Mandy: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

Just who is Elin Nordegren Woods, anyway?

As Tiger Wreck Watch 2009 lurches into its fourth day with little new information, fans and media are combing…

Nazi guard Demjanjuk to stand trial in Germany (Reuters)

Reuters - John Demjanjuk, an 89-year-old former Nazi camp guard, is due to stand trial on Monday on charges of helping to force 27,900 Jews into gas chambers in 1943.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Dubai request for debt 'standstill' raises fear (AP)

AP - Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai’s explosive growth, the city is now so swamped in debt that it’s asking for a six-month reprieve on paying its bills — causing a drop on world markets Thursday and raising questions about Dubai’s reputation as a magnet for international investment.

Americans Toss Out 40 Percent of All Food (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - While many Americans feast on turkey and all the fixings today, a
new study finds food waste per person has shot up 50 percent since
1974. Some 1,400 calories worth of food is discarded per person each
day, which adds up to 150 trillion calories a year.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Blind Side Reviews

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/indieflickr/

The Blind Side is a movie starring Sandra Bullock. Blind Side reviews say you will leave with tears in your eyes and heart. If the movie is rated by tears or stars, it would get an A.

The movie is a tear jerking inspirational true story. People are saying you will laugh and cry with Sandra Bullock. The Blind Side is a pretty unlikely story, yet it is true. Add in Sandra Bullock and you may have a hit.

The Blind Side is the story of a poor black young man, very large in stature, named Michael Oher. Sanda Bullock plays a charitable mother of a well-off white family, Leigh Anne Tuohy. Leigh Anne brings home Michael and helps Michael find love, and a career in football.

Eventually, Michael became an NFL lineman for the Baltimore Ravens. I have not seen this movie, but want to so I have been reading the reviews. According to what I've read, the movie is less about Michael Oher, and more about Leigh Anne Tuohy and her family.

Some critics have a problem with this, saying the film should be more about Michael. But other critics say the story of Michael Oher is too remarkable to ignore. And although Leigh Anne is the main role, when it's played by Sandra Bullock, you really can't mind that it's more about Leigh Anne than Michael.

Sandra Bullock has had a pretty good year, with a big hit in The Proposal, but she did have poor reviews for All About Steve. The Blind Side makes two hits out of three, this year. The Blind Side reviews are 70% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, which says “It might strike some viewers as a little too pat, but The Blind Side has the benefit of strong source material and a strong performance from Sandra Bullock.”

Black Friday 2009: Boom or Bust?

Black Friday, the biggest retail shopping day of the year, is usually seen as a key barometer of the health of the economy. And the best way to check its pulse is to look at three of the biggest categories of consumer spending. We included the stores that are leading the retail rebound; department stores like Sears and Target, electronics stores like Best Buy and Frys, and clothing stores like Aeropostale and J.Crew. Also on our list, high-end brands; Nordstrom, Saks, Neiman Marcus, and Banana Republic. While it’s too early to call the final results Mint.com data points to strong Black Friday sales at major merchants.
Our latest infographic is based on the aggregate data from over one million Mint.com users, a representative sampling of US consumers.

Embed the above image on your site
<a href="http://www.mint.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/MINT-BLACK-FRIDAY-R8.png"><img src="http://www.mint.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/MINT-BLACK-FRIDAY-R8.png" alt="MINT-BLACK-FRIDAY-R8" width="900" height="1954" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-7214" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/black-friday-2009-boom-or-bust/">Black Friday Data</a> – Mint.com

Friday, November 20, 2009

Military experiment seeks to predict PTSD (AP)

AP - Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Dancing with the stars results November 17

I am a big fan of the show dancing with the stars. I watch it every single night. I must say that I love the talent but a few of the contestants could use a bit of work on their attitude and cut down on how proud they are of themselves.

But I could not believe the Dancing with the stars results November 17! Joanne Krupa got voted off and Derek Hough. She seemed to have a fantastic attitude about it. But who knows if that was just for the cameras but she went out with a positive attitude and she made sure she had learned something from the experience.

