I know that a lot of you have been missing my photos and I do see opportunites to take a few every time I leave my house. (Well, duh! It’s Hawaii. Of course I do!) I just have a hard time with posting bad pictures, so I’ve passed up most of the chances that have come my way.The pictures I’ve used in my blog lately have been out of focus & more than a little embarrassing. That’s because I’m still using the cheesy little camera that I’m “holding” for the homeowners association. I finally started shopping for a camera yesterday. I was doing some household shopping at a warehouse memebership store and decided to take a look at what they had. I’m no camera expert, but I know a little about what I want. I see surfers and whales almost every time I drive the coast highway this time of year. The few photos I’ve taken have shown little dark specks lost on the blue ocean. I’ve never gotten a good shot of the mountains either. I’m pretty sure I could do a better job with a something somewhat higher than the 4X zoom I have available right now (which is still higher than the 2X I had on the camera that died on me.) I found several in my price range yesterday that had either a 10X or 12X. There were little data cards stuck behind plastic on the display counter. The cards didn’t give me the kind of info I needed, so I tried to find someone to open the case and pull out some user’s guides for me. Good luck if you find yourself needing help in that type of store. I wasted about twenty minutes and came home to do my comparison shopping online.
I think I’ve found the camera I want. If you’re pretty savvy about these things and want to help me out, leave me a comment with your advice What I primarily want to know is how “user-friendly” it is, since I’m very much the techno-phobe. It’s easier for me to shop online because I can compare specs side by side, but since I don’t know what half of them mean I’m still a little lost. The camera that I’ve got my eye on is an upgrade on one that I had handled at the store yesterday. It’s a Kodak Z710 Easyshare 7MP with 10X optical zoom. I found an Overstock.com deal on it that will save me thirty bucks, so I can get it a little cheaper there than at the local place. I think it has the features that I want and need, but am more than willing to look at other models if the advice comes flowing in and other options seem better suited for my limited abilities. There are scads of online coupon codes available to me, so I can afford to shop around at different merchants and look at other brand names.
I know that several of you that read me regularly are pretty knowledgeable about cameras, so if you’re willing to help me out here, give me a shout. I’m not in a huge hurry, but I’d like to be able to take some pictures when my son comes, which I think will be late March. I’m looking to save money, so I’m especially interested in the discounts that are available at CouponChief.com and, besides, they were nice enough to sponsor this post and I’d like to give them some love back.
The last two times I’ve renewed my cell phone plan, I’ve looked at my carrier’s “free phone with service plan†deals. You’ve probably been there and know how it works. If you sign a one-year plan, you’re shown a phone that will be included free. If you chose a two-year plan, the free phone is a little better quality and has a few more features. If you opt for a more features and a longer contract, you’ll get a better phone. Now, I don’t know what your experience is with your carrier, but mine has been pretty dismal. The free phones that are offered as enticement are junk. They’re cheap phones and don’t have the features I want. I’ve always ended up either keeping the phone I already had or buying a new one that suits my need, with a small discount thrown in because I’m signing a new plan with the same carrier.
You don’t have to buy your cell phone directly from your carrier. They may be reluctant to tell you that, but it’s a fact. You can buy your phone anywhere you choose. That being the case, it makes sense to shop around. When you do, I know one thing that you will find: Wirefly is the number one seller of cell phones and wireless plans. Since I drive an American car, you know that I know that popularity is not the best reason to select one particular product or service over another. It is, however, the best reason to check out what’s being offered. If a company is that much more successful than its competitors, I want to know why. I do my research, and I’ve usually found that the most popular products and services have earned their titles. That kind of status is gained by offering the people what they want at a fair or lower-than usual price. So let’s take a look at Wirefly and see why they’re doing so well:
1. Wirefly has numerous calling plans for all of the most-used carriers. Whether you’re looking for a personal, family or business plan, Wirefly can meet your need with multiple plans from Alltel, Cingular Wireless, Nextel, Sprint or Verizon Wireless.
2. Wirefly carries all of the most sought after phones with all of the best features. Today they are offering sixteen different Blackberry cell phones.Sixteen! Has your carrier got that in its store-front service center? I think not!
3. Wirefly offers hot deals on cell phones from your favorite providers. Want a free Motorola RAZR V3 Blue camera phone with Bluetooth headset? How about a $50.00 rebate with your free Blackberry Pearl with myFaves and a T-Mobile plan? Those are just the tip of the iceberg. You’ll find special offers on every page at Wirefly.
All Wirefly purchases come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee and free FedEx shipping (and free return shipping if you ever need it.) It pays to do your homework and shop around before making your cell phone selection. Check out the other guys. Then check out Wirefly. They sponsored this post so I could tell you why they’re worth a look/see.
I still haven’t replaced my cell phone. I’ve been shopping around, but there are so many options it makes my head spin. I still have a few months on my contract, so at least I have the luxury of finding the right phone before my deadline.
