Hasta La Gadget!

Dear Steve,

My friend somehow got her grants changed to loans when they made her reapply right before the school year started as they were installing a new system. She doesn’t know what happened as she was actually going thru a tremendous amount of turmoil due to robberies, harassment from juveniles (she was working at the detention center at the time when a new kid moved down the street, saw her at work & caused H to break out for her).

The degree they talked her into is totally worthless. On top of that, the things that school had her read & write about (violence, starvation, juveniles, guns) put her in a deep depression. She begged them to let her write about other topics but they refused.

She landed in a Disability & Rehabilitation program for PTSD, anxiety, memory & focus problems plus flashbacks of a crime that was committed against her when she was 15. She was in bad shape but the DARS program only got her into SL debt & didn’t help her w/ anything.

Turnover was high & every new DARS counselor said the same thing, “I have A HUNDRED clients”. She wanted to drop the school & get a job but she just couldn’t.

Is there SL debt relief for medical reasons for those who somehow landed student loans when they qualified for grants plus were unemployed then & yrs later, still is? Especially when the “worthless piece of paper” gave them not ONE skill, let alone an employable one? When they were always able to just grab another low-paying job after a layoff until they went to school? Don’t schools have the responsibility to provide at least ONE skill in 2-4 yrs of coursework?

Al

Do you have a credit or debt related question you’d like to ask me? Just click here. I’m happy to help.

Dear Al,

You raise an excellent point when you say, “Don’t schools have the responsibility to provide at least ONE skill in 2-4 yrs of coursework?”

The real answer is they don’t. Schools sell education and butts in seats, not employment or even marketable skills. Yet you wouldn’t think so from the for-profit school ads that make you believe enrolling is a guaranteed pathway to a job.

Your friend sounds like a good person deep inside but there is a lot of trauma to break through to find a better future.

I’m convinced she obligated herself to student loans on the advice of others. I’m less convinced she didn’t play a part in this by agreeing to the suggestions. That can make it impossible to lay the blame at the feet of others.

Ironically I believe the financial problems she has been going through actually make her PTSD issues, worse. Financial PTSD is a little understood reality but I’ve written extensively about it.

Hopefully these are federal government student loans because if they are, and she is permanently disabled, she could get her loans forgiven. Click here for more information on making the loans go away because of a disability or at least getting the payments reduced.

If these are private loans then there are few options outside of eventually defaulting on the loans. But, that’s not the end of the world. Read this article.

It always strikes me as sadly odd that some private loan lenders seem to look at total disability as a temporary event and rather than eliminate the loans, they just give a temporary payment break. Practically useless.

Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.

Before I go I wanted to leave you with three easy action items you jump on right now to address your situation. Just click here.

Get Out of Debt Guy – Twitter, G+, Facebook

If you have a credit or debt question you’d like to ask, just click here and ask away.

If you’d like to stay posted on all the latest get out of debt news and scam alerts, subscribe to my free newsletter.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay rallied from an 11-point deficit as Aaron Rodgers threw for two fourth-quarter touchdowns to beat Dallas 26-21 Sunday in an NFC divisional-round playoff.

The Packers (13-4), helped immensely by a video reversal with 4:06 remaining, went undefeated at Lambeau Field this season. They head to Seattle for the NFC title game. The Seahawks (13-4) beat Green Bay in the season opener 36-16.

Dez Bryant’s leaping catch at the Packers 1 on fourth-and-2 was reversed by referee Gene Steratore after Green Bay challenged.

Instead of first-and-goal for Dallas (13-5), the ball went over to the Packers.

The Cowboys’ first postseason trip to Green Bay since the 1967 Ice Bowl for the NFL championship was their first road defeat of the season after eight victories.

All-Pro Rodgers, bothered by a left calf injury hit Davante Adams for a 41-yard score to make it 21-20, and threw a 13-yard bullet to backup tight end Richard Rodgers for the lead.

___

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL

Trying to shut down Silk Road, and any of its many-headed hydra reiterations, seems to be the ultimate lesson in futility. According to Motherboard, a new version of the online black market, called Silk Road Reloaded, launched today on the I2p anonymous network, dealing with several altcoin currencies.