They got to leave with a bang, they got to dance the Viennese waltz one last time before they got to go home. They did a tremendous job and who knows what this experience might bring to them later in life. Great job to you two!

Obama, Holder predict conviction in 9/11 case

WASHINGTON – From opposite ends of the globe, President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder firmly rejected criticism Wednesday of the planned New York trial of the professed Sept. 11 mastermind and predicted Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be exposed as a murderous coward, convicted and e…

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I don’t like being in limos

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/redjar/

I remember the first time that I rode in one. It wasn't all that fun. I was expecting it to be a lot more fun. We had to sign a contract saying that we wouldn't do things like stick our head out of the top window while the limo was moving.

It was pretty lame. It had a TV in it which would have been nice if we would have been in the car long enough to watch a movie. I don't know why someone would ever want to spend time much time in a limo. I don't understand why people get limos for any activity. It just doesn't benefit anyone. I would rather have a nicer car.

I love having my computer on my lap sometimes

After it has been on for a long time, it will get really warm. This is really nice when it has been a really cold morning or something. All I have to do is get on my laptop and use it long enough to get the warmth out of it.

It is basically the best heater ever. I really like it a lot. I really like warmth on a cold morning. It is comforting and makes everything better. I wish that I had a lap heater that wasn't as heavy as a whole computer. I would probably use it every morning so as to keep myself really warm.

Leonid Meteor Shower November 17

Photo: www.nasaimages.org

The Leonid Meteor Shower will be clear in many areas again on November 17, 2009. Grab a blanket if you are anywhere near a clear sky and head outside of the city lights.

The darker, the better. Have you ever seen an active meteor shower? It is the most amazing thing. It's like fireworks going off in the sky above but it is perfectly quiet.

One of my best memories as a kid was one night when a great meteor shower hit so my parents took us up in the back of my Dad's truck and headed way out of town. We laid in the back of the truck on blankets and watched the stars silently shoot by. You could have heard a pin drop and there were a lot of us kids. It was beautiful.

Experts say the best place to see the Leonid Meteor Shower will be in Asia and not so much in North America. I'm no where near Asia but if you are, go. With 30 to 300 shooting stars every hour, it should be quite a site to see.

Sarah Palin Newsweek Cover

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasroche/

Sarah Palin is in the news again. At 45 years of age, it seems that Sarah Palin may be here to stay. Originally I thought she might disappear into oblivion after her vice presidential bid with John McCain failed. But she popped right back up.

She very soon after the election made news when she resigned as the president, I mean governor of Alaska. She did not complete her first term. She claimed it was because of ethics complaints but many feel she will be running for the president of the U.S. As a matter of fact, she is one of the front runners right now slotted for the presidential campaign of 2012 in the Republican party.

Sarah has had her share of scandal. Her daughter, Bristol, became pregnant while still in high school. Her boyfriend at the time, became her fiancé and the couple was to wed. But after the baby was born, they broke up. Now her boyfriend is gaining his share of attention saying he knows Sarah Palin secrets and posing for Playgirl magazine.

Now Sarah Palin is on the Newsweek Cover. And you now, with Sarah Palin, it couldn't be just a nice photo of her on Newsweek. There has to be some sort of controversy, and this is no different. It is a very flattering image of Sarah Palin, as truly, all of her images are. Yet, some are calling the shot sexist. It is a photo of Sarah holding an American flag in very short shorts with running shoes on.

It's obvious she supposed to be some sort of athlete yet it comes out more of a glamor shot. It is obvious she is wearing nylons. How many women go running in nylons? Sarah herself says she is unhappy with the photo.

It was originally taken for a Runner's World magazine article and it was taken last August. Yet, can you picture that image behind the desk in the Oval Office? Do you think it would be okay for President Obama to wear really short shorts on the cover of Newsweek or any other magazine? Sarah Palin, President of the United States? I'd have to really realign my thinking.