The first thing I noticed about the Motorola Z3 is that it’s pretty. I didn’t realize phones could be fashion items when I was buying my current cell phone, but I see now that they can. That being said, I need more than good looks, so I’ve checked out some of the features of the MtorolaZ3. It comes with all of the usual functions, of course. I really like the slide open feature, allowing for more compactness than my old flip style. The Z3 is Bluetooth compatible, and an optional memory card allows you to carry music, photos and videos wherever you go. There’s a side camera key, too, of course. Looks like this one definitely belongs on my short list of phones to consider.
Another “pretty” phone is the MOTOKRZR1. It has a 2 mega-pixel camera and is also Bluetooth combatible, but mostley, well … take a look for yourself. Did you ever think you’d see a sexy cell pnone? Sure it’s a flip-phone, but so much more slender than my current old clunker that I know it won’t bulge and be uncomfortable in my pocket while I’m working.
I’ve bookmarked the site so I can I look at both of these again. Thanks to http://www.motorola-mobiles.co.uk/ for sponsoring this post so I could go phone-shopping!
Winter is whale-watching time in Hawaii. I access my home via a coastal highway and it’s not unusual for me to see whales spouting and cavorting off the coast as I come and go. I keep a pair of binoculars in my car so I can pull over and watch the show anytime. Most folks who live here do, I think. The minute someone with binoculars is spotted looking out to sea, other cars start pulling over and the original whale-spotter is soon joined by others who share their fascination for the behemoths. Ah, so lucky we live Hawaii.
If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that my camera recently died. There should be a law against living in Hawaii and not having a camera. Sure, I still need to replace my digital camera for some of the photos I want to take, but for whale watching and other situations where I can’t get close to my subject, I really want Digital Binoculars to plan and shoot my pictures.
Eagle Optics carries a wide array of binocular products and accessories that will allow me to share my whale-watching adventures with you, and that’s what it’s all about! They also carry a full range of other optical equipment and accessories. If you’re shopping for spotting scopes, digital cameras, telescopes or rangefinders, check out their inventory. Financing is free for ninety days and shipping is free on orders over $200.00. They sponsored this post and hope that you’ll visit their site soon! Make sure you check out their hot deals while you’re there!
We were all reminded around Christmas-time just how tedious it can be to comparison shop. Almost all of us bought things we weren’t familiar with for someone on our list. There are so many vairables for each type of product that you can spend hours or even days trying to narrow your choices down. You can’t just buy “a DVD player” or “gameplayer.” Whether you’re shopping for yourself or someone else, you have specifics in mind. It’s so much worse when your product search is for something that you don’t know much about. I’m quite ill-informed about sporting goods and computer equipment, but my son is into those things, so I need help when I shop for him.
Meta-Review.com not only provides specifications, they provide thousand of product reviews in a wide array of product catagories. Anyone who has read my blog lately knows that my digital camera has died, so I’ll use that as an example. MetaReview currently has 597 pages of camera and camera accessory reviews. That’s pretty overwhelming, so I need to narrow it down. Piece of cake. I can select a range of megapixels that I think will meet my needs, then add other features like optical zoom capability. There are about ten cameras that have everything that I want. With just a few clicks I’ve narrowed my search to the products that really interest me. All products receive a Meta-Rating and consumer reviews. That’s what interests me the most. I want products that others have tried and given great ratings to. I can take my time evaluating those few reviews and choose the digital camera that’s just right for me.
Product catagories include PC Hardware, Sporting Goods, and Outdoor Living. Elctronics, DVDs and Video Games are among the most popular reviews. I’ve bookmarked MetaReviews for my camera shopping, and I know I’ll be back there frequently for other products. They’ve sponsored this post and I hope you’ll give them a try next time you want consumer reviews of the products your looking for.
PayPerPost is at it again with their whacky videos. This time we get to view the insane antics they cooked up for postie Genki Girl on a cold Chicago day. She had to accost a stranger for his autograph, find someone wearing shorts on that cold, cold day, attempt to make a snow angel on iced-over snow that wouldn’t budge, and write “I LOVE PPP†on her forehead. It’s fun to watch, and suspenseful as we watch the minutes ticking down. This post was brought to you by HP, who supplied the prizes for the bizarre scavenger hunt. Did Genki Girl win a whole boatload of prizes, including an HP digital camera and Digital Photo Printing equipment and a bundle of cash? You’ll have to watch to find out!
Now wasn’t that fun? Don’t you think HP and PayPerPost should come to Hawaii to thaw out for their next Postie Patrol? Shouldn’t I have the next shot at winning a boatload of HP gear and cash? Yeah, I think so, too!
