Random Apple-a-Day

Sfxworks' Minecraft Server: I find this hilarious

2011-04-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

I had to reblog this because this video is too awesome not to be watched!

Sfxworks' Minecraft Server: I find this hilarious

-- The only constant is change --

Good lord its been a while since I've written anything.

2011-04-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

-- The only constant is change --

Usually, the above is my signature, but a lot has changed in the last six months. New career paths opened up and others have closed, I'm about to move across country and all kinds of other stuff! I'm gonna start blogging about everything in the coming weeks, lets hope I can keep it up now!

Here's something cool to look at while you wait :)

Parkour demonstration

He's ripped and moves like a predatory animal.

That's how I want to be!

Sickliness

2010-10-13T18:39:00.001-07:00

I am and have been for a couple days now, most definitely sick. While this continues I'll be abstaining from blog posts since I have to work enough as it is with both jobs still - I need blogging time to rest. Thanks for hanging in there for me guys!

-- The only constant is change --

Industrious Times I Live In

2010-10-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned I'm a Gemini?

One of the traits associated with us is that we have split personalities. Usually I'm not too bad for mood swings, but I definitely have separate persona's for work and home life. At work, I'm one of the best people you could've ever hired - I'm driven, focused, energetic, etc. But damn if I can't get myself to do half as much when I'm sitting around the house.

Anyway, I've been trying to increase my productivity while at home lately. I started this blog, for instance, as a way to increase my creativity, hone my writing skills, and to keep myself off image boards and Cracked.com for a few hours at a stretch. It's been going well I think and I definitely plan to keep on it for a long time.

As it is, I've been trying to make more money, something I can do on the side that doesn't interfere with the day- and night-jobs. So I'm thinking that I'm going to start designing T-shirts and other items for my new CafePress store. Feel free to visit it right now but there's really nothing there yet. I'm hoping to churn out one new design a week to start but we'll see how that goes.

If anyone else has any radical ideas for making money on the side feel free to share them, I'm willing to try - well, a lot, but not everything :)

-- The only constant is change --

Wanted: New Laptop; Current Laptop & Wallet Both Broke

2010-10-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

I've had my laptop since 2008. I purchased it in August then, it was a refurb I found on sale on Buy.com I think. At $500 it was pretty sweet - my wife just needed something for the road since she was going to be doing some travelling work. We of course needed to upgrade the memory, and before long Vista crashed so hard that nothing I did would work. It then ran XP for a long time until I personally ****ed that installation up hardcore. Now it runs Windows 7, which I'm very happy with actually.

Anyway, this has all been somewhat off-topic. I need a new laptop.

My dog chewed through the AC adapter cord on this one (learned how to solder wires back together then) and then, through abusive usage, the power board inside the case has been screwed up so that most of the time I can barely keep the connectors together during regular use. On top of that the battery is completely shot (currently at 5%, not charging -_-) and if it comes unplugged (which happens often) it shuts down within 1 minute.

*sigh*

I don't have any money right now, but I'm looking into the future. I've always tossed around the idea of getting a Mac, but I really don't think I can stoop that low. So, I cast my gaze back onto the Windows rigs on Newegg. One I'm particularly fond of is this beast:

A 17" 1920x1080 screen, 8GB with a 500GB HDD and an ATI Mobility 5870 - in the $1450 range. This thing is a beast that puts my desktop to shame. I was obsessed with this computer until I went over to Buy.com where they've got the next step up in the G-series. It looks the same but runs the next processor up (740Q instead of 720Q) has 1TB of storage space - currently at $1680.

Well, what do you guys think? Post some links to nice rigs if you've got 'em, I'll be browsing for quite some time with my current financial state. Opinions are very welcome in this realm, there's more than one viewpoint for any issue.

Thanks guys!

-- The only constant is change --

Local Post: Volunteer Work!