Free Water, Expensive Notebook

I got a kick out of this article from the NY Times yesterday: Commuters Overlooking Free Treasure:

I might not have appreciated the marvel of the Grand Central Terminal water fountain if it hadn't been for the notebook.

I had run into Posman Books after getting off my train and finding myself without a notebook, and grabbed what Moleskine, the high-end paper packager, calls a reporter's notebook. I'm a reporter; it spoke to me. Until I got to the counter and learned it cost a cool $17.95 plus tax, a sum no reporter I know would shell out for a notebook, even if it came with the story already written in perfect Pulitzer-worthy prose.

I put the notebook back, and felt a flash of frustration. Now I needed a notebook and a drink of water. For most of my adult life, I've either commuted through Grand Central or lived within five blocks of it, but I didn't know of a water fountain in the place.

I was on the brink of buying a bottle of water along with my not-quite-as-overpriced notebook at Rite-Aid, but balked. It's not just that bottled water is a waste of money and plastic; I also never need as much as a bottle carries, so it would either go to waste or I'd lug it around all day, with a lot of overpriced liquid weighing down my bag.

Maybe the saleswoman knew where a water fountain might be. She didn't, but asked someone. There was one right by the Chase A.T.M.'s.

There, just a 30-second walk from the saleswoman, who surely must occasionally feel thirst, was the perfect water fountain. The spout juts out from the cool, beige Botticino marble wall of Grand Central, a handsome basin below it, a marble relief of some natural harvest above. Water was arcing above the spout, so high that I felt reassured no thirsty germy toddler had mouthed the metal at the base. A fluid piece of accessible history, that fountain, I later learned, has conveniently been spouting water almost continually since the terminal opened in 1913.

The reporter ends up observing the fountain for a while, and it turns out that hardly anyone ever uses it, which probably won’t surprise you. Americans have become so conditioned to drinking bottled water, and to thinking public things are germy (not to mention socialist).

I remember that at one of my previous jobs there was an old-fashioned water fountain– I went to drink from it one day, not long after I’d started working there, and someone cried out “eww, don’t use that!” I never saw anyone else use the fountain, since bottled water was provided by the company. They later switched to using water coolers to save money.

I’ve also filled a water bottle from fountains while traveling in Europe. I probably wouldn’t do it in other countries but it somehow seemed safe there– every town square seemed to have a fountain. And once, on a mountain hike, I was running out of water when we came to a pipe just sticking out of the side of the mountain, pouring water into a small basin– I had my doubts about that, but my friend drank it and said for all we knew it was probably from the best, cleanest mountain spring in France!

Anyway, one of the first posts I wrote on this site was about saving money by skipping bottled water, and it’s still a rule I try to follow. But unlike that Times reporter, I’m still a sucker for nice notebooks, and I’ve also written about buying Moleskines! However, I’ve never paid $17.95 for one, and I recently discovered a much cheaper and almost equivalent brand called Piccadilly, sold at Borders for about 1/3 the price of a Moleskine. So whether it’s water or high-end notebooks, never think there aren’t ways to shave a few dollars off your budget!

More Ways than One to Make Money Online

Shall we start making more money?

When I set out to write this post, I was going to talk about different ways to make more money but why talk general when I can take a more focused approach and share with you what people do online specifically? I live and breath the Internet these days, so when I ask you to take some time to make more money, I’m thinking about some of these as suggestions.

Blog/Website/Content

I need to start here, because doing this led me to take the leap away from the 9-5. I won’t bore you with the details, because you already know what to do – Throw up a website, write great content, market it, rinse and repeat.

The great thing about these informational websites is that most people can start without expectations and expenses. The lack of pressure frees them to just let their instincts and passion guide them.

On the other hand, the lack of pressure may be a bad thing, as you might not be committed to this side income project. To make matters worst, it is not as easy as everyone has you believe. Know that the vast majority of people who are even remotely successful spent a ton of hours tweaking, learning and building their website. I often tell people that these websites work much like a real world magazine so think about it this way. You can easily slap a few pages of stuff together, call it a magazine and start selling. With some luck, you may even make a few bucks. If however, you want to truly make a comfortable living with your magazine, you better spend time learning how distribution, publishing, and content creation works. This is because even if you don’t do anything yourself, knowing what is involved helps you avoid overpaying your contractors.

