Did everyone have a nice 4th? Terry and I did. We got up early and went to the 10:00 am show of "Independence Day." We couldn't believe how many people were up and about on a holiday at that time. Several of the StarText family had the same idea. We got to see Gerry Barker and Susan Wilson and her husband. Gerry was buying tickets for a later performance. With all of the hype that the film has gotten, Terry and I were kind of disappointed. We both felt the script needed some additional work. The film was all right but didn't come up to what we expected. After the movie, we headed over to "Blue Mesa" for a wonderful lunch. We had a bit more time to kill, so then it was over to "Barnes and Noble" for an hour or so of browsing. We then went to see "The Rock" at 5:00. Wow, we both really liked that movie! Great cast and plenty of action. We ended the day watching fireworks. We were plumb tuckered out by the time we went to bed really wishing the next day wasn't a work day, but the weekend was near.

This weekend we also bought the upgrade for Microsoft Office Professional for Windows 95. It was time to make the move up to the upgrade. I collect recipes and have been looking for a really good recipe program, so now I'm just going to get busy in Access and design my own database the way I want it. Terry and I also have been sending out resumes so the added features of the new Word will be of benefit to us. Lastly, Terry is getting ready to take a CPE (Continuing Professional Education) course covering the new version of Excel. She has to take so many hours of CPE's to maintain her CPA license. For presentations, I really like the versatility of PowerPoint. Overall, all of the applications are designed to work with Win95 so it really made sense to go for the upgrade.

I'm getting a jump-start on this week's column by writing it early in the week. Right now it is Tuesday evening and there is a strange sound coming from outside our office window, RAIN and THUNDER. Yes my loyal readers it is raining at a real good clip and it sounds wonderful! Now what we need is for it to keep up a nice steady pace for a solid week. We need to get those lakes and reservoirs filled back up. I just hope it is still raining and thundering when we get ready for bed. We love to go to sleep to the sound of the rain on the roof. I've gone out on the front porch at least three times just to watch the rain. It's great! I've also been going out there to check to see if the leak was fixed by the roofers and apparently it was. So let the painting begin!

I look forward to each and every issue of Cruisin'. Normally it takes me around 8 to 10 hours to put together a column. This includes time for researching , formatting, writing and of course the final edit by Terry. Towards the end of the process it gets exciting to see the finished column appear in it's final form that can be enjoyed by all. I used to update Cruisin' once a week but it just got too hard to handle and the column suffered. Many of the columnists on StarText write a monthly column. In fact that is how my previous column, "StarTips," got started. I moved gradually to a twice a month update and then to once a week for a while. If you do decide to write a column, don't push yourself, enjoy the process. Update it when you can or when you have something new to share with your readers.

Don't ever feel that you are out there alone with no support. There is all sorts of help available from the columnists and staff alike. I'm sure any of the regular StarText columnists would be willing to give you a pointer or two. Speaking for myself and probably for Jim (WOW) as well, we'd both be glad to help anyone with the HTML coding and uploading. After you get the hang of it, it is really no big deal. In fact there are quite a few really good editors out there that will help you learn HTML.

So what are you going to write about? Do some brainstorming and I'm sure you'll come up with several ideas. Kick them around, bounce them off other columnists and friends and nail down the concept for the column. Just about anything goes that is within the realms of good taste. You can always drop Alice Murray an email. She is the subscriber columnist editor on StarText and has always been very helpful. Bounce some ideas off of her, she'd love to hear from you. StarText is always encouraging subscribers to start their own columns. The subscriber columnists have been described as the "heart and soul" of StarText. Subscriber- written columns have been one of the main reasons I've stayed on StarText as long as I have.

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