About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2013)
CODE OF ETHICS: Seek Truth <5*? Report It - Minimise Harm - Act Independently - Be Accountable. Where the press is free and every man able to read,, all is safe. Thomas Jefferson 4 THE GEORGIA POST Opinions expressed by writers on this page are their own alone. Why was your credit card trasaction denied? By Jason Alderman We’ve all had these moments: You’re at a romantic restaurant and the evening went great. But just as you and your date are readying to leave, an embarrassed waiter appears and whispers, ”I’m afraid your card has been denied.” So much for romance. The same thing can happen at the grocery store, when shopping online or worst of all, when you’re traveling and don’t have a back-up means of payment. Why do credit card transactions get denied and what can you do to prevent it? Banks and other credit card issuers have developed complex algorithms that track credit card behavior and highlight unusual usage patterns commonly associated with card theft or fraud. ’’Unusual activities” that jump out to card issuers include: When you ordinarily use your card only rarely, but suddenly make several charges in one day. Making multiple purchases at the same store (or website) within a few minutes of each other. An unusually large purchase - say for a major appliance, furniture or jewelry. Alert your card issuer before making large purchases. One small purchase quickly followed by larger ones. Thieves will test the waters to see if a small purchase is denied; if it’s not, they’ll quickly run up major charges. Exceeding daily spending limits. Some cards limit how much you can charge per day, even if you have sufficient remaining credit. Making large purchases outside your geographic area. Multiple out-of-town purchases in short succession. (Always tell your card issuer when you’ll be traveling.) International purchases, whether online or while traveling. In fact, some card issuers automatically decline international transactions because of the high potential for fraud, so learn your issuer’s policy before attempting one. Other common triggers for credit card denials in clude: Outdated or incorrect personal information - for example, when you’re asked to enter your zip code at a gas station. Always alert your card issuer whenever you move. Also, make sure you don’t mistype your credit card number, expiration date, security code, address or other identifying information. Expired card. Always check the card’s expiration date. You should receive a replacement card several weeks beforehand. It’s often mailed in a plain en velope, so be careful what you toss. If the new card doesn’t arrive, contact the issuer to ensure it hasn’t been stolen. You’ve reached your credit limit. For the sake of your credit score, try to keep your overall and indi vidual card credit utilization ratios (credit available divided by amount used) as low as possible - ideally below 50, or even 30, percent. A temporary hold has been placed on your card - say for a rental car or hotel reservation - that puts you over your credit limit. Always ask whether a hold will be placed, how much and for how long, and factor that into your remaining balance calculations. You miss a monthly payment. Card issuers may let this slide once or twice, depending on your history with them, but eventually if you don’t make at least the minimum payment due, your card will probably be frozen. The primary cardholder made changes on the ac count and forgot to tell other authorized users - for ex ample, reporting his or her card stolen, lowering credit limits or removing you from the account. On last thought: If your card is denied, don’t shoot the messenger - he’s only following instructions. Rath er, call the card issuer and find out what happened. Embarrassment aside, it’s nice to know that someone is trying to ensure your card isn’t being used fraudu lently. JASON ALDERMAN directs Visa’s financial education programs. To Follow Jason Alderman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PracticalMoney. WILL NEW CHRISTMAS TRENDS rendersaniaobsolete? SORRY- BUT)* W WE DON'T GET MANY CALLS FOR fy A SOMEONE WHO DRIVES SLEIGHS ) / ! and hands out Gifts... y ( I ALSO BABYSIT! 'application . ff 11 I jxj n JB M I ''j. / s Each of us are unique individuals This time of year is a wonderful time due to the reason for the season. But some people struggle during the holi days. For those who lost a loved one this year the first Christmas after the loss is tough to get through. I read a post on facebook almost lamblasting people who are not happy during Christ mas. Not everyone enjoys the holidays and not everyone grieves the same and there is no time limit on grief. This particular person went on to say they had lost loved ones and saw no need to be down during the holidays. Well good for them but it is not the same for everyone. As individuals, we each go through the steps of grief differently, and not necessarily in any