Dear friends and Walgreens fans,

Our beloved prescription drugs supplier (which I mentioned over and over in my posts over the years)is offering a special discount on annual memberships once more. The Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens gets more and more richer with wonderful initiatives:/p>

• For $35 a year, you can subscribe for a family membership that covers everyone in your immediate family, which also includes your pets;
• As an individual, you can get your own annual membership for just $20, which is close to FREE if you consider the health products costs.

Of course, there are other benefits we need to highlight:

• You can save on over 8,000 brand-name medication and all generic kinds of generic drugs;
• Flu shots and diabetic supplies are all discounted, and special offers also include your pet prescriptions and nebulizers;
• When you purchase Walgreens products and user their photofinishing service, you get bonuses in your account.

Amazing, huh? This is one of the reasons my family loves Walgreens so much, especially my mom. She often buys Walgreens products, and my siblings have been benefiting a lot from them all, especially from fish oil and gelly gum vitamins.

To show Walgreens your support, and to stay updated with their discount codes and offers, you can either ‘Like’ Walgreens on Facebook or follow @Walgreens on Twitter. If you wish to leave your experience and feedback to this entry, please feel free too. I like insightful discussions.

Personalized Toy Train Table Designs

The first way to personalize a toy train table is to personalize the physical design of the table. To do this you will need to browse through toy train table plans to find a design that will meet the functional needs of the child the table will be given to. For example, a child with a small room may need a table that will fit into a corner, while a child that is in a wheelchair may need a toy train table that is elevated higher off the ground.

Color Choices for Toy Train Tables

Color is the easiest component of a toy train table to personalize. No matter if you build the table yourself or buy one that is preassembled you can always change its color. When selecting the personalized color for the table you have two options. The first option is to have the child select one or more colors from existing color swatches. The second option is to use a favorite item of the child’s to color match a custom paint color. For example, they may have a favorite blanket that you can bring into a store that offers color match service. This store can then use their equipment to create a paint color that is identical to the blanket color.

Character Designs for Toy Train Tables

Another easy way to personalize a toy train table is to select a character design that the child will love. For example, if the child is interested in Thomas the Tank, then you can add a Thomas the Tank themed character design to the table top, the surround and/or its legs. Character designs can be added using stencils, stickers, appliqués and rub-ons.

Design Options with Initials and Names

The final way to personalize a toy train table is to add the child’s name or initials to the table’s design. This can be done through the use of wood carving or paint. Stencils, appliqués and freehand painting can all be easy ways to add a personal touch to the table.

Madeline Binder, the author of this article, promotes gifts that are educational and personal, as opposed to generic and junk food for the mind. The train table plans have been sold all over the world and made by parents, family members and friends. Each one each unique. You can also get name trains for that special child in your life at the The Train Store.

I’m very upset. What I just read on Inquisitr.com and Yahoo! Finance about Express Scripts made me shiver in disgust.

Express Scripts Inc., the middleman between pharmacies and drug producers, has decided to kick Walgreens out of its network, putting in trouble not just the company, but their several customers all around the continent (US) too. Apparently, for no good reasons: some sources say it’s because they’d need to pay 20% more in comparison to other pharmacies, but that’s not even verified. Actually, since Walgreens is VERY cheap to customers – and it also offers special discounts for families in need with the (annual) Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens – the decision is more troubling than benefiting to both parties. In particular, customers who own Express Scripts cards can no longer get Walgreens products from them and now have to spend more money to drive off-town to get their drugs. This is hardly a client-sided politics!

Now, does the Walgreens and Express Scripts dispute touch me? No, because I’m not a direct customer (I used their products through other family members) BUT it does touch my sensibility. I simply cannot accept a politics that goes against the customer’s good. Besides, Walgreens has been doing a lot of good to people in need with its Way to Well Fund™, its support to US troops (Tricare) and its initiatives and discounts aimed at helping the poorest getting information and cheap drugs to cure their own illnesses.

So now Walgreens is no longer part of Express Scripts’s pharmacy network, as of Jan. 1, 2012. It’s very sad… I hope Express Scripts will re-think its position and opt for their customers’ goods. Because Walgreens is so widely spread – and loved – that they have ALL to loose with this decision.

I’m going to signup on Facebook later only to add the Walgreens page and show my support. Also, I will add Walgreens on Twitter. Will you add Walgreens on Facebook and Twitter too? Let me know if you do.

ANYWAY, it’s time for my New Year Resolutions. 2012 perspects as a productive year and I want to start with renewed energy.

1. take advantage of FREE offers (meals, textbooks, pens, notepads, etc.) to save money and be less of a burden to my family
2. FINISH all my pages (and add more content) on ToyHeart.com and SailTheSky.me, as well as blog more regularly
3. help Chrissa with Academy.ice-pop.org and setup my random blog buzz.ice-pop.org (thanks honey!)
4. comment on my friends’ blogs more regularly
5. get to know some of my newest siblings better and more profoundly
6. attend two extra classes at Academy, for fun and for extra credits
7. get Chrissa a special ring <3
8. more interplanetary trips (I REALLY want to visit planet Junk!)

What are your Resolutions for the year 2012? Let me know!

‘Later guys.

So it looks like I’m gonna be an uncle again in two days. OMG, that’s only Thursday… and I don’t remember where I put my baby birth present… ! I’m gonna look for it later, when I’m done with homework. Who are the parents, you’d ask? Well… my brother Longreen and his wife Naral, of course. It’s going to be their first “biological” baby – whom they named Rou – and the first ever robot/Bajoran hybrid. I guess the Bajoran media are going to show cast it every where next week. . ^^

Remember my Christmas post from last year? Well, this year Chrissa is staying over for the holiday. She’s coming tomorrow and is staying until the 27th. I can’t wait!