2010-10-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

Before today, I've never done any volunteer work. When I was growing up, I just wasn't the community-helper extracurricular type. I played Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering instead. Well a bunch of people I knew were doing this a volunteer gig today.

Travel Town Museum & Park

From Random Apple-a-Day

I had actually never even heard of this place before this week. My wife thought it was an old storage yard. Turns out it's a cool little park with some historic trains! Their mission is to inform people about the history of the railroad, mainly its influence on the Southwest United States and the Los Angeles area in particular.

About 15 of us worked with some more official workers and went about cleaning up trains because next week they're having an open house. You can find out more information about the place here, and if you live in the Los Angeles area come check the place out on the 17th for their open house and see some of the restoration work that's been started. It's in Griffith park, just 5 minutes down the road from the LA Zoo!

Anyway, back to the original topic. I really enjoyed doing some volunteer work. I got to meet some cool people that do stuff I never even imagined needed doing - all to help out the community. What sort of volunteer work (have you done|do every once in a while)?

-- The only constant is change --

Verizon iPhone, 4G Networks, and more...

2010-10-08T06:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! There's been a lot going on in the technology sector lately! First, a quick poll:

Do you own an iPhone?

"Smooth as a baby's bottom." - Steve Jobs

Much of the following paragraph is supposition, take it with a grain of salt - unless you've got high blood pressure.

Moving on, I'm assuming you're on the AT&T network (most likely) if you've got one. However its been reported that Apple has designed a new iPhone for the Verizon network! Apple has plans to begin manufacturing these new devices by the end of 2010 and aims to have them on the market in the first quarter of 2011. With this comes the end of the exclusive relationship Apple and AT&T have shared since 2007. The new devices will be similar to the iPhone 4, but will be based on an alternate technology that is used by Verizon.

End suppositories.

I'm not much of an AT&T fan, so this is kind of thrilling to me. The iPhone has catapulted AT&T's growth over the past 3 years so hopefully this will take some of the wind out of their sales. On the other hand, I'm not an Apple fan either so I'm not too keen on this device spreading its slime any further than it already has.

In related news Verizon has been spreading the tentacles of the 4G network further across the United States. At a recent wireless trade show, Verizon's President stated that when their 4G network is launched it will be covering 38 markets. He also said that at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show there should be at least half a dozen smartphones and tablets compatible with the 4G technology on display. One hurdle Verizon will have to overcome is ensuring the new devices are able to easily hop between the 3G and 4G networks. As planned these new devices will still be running voice traffic on the 3G network, while the more intense data traffic will be shifted over to the 4G side.

Damn that doesn't look comfortable

This is really cool to me. I'm always excited as technology progresses, and this sounds like nothing but an improvement on what we've got setup right now. Sprint and Verizon will be the only players in the 4G market at year's end and if the rest of the big carriers don't keep up they're going to get left behind (now at wireless gigabit speed!)

At this point, you might be wondering what the "and more..." part was. I had planned on adding some cool stuff about HTC to this post but damn if I couldn't find my sources again. The downfall of perpetual private browsing.

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Commentators!

2010-10-08T00:00:00.001-07:00

Everyone that drops by, I encourage you, leave comments! I'm always happy to see that people are listening and engaging in discussion! If your comment doesn't show up right away, don't worry it's most likely that I just haven't had time to sit down and look over all the new comments yet. So again, please, feel free to leave feedback! Thanks for reading everyone!

-- The only constant is change --

Amazon - Free music downloads, Prime faces new competition

2010-10-07T04:48:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't had much to talk about the past couple days, work has been pretty busy!

Hey guys, everyone likes free stuff, right? In most circumstances at least. Did you know that Amazon.com offers tons of free music to download? They've got a lot of stuff really cheap too. Go here to see the landing page for their mp3 deals, you won't be disappointed!