Online Stores

Now let’s talk about a more interesting idea. Have you always wanted to sell something but have no intention of renting retail space, modeling your store and then dealing with all the foot traffic, not to mention the dusting and cleanup? If so, consider an online store. The great thing about the online version is that you can spend as much money (or as little as you want), and everything about it can change on a dime (design, payment flow, expansion, contraction among others).

Warning though. You still have to deal with customer support, inventory of your products etc. You also need to always remember that this is a business you are building, so don’t take this lightly just because it’s done online and you never see a physical location.

Online Store Front Redirecting Traffic

Third up on the list is a less popular idea that I’ve seen cleverly implemented. Why worry about payment, customer service, category and inventory when someone else will take care of it for you? With the complexity of software these days, merchants are able to track and distribute commissions to anyone who can send them targeted traffic that ends up buying their products. Some clever entrepreneurs decided that they will just setup an online store front that looks exactly like an online store and redirect everything to a particular merchant. No customer service questions ever again.

Of course, this is an overly simplified version of what goes on, but you get the idea. These people spend a lot of time marketing their online facades. After all, what keeps them separated from the actual store is clever marketing and value add along the sales funnel.

Sell an eBook, or Actually, Anything

You see a ton of these self-made products being sold online these days, and even see a few products promising to teach you how to sell these products. Through the online medium, ANYONE can start selling anything. Be it an ebook, a published book, consulting services or even t-shirts, many people are making money because they are able to reach virtually anyone in the world.

There’s only one important point to remember, and it’s crucial to your success. Forget your product. Yup, I said it. Sure, you absolutely need a good product to be successful long term, but the key to your success is the marketing behind it. Sales won’t happen even if you are giving away a car for everyone that reads your $5 ebook unless people know about it.

Spend at least as much time marketing the product than creating it.

Charge a Subscription Service

Better yet, charge a subscription for your online service. And if you don’t think you can do it, here are three examples of what I have seen that should suggest to you that anyone can do this.

The Tax Expert – I love this one, because it’s so simple. Daily videos answering reader questions every single day. Ideas are coming from the customers, and people stay subscribed because they want to learn more about taxes. The videos are 5-10 minutes, and she only charges $10 a month.
Paid Newsletters – Remember the website content idea we spoke about? Many people charge for it, billed monthly. I’ve seen a ton on investing, but others for restaurant owners and garden lovers as well. The starting cost is practically nil, and people will eventually know about it if it’s worth subscribing, so give this one a thought!
Classes – If you are good at explaining a concept people want to learn about, you can probably start an online class and charge for it. Sure, there are the usuals like math tutors and maybe even digital camera classes. But how about magic tricks?

It Shouldn’t Stop Here

Even if you are successful with any one of these, the worst thing you can do is stop there. Most people never do this, but no one is stopping you from combining any (or all) of the above into a huge online empire. Just like you wouldn’t say no to selling soft drinks if you are a fast food company, you should never say no to selling your own products in an online store.

And if you are smart like McDonalds, you can even start selling coffee too. Now, who would’ve thought of that?

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Related Articles at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning:

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Ricky Hollywood

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/

Do you know who Ricky Hollywood is? That is the name Levi Johnston uses when he poses nude. That Levi Johnston has ridden on his 15 minutes of fame long enough. He got Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, pregnant when they were both teens. They were going to get married but apparently Bristol saw what a "gem" this guy was and broke it off.

They do have a baby that they are sharing custody of. Bristol seems to have her act together. She is going to college, keeping a low profile and trying to raise her baby in as normal a situation as possible.

That Ricky Hollywood, uh Levi Johnston, though. He is posing nude or mostly nude for Playgirl. He is making sure he is interviewed by all those tabloid shows like Entertainment Tonight and others. He is getting his face all over the news.