Read more…

There’s great news today for people who were always irked by the inability of Chrome for OS X to display emojis. For a few years there has been a bug in this web browser which has prevented Apple’s emoji’s from properly being displayed. The company has finally taken note as the bug has been squashed, and this means that support for Apple’s emoji is coming very soon to Chrome for OS X.

Before this bug was fixed emoji would only show up as a square, and sometimes it wouldn’t show up at all. This was obviously frustrating for people who like using emojis.

Users faced no issue of this sort when using Safari on Apple’s operating system because the browser had it built-in. Google had to fix the bug in Chrome, and it has, which why emoji support has now appeared in the developer version of Chrome for OS X. This allows users to see emoji on websites and enter them into text fields like they would on Safari.

Testing is now taking place on Chrome’s Canary builds. It won’t take long before the support comes to the consumer (read: stable) version of Chrome. Those who simply can’t wait can download the development version, but it wouldn’t hurt to wait a couple of weeks now, would it?

Chrome For OS X Emoji Support Arrives , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Life gets complicated. We all have the same 24 hours each and every day. And it’s up to us how we spend our time. We need to invest our time wisely in order to maximize our day and yet, no matter how good we are with time management, we never seem to have enough time to accomplish what we set out to complete when we wake up in the morning. Putting one more responsibility on your daily to-do list may not seem like a practical thing to do, and yet, what I am about to share is so simple that even the busiest person can carve out 24 seconds for it. ROI = HUGE

Without relationships, all business will come to a halt.

People Skills 101 teaches us the importance of building connections. Without relationships, all business will come to a halt. You might have an amazing product or service but without solid relationships, you have no business. And on a personal level, without connecting with others, life will be far from happy. So my 24 second task is designed to help build, strengthen and solidify existing relationships. It is fast, effective and reliable. And best of all, it requires no prep, planning or practice. Ready?

Take out your smartphone. I know you have one. Some of you are reading this blog on your smartphone (according to my analytics, 32 percent of you are actually reading this blog on your smartphone). I only have 24 seconds, so do it now. The clock is ticking. Pick any name on your contact list. It does not need to be a client, anyone will do. Send a text message saying the following: “Just thinking about you. Hope you are having a great day.”

Hit send. Boom. 12 seconds. Repeat it one more time. Task complete, 24 seconds. And done. If you are fast at texting like my son Adam, you may even be able to send out three or four text messages in the 24 seconds you’ve allotted.

Here is what happens when you start this practice. Sometimes, you will get nothing in return, and that’s ok. Many times you will get back a response saying thank you and wishing you a great day in return. But every time you send a message like that, you are making the receiver of your text message smile, feel good and happy. I am confident I do not need to tell you the importance of happy people in your life. Happy is contagious and if done right, happy will be paid forward. Ultimately happy will come back to you, guaranteed.

Approach this with the goal of spreading happiness, not just to gain business.

Make it a practice to pick two or three contacts during your day to send text messages to when you are standing in line, pumping gas, or having your coffee at Starbucks. Try not to repeat the names too often since your goal is to be random. Approach this with the goal of spreading happiness, not just to gain business. If some of these messages are being sent to customers, you are proving (12 seconds at a time) that you are a human being, with feelings. Important rule of this practice — You cannot text about business, unless the response from the recipient involves business.

Switch up your message. It would not be unusual for me to send a message saying, “I love you. That is all.” or “Thanks for being in my life.” or “My life is better because you are in it.” If that doesn’t sound like your voice, build your own set of messages that work well. Under no circumstances should you send this message as a group message (don’t automate this practice — I want you to stay human please).

Twenty four seconds wisely invested can change your life.

I’ve been doing this for over 15 years, and there are days I send out many more than 2 messages. Side benefit — others have adopted this as a way to spread love, happiness and good vibes as well. I now get messages from friends, clients and others telling me to have a great day. It’s ultimate “pay it forward.” Plenty of times those messages come to me when I am in a tough spot in my day or when I have had a challenging moment.

Twenty four seconds wisely invested can change your life. Want to try this out? I am happy to be the recipient. Feel free to invest 12 seconds and send a message to me. 410-340-6861. I will return the love, I always do.

—

Doug Sandler is a regular HuffPost blogger. He has a book coming out soon called Nice Guys Finish First. To register for a chance to win a signed copy visit his website at www.DougSandler.com. Doug is available to present his programs to your group as well. More information is available on his website as well.