Do you know anything about Amazon's Prime service? It's $79 a year to get free 2-day shipping on pretty much anything! It's pretty amazing, which is why I assume some of the other large retailers on the web must feel so threatened. Several dozen companies have put aside their differences to create a new service called ShopRunner. Among the participating companies are Petsmart,GNC, and Toys 'R Us, to mention just a couple.

It's like Prime, $79 for a year, but it's available on all the participating retailers websites AND, the kicker, if you need to return something they pay for the return shipping for you! Even more amazing than Prime, I'd say. I'd recommend checking both these services out though since the holidays are fast approaching because both will save you a lot of money on shipping, especially if you continue shopping with the sites throughout the rest of the year!

-- The only constant is change --

Starbucks on my mind

2010-10-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

Check out the Squidoo lens I published today on Starbucks Via!

I've been working a bit on the lot side lately, so I really haven't taken the time to think about much besides Starbucks! We rolled out a new product today, Instant Flavored Coffee, which rocks. I'm genuinely excited about it, and if you go in sometime during the next few days all Starbucks should be doing sampling events where you can get a free tall drink when you buy a pack of Via, and a bunch of other stuff like that!

What's your favorite Starbucks drink? I drink a heavily modified version of Passion Tea Lemonade usually, but when I need caffeine I do a Venti Iced Caramel Macchiato (2 shots instead of 3) with extra caramel. It's very tasty, sugary - more like sweetened caffeinated milk really.

How about pastries? I didn't really eat pastries before I started working at Starbucks, but I've got my preferences nowadays. I love cheese danishes and very berry coffee cake, but damn I can't stand scones. They're like chewing on the desert they're so dry! The breads aren't too bad either.

Lunch items? They're expensive but occasionally I'll partake in a Chicken Santa Fe, these are the most amazing panini's ever!

Enough rambling about Starbucks for the day, maybe I'll post something more interesting later tonight when I'm not so tired and I've had some time to think.

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Twitter

2010-10-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Twitter and followers and tweets, oh my!

Are you on Twitter?
I am, if you hadn't noticed the giant widget thing over there on the right. If you haven't already, follow me! I network with other bloggers and if I see a tweet of yours regarding your blog, I'll retweet it to my followers. Never know who will take notice and fall in love with your content!

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Do you... Squidoo?

2010-10-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

If you don't you should! It's kinda like another form of microblogging! You can use it to make money for yourself too, or donate the royalties to charity. It's super easy to do. You can check out my first lens ever here! Or if you're interested in signing up, use this referral link and help a brother out as you help yourself! Thanks for everyone's continued support as I expand my little internet empire!

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Sleep Tech

2010-10-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

I wanted to mention this but it didn't feel like it warranted a full post. Skullcap, hops and valerian, a combo that's a potent sleep aide. I can usually wake up from 2-4 hours sleep no problem, but I knocked a couple of these back one day to, "get more restful sleep" I thought and ended up waking up four hours after my body was up and going. They might not have the same effect on everyone, but damn they blew me away when I needed it. Check em over at Puritan's Pride.

-- The only constant is change --

Sleep Tech Part Two: Lucid Dreaming

2010-10-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

Have any of you ever experienced lucid dreaming? A dream where you know it's a dream?

I've always been fascinated by this concept, ever since I first learned about it a few years back. I can't say I've had much success in performing it, since I've followed some ideas on how to do it but have had little luck.

Off on a tangent here, did you guys see Inception? I did, a couple times. It really rocked my world. It actually wasn't until I saw this movie that I experienced my first - and so far only - lucid dream.

I was lying face down in my bed. I had just woken up, it was sometime in the morning and my mouth felt numb. I looked down and saw that my teeth were falling out of my skull! I quickly thought, when was the last time I went to the dentist, how did my teeth get this bad; plainly, what the **** is going on here?! This doesn't happen. Your teeth can't just up and fall out like this. It's too ridiculous. This has to be a dream.

That thought woke me up. It was still dark out. I went back to sleep. But the dream is almost as vivid today as the night I had it. I haven't experienced such dreaming again, but I'm always trying new tactics out.

