Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

It is probably overstating that I am in love but this is onesweet projector. I pulled it out of thebox, read the quick start guide and in a matter of minutes had my laptop screenup to big screen size! Not only thatbut within that initial 15 minutes I had YouTube videos running on my wall, ina very well light (sunlight bright) room. Within the first 30 minutes I was running Ice Age and feeling prettydarn chipper about the ease of use of this very portable projector. I’m retired so I don’t need this for business. I will use it for presentations now andagain but I am more excited about using it as a big screen TV on the occasionalshore trip where there are just little tube type TVs. I’m also looking forward to running anoutside film fest for the grandkids on the side of the house. The sound is adequate on the projector but you probably willwant to put something beefier on the source to give you better sound. The on screen menu and source selection wasself evident an...

I’m an ex-computer geek, I can’t help myself but mygrandson’s computer crapped out recently and he was devastated. As much as I preach backup he had nobackup. Then I got an email from a fellow blogger who said she hadlost over 30 unpublished posts when her hard drive died. So in spite of obvious redundancies I am going to repeatmyself. I I hate losing stuff. I use a bunch of different ways to back up but here are a couple ofideas besides having multiple computers and hard drives. 2nd copy at http://www.centered.com/ is a inexpensive backup type software thatyou can tell to just copy stuff on a schedule. Like every night. It is easy touse and inexpensive. Thumb drives are now down to about a $1.00 a gb and a 8gbthumb drive will save a lot of posts. (Amazon had a 16gb flash drive for $17.72 and free supersaver shipping.) Online or cloud storage is available for free. 50gb at http://www.adrive.com/ This is also good for archiving things youdon’t want to lose. DropBox is anoth...

May all your wishes come true this holiday season! Merry Christmas!

This precisely sized case protects your point and shoot camera inside and out with a ribbed exterior and scratch-resistant interior. Features: Fits most popular point and shoot cameras / Durable molded EVA exterior protects your camera / Compact design allows this case to fit easily into any bag / Soft, nylex-lined interior protects LCD screen from scratches / Internal mesh pocket for an SD card or cable / Two zipper pulls and elastic side gussets eliminate fumbling when accessing the camera / Removable lanyard included for an additional carry option External Dimensions: 3.4 x 1.3 x 5" / Internal Dimensions: 2.3 x .9 x 3.8" This is a sweet little camera case. It has a pocket for the camera and a second pocket that can hold the USB cable or a spare set batteries or SD card. I like the semi-hard shell as well. It seems like it should provide excellent protection for the camera. I was provided this case at no charge for review purposes. Please know that if it was cr...

Planning ahead for the end of year parties is the key to saving money. Marquee hire and event hire companies are going to be busy. If you don’t have patios, pergolas or carports to use as your staging ground, you had better get on with booking now! Here are some more tips to saving money and party like a Rock star this year If you live in the Southern Hemisphere or near the equator, now is the time to start partying! The warmer months are now. Here in Colombia, there is an excuse for a ‘fiesta’ everywhere. Australian’s love to drink beer, and party the day and night away this time of the year. If you are lucky enough to have access to patios or pergolas for a backyard party, now is your time to get cracking. If you are stuck in the Northern Hemisphere, you should still make plans for house parties. It is the silly season after all. · What you need out the back. Out-door structures, carports and any other part of your home with some cover, make the best place to set up yo...

In an effort to maintain some semblance of health once it is too cold to swim, I ride an exercise bike. My old upright bike was beating up my knees. I got this bike after discussing my concerns with two of my bridge playing doc friends. The bike needs assembly when it arrives. That was not arduous but it was not a 5 minute job either. The instructions were clear and amazingly enough all the parts were there. The bike adjusts easily after assembly.  The computer on mine was not working correctly and I called customer service at Marcy. Imagine my surprise when I got a delightful young woman who seemed genuinely glad to get my call and to provide me with superior customer service. She was eager to help and promised a new computer would be on the way that day. I told her that I was truly impressed with how easy it was to rectify my problem and how happy I was with my service. I got the new computer in less than a week from the west coast and over a holiday...

Saving money is one thing, making it is the other side of the same coin. Here is my top tip for making a little money from home, and maybe saving some too. It is something I have tried myself, as a young mum struggling to make ends meet, and found it worked. My friends have made money this way too, so pass the advice on to any hard up young graduates you know. It is surprising how few of them realize what an asset they have on their bookshelves. They might not make a million, but it may just keep the wolf from the door, and at the same time be helping out other students who may be struggling financially too. It may seem obvious advice, but it is surprising how few people take advantage of the superb system Amazon have for selling second-hand books. It really is simplicity itself, and there is none of the time-consuming photographing, description and uploading work to be done, as on ebay. I found that the books that could be sold for the most were academic textbooks. Since I had finis...

Win-Win Christmas Gift Whit Gentry wrote an excellent psycho thriller. I reviewed it on Pick of the Literate . This fall Whit’s grandson died suddenly. As a grandparent I can not imagine the pain that ensued from that sad event. Whit has put his book on Smashwords.com which is a website that presents Ebook formats that can be downloaded to all ebook readers, PCs, laptops, and Ipads. Smashwords is a user friendly web-site, they will not be contacting you to buy items. He put the price of his book in ebook format at $0.99 (less than a dollar). Whatever sales yield between now and Christmas will be donated to St Jude in the name of his grandson Cager Neal Gentry. He will post the money order that he will send to St Jude's for all to see what was achieved. If you're interested, this will take you to the purchase page -- www.smashwords.com/books/view/109205 I am posting this wherever I can to promote both Whit’s excellent book but also to help hono...

Just a heads up for you XBox fans, New Egg has it for $49.99 including shipping. They are the least expensive I have found anywhere that is known to be legitimate. There are some sites that have it for less but they got slammed on reviews. Best Buy was advertising it but only as a loss leader to get you into the stores, they would not ship it. Some how it escapes them that many of us won't be caught dead fighting the holiday crowds. If I can't buy it locally, I'm certainly not getting into my car to drive to some big entity that has no interest in customer service. I was not impressed with Cyber Monday. I noticed that several things I had looked at the previous week were actually more expensive on Cyber Monday. Ahhh the adage buyer beware holds true now and forever!

I got an email from a custom T-shirt company recently. Company name is ooshirts. I had never heard of them and was truly surprised they heard of me. They asked if I would be willing to review their T-shirts. I told them that was pretty tough considering I had never seen one of their shirts. They then asked if they sent me a couple of shirts would I review them. I cautioned them that “I calls them as I sees them”. I was assured that they wanted an honest and objective review. I agreed to do it. I went to their site and designed a shirt. I got the shirt promptly and was quite pleased with the quality. I washed one a couple of times to see how the design would hold up after repeated washings. The design was crisp and bright after washing. The 2xx was a real double x, both longer and taller. I get grumpy when clothiers dictate that 2xx is just wider not taller. Frankly I am way taller than I am wide. The quality was good, the service was goo...