Joan’s Boomer Blog

Guide to E-Learning Sites - Free Distance Learning Online

E-Learning brings lectures, videos and online courses on literally thousands of topics, right to your computer or iPod. Are you interested in the Civil War? Health? The Russian Ballet? Physics? Economics? E learning can be delivered to you on demand.Here is a guide to free e- learning sites on the Internet where you can pursue any hobby or research any subject from the comfort of your home - all for free.

ITunesU - I’ve had an ipod for over a year but never tapped this terrific e learning resource until recently. Would you like to subscribe to a Sanford University course on Colonial and Revolutionary War history? There are 25 one hour tracks just in this one topic. At last count Apple had more than 100,000 educational video and audio files - all free downloads from universities, museums and cultural institutions all over the world. Just go to your iTtunes account and click on iTunesU. You can learn about landscape architecture from UC Davis or the Origins of America from the Library of Congress from this huge e learning site.

On the Research Channel, you can watch a video lecture from USC with a demonstration of rare musical instruments or get an update on Fibromyalgia. The Research Channel offers a consortium of leading research and academic institutions with more than 3,500 videos for free distance learning online.

Video Lectures.Net offers video lectures by famous scholars and scientists taken from seminars, workshops and conferences from all over the world. Nearly 10,000 videos are available in subjects like architecture, medicine, humanities, mathematics and more.

At Academic Earth, you’ll find thousands of video lectures on anything from a Yale course on psychology to an MIT class on physics. Subjects include medicine, history, international relations, astronomy, political science and much more.

For more free e-learning resources, visit Open Culture, a website dedicated to keeping up with new offerings free cultural and educational media on the Internet. Find links to free audio books, free courses online, free foreign language classes and lots more. Check out their listing of 250 free online courses.

To access these e learning lectures and videos:

1.  You will probably need a high speed Internet connection. Loading large files is very time consuming on dial up connections.

2.  Sign up for free with Apple iTunes, which is a handy way to download and organize from e learning sites. Other ways to download include QuickTime, Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. Basic versions of these offer free sign up.

3.  If you have an iPhone or iPod, you can transfer the files to these by saving them to your iTunes library and then transferring them to your media player.

Don’t let the details scare you away from e learning! Find a video or lecture you like and hit “download!”

Most baby boomers know that to age well, you have to keep your mind actively engaged and learning all the time. With e learning sites, you can keep up with topics you’re interested in or learn something new. The Internet can connect you with free distance learning to fit your schedule.

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Anti Aging Review - Younger Next Year

I bought the book, Younger Next Year for Women Live Like You’re 50 - Strong, Fit, Sexy - Until You’re 80 and Beyond -

Younger Next Year

about 3 years ago and it is by far the most motivating book on diet and exercise that I’ve ever read. I read it cover to cover in a few sittings and made some antiaging fitness changes to my life.

After reading Younger Next Year, I joined the YMCA and started taking fitness classes and I increased my daily walk to one hour, using a wrist watch heart monitor to track my heart rate. I lost 15 pounds and went from a size 10 to a size 8. I was thrilled!

However, like anything else, I found myself slipping. I still go to the Y and have started taking yoga classes too but I decided to get out Younger Next Year and re-read it for more anti aging motivation.

Authors Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry S. Lodge, MD, advocate exercise and lots of it to ward off the effects of aging and decay. As they say, aging is mandatory in life but decaying is not! Seventy percent (or even more according to some experts) of how well we age is due to our own lifestyle choices! Think of that! Would you like to be energetic, mentally alert and healthy until you die? Even if you die at 100 years of age? I believe if you follow the Younger Next Year program, you can achieve that goal of a healthy old age.

If you’re over age 50, then fitness after 50 is essential! Either move or rot, as the authors tell us. There is lots of great advice in this book too on how to eat - not dieting to lose weight either - that gives lots of motivation to drop the “crap” that is not good for us and our health.

This book really changed many things in my life - changes I’ve stuck with, like the exercise classes. I have to admit I did let a few pounds creep up over the past year so I’m back to the program. I truly believe that eating a good diet and exercising are the key to anti-aging health. I am approaching 60 this year and my heart, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar are ultra-healthy. I feel energetic and mentally alert.

To keep me motivated to do a little more, I purchased a pedometer to count my 10,000 steps a day. If you hit the treadmill for about 45 minutes a day, you have no trouble getting your steps in either.

