was 13 hours!! Such a long flight, but we got some sleep as the plane was not that full. We had a 5 hour lay over in Seoul and then we we finally off on our last flight to Cebu. That was 4 hours and we got in around midnight.  The hotel where we were staying has a van waiting for us.

It is so nice to be home in The Philippines to see family and enjoy the culture!!

Guest post written by Jeramy Sparks

Some of my friends like to watch British television. The series Downtown Abbey is one they talk about a lot. It just finished its second season. I have not watched any British programming but I thought I might, so I got out my trusty computer and went tohttp://www.Direct.TV/ to see if I could find this particular series. I do like some British actors and enjoy movies set in England, like the Bridget Jones movies starring Rene Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant. What a lucky girl Rene was to be torn between these two great looking guys, Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcey! Last Chance Harvey was another British film favorite with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. While not British, Dustin Hoffman has been a favorite actor of mine since I saw him in The Graduate in 1969. The movie was filmed in 1967 but I didn’t see it until 1969 when I was thirteen and visiting my aunt and uncle in Kentucky. It was an eye opener for a rather sheltered thirteen year old.