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Free All-in-One Printer March 31, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Business, Computers, Electronics, Free stuff, SOHO, freebies, money.
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If you haven’t picked up your free vacation offer yet, today is the day to do so. And since you’re there, you might as well take advantage of the free printer too. Unfortunately, the free printer is only available today. Sorry about the short notice but I only found out about it less than an hour ago. Featured is the Epson CX7400 All-in-One Color Inkjet printer that can print up to 28 pages per minute and can print directly from a memory card or camera without a computer. Both of these offers are under our Free Stuff section. The Epson comes with an Auto-Photo Correction to make sure your photos come out brilliant. That’s almost like bringing your memory card into Wal-Mart’s kiosks and having it printed professionally.If you have read my earlier blog on Free Printers and have been waiting for the right printer to come along, here it is. Get it before they sell out.   

No Pictures Allowed March 31, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Activities, Digital Cameras, Sightseeing, Travel.
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It doesn’t seem fair that I spend an entire week packing up my camera gear and making sure that I bring enough memory cards, just to find out that you can’t take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Uffizi or the Galleria dell’Accademia.

All these places house some of Europe’s finest treasures and yet, picture taking is extremely frowned upon in there. As soon as you enter the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City, you can hear voices echoing across the room ‘no pictures’. Tourists are warned not to take pictures, however the odd flash does go off and guards scurry to find the photographer. Sistine ChapelI’ve just seen one incident where the guard actually waits for the photographer to delete the image from her camera.

Another place is the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, where Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper is housed. We were among the unfortunate group where the tour guide prevented us from taking a picture of the famous fresco. Tourists in the group before us wandered in and managed to walk out with a photograph. My scrapbook has nothing to show for it, only exterior shots of the chapel where someone, somewhere has a nice photo of the Last Supper in her album. I have to settle for an image on the internet.

Same goes for the Uffizi museum in Florence where the masterpieces, Birth of Venus and Primavera are on display. Again, cameras are not allowed to be taken out and used to capture any images in the museum. I think I saw a tourist escorted out by a guard when she tried to take a photograph.

The statue of David in the Galleria dell’Accademia is well guarded and protected by a rail. Incidentally, a deranged tourist went up to David and smashed his right toe with a hammer. This caused the exhibit to be closed for a number of months for repair. Since then, the museum put a rail in to prevent any one from getting too close to the statue. Cameras are not allowed in the museum and are confiscated if caught.

If you are planning to visit these places, prepare to buy postcards and books in the museum shops where they are happy to take your money.

How am I doing? March 30, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Free stuff, freebies.
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I have been writing this blog for a little more than a month and I need to ask you a question. Is anybody interested in the free stuff that gets posted every week? I check with the stats and there aren’t a lot of takers. Researching and posting the freebies on our site takes some time out of my blogging and if no one cares for it, I would just remove it. If you object to that, please comment here.

I am also going to add things to my Blogroll and removing direct references to our site. (WordPress support seems to have a problem with that so I hope this is acceptable to them) New on the list is a bag of Seattle’s Best coffee – you can decide on one of three flavors. I love their coffee and I hope you will get yours free to enjoy. 

Thanks to all for visiting my blog every day and sending a link to friends who you think will enjoy it too.

Braving the Elements March 30, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Activities, Sports, Spring 2008/2009, Travel, golf.
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When it comes to Kauai, don’t leave your umbrella at home because they don’t call it the Garden Isle for nothing. Considering the wettest spot on earth is in Kauai, you have to believe it when I tell you to bring all your waterproof gear if you plan to hike Mount Waialeal, take a catamaran tour to the Napali coast or to play golf at one of seven championship courses.

When I went to Kauai last month, I swapped out my windshirt for a good, heavy duty rain jacket with a hood. If I haven’t experienced a downpour in Kauai before, I would have just brought my normal golfing attire that consists of golf shirts, shorts and a light wind shirt. But experience served me well (when we were caught in a downpour last year) so to prevent history from repeating itself, I made sure I had all the waterproof gear stuffed in my golf bag.

On our first round, we played the municipal course in Kauai. It was a nice sunny day with a little breeze off the ocean. There were some clouds in the sky but they were offshore and far away. After we finished playing the first hole, Mike (a local resident) said to me that he thinks we’re going to get rained on. The clouds that were offshore, were now coming right for us. Mike said it will take a few minutes to hit us and he was right. In a couple of minutes, the clouds opened up and it poured on us. I scrambled to get my rain jacket out of my bag and luckily because it had a breathable lining, my upper body stayed dry. My shorts on the other hand, because it was exposed to the elements, was soaked right through. I didn’t bother to take out my storm pants and put it on. I was too concerned on getting my rain jacket on as soon as possible to keep from freezing in the rain. With the rain and wind coming off the ocean, it was actually quite cold. I had also wished I had a golf umbrella to keep my bag and clubs dry but stupid me, I didn’t want to lug a silly umbrella with me to Hawaii.