If you've had any experience with lucid dreaming, please do tell. If you know any tactics that help, pass them on. Maybe I'm crazy, but the idea of being able to control your dreams and to utilize that time spent unconscious occasionally seems awesome.

-- The only constant is change --

Here's a bunch of resources on the matter since I don't have much first hand experience:
Wikipedia Article
DreamViews Dreaming Community
Lucidity.com
Wiki-how

Minipost: StartKiller

2010-10-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

Do you use the start button? I don't - I always hit the win key. I have Windows 7 so it's much easier for me to press Win and start typing what I need. Therefor the Start button just gets in my way, I like lots of room for program buttons on my task bar. If you feel the same way or just want to try out a nifty little program, StartKiller takes the Start button off your taskbar. It works in pretty much all Windows versions.

-- The only constant is change --

Sleep Tech Part One: Polyphasic Sleeping

2010-10-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

Everyone's talking about it.

My polyphasic sleep schedule.

Hey everyone. It seems nowadays everybody is talking about polyphasic sleep. If you haven't heard of it, here's a quick rundown: a monophasic sleeper has one rest time, the big chunk of the day they spent producing z's where a biphasic or polyphasic sleeper sleeps less at a stretch, twice or several times a day, respectively.

I don't know quite where I fit into all of this. If you didn't know, I work two jobs and spend a lot of time writing and researching otherwise. Most days I sleep 2-4 hours at night and maybe another 2-3 hours in the middle of the day; I get about 18-20 waking hours per day in usually.

It was really hard to get used to. When I first got my second job I was downright exhausted constantly. Now, having done this for going on seven months I really like it. I get a lot done (or not done sometimes) every day, I've also become talented at sleeping. That might sound strange but I'm serious; it used to take me a while to fall asleep at any given time but now I can put down my head and be out within minutes.

Some people have asked if my health seems to have deteriorated and the answer is: I don't think so. I have a rather stout immune system to start and I'm very in tune with what's going on inside. If I run a couple days in a row with only an hour or two sleep at most I can feel illness sneaking up on me. With a day's rest I can be back to normal, no problem.

On a side note it really slays me nowadays when the girls I work with complain about being tired when they woke up three hours ago and spend, at most, 10 hours per day conscious. I'm not exaggerating those numbers either -_-

Maybe over time I'll have more thoughts on the subject. For now, what do you guys think? What sort of schedule rules your life?

-- The only constant is change --

Resources and other stuff:
Wikipedia
Steve Pavlina's Site
A blog about polyphasic sleep"
More info at Supermemo

Minipost: BloggersBase

2010-10-03T03:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, if you have a blog of your own and you're looking to help spread your words check out Bloggersbase!

It's something like an online magazine where your blog posts can compete to gain readership. You can set it up so your RSS feed automatically generates blog posts there - very easy to repost the stuff you put on here.

I'm not an expert of the topic, heck I'm still learning about it myself. Why don't we learn together!? Do me the favor and follow my affiliate link too, they have cool prizes and rewards and there's nothing like a little brotherly love!

Hoping for the best here, good luck guys!

-- The only constant is change --

Finally! Laundry detergent, homemade edition.

2010-10-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this today without photos because my editing rig is on the fritz. I'm going to edit the article to add the photos tomorrow. If you follow at twitter.com/KJManBlawg you can hear as soon as I've finished the edit tomorrow!

Hey everyone, I've been saying over the past couple days I was going to post my laundry detergent recipe, so here it is! I've been making this since 2006 and it has saved me hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to date. I've lived in a few states in the past four years so at times the ingredients for making this have been harder to come by. That said, here's what you'll need to make this awesome stuff.