The stars are telling him he can be a model. So he's taking his clothes off. What a shame. The young man is doing nothing with his life but making a lot of noise right now. What he should be doing is getting an education and a way to support his son, rather than burning through his fame and ending up alone and broke.

We'll see. Maybe he'll prove me wrong. Maybe he'll become a famous porn star and make a ton of money. That's a great way to provide for his son. Especially if his son ends up living in the White House with his mother and grandmother.

I think it will be interesting to see if they do end up in the White House if he puts the clothes back on, as a matter of fact, the suit that he wore so eloquently when Sarah Palin was running for VP before.

Four Things To Avoid Saying to Your Insurance Agent

In many ways, insurance is a lot like a game. The goal? Trying to get a payment for a claim since you have been paying insurance for that very purpose: Protection against large expenses due to unforeseen events. However, opposing you is the insurance company, which will be on the look out for red flags and indications that fraud may be at work. What you say to your insurance agent can mean a delayed claim — or even one that ends up denied. If you want to come out on top and be the winner, here are four things to avoid saying to your insurance agent:

1. “Flooded”

It is important to realize that most standard homeowner’s policies do not cover floods. You have to purchase separate coverage to protect against flood damage to your home. So, using “flooded” as a description of what your bathroom looks like, thanks to a burst pipe immediately gets your claim flagged. As far as the insurance company is concerned, a flood is something that happens when weather is involved or the nearby pond overflows. And that is not covered by your homeowner’s policy. So before you frantically call and mention that you’ve got a “flooded” room, consider your word choice. If you have a burst pipe or some other water-related problem that is covered by your homeowners insurance, mention that. “My water main burst” is all the description you need.

2. “Whiplash”

One of the biggest red flags when it comes to auto insurance is the word “whiplash.” Fraudulent claims related to this neck condition are quite numerous and costly for insurers. If you say you have whiplash, then it is possible that your claim will be flagged. While it may not necessarily be denied, it could be delayed for a rather inconvenient amount of time. Realize that whiplash is, in fact, a specific medical term for a particular condition. Unless your doctor has actually diagnosed you with whiplash, describe your condition as “neck pain.”

3. “Send a check”

The theory behind an insurance company paying a claim is that you will use the money to fix a problem. With health insurance, it is pretty straightforward: For the most part, the insurer is billed by the health care provider and pays the bill directly. However, for homeowner’s insurance, and some auto insurance, you might get a check that’s meant to defray the cost of repairs. Note though, that you don’t want to actually say the words “send a check” to your insurance agent. That could be an indication that you are not interested in getting your car’s dent repaired or your leaky roof fixed. Insurance companies don’t always check up on you, but if you seem fixated on getting a check, your claim may be red-flagged for further investigation, delaying the needed funds.

4. “Experimental”

Understand that most health insurance policies do not cover true experimental procedures. If you tell your insurance agent that a treatment is investigative in nature, you may be denied coverage. It is also important to realize that when a health care provider says that s/he will experiment with a treatment, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the treatment itself is experimental in nature. Find out from your doctor whether or not the treatment has been shown to be reasonably effective, and whether the doctor sees it as medically necessary. Get the word from your doctor before classing something as “experimental.”

What This All Means

The words you use are really important, and what you say to your insurer, especially in an official statement, can come back to haunt you. When speaking with your agent about a claim, make sure that you stick to known facts. If you don’t know something, you need to say: “I don’t know.” Don’t guess. And don’t lie. Try to avoid speculating on causes of the problem. Your insurance agent doesn’t need a detailed history of why you think that pipe burst. Just say that it did, and point to your documentation of the damage, or refer the agent to the documentation from the claim representative. You should also ask for a copy of the statement your agent takes, or a transcript of any recording. This way, you can go through and check for inaccuracies or other problems.

It’s ultimately up to you to make sure that your insurance claim starts off on the right track. Knowing what will red flag your claim can help you avoid potential pitfalls.

