Delightful Templates

I found another site for free Blogger templates tonight. It's called Delightful Dots, and there are a bunch of really nice looking templates available. Each one comes with html and instructions for installing it on your blog. Some of the templates come with matching headers. They're just all really cute, and I'm having a hard time picking a favorite.

Free Credit Report

Image via Wikipedia

If you're like me, you've been hearing that it's now free to get your credit report every year. Before you had to be turned down when you applied for credit, or you had to pay for it. However, no matter how many times I heard that I could get my credit report free, every time I checked a site that offered me that 'free' credit report, it always came with strings attached. Sure, I could get my credit report, if I signed up for a trial of some service or other. I don't know about you, but I don't really consider that free. I mean, it doesn't actually have to cost me anything, but I do have to agree to try something and then remember to cancel before the trial period is up. I just hate getting into things like that.

Today on the local news they mentioned the free credit report again. This time I paid closer attention, and they gave a link to the site where the credit report really is free. No strings. Just free. Just in case you've been distracted, like me, by the seemingly free credit reports with the catchy songs, this is the one you were looking for: AnnualCreditReport.com

The site is sponsored by the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and once every 12 months you can request a free credit report from each of them through the site. All three reports do not have to be requested at the same time, so you can request your report from Equifax now, wait 4 months and request your report from Experian, wait 4 months and request from TransUnion, and then repeat the cycle. That way you can keep an eye on your credit reports throughout the year and hopefully catch any discrepancies right away.

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Organize Your Desktop

Is your desktop cluttered with icons? Mine isn't too bad, yet - because I recently had to reinstall Windows, and I'm gradually reinstalling programs as I need them, but I know it can quickly get out of control. That's why I was particularly interested in Fences when I read about it on Lady Banana.

Fences is a free program designed to organize your desktop. You create shaded areas on your desktop and place your icons into them. You can have as many as you want, start with one of the included layouts or just start creating your own. Label them, move them, resize them, and organize your icons by dragging them into the boxes.

The part I really like about Fences is that, when you don't need to see your icons, you just double-click somewhere on the desktop, and all the icons disappear! You can see your wallpaper again! When you need an icon, simply double-click again, and they all appear. It's really fun. Yes, I'm easily amused, what of it? You can exclude individual Fences so that they're always visible even when you hide the others.

If you want to see it in action, there's a decent video on the Fences website showing how it works. I think it's a really neat program that's really easy to use, and I love the idea of getting my desktop organized and hopefully keeping it that way.