• Fel's Naptha Bar Laundry Soap. This isn't sold in any stores local to me so I had to order it online and have it shipped to a local Ace Hardware.
• 20 Mule Team Borax. A general laundry booster, even if you don't like the end result of this detergent you can use borax to clean many surfaces and to help your regular detergent.
• Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. Again, a general laundry booster, you can use it pretty for most of the same things as Borax.
• 2 Gallons of water. I usually throw my gallon jugs away on accident so typically I buy new ones each time I make this. If you save your jugs you can save even more money with this.

You start out by put six cups of water into a very large pot and set it to medium heat. While this is warming up, cut 1/3 off the bar of Naptha and either grate it or chop it down into smaller bits and throw it in a food processor. I do the second method because it's so much easier. Grind it up until you've got a fine powder with a few larger chunks of soap left. Mix this into your heated water until it is completely dissolved.

Now that's all dissolved, measure out ½ cup each Borax and Washing Soda. Slowly, without increasing the heat, stir these in. If your water is simmering at all it is too hot and this stuff will foam up like mad. Take your time stirring it in as if you stir too violently it'll also foam up. Once foaming starts it's really hard to work with this mix.

Anyway, once you've got everything mixed in let it settle down for a couple minutes, then slowly increase the heat until the mix is boiling. Boil for 15 minutes. While it's boiling heat up another quart of water until it's somewhat hot. When the mix is almost done pour the hot water into a bucket (something 3-5 gallons will work) then add the mixture and stir. Then add enough cold water to bring it to two gallons. Mix it all until it's well blended then let it set for a full day. If done correctly the whole thing will gel!

That's pretty much it! You'll use ½ cup per load and it won't get all sudsy but it works really well. It will separate when it's sitting around since we don't add any stabilizers or anything to the mix so you'll need to shake it up before using. Like I said before if you don't like the end result you can still use the borax and washing soda to aide your regular detergent and you can rub the naptha onto stains to help remove them.

Thanks for dropping by everyone, sorry to keep you waiting on the topic for longer than expected!

tl;dr?

• 1/3 bar Fel's Naptha, ground to powder or grated
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
• 2 gallons water

• Heat 6 cups water, mix in Naptha until dissolved
• Mix in Borax and Washing Soda until dissolved
• Bring to a boil for 15 minutes then remove from heat
• In a 3-5 gallon bucket put 1 quart hot water, add soap mixture and stir
• Add enough cold water to make two gallons, mix thoroughly and let sit 24 hours
• Enjoy!

-- The only constant is change --

Minipost: Prey Project

2010-10-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

If you own a laptop or one of the smarter mobile devices available out there, you should really check out the Prey Project.

Prey is an advanced, open source application that could help you recover your portable device should it ever be lost or stolen. You can find out more about it on their website.

-- The only constant is change --

Roast Chicken!

2010-10-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

So I wrote this post last night everyone, since I was roasting a chicken and felt I should share my tactics because a roasted chicken is delicious and something everyone should know how to cook.

Hey guys! So, I'm roasting a chicken for dinner tonight. Roasted chicken is one of my favorite foods and it's so cheap! It was on sale the other day for about 77 cents per pound, so I grabbed two, one of them being almost 7 pounds! A bird this size will feed me and my wife for a few days which is great because we are broke. Anyway, here's how I roast a chicken!

Firstly, thaw this baby out ahead of time. I had planned on making chicken for an early dinner but had to push that back by, mmm, three or four hours! I hadn't anticipated this, so just keep it in mind for the future. Anyway, after thawing it I scooped the giblets and neck out (they usually stuff these things inside the chest cavity) and threw them in a small pot of water and set it to a low heat to steep for the next couple hours.

Next you rinse the beast down under cold water, inside and out then dry the outside off really well with paper towels - and make sure you drain the cavity, don't want to accidentally pour salmonella water all over yourself.

