Someone Else’s Kids

Can you believe an LG cell phone went through the wash, (literally)?

There is so much negativity surrounding cell phones that I thought it would be nice to start this blog category off with some positive news and praise for a particular model. (Don’t worry; we can all rant and rave about various cellular frustrations in future posts!)

At the time it happened, in my household, we had two LG cell phones for a little over a year. One day, one of them went through the wash! (To protect the guilty and innocent alike, the perpetrator of this deed will not be revealed. However, I will say, it wasn’t I.) When I say, “went through the wash,” I don’t mean got dropped into the basin and noticed before the water was turned on. Oh, no, I mean it was left in the jeans pocket and went through the entire wash cycle in which it was completely submerged for fifteen minutes in water and detergent, then spun around, rinsed, and spun some more.

Only pure luck kept it from being put in the dryer. There were too many clothes to fit well in the dryer so half the load was put on top of the dryer while the rest were drying in it. The cell phone was found in the pocket at that point in the next-to-be-dried pile.

The next dreaded step was attempting to make a call. Amazingly, the phone still worked! The ringer didn’t sound quite right and the screen was blurry, but the call went through. We removed the battery and found only a drop or two of water inside and let it dry out for a day. The sound and screen are back to normal. It’s now as good as new.

Who knew that it could stand up to such harsh conditions? I feel like I should add a disclaimer: Don’t try this at home.

What’s your amazing story of cell phone survival? Please include the model type so other readers can research it further if they like.

Readers, I am introducing another new category to the Someone Elses’s Kids Blog today. It is going to be devoted to discussion of cell phones. (Don’t worry, parents, I haven’t forgotten about you. There will be entries specifically dealing with issues about kids and cell phones.)

Cellular phones are such a good topic to discuss. Besides computers, I can’t think of another item that has so invaded our lives and become ubiquitous over the past ten to fifteen years.

In fact, let’s go back fifteen years to 1993. Most people did not even have cell phones. Wealthy people had what they called “car phones” or “mobile phones.” (In the UK, that or simply “mobile” are the preferred terms to this day.)

The car phones were just like house phones. There was a base unit with a handset and a cord. The only people I knew who had them owned a high end Cadillac and a Mercedes.

Then in the mid-90’s, the next innovation was the bag phone. Again, there was a base unit with an antenna and a corded handset, but the difference is that it didn’t have to be tied to the car (literally). The unit was in a shoulder bag and you could take it around with you. That was the first kind of cell phone I bought.

I really only got it for emergencies because it was kind of ridiculous to lug that phone around everywhere. Also, in addition to the monthly fee, it cost .23 a minute to use. You can imagine it was not for idle chatter.

In the late 90’s, I moved on to the original Motorola Flip Phone. I think it was model 550 or DC550 or something like that. It was the first realistically portable cell I had phone since it didn’t require its own mini backpack or shoulder bag. Still, in comparison to today’s phones, the battery on that Motorola Flip was at least three times the size and weight what the entire phone would be now.

I liked that original flip phone so much that I kept it well past its prime. My friends made fun of it every time they saw it! Typical jibes were, “That thing belongs in a museum,” and “Were you raising dinosaurs as pets when you bought that thing.”

I didn’t replace it until 2004, long past when every one else had moved on to cell phones that could easily fit in the palm of your hand. (What made it even crazier that part of my job at the time was overseeing the contracts and relationship between cell phone companies and a huge corporation. The contracts included about two thousand cell phone lines. I used to show the reps my old phone to prove that I wasn’t impressed with new technology just because it was new.)

I definitely made a good choice when I switched to the smaller phone in 2004. At that time I bought an LG model. Read the next entry in this category to find out what happened with that phone.

Have you seen the TV commercials or print ads for the Citizen watch brand with Eli Manning talking about his favorite style, the Eco-Drive Skyhawk AT?

I saw the commercial on the Citizen website and it brought up two funny memories. First, let me mention that they are calling their ad campaign Unstoppable Ambassadors because they are using well-known successful sports figures from different sports such as Eli Manning, Emeka Okafor, Paula Creamer, and others.

The tie-in with the “unstoppable” theme is that the watches use solar power, rather than batteries so you never have to worry that they will stop because of a dead battery.