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Related Articles at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning:

In Reversal, U.S. Urges Mammograms at 50, Not 40

The new recommendations, released Monday by an influential group, reverse longstanding guidelines and are aimed at reducing harm from overtreatment.

Monday, November 16, 2009

China Investigates Deaths After Swine Flu Shot

Two deaths in people receiving the H1N1 vaccine were reported in China, where an estimated 12 million have been inoculated so far.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Run Your Garage Sale like a Business

Photo: iChris

By last summer, our tiny house was bursting at the seams from a decade of bargain shopping, vacation souvenirs, outgrown clothes and upgraded gadgets and appliances. We had already suffered the separation anxiety of several runs to Goodwill when our neighbors invited us to join other families in a communal yard sale.

Based on past experience, I was loathe to the idea. I didn't think the earnings would be worth the hassle, but we had too many valuable items to simple give them away to charity and too many items for the hassle of auctioning them off one at a time on eBay.

By the time it was over, we had a fanny pack full of cash, really nice suntans, a lot more room in the house, and a list of tips for what to do and what not to do. And clearly, we're not the only ones: Craigslist ads are up by more than half and garage sale permits have more than doubled according to some sources.

There's a lot of conflicting advice out there from professionals, so we'll tell you what they say, but also what worked for us.

Cathy Pedigo, author of the book, "How to Have Big Money Garage Sales!" claims you can more than triple your profits if you follow her advice, which she tests personally. One weekend she'll host a garage sale using other people's tips and tricks; the next weekend, she sets it up her way, based on 25 years of personal experience. The results:

Their way: less than $200

Her way: more than $1,000

Maybe you've never worked at the mall, but you've been there, no? The main thing to remember for a successful yard or garage sale is to use your shopper's instincts, Pedigo says.

Whether your intention is to make money (why not?) or just to get rid of stuff, experts, confirmed by personal experience, will tell you to treat your sale like a business in terms of merchandising, marketing and pricing. In our case, even though our primary motivation was a massive reduction in clutter, we still earned more than enough to compensate for the hours we put in.

Merchandising

Allow plenty of time for preparation. We started weeks ahead of our sale, cleaning out cupboards, dressers and storage spaces to identify everything we wanted to sell before cleaning and sorting it. But come our first Saturday, there were still cartons' worth of stuff we forgot to put out. As a result, we repeated our sale the following weekend based on lessons learned.

Next, we underestimated the amount of time it would take to carry everything out to the driveway and arrange it before the horde of early shoppers (often professional) who inevitably ignore your start time. Swap meet dealers will paw through boxes before you've even put them down and offer insultingly low prices. But they don't care if things work, buy books by the box and snap up antiques without scrutiny. They will drop cash and be gone before you know it.

So we improved our system by loading everything into tables inside the garage so they could be hauled out in place first thing in the morning—and starting work before dawn.

All the experts agree that organization is important. Sort by "department" too because each shopper has things they are looking for. Place items back into their original boxes or keep original tags for that "like new" look. An extension cord lets people test appliances and electronics. Hoard plastic shopping bags.

Tables are important because shoppers shouldn't have to do too much bending and squinting. We placed lower quality or lower price items beneath tables in boxes. All clothes were hung on hangers across the bottom rail of the raised garage door (with tarps hung to block access to the rest of the garage). Flashier items went out by the street to catch the eyes of passing motorists.

Use a front-facing fanny pack as a cash register and make sure you have enough singles and change before you start.

Finally, like a store, manage your risk. Check local laws to see if you need a permit. Have liability coverage in your insurance and check for sprinkler holes and other hazards in your sale area. Don't sell anything that has been officially recalled—such as kid's toys. Never put something truly valuable out on a table if it could be easily shoplifted. Jewelry or watches don't take up a lot of room, so they can be grouped on the table in front of your "cashier." Keep valuable items in front of you, or put out their empty boxes until someone asks to see them. Keep your house doors and gates locked. Next Page.