I follow a real simple way of preparing the bird - I take a cooking oil, canola this time but sometimes I use olive oil - and rub down the bird like you're giving it a really weak massage. After coating it with oil you probably want to wash your hands before handling spices and such. Next I sprinkle it liberally with pepper, a bit of salt, then some garlic and onion powder. Being Italian I think I put garlic on everything. Anyway, you've done one side of the bird, then flip it over and do the other side. Make sure you don't rub it or move it too much right now or you'll mess up the distribution of spices.

Lastly, I cook my bird directly on the oven rack. Some people might be like, "ewww gross" but really, if you clean it first it's no different than anything else. Put it on the middle rack BREAST SIDE DOWN with an 8"x12" pan underneath to catch all the drippings. We do it breast side down so all the juices will settle into the meaty part of the bird. Roast that sucker at 350°F for 20 minutes per pound. I crank the heat up to 450°F for the last 15 minutes of the cook time to help brown the outside of the beast.

While we wait for the bird to cook scoop the giblets out of the water where you've had them simmering for a while. Save this water because once the bird is done you're going to take the drippings pan and mix these two liquids together. Then you take flour and add it, I do it one spoonful at a time, to the liquid and whisk them together until you've got gravy. This will be the best gravy ever. Use it generously.

At this point turn the heat off and let it set on the rack for about 20 minutes so the juices can settle. Prepare some side dishes if you haven't already and after your time is up, carve into it and enjoy! Also, here's a chart to help with cooking times.

Cooking time (unstuffed)

2½ - 3 pounds | 50-60 minutes

3½ - 4 pounds | 70-80 minutes

4½ - 5 pounds | 90-100 minutes

5½ - 6+ pounds | 110-120 minutes

tl;dr?

• Buy chicken
• Rinse chicken with water, put giblets in pan with water and simmer
• Coat in oil, pepper, light salt, garlic and onion powder
• Roast on oven rack, breast side down, middle rack with a pan under it to catch drippings
• Mix giblet infusion with drippings, whisk in flour until gravy has formed
• Eat!

-- The only constant is change --

Sleep talker in our midst.

2010-10-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

I was going to make laundry detergent today, really! It didn't work out that way though. Yesterday my wife got sick quite suddenly and we spent last evening in the ER. I ended up staying up much later than I was supposed to and passed out for a very long night's sleep. When I woke up today, sometime late after 11am my wife had just woken up herself. She didn't go to sleep until 7am though so I'm not sure how she was able to do stuff all day and go teach dance lessons tonight without even taking a nap. Anyway, this post is on a bit of a tangent right now!

Baby steps back to where I was though. Have I mentioned I talk in my sleep? I don't do it every night, but I do it fairly frequently. Last night my wife actually wrote down the stuff I said, maybe you guys can help me decipher my mind? First,

"Don't fail windows 32 Australia"

Quickly followed by,

"Delete that or it will destroy your computer"

I'm beginning to think the forums and meme's I witness are infiltrating my subconcious. I'm not sure where the Australia part came from, maybe it's because I watched an Australian movie last night.

Next up,

I'm sorry... I can't think of the name of it now."

This was completely out of the blue and apparently a few hours after the first comment.

Lastly, the dog was laying on the sheet over me and I was trying to writhe around and move it or something so I told him in a very polite voice

"Buster, wake up."

At which point I shoved him off of me and rolled him with the sheet,

"Thank you."

Then went back to sleep.

...

It never ceases to amaze me the things I do and say in my sleep. Hopefully you find them entertaining because I haven't got much left for today! The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house and tending to my sickly wife until our friend came over and we watched the Stargate movie - awesome as usual! You should really check it out and actually, I'm gonna leave this right here. Thanks for dropping by guys, hope I'll have that laundry detergent for you tomorrow!

-- The only constant is change --

Part 3: Nobody told me we were doing a part three!

2010-09-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

Saving money is definitely one of my passion's in life. I can't say very many things make me tingle quite like looking at my Ralph's receipt and seeing this line: "Total: $111.90 Saved: $99.00"

Patience is really the key for me. Everything goes on sale eventually, and most things can be preserved in some fashion or another. Recently Campbell's Chunky Soup was on sale at around half-off and this stuff lasts awhile - I bought 30 cans.