Woody and Jessie made some room for her in our corner, so we can spend time together before sleeping. I don’t remember when she last stayed over anymore, but it’s been long… too long I’m happy my family was okay with having her sending are some days with us. I shouldn’t have doubted though, as my parents are some of the sweetest and most welcoming persons I’ve ever met.

Good thing that Chrissa is coming via teleport station and not on foot or by vehicle on wheels… because it snowed a lot this night in Genzano. Really! This morning I woke up and all roofs were covered in snow, including the yard and the edges of the streets. The bad thing is that all streets were covered with ice during the night, because of the low temperature, so going by vehicle or on foot is pretty dangerous. Hopefully, tomorrow all the snow will have melted so we can go out. Mom has university classes too, which she missed today because of the situation.

Regarding Chrissa, I have bought her a nice Christmas pressie for her at T-Mobile, one that I had been saving up for months. It’s a LG DoublePlay™ phone equipped with Android™ 2.3 “Gingerbread”, dual touch screens, two independent displays, 5-megapixel camera, QWERTY keyboard and sweet messaging options (Cloud Text™ and Group Text™, to interact with computers and tablets). The feature I liked the most is the multi-tasking capability of this phone, pretty useful when you’re a student who does almost everything on a computing device.

I would have bought one for myself too but, if we exclude my family and Chrissa, I don’t send many text messages a month, and I don’t use social networks a lot (for now, at least… I’m still unsure if I should join Diaspora or Facebook, for instance). On the contrary, Chrissa wants a Facebook account and many other things as soon as she can, so the LG DoublePlay™ is going to be VERY good for her.

What else? Ah, I read Twilight (the first book)…. AWFUL! O___o Please, dear Meyer, go take a writing course before you continue hurting  our eyes with such a childish writing! A pity, because the characters (excepting Bella) were good enough…

Questions:

- Do you spend many hours texting and using Facebook/other social networks?
- Do you like the LG DoublePlay™ as a social networking phone?
- Are you having somebod over for Christmas?

In other news, we celebrated my siblings Asha‘s and Dartride‘s birthdays a few days ago, on the 4th of December. Asha turned 16 and Darty is now a little 3 years old toddler. How cute!

Asha got a pair of pearl earrings from bro Ranth, a new Harry Potter book from mom, a pair of ZENNI cheap eyeglasses from dad (Asha is in love with that brand of prescription eyeglasses, and not just because they’re cheap – they’re stylish too, and dad is well happy to make her happy!) and finally, a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate from me and a group of my siblings.

Dartride got a pair of cuddly plushies and a Playschool construction set. Won’t mention how many hours he spent enjoying his new toys after the party. xD Ahah!

I have some things to do on this domain… add more visitor content, fix some links and add personal pages. I miss being able to writer extra long entries too — I wonder where has my fervor gone. ^^;

Paper is not enough to me, and it’s often associated with school work, so I’d rather not use it for personal purposes — with the exception of love letters to Chrissa on Valentines. Writing by hitting keys on a laptop keyword is like doing it on an old typewriter — awesome.

There is more to laptops than simple writing on a word processor — there’s Internet. There’s blogs. There’s the feeling of writing for yourself while a small corner of your mind knows that you won’t be the only one reading it. But you still don’t care, because your site may be public but you are THE wordsmith, you are the master of your thoughts and opinions.

Laptops are the perfect typewriter replacement — not desktops. You can’t carry desktops around. You can’t recharge a desktop battery and write your blogs and stories while sitting on the grass in a sunny day.

Questions: Do you own a laptop? A netbook? What do you love about it?

When I heard about Timothy, a young robot living in the US, a home carpet cleaning services austin worker, I remained open-mouthed for a long time before I could speak again. And I reflected: “How did this guy, so young, be so full of energy to give life to a second Robocity in Austin, US?“.

Timothy is the new hero – like Commander, Firebot, Speeder, and many other Robocitans who were the first to inhabit Robocity back in 1994, year of its first opening. They – and Timothy now – gave life to the strong community that exists nowadays, that keeps growing and teaching us more about life than life itself.

I know I haven’t really talked too much about these beautiful robots, but you know I prefer talking about my life and family members in my blog. Anyway, the young robot from http://www.thesteamteam.com/ is going to come over to Italy in a week, thanks to Commander, Primus and the current Leaders who paid for his airplane ticket. I’m eager to meet him in person. Will update you on the encounter when time comes.

Time to finish homework and go to sleep. I’m dead tired… Good night.

The project part of our Psychology & Education class, which only lasts one semester and it’s going to give us extra 7 credits (7C).

My work touches the learning condition of students with disabilities and what strategies teachers and educators can implement to rise the quality of instruction for these risk students.

My Psychology professor suggested we make large use of the Mentoring Minds‘s teacher tools, especially the Master Instructional Strategies Flip Chart, to identify areas of possible intervention.

I’m going to work with a class of 20 high school students in Iacon City, which means I’ll have to commute back and forth thrice a week until the end of the project. I’m too excited to feel tired though. The project starts this week and will go on until December 1st, when I’ll need to hand in a complete report and then work on my research paper for the class final term (on February 1st, 2012).

Sounds like a lot of work, I know, but I’m pretty happy with the perspective of helping those students achieve their goals. Doing good to others is always soul-fulfilling, you know.

I don’t know how I’m gonna handle classroom management, though. I’ll have to rely on Mentoring Minds or my professor for help, I guess. Hope to get my future students to collaborate some. ^^” Hehe.

I’ll keep you guys updated on my project!

Image credit: www.public-domain-image.com