After five minutes, the rain stopped and we moved on to the next tee box. I took my rain jacket off and wrapped it around my golf bag to let it dry. My shorts were made out of micro fibre and were wet most of the day. The lessons I learned that day were:

1. Bring a good sized umbrella that is capable of taking wind gusts and can cover you and your golf bag.

2. Bring a waterproof storm pants that you can wear on top of your shorts.

3. Bring an extra pair of golf gloves, seal them in a zip lock bag to keep it dry.

4. Wear a golf shirt and shorts that are dri-fit or can easily dry if wet.

5. Don’t wear golf sandals in Kauai or if you do, don’t wear socks underneath.

I hope these tips will help you make your trip to Kauai more enjoyable. I know I will remember to follow them next year when we go again. I’m yet to get a dry round in one day at a place that gets over 460 inches of rain in a year.

I’m a Lottery Winner! March 29, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Activities, Electronics, Games, HDTV, Home, Travel, cruise, money.
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Everybody is looking to win a lottery. I just scratched one of those instant win tickets and won myself $1 but it cost me a $1 to buy it, so I’m even. There are two lotteries that come in the mail every year, the Home Lottery and the Cash Plus Lottery. The Home Lottery is more than ever, as they claim. They are giving away more than $5.7 million this year and every year, the tickets sell out. The reason I think it sells so well is because everybody wants to win a prize and the money goes to a good cause. Some of the prizes include a new home, a new car, a new boat, a new HDTV, vacation packages, electronics and cash prizes. All the proceeds go to updating and improving a hospital. The cost of each ticket is $100 but you can buy a three pack for $250. Four years ago, my wife won a Sony portable dvd player which is still sitting in its shrink-wrapped package and ready to go into a museum.

Lately, I’ve seen a few lotteries on the internet. Of all the ones that are out there, one in particular has caught my eyes. You might have seen someone’s foot on a banner on a web page. With this lottery, there is a link on their website that explains the game fairness. They say that picking 6 numbers out of 49, the chances of winning is somewhere around one in 14 million. If you bought a ticket from their lottery, you will have a chance from 1,000 to 4,000 because that’s all the tickets they will sell for a given draw. That is almost like a school raffle where you have a chance to win a fruit basket or something. 

The prizes aren’t too shabby neither. They have iPods, a trip to Italy, a Ferrari, a vacation to Africa and more. I think they even have two tickets to Moscow.

I remembered a story when I was kid. We were rummaging through my mom’s jewelry box when we came upon an old lottery ticket. She said she picked it up at the drugstore and forgot she had it. My brother decided to check the newspaper that evening and found out that she was holding on to a winning ticket. We went down to the lottery office the next day and collected our winnings. Did you know most lottery tickets expire after one year? In other words, you have exactly one year from the draw date that you can collect your winnings.

Oprah had a show in the last few weeks, telling us that most lottery winners don’t know what to do with their winnings. The problem is, is that they don’t know how to say no. They end up paying everybody until they don’t have any for themselves. Perhaps it’s good to win a material prize like a house, car or boat. That way, you can enjoy it and have it remind you that you were a winner every time you see it.

Travelling to the Unknown March 28, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Activities, Geography, Sightseeing, Travel.
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This is the year I am travelling to Africa to see the Serengeti before it disappears. Strangely enough, I said that five years ago and again last year, but I still haven’t gone. Actually, I came close to going last year because I was going to join my wife’s cousins on their trip to Africa and Egypt. I should have gone with them, at least they spoke the language and they knew their way around since Roger used to live there. He worked there for many years and met his wife there then they got married and moved to the states. Now with two teenage kids, they wanted to return to Africa to show their kids the Serengeti before it disappears. It was the same reason I had wanted to go, too.

I think the reason why going to places like Africa and Egypt is so difficult for me is because there are so many unknowns I have to deal with. I’m not very good with geography and don’t really know where to travel to, to see the Serengeti. I mean, what city do I fly into? And how do I get there? Do I need to hire a guide? How far is it from the city to the reserves? Do I need a permit? Is it better to stay at a lodge? Where is the highest concentration of animals? Where do I go to see warthogs? Ok, that’s enough questions to make me dizzy. Perhaps, another cruise is easier.

I think there are certain times that you can plan your own travels. But there are other times (like this) that requires some expertise. Let me introduce you to a travel site that can help you plan an extraordinary trip. Unlike sites like Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz where you use their search engine to find you the best fare, hotel and car deal, this site will take your request and find you experts in the area that you plan to travel to. These experts are travel agents that have years of experience and know-how in where you’re headed. I think that’s invaluable because they know the local customs, contacts, geography, weather, language and politics of the country. Because they are experts in the field, you can probably get the most out of your trip using their expertise. That’s better than dealing with a travel agent that has years of experience booking trips to Hawaii or ski trips to Colorado.