If you’re looking for motivation on your quest for fitness after 50, then I highly recommend Younger Next Year to help you along.

There is also a Younger Next Year for Men and a Younger Next Year Journal: Start Now and Live the Promise Day-by-Day too.

More information on the Younger Next Year program and to join their community.

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If you’ve checked into the cost of stylish eyeglasses lately, you might think finding quality frames and lenses for a

These quality frames only $8 at Zenni Optical

great price is difficult to do. If so, check out the eyeglasses at Zenni Optical, your online optical store where you can get fashionable frames with quality workmanship, plus your prescription lenses, for under $25 in most cases.

You want your eyeglasses to be stylish and the choice of the perfect frames is a very personal fashion statement. Zenni Optical offers all styles from rimless, half rimmed and full rimmed frames, to stainless steel, titanium and aluminum.

Do you need bi-focals or progressive lenses at a discount price? Zenni Optical offers bifocals starting at $25 and progressive lenses starting at $37. Where else could you find fashionable, quality frames and lenses for that price?

Need sunglasses? Zenni Optical offers 7 different tints, starting at just $4.95, offered as an upgrade to the already low prices.

Finding well made, stylish glasses at a discount price does not have to be difficult. Check out the terrific frames at Zenni Optical and you’ll soon be ordering all your eyeglasses from them.

Read a review of Zenni Optical’s eyeglasses for more information.

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Many Baby Boomers fear they won’t be able to retire at all. If this is you, check out some of the best retirement calculators to see where you stand with your retirement finances.

Some baby boomers enjoy their jobs and want to continue working and some will be forced to continue working into the forseeable future due to economic setbacks or not planning for retirement. I think many baby boomers would like to continue working, but perhaps in a different, more fulfilling job, or even working as a volunteer, doing something they enjoy.

My husband wants to retire within the next year but he hopes to transition into an online business as a virtual assistant. My income also comes from my online businesses so this will leave us free to travel in our RV and take our means of income along with us. We also hope to travel to places where we can volunteer our time, doing something fun and fulfilling.

Best Retirement Calculators

Most of these retirement calculators allow you to put in your vital statistics and come up with an answer for the amount of income you’ll need to live the lifestyle you choose and answer the question as to whether or not the amount you have in savings and investments, plus other resources, will offer you the chance to retire in the near future.

Of all the retirement calculators I tried, I liked these two the best as being simple to use and offering the best information.

MSN Money Retirement Planner

Bloomberg Retirement Calculator

When I calculated our retirement income, I was pleasantly surprised at the findings. Some people don’t like the idea of scaling back their lifestyle but actually, we are looking forward to living in a smaller house and having time to plant gardens and spend more time on leisure activities.

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I watched Wayne Dyer on the PBS station talking about his new book, Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits. This 3 hour presentation was a perfect way to begin my new year. Manyu Baby Boomers have excuses for not achieving their goals based on age. Are you using any of these excuses for not creating a better life:

• It will take too long - At my age, I don’t have time!
• It will be too late to change now
• I’ve always been this way
• It’s too risky to try at may age

Louise Hay wrote her first inspirational book at age 61. Wayne Dyer himself is in his late 60’s and still speaking, writing and motivating people. What is too old anyway? As for being too late - do you plan to die tomorrow? If you don’t, then it’s never too late to live a better life for whatever years you have left?

I think seniors especially need to read Excuses Begone. You may have spent your entire life making excuses for not achieving what you want in life and by now, after multiple failures in life, you believe it’s not possible to change now and live a better life.

What do you want to achieve in the new year? Do you have a medical issue you want to heal? Do you want to retire? Do you want to volunteer more and work less? Would you like to lose weight, write a book, have a more loving relationship with your family? All these things are possible if you get rid of the excuses that have been holding you back.

In his book, Wayne Dyer goes over the 18 most common excuses, sent to him by his readers, people like you. He goes over each one and helps you look at the excuse, and your thoughts about it, in an entirely new way. Using this new perspective, Dyer offers a plan for you to over come the excuses and achieve whatever goals you may have.

One of Wayne Dyer’s books, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, literally changed my life, helping me to be happier and have more loving relationships in my life. That was the first of his books that I read and since then, I’ve read all the others. They’ve helped me to set out a plan for my life and achieve what I think is important for my happiness.

The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Make your first step reading Excuses Begone and you can then lay out a blueprint for the rest of your journey to the life you’d really like to live. At our age, we don’t have a single day to waste on excuses!

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