Hamburger Helper on sale, 10/$10? "30 boxes please, I've got my own bags."

Retailer weekly's are a critical element of my success. Pretty much any grocer that posts one of these also hosts it online and since I don't have a mailbox and I don't plan on waiting for my neighbor to pass his used ads onto me, I go surfing. Last week it was whole chickens on sale, roughly half-off again - two please.

I actually make my own laundry soap and I'm due to make another batch this week. It's super cheap at around 25 cents per gallon to make. I buy the ingredients in bulk online since nobody around here carries what I need. In fact, I have all of tomorrow off from my jobs so I will be making a batch or two and posting the recipe and pics for all!

I'm out for today everyone, I'm going to go see Bran Nue Dae tonight in about an hour so I need to get ready. G'night!

-- The only constant is change --

Bloggy Mcblog: Robot Unicorn Attack

2010-09-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Bloggy Mcblog: Robot Unicorn Attack: "Easily the best 2D flash game ever made. Give it a try below."

I haven't been this sidetracked in a long time. This game is truly epic.

-- The only constant is change --

Part 2: It's not a suggestion, it's an order.

2010-09-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started talking about saving money and today will continue with this discussion!

My big find this week (got my J senses tingling hardcore!) was on Amazon.com. I've noticed in the past they have a way you can subscribe to order items you use on a regular basis. For my house it's razor blades. I don't shave but my wife does and goes through a blade every week or so. In-case you didn't notice, these things are damn expensive - often times $2-$4 per cartridge in grocery stores! Well...

Check 'em

This doesn't look like how I wanted...
Anyway, I just bought these cartridges yesterday and by subscribing I saved 15% plus I got free shipping. It ended up pricing out around $1.40 per cartridge!!1! Everyone should check this subscription stuff out, you never know what you might find!

Edit: A side note is that the price I quoted above per cartridge was true at time of publishing, it seems the price of these blades has gone up now! Sorry for any unintended deception!

-- The only constant is change --

Part 1: Don't spend more than you have to...

2010-09-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, I only transcribed a small amount of this post before I was so tired I had to sleep. Finishing it up now. If you didn't notice this change, ignore my warning! :D

Hey everyone! I’m writing this at work today. They put me in guest services where I have access to the computer all night. I tried rambling for a bit and discovered I wanted to talk about saving money today!

First of all, I recently bought tons of new clothes. Prior to this spending spree, I hadn't really bought much clothing wise in almost five years! Well my wife got a new job and needed to look for some new stuff so we went to the local Goodwill.

Not only does GWI employ those who might have trouble finding work otherwise, they benefit the community AND you can find amazing deals there! I ended up buying 5 pairs of pants, 4 ties, 2 vests, a new pair of shoes (with wooden soles!) all for less than $50. If you need anything you should really check your local Goodwill stores, you never know what you might find.

Keeping in theme, do you check out any sites for daily deals? A lot of sites have sales that are good for one day only and I have found some amazing purchases in the past. I'm a big fan of Woot.com and their sub-domains: Shirt.Woot and Wine.Woot mainly. I once found a vacuum for a family member that retailed for over $500 for only $249 ($5 shipping on everything except shirts, which have free shipping!) Shirt.Woot features a variety of unique shirts that range from artistic to humorous and change every week. Wine.Woot sells wines and wine accessories at awesome prices as well as all kinds of other stuff (I got wine filled chocolates around Valentine's day one year). They also have Kids.Woot and Deals.Woot, something more akin to a toy store and a deal aggregator, respectively.

Lengthy post this is turning into, eh? And quite the Woot.com testimonial. I've decided to split this post up and finish it off tomorrow, lest I hear cries of tl;dr and need to comfort myself. Thanks for tuning in everyone, talk to you again soon!

-- The only constant is change --