If you’re planning a trip to Africa, Egypt or other exotic places that you are not familiar with or think there’s complications, it’s probably a better idea to go with a travel agent team that has either travelled there and experienced it on their own or know who to call.

The Point is… March 27, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Activities, Shopping, Travel, money.
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I’ve been neglecting one of my favorite responsibilities of my job, reviewing websites. It’s been a busy month of freebies and after March 31st, the old ones on our site will need to go and any new ones needs to be discovered and reported on. So, if you have been procrastinating all this time, you’d better get on with it and reap in the free rewards.

Talking about rewards, I like to introduce you to a new website that I found. I’m pretty sure inside your wallet or purse, you have a stack of cards that gives you points whenever you buy something. Unfortunately, I’m not talking about the cards that give cash back to you. Don’t get me wrong, I like having a credit card company pay me back but I also like getting things for free too.

I’m probably safe to say that most people have multiple cards in their pocket with a little bit of points here and there. I know I do. I fly around a lot so most of my points are on my Aeroplan card. It was only recently that my favorite airline, WestJet joined the Air Miles program but I’m a loyal customer of Shell, always filling my tank with Shell gas so I have accumulated some Air Miles points too, enough for them to promote me to a Gold Air Miles collector. I used to fill my gas up at Esso stations so I’ve go some points on my Esso Extra card. And when I used to work in Los Angeles, I stacked up some points on my AAdvantage card, flying with American Airlines.

What this website does is that it lets you pool your points together and get something worthwhile. Even if your points were frequent flyer points, you can turn them around and use them at a list of featured stores such as Crate&Barrel, GAP, Old Navy, Banana Republic and more. 

Back to my points, lets say I have 5,000 points in my Esso Extra card and want to do something with them. If I redeem them with the Esso Extra program, I can get a $30 gift card to use at the pump or I can get $20 worth of lottery tickets and a $10 gift card for gas. Outside of the gas station, I can redeem points for a movie night for two, with popcorn and drinks. The choices are limited. Now, if I check with this website, I see that I have 27 things I can do with 5,000 points including trading for 1,097 Aeroplan miles that I can use to top up my next flight to Japan.

I think you get the picture. When you sign up, you take all your cards and enter the points that you have on them. Once they have all been entered, you can use their search engines to see what you can trade for. If it’s merchandise you want then look for a gift card or if you want to top off airline miles then look for the airline that you plan to fly with. I think this is a great opportunity to use your points towards more useful things than a jug of windshield washer fluids and car washes.

The Costco of Airfares March 26, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Business, SOHO, Shopping, Spring 2008/2009, Travel, money.
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I have a friend who works for the airlines and when she flies to Vancouver, she pays only the fuel charge which can be under $10. Another friend of mine flew to Thailand last year for only $30 each way. She doesn’t work for the airline but she works for one of the wholesale travel consolidators.

The only airline I know that offers incredible fares like that is RyanAir and they fly strictly in Europe. I’ve seen special fares on Delta, Virgin and British Airways’ websites sometimes but who has the time to check them all for the best fare when you’re looking for deals? I don’t know about you, but I sure like a way to enter it once and have all these sites checked out for me.

The little voice inside of me is saying, ‘there is’. But only an hour ago did I learn of this. There is now a website that offers two services with the first one serving my immediate need. I can enter my flight information once and have it look at all travel sites and bring me back a list of the best fares. I normally like shopping at Travelocity for airfare and hotels, and I’m always curious at what Hotwire can do for me in terms of bids. Well, this site is going to save me some serious time because it will look at Travelocity for me, on top of all the airlines’ sites too. If it finds a lowest bid on Hotwire, it will bring that information to me too. That’s fantastic – and all that is for free. If you’re interested in using this free service, please come to our site and sign up for a FREE GOLD membership.

Before you run off to sign up for this free service, how would you like to get fares like my friends do? I mean $30 to Thailand from North America? That’s amazing to say the least. Well, the second service that this website offers is that they have access to wholesale ticket prices. It’s like shopping at Costco for wholesale goods. For $50 per year, you can get access to wholesale prices for airfares. My friend who works for the wholesale company tells me that the only people that have access to wholesale prices are other airlines and cruise companies. Airlines use wholesale tickets to fly their own people around such as pilots and navigators, or they use it to fly people on a grievance reason (ie. someone who is mourning for a loss of a loved one).

Don’t waste time Google-ing the internet for wholesale travel consolidators because you won’t find any true ones. You’ll get sites claiming the real McCoys but they are just travel agencies posing to be travel consolidators. The way to get access to wholesale prices is to sign up as a Platinum member here. Other than wholesale prices, you also get to bid for air fares like Hotwire and Priceline. You state a price that you are willing to pay for and they will search their consolidators for a company who is willing to take up on your offer.