The tag line in the commercials is “Unstoppable – just like the people who wear it.” That brought back the memory of those old Iron cologne brand commercials in the late 1980’s. Do you remember those? They always showed a guy’s bicep as he was lifting a weight. Their tag line was “Iron Cologne – never stronger than the man who wears it.” Of course, Eli Manning would have been a good spokesperson for that product too.

Anyway, the other memory that this commercial brought up was about a guy a worked with once. He came into work with a new watch one day that he was showing off to everybody. It was a large, masculine style watch and he kept describing it to everyone he saw all day long as a “honkin’ man watch!” I just thought the way he phrased that was so funny, especially since I never heard it before then or since.

If you are in the market for watches for men, then check out the Eco-Drive Skyhawk AT and you’ll see that it definitely qualifies as a “honkin man watch!” Really, would football player Eli Manning wear any other kind?

Companies can certainly think up more ways for people to waste their money! What amazes me is that so many people willingly hand it over to them.

What prompted me to write this entry was that I had come across a dustpan and brush set that retails for $18! That’s what this post is about – how crazy it is to pay that price for a dustpan and brush.

I originally had information on the particular set, but I decided not to include it this time for one simple reason. I see no sense in helping someone advertise that item for free. With all the profit the company m ust be making from that price point, they can afford their own advertising.

When you consider that fact that you can purchase a dustpan and vbrush set for a few dollars at your local supermarket and for a mere one dollar at a dollar store, it seems to me that it’s a little outrageous to spend the better part of a twenty dollar bil on such an item.

This is going to be my final domain name for sale list for a while. I can’t believe how much more work that project turned out to be than I expected. Of course, I should be used to it by now. Isn’t it always that way with anything having to do with computers? You assess how long the project should take and then it ends up taking three times longer after all the computer issues that arise like Internet connection problems, lost work because the computer freezes before you saved something, etc.

Casino In Nebraska
Casino In Nevada
Casino In New Hampshire
Casino In NewJersey
Casino In New Mexico

Casino In North Carolina
Casino In North Dakota
Casino In NY

Another thing that drives me crazy dealing with domains is that no matter how carefully you check for typing errors, it seems that you always find one after the fact when you are dealing with lists of them. I think it’s because of our brain’s tendency to auto-correct when reading. Normally, that is a good thing because we can focus on comprehension. When it comes to reading material online, that automatic correction probably keeps us sane considering the enormous amount of errors in online material.

Casino In Oregon
Casino In Rhode Island
Casino In South Carolina
Casino In South Dakota
Casino In Tennessee

Casino In Utah
Casino In Vermont
Casino In Washington
Casino In Wisconsin
Casino In Wyoming

Anyway, no matter how much you proofread, you find a mistake after the fact which is why it’s a good idea to have someone else proofread things for you, especially when it comes to purchasing domain names. Once you’ve made the mistake and it’s been more than five days since it was registered, you either keep the name with the typing error and just work with it the way it is or keep and ignore that one and then pay for one with the name spelled the way you intended to get it in the first place.

Indian Bingo Locations
Indian Bingo Site
Indian Gambling Locations
Indian Gambling Site
Indian Gaming Locations
Indian Gaming Site

I did learn something though from working with all these names on the list. I always assumed that the casino industry was pretty much the same from state to state as far as the way the casinos were set up, size of them, how licenses are granted, hours of operation, etc. It turns out that there are variations in all these different areas depending on the state. In fact, I never knew that there were a handful of states that don’t have casinos at all, while others have dozens or even hundreds. I guess it’s like everything else in America, it’s a billion dollar industry that goes on every day whether any particular person is aware of it or not.

For any parents looking for things to do in New Jersey with their children, I have a great idea for you. You can take them to a radio Disney concert. Some of the concerts are free so there is no strain on your budget and the kids will love seeing in person the stars they enjoy listening to on Radio Disney stations. (If you do need to travel, you can stay in Cape May hotels on your New Jersey vacation with the money you saved by not having to pay for the concert tickets.)

The Radio Disney concerts at Morey’s Piers are taking place throughout the month of July on specific dates. There will be two performances scheduled on what they are calling Magic Mondays - the 7th, 14th, and 21st). Showtimes are at 1 PM and 4 PM. There is no extra cost for attending the concerts. You’ll have to check the website for details as you may still need to pay for admission to the park or to go on the rides. Somehow, I doubt that would be a problem!