The first HP 6 mega-pixel digital camera and printer have been given away. The lucky winner is Anna-Marie, whose surreal fantasy charmed the payperpost and HP judges. Now, I’ll have to agree with them that her contest post is classy. The girl knows how to use a camera. She’s pretty persuasive, too, what with her hard-luck stories about carpal tunnel syndrome and being robbed. But, well, would you just look at her? If you were one of the judges, would you have voted for her? Of course you would. You wouldn’t even have needed to read a word she wrote! I’m quite certain that the judges were drooling the entire time that they were reading her post (if they were able to tear their eyes away from the photos long enough to actually read it.) She’s probably the reason that the contest was delayed; they wanted an excuse to review the entries again and again just so that they could gaze upon her loveliness . Even women are beguiled by her. Tune in to the PayPerPost YouTube Channel and behold the groveling PPP staffer kissing Anna-Marie’s camera so that the imprint of her lips can someday caress Anna-Marie’s hand:
Now I ask you, is this contest fair? What do you think my chances are of winning one of the nine remaining HP 6 mega-pixel camera and printer sets? How can an over-the-hill, grandmotherly type compete with that? Nothing I can say or do is going to make an impression on judges so focused on youth and beauty. The only way they will ever be able to convince the world of their impartiality is to do an abrupt about face. I happen to love PayPerPost and care deeply about their reputation. I’m sitting in my office next to my HP Officejet 7410 All-In-One while using my Compaq (HP) computer to compose this PPP post. I just finished downloading photos from my HP320 digital camera(which, sadly, only has 2.1 mega-pixels,) so it should be clear to everyone that I also love HP. My loving devotion and customer loyalty are surely worth rewarding. PayPerPost was kind enough to sponsor this post, but I don’t think that’s adequate recompense. I think HP, PayPerPost and I can come to a mutually beneficial agreement here that will salvage their reputations and put a nice new camera and printer in my possession, don’t you? Yes, I’m volunteering to be their token old broad. Selecting me will remove the taint of their past prejudicial practices and allow their reputation to shine once more.
My camera is an HP320. I like it. It was given to me by dear friends two years ago for Christmas. Two years is a long time for electronic equipment to stay in service in today’s fast-changing technological world, but still, it takes nice pictures and it’s easy to use. It has 2.1 mega-pixels. Now, I should tell you right here that I’m not sure what mega-pixels are. I know they have something to do with photo quality, and I know that Ted has more of them than I do. Who is Ted? He’s the PayPerPost guru who wants to give away some HP 6 mega-pixel digital cameras and photo printers. This post is sponsored by HP, who wants Ted to give me a camera and photo printer. Ted has more of almost everything than I do. Since Ted is in a sharing mood, I think he should give me a 6 mega-pixel camera. I live in Hawaii. I take scenic digital photos and share them with the folks who read my blog. My blog works for him when I do PPP posts. It makes sense that Ted should want me to take the best pictures possible. So Ted? Could I please have one? The entire blogsphere will thank you for the quality photos I feed into its stream, and so will I. I’ll even give my old HP320, which is a perfectly good camera, to the nearest women’s shelter if you give me a new one. Deal?
Karaoke is hugely popular in Hawaii. The karaoke bars are always rocking with crowds, usually groups of friends cheering each other on. Malls and local TV stations have karaoke contests and, of course, fans have parties at home and have their own karaoke machines so they can practice whenever they want. My next door neighbor’s grandson drove me crazy a while back when he set up his machine on their carport and belted out endless repetitions of The Impossible Dream. He wasn’t very good, but he was having so much fun I don’t think anyone minded much. You can liven up your own parties or surprise your favorite fan with their own machine after you do your research at Home Karaoke Machine Guide, which sponsors this post and provides you with all the info you’ll need to make a smart buying decision.
Earplugs for your neighbors are available at the corner drug store.
I’ve been doing termite inspections for almost twenty-seven years. I’m very good at what I do. One thing that I learned early on is that good tools make good work. As an amateur gardener, it doesn’t matter that I use inexpensive tools from the discount store. As a professional providing a service, I look for the very best tools available to assist me in my work. The picture above is my proof. It’s over a decade old. The Streamlight Rechargable Flashlight is clearly visible on my hip. I still rely on Streamlight after all these years, because their flashlights have proven themselves reliable, sturdy and very long-lasting.
While you’re checking out the flashlights, take a look around at some of the other optical instruments at OpticsPlanet.com (they’re the nice folks who are sponsoring this post.) If you still have last-minute Christmas shopping to do and you’re looking for bargains, you can certainly find them there. I spend a lot of money on my work tools, but want a discount price for my nephew’s first telescope. The hunters in your life would love to find leupold rifle scopes under the Christmas tree this year. Paintballers and others who play in the dark might appreciate an improvement in their night vision. You still have time to order, and will get free UPS shipping on orders over $29.95. Prowl around the site while your there. There are thousands of optical products and accessories and the discounted prices are very appealing.
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