What do you have to lose? Sign up for the free gold membership and save yourself some time and money, looking for the best fare on the internet. If you travel frequently on business or for leisure then sign up as a Platinum member. Check with the person who buys the airfares for your company. Get them to sign up as a Platinum member for the company then you can benefit from lower fares. If you own your business then sign up and have the company write it off. Either way, it will save someone money the first time they book a fare or get a rebate back. Perhaps, you have read my earlier blog on getting together and planning a trip as a group. Get the group organizer to sign up as a Platinum member and take advantage of wholesale prices for the entire group. If you’re not ready to sign up as a Platinum member, then at least, get the free gold membership from our site.

Packing for a Hawaiian Golf Vacation March 26, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Accessories, Sports, Travel, golf, money.
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When my friends hear that I’m headed to Hawaii to golf, surf and whale watch, they don’t feel sorry for me. They don’t realize how much work it is to pack for a golf vacation.

Gone are those days when you could just zip up the rain hood on your golf clubs and carry your bag on the plane. Because of possible theft and mishandling of  clubs, we now have to put our golf bags into travel covers or hard cases to protect them. If you don’t have a travel bag or case, I probably could recommend a few to you on our site, since I’ve gone through so many of them. These bags go through a lot of abuse and if you don’t spend wisely, you will just use them like disposable garbage bags. (Don’t get cheap by wrapping your golf bags with garbage bags.)

If you take an average set of clubs (regulation count of 14), you will notice it weighs 10-12 pounds depending on whether you have steel or graphite shafts. Once you put your golf bag, shoes, a dozen balls and rain gear in, the overall weight will be in the 25-30 pound range. It’s probably a good idea to get the weight down to 15-20 pounds, especially if you have to change planes or catch a connecting flight. To do this, you might want to consider two things. Either pick up a super-light carry bag that weighs 3.5 pounds or less, or invest into one of those aluminum carry cases that doubles as your golf bag and travel case.

I always have a debate with myself on the number of balls to bring with me. If anyone has ideas, please add your comment on my blog. On many occasions, I think if you’re going to a place where they have Wal-marts and Costco’s, you could probably bring a sleeve of balls and buy a box when you get there. If you’re flying in somewhere and driving out to a resort then it’s probably a good idea to stock up, unless you have deep pockets to pay whatever the resort charges for a case of balls.

On tee times and bookings, I like to use the internet to find all the deals. Most of the hotels that you stay at in Hawaii have high-speed internet access but only some places offer it for free. I haven’t yet found anything for free so I’ve been booking and paying for my green fees before leaving home. I like using ezlinks.com to book tee times for Maui, Kauai and Big Island. If you want to play some of the more expensive courses on the Big Island or Maui, you might want to check out teetimeshawaii.com. If you want to keep your green fees down, plan to play where the locals play. These courses are just as spectacular and usually have more ocean holes than the more expensive courses.

If you’re planning to play on any of the three courses in Kapalua and Pukalani on Maui, or Hapuna, Waikoloa or Makalei on the Big Island, or any of the courses in Kauai, be sure to pack a waterproof jacket with a hood. 

Saving Money Wirelessly March 25, 2008

Posted by yp2m in Computers, Electronics, Home, SOHO, Shopping.
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I just came back from the Source (formerly called Radio Shack) with a new Lexmark Z1420 Wi-Fi printer. I picked it up for an incredible $59.99 and with the recycle fee of $8.00 and taxes, it came out to $71 – not bad considering that when I hook it up, I can print anywhere in the house, wirelessly.

I’m a true believer of technology. In this day and age, we should be utilizing what’s out there rather than to stay in our comfort zone and use what we’ve been using for the last twenty years or so. Wi-Fi has been around for a number of years and a lot of my friends and colleagues have been utilizing it alot longer than I have. The reason is because I’m cheap and didn’t care to change my set up, until now. This is excellent for anyone with a small office, home office setup because you can have this printer downstairs near your business and still print from it upstairs.

Last year at this time, multi-function inkjet printers that had Wi-Fi capabilities were selling for $250 and up. Some were Wi-Fi ready and could be upgraded for $50 more. But Lexmark wanted to change the face of printing, so they were among the first companies to offer more affordable Wi-Fi printers, starting with the model that I bought today. As of last year May, the Lexmark Z1420 was the most inexpensive printer you can buy that has Wi-Fi. And looking at HP, Brother and other manufacturers, I think Lexmark still holds the record.

For those of you who have sat back and watched me pick up the TrendNet Wireless Router last week and now the Lexmark Z1420 Wi-Fi printer this week, and think you’re ready to get off the couch then I have a deal for you. Please come to our site and pick up the package for $39.99 for both but do so before March 31st because this offer expires.