Problem: Write an article based on this summary: Pay your debt. Send a letter to the collection agency. Contact a lawyer. Ask how others successfully stopped collection calls. Alert the Federal Trade Commission.

Answer: The easiest way to stop collection calls is to pay your debt, but you need to be careful when doing so. Speak with the collector to set up a payment plan. Many collectors will encourage you to set up automatic bill-pay. Make sure that whatever plan you agree upon, you are comfortable with. Scam collection agencies love setting up automatic bill-pay and will charge you an exorbitant fee for the service. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), you are allowed to tell debt collectors to stop calling you. Tell them in writing that you prefer to communicate with them by mail only. Send any correspondence, including disputes to both the collection agency and the creditor by certified mail and request that a return receipt be sent back to you upon delivery.  Sample letters are available online.  Make sure you keep a copy of your letter. Written communication works to your advantage as you will have a record of everything that is said, whereas phone communication is only recorded on occasion. If the creditor still contacts you after your written request, you can file a “cease and desist“ letter. Find a consumer lawyer who can draft such a letter. If the problem continues, you might even have a case to sue the collection agency. Debt collectors are also prohibited from contacting you while you are at work. There are many lawyers who concentrate on debt collection. They'll be able to help you if you owe money or if a collector is illegally harassing you. These lawyers will charge you a fee or will take a percentage of what they collect on your behalf. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, unlike most laws, actually spells out how much money you might receive if you win your case. The amounts can range from $5000 for individual cases to $500,000 for group law suites.  The first thing a lawyer will do is look up the statute of limitations on your loan. Old loans, acquired decades earlier or by deceased relatives, sometimes can be the cause of collection calls. Statutes of limitations exist in many places. If the statute of limitations has expired, you could be off the hook. Even if a collection agency tries to pursue it, you are under no legal obligation to pay. When this occurs, if you do not wish to pay, you could use a cease and desist letter. Remember, you can receive a bad credit rating longer than the statute of limitations. They may have come across an alternate way that works well with this particular agency. Each collection agency is different. Sometimes, they require forms to be filled out. Others only need a letter. Rather than discover this for yourself, ask for help from others. Report the collectors to the FTC online. They are generally slow to move on these kinds of problems, but if they receive enough reports about one specific agency, their wrath can be formidable.


Problem: Write an article based on this summary: Gather your materials. Chain 40 stitches. Double crochet beginning with the fourth loop. Continue double crochet to bottom of chain. Intertwine the coils. Secure the coils with a piece of yarn.

Answer: Before you start your candy cane Christmas ornament, get everything together that you will need to complete the project. You will need:  A ball of red yarn and a ball of white yarn (Caron Simply Soft is a good choice). A size H (size 8) hook. A pair of scissors. A darning needle. To start your candy cane, you will need to create a chain of 40 stitches. This may seem like it will result in a large candy cane, but your final result will be small enough to hang on a Christmas tree. You will need a coil of red and a coil of white yarn, but you can create these one at a time. Start with the white or red and then do the other coil after you finish the first. After you have your 40 stitches, you will need to count back to the fourth stitch from the one that is currently on your hook. Insert your needle through this loop and then wrap your yarn over the hook and pull the yarn through both loops. Then, chain three loops and repeat the double crochet stitch on the next stich. Then, move to the next loop, and continue to chain three and double crochet down to the bottom of the chain. As you do this, the stitches will form a coil. You do not have to do anything but continue to double crochet and this coiling effect will happen. After you finish your first coil, pick up your other ball of yarn and create the second coil. To create the candy cane stripe effect, you will need to intertwine the coils you have just created. Carefully line up the ends and then swirl one coil around the other. The coils should fit together easily. The coils will form a candy cane shape when you hang them on the tree by the part of the coils that will be the curve of the candy cane. Try shaping the cane into the position that you want it to be in when you hang it on the tree. To hold the coils together and create a loop to hang them on your tree at the same time, take a 6” to 8” piece of yarn and tie the ends in a knot. Then, use the hook of your crochet needle to pull the loop through the top of the curved part of your candy cane. Pull the loop through itself to secure it. Then, hang your candy cane ornament on a Christmas tree!


Problem: Write an article based on this summary: Try out a part-time job with a flexible schedule. See if your school has any open positions. Ask friends if their workplace is hiring. Look around on bulletin boards. Check job hunting websites.

Answer: If you feel prepared to juggle your school work and a job, there are many part-time jobs that are available to high school and college students. You can work on weekends, after classes, or between them.  Many college students have enough time between classes to fit a quick work shift in. Some high schools allow students to take a period off in their junior or senior year to fit an hour or two of work experience into their day. If you are in college, there may be quite a few open positions that won’t even force you to commute. Ask your career center about paid tutoring opportunities, note-taking positions, student resource jobs, office assistant positions, and anything else your school relies on students to help out with. You may be able to work multiple shifts throughout the day at the same on-campus job if your classes are in the middle of the day, for instance. Friends who have jobs off-campus may know whether the restaurant, store, office, or other place of work is hiring. Ask if there are any positions that are open. Another benefit of this is the chance of carpooling or working with a friend. Be sure to consider whether your friend seems to have a good reputation at their workplace. If they are seen as a slacker, it may not help you to mention that you are their friend when you apply. Stop by bulletin boards in and near your school, whether at student centers or coffee shops nearby. Employers looking for students will often post job ads on these boards, expecting students to find them and reach out. Check regularly to make sure you see new postings as soon as they are up. Go on a reputable job website like the Craigslist jobs section, Monster, Indeed, or SimplyHired and enter keywords for the kind of work you are looking for. You can even include “student” to see if there are job descriptions that mention students specifically.  Always look for jobs a little in advance of when you want to start. If you are on the hunt for a summer job, check the month before school ends and local employers will have lots of jobs with “seasonal” or “summer” in the name. Be sure to check the minimum requirements when looking for a job online. Many places will make it clear whether they are looking for students or not by requiring certain degrees.


Problem: Write an article based on this summary: Heat the milk. Add the lemon juice. Let the mixture rest. Strain the curds from the whey. Rinse the curds. Finish the cottage cheese.

Answer:
Place it in a saucepan and heat it until it begins to steam, but does not come to a boil. Remove the milk from heat. Pour the lemon juice into the warm milk and stir it slowly for several minutes. Cover the saucepan with a dishcloth and let the curds separate from the whey for about an hour. Place a piece of cheesecloth over a bowl and pour the curds and whey into the cheesecloth. Let the curds drain for about 5 minutes. Gather the ends of the cheesecloth and hold it under cool water to rinse the curds. Continue until they are completely cooled, then squeeze the cloth to get the curds as dry as possible. Place the curds in a bowl and add the salt and cream or half and half.