The finale concert of the season (Saturday July 26 at 2 PM at the Wildwoods Convention Center Oceanfront Arena) features one of Disney’s biggest stars, Raven Symone. That concert isn’t free, but getting tickets to it gives you discount on other park tickets for regular rides and water rides so it’s still a good deal.

Am I the only who has noticed the incredible shrinking ice cream containers over the past few years?

In my previous entry, I write about the way dollar stores are preserving their profit margins without raising prices – by selling items that are smaller or with less volume.

This phenomenon is not restricted to dollar stores. You can find it happening at your local traditional supermarket too.

I first noticed the problem with ice cream cartons a few years back when the country had some uproar with milk prices shooting through the roof all of a sudden. Since milk is a major component of ice cream, ice cream prices were affected too.

Some clever ice cream manufacturers decided they could fool consumers by holding retail prices and making the ice cream containers smaller! Ice cream was always sold as a half-gallon. In fact, chains like Friendly’s and Newport Creamery used to call their frequent buyer reward programs some variation of “half-gallon clubs.”

After this milk price crisis thing a few years ago, the size of the containers suddenly got smaller by one 1/8. They went from being a half gallon (which is equal to 2 quarts or 8 pints) down to 1.75 quarts or 7 pints.) That is a 12.5 % reduction in size.

Like every industry, it didn’t take long for all the producers to follow suit. Within a relatively small time frame, a century of tradition in the half-gallon ice cream carton was gone and suddenly 1.75 quarts was the standard.

Welcome to the world of paying the same (or worse, more) and getting less.

That might not seem like a big deal. In fact, it may even be a boon to your diet if you only buy a certain number of ice cream cartons (say one every two weeks) and you don’t increase the number of cartons to make up for the smaller size.

Where does it stop, though? I haven’t bought ice cream in several months and I decided to get some the other day. I picked up a carton in the freezer section and something just didn’t seem right about it. It took me a minute to figure it out. I just thought it seemed too small. At first, I thought it was my imagination, but it wasn’t. Guess, what, the ice cream industry is at it again!

The new ice cream container size is 1.5 quarts (6 pints). I started to check other brands. About half of them had switched to the new smaller size. Now, consumers are getting 25% less ice cream per carton than they were getting just a few years ago! What’s next?

I have still some domain names that fall under the same category as those I wrote about a couple of days ago, but I am still working on getting those online.

In the meantime, I have another category – restaurants. Everybody likes talking about food, right? It’s usually more fun when someone else cooks it for you so I thought it made sense to get some domain names that relate to the best restaurants in different cities.

Best Restaurants In Balitmore
Best Restaurants In Boston
Best Restaurants In Cincinatti
(The above name is a result of typing too fast when registering domains names!)

Best Restaurants In Cincinnati
Best Restaurants In Los Angeles
Best Restaurants In Miami
Best Restaurants In Minneapolis
Best Restaurants In NYC

Even though this list is a much more manageable size than the other one, I’m still breaking it up for ease of browsing.

Best Restaurants In Orlando
Best Restaurants In Philadelphia
Best Restaurants In Phoenix
Best Restaurants In Pittsburgh
Best Restaurants In San Diego
Best Restaurants In Tampa
Best Restaurants In Washington
Restaurant Secrets Revealed

Maybe you’ll find your city on the list and decide that you want to start your own local restaurant guide. You can eat your way through your research!

The rise of the dollar stores is a phenomenon that has been a long time in coming. Many years ago, stores known as 5 & 10’s were very common. The descriptions stood for five cents and ten cents! Can you imagine?

Thank goodness we now have the modern equivalent – the dollar store.

If you don’t have a dollar store near you, it’s worth it to take the drive to find one. The bargains are unbelievable. They have an array of merchandise from grocery to kitchen gadgets, from gift items to party supplies.

One thing I’ve noticed recently though is a bit concerning and something that consumers should be aware of when shopping dollar stores. Since the whole concept of the dollar store is based on the price of each item not exceeding that one dollar threshold, what can the stores do when inflation and higher cost of goods starts to eat into their profits? They can’t raise the prices! That would hey do, call them the “dollar-twenty-five stores?”

That wouldn’t be good PR for them, now would it? Don’t worry, they have found a solution! They simply make the items smaller or give you less volume of something.