order. Some folks go through those steps more than once until they finally can move forward. We shouldn’t lamblast them but instead should lift them up and pray for them and have compassion and try to under stand we are all different. Fortunately for me the person posting was not on my friend list as I would have had to respond even though sometimes it is better to just let people continue on with their way of thinking and live in their own little world. I do love Christmas and at one time really got into going all out in decorating. My whole front yard was lit up. But this is not what Christmas is all about and I love it because of Christ’s birth and what that means for all of us. For without that birth life would be meaningless. We give gifts because the Christ child received gifts. But that child gave us the greatest gift. He gave up His life so that we might have eternal life and intercedes for us with His father. Because of that gift, we have hope and a future. That does not mean we will not face troubles. Nor does it mean that every thing will be rosey or that we won’t feel sadness at the loss of our loved ones. As most of you know the wise men really did not find Christ as a newborn baby. He was probably about two or three by the time they arrived. So the Nativity scenes depicting them with baby Jesus are not correct, however, it is the symbolism that we understand. So many people I know or that my friends or other relatives know, are going through tough times. Whether it is loss of a loved one or a job or just having tough times, so many are hurting. We cannot always ’’fix” things for people and sometimes we cannot even help in any way, at least not as we wish we could. But you can always pray for them and prayer does change things and situations. Always offer a smile and/or a hug. My husband sometimes com ments about me being a hugger. Not everyone likes to be hugged and I understand that and when I know a person doesn’t like it, I refrain though it is hard at times. Sometimes people really need hugs, especially around the holidays. I read a study that stated more people die around the holidays because of the stress of the season. I think we can make it more stressful than it needs to be at times. I, too, find myself getting stressed even when I don’t think I am. When I catch myself eating chocolate more, then I know I am stressing. Otherwise, I don’t crave it so much. We finally got a tree up and a few other decorations but I decided against doing the village as it was just too close to Christ mas and with David out of commission on helping, I chose to be less stressed. I will miss the village this year but we are talking about ways to make it easier to put up next year and not have to pack and unpack so many storage boxes. Stressing is not going to keep Decem ber 25th from arriving, whether ready or not. And it’s really not about the decorations or the presents we buy and receive. I have come to just enjoy being together as a family and spending that time together without having to think about work deadlines or what has to be done next or whether the house is spic and span. It is not easy to let go and I have to constantly remind myself and to pray. Lift up those who are hurting this season in prayer and offer a kind word when possible. Wishing you joy, peace and love this Christmas and throughout the year. And remember the reason for the season. Blessings to you. VICTORIA SIMMONS is publisher of The Georgia Post. Contact her at vsimmons54@ gmail.com DAY AT A TIME Victoria Simmons Lift up those who are hurting this season in prayer and offer a kind word when possible. THURSDAY DECEMBER 19, 2013 Trapped stress = disease and belly fat fj j YOUR HEALTH Most of us who work manual or active labor jobs probably feel like we’re getting shafted when some one making just as much money or more, ’’gets to set behind the desk or the seat of del egation all day,” but as we learn more about the value of a body staying ac tive, we just may see where we have some health benefits throughout life that a person with a much more sed entary job may not have, especially if the ones with a sedentary job do not exercise to make up for it. I like to re fer to exercise as condensed activity that helps make up for a sedentary job or lifestyle. Mental exhaustion can be much harder on the body then physical exhaustion due to the bad po tential side effects of stress. When we have a com bination of physical stress along with mental stress, it simply helps balance things out and keeps the reactions from stress hormones from building up in our body. There are things that happen physio logically when we become stressed out, ”we become tensed up and have an increased strength and speed capability due to our fight and flight hormones.” Our body was designed for survival and when we have high levels of stress and especially when com bined with fear, these levels go up and ”in order to keep these hormones from creating problems, our mental stress needs to be met equally with physical stress.” This is part of the reason you feel so good and relaxed after an intense exercise routine! There is ’’it’s the trapped unre leased stress that makes it dangerous!” a small pea sized thing in our brain (our hypothalamus) that triggers a cascade of nerve and hor mone activity and when the combinations of these hormones hit our blood supply and our nerves trigger muscle tenseness and reactions ”our body is ready for explosive and powerful response to whatever external forces that caused this reac tion!” This is a good thing when it’s needed but if the physical response never comes, it can have a bad physiological effect on our body. Working our muscles relaxes our nerves! Stress may seem to be the culprit, but we were designed so that stress would trigger a natural response to help us cope with external forces and danger, so we shouldn’t look at stress as being the culprit but rather trapped stress with no release. One of the main stress hormones is cortisol: and cortisol tells our body where to store fat and a lot of the time directs it to the belly which contributes to the accumulation of visceral fat in the frontal area and around our vital organs. Since our body tries to protect us from toxic material (that we inhale, swal low or inject) with mucous and fat, the potential accumulation of toxins stored in this visceral fat can be deadly to our vital organs, causing inflammatory cancerous activity, diabetes, heart disease etc. Let’s figure out ways in 2014 that we can de crease our stress levels, by either finding the source of our stress and eliminating it, or if we cannot do anything about the stressor, ’’find a way to offset the stress!” Try this: the next time something winds your nerves up really bad, find a way to physically ex haust your muscles even if its for only 10 minutes, ”it works better then Valium or Xanax!” Our body was designed to react to stress by releasing a cascade of hormonal activity to empower our body to counter dangers we detect in our path, so stress and its reactions can be a good thing, ’’it’s the trapped unreleased stress that makes it danger- WADE YODER is a Master Trainer & Fitness/Nutrition Spe cialist.Contact him at Vclub@comsouth.net w factor A local question column Thank you to John Douglas for answering several of our ques tions. Question: What is the total number of employees of the Crawford County School System which actually live in Crawford County? About 70% of the school system employees have Crawford County address which is about 230 employees. Question: Who can name all foot ball coaches in the history of Craw ford County? Five of them are Murry, Byram, Robinson, Jamison, Street - from 1988 to present. Question: Who could or would introduce an ordinance for the coun ty and/or the county to require yard markers in the yard by the road. There are several long drive ways that are not marked and this delays emergency services getting to you. Question: When and why is the middle school being annexed into the city? This is a request for the City of Roberta. Question: What are the hours for Superintendent of Schools. Since Mr. Douglas makes $108,000 per year per his contract, shouldn’t he be in his of fice Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.? Douglas says he has never been paid the salary listed because of furlough days and wishes he only had to work these hours and days. He is on duty at all times and has duties that takes him out in the schools and to oth er educational meetings. According to the website, Douglas made $98,873.40 in 2012 before any pay raises, etc. Question: What happened to the 21st Century Partnership in Crawford County headed by Carmen Wilson? The 21st Century grant was a federal grant administered by Amelia Wilson which ran out of funds in 2009 and had to be closed. Questions are submitted by readers to get answers from powers that be. W\tje (georgta tPosrt is published every week by Crawford Publishing, LLC. Floyd Buford - President Victoria ’’Vicky” Simmons - GM/Publisher vsimmons54@gmail.com or byronbuzz@pstel.net Renee Goggins - Layout/Graphic Design Robbie Robertson - Distribution Carey Lee - Sports Photography Denisia Stallings, Student Assistant Bobbie Evans - Reporter/Publisher’s Assistant Contributing Columnists: Trenesia Y. Stubbs, Charles Cook, Nancy Gibbs, Billy Powell, Angie Carr, Wade Yoder, Dan Gatlyn, Rev. James Snyder, Spencer Price POLICIES Deadlines are Noon on Friday prior to issue. The comments featured on the opinion pages are the sole creations of the writers, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Post management. Letters to the editor must be signed and include a telephone number. We do edit grammar, spelling and punctuation when necessary. Libelous, slanderous or profane letters will not be published. We only accept three letters from the same person on the same subject and letters should be less than 250 words. 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