I have a great example. I’ve bought the same disinfectant spray at a particular dollar store many times. After my most recent purchase, I noticed something different about it when I took the plastic cap off. The company had changed the shape of the top of the can. With the cap on, the old version and the new version looked identical, though. I put the new can side by side with the old one. They both were the same height.

Upon further investigation, I noticed that the new spray can had only 8 OZ of the disinfectant spray while the old can had 10 OZ! Now, for the same price, I was getting 20 percent less of the product!

Watch for that occurrence next time you are shopping.

Even with the possibility of shrinking product size, dollar stores are still filled with amazing bargains.

Parents are often concerned (and rightly so) when their teenagers and their teen’s friends get their driver’s licenses. Everybody knows and worries about the fact that the large majority of teenage accidents involve alcohol.

Here’s a thought for parents as the summer boating season gets into full swing. Have you ever considered the phenomenon of boating accidents and the role alcohol plays in them? Do your teens frequently go boating with their friends unsupervised by responsible adults? (Notice I said “responsible” adults.)

The Arizona Game & Fish Department has put together an unbelievable materials relating to boating education online. They are an excellent source of information and a great starting point for you to discuss this issue with your teenagers. They’ll like the site because it is filled with videos. You can start with this fact before you introduce them to the site. In the US, over thirty percent of boating accidents involve alcohol. In the state of Arizona, that percentage is fifty percent!

Here is a preview of the videos on the site. They are well-done and high quality.

You can find more videos here:
Boating Operating Under the Influence

It’s interesting that we wouldn’t imagine drivers being allowed on public roads if safety education wasn’t part of the driver’s education curriculum. When it comes to Arizona boating, there is no requirement for an operator to lern safety information as part of a boating education course.

If there were, perhaps more people would realize that drinking and driving on a watercraft is just as bad as drinking and driving in a car. It is illegal, too. Last year, Arizona authorities arrested 350 people on charges of operating a watercraft under the influence of alcohol.

Also, proper boating education has other benefits as well since participants learn many useful things including boating safety laws and rules of navigation, how to avoid and recognize carbon monoxide poisoning, and proper life jacket wear and usage.

Well, maybe you shouldn’t actually cut your own hair, but you and a friend or you and a family member can cut each other’s hair at home!

Today we are discussing home hair clippers, or home hair cut kits as they are also called. I bought a GE set, a few years ago which came with the clipper unit, several attachments for different lengths, and even an instructional video which explains tips and techniques to cut different styles of hair and different textures.

The kit cost 20 and saved me several hundred in haircut fees over the past few years. That one was but there are also cordless models that some people may like better.

After seven years, the unit finally died. I’m not sure what happened to it, but the blades stopped working and the motor just made a dull buzzing sound. There is repair center information in the instructional booklet, but I decided that mailing it to a repair center would not be worth the cost considering the postage charges and the initial price as well as the price of a replacement.

I ended up getting a new unit from Panasonic. This one is cordless. Rather than having several different attachments to adjust the hair length, there is one built in to the top of it that moves with a dial to get the desired hair length.

The lack of a cord getting in the way is a definite improvement. I like the idea of the cutting attachment being adjustable, but I’m not sold on the design because the hair builds up under it and it has to be taken off periodically. However, that also has its advantages because it makes much less of a mess than the old one made since the old one would all the hair fall all over te place, while this one traps ninety-five percent of it.

Considering all the money (as well as time and travel to a professional), this type of product and cutting hair at home earns the highest Worth It rating available.

It’s hot, it’s new, and it’s live. People are talking about it all over the blogosphere. It’s called SocialSpark.

I know, I wouldn’t have named it that either, but I also wouldn’t have called the parent company IZEA, but what do I know? I know enough to get them to pay me to write about their new site! (You also have to love a company that gives you the opportunity to write about and review them honestly.)

I think it’s interesting that they come up with concept that is a hybrid of a social network and a blog advertising platform. They really combined the two hottest trends to hit the Internet over the past few years.

From a blogger’s perspective, one creates a profile and then can either wait for companies and advertisers to find the blog and offer writing opportunities or sponsorships or the blogger can actively choose writing opportunities from a pool of available offers.

The profiles are a really neat idea. Here’s an interesting one called : Mom With Brownies. Now that lady understands marketing because that is an attention getting profile name. The picture accompanying her profile with a basket of assorted brownies speaks for itself!

If you have signed up for SocialSpark, I’d love to hear how you are doing with it.