As I said in an earlier post, we discovered a great Hot Dog Joint called the Lucky Dog while vacationing in Venice, Florida. The first day we ate there, it was just me and the girls-I couldn't drag my son away from the fishing pier even with the promise of lots of food. Since we enjoyed our meal so much, we went back a few days later with EVERYONE and met up with Marty Surak-Dawn's husband-shown here with Kim(?) the server who had to deal with me and my ravenous children.
My veggyhead daughter ordered up a plain Tofu Dog which she actually liked! After eating it she was lobbying for me to carry them at the Hot Dog Truck.
The cheeseburger princess struck again with another (equally delicious I am told) bacon cheeseburger.
Another daughter had a very happy cheeseburger.
I just had one relish dog and the baby had another plain dog. My son went for the Jumbo Cheese dog- a foot long drenched with gobs of cheese.
The Lucky Dog is a real slice of Americana with good hot dogs and cheeseburgers. The owners are real nice folks too. If you're ever in Venice, FLA make sure you stop at the Lucky Dog. You won't be sorry!
Lucky Dog 2
Oyster Season
I LOVE Oysters on the half shell. It is the time of year to go harvest oysters in my neck of the woods. Even though it is wicked cold, it is an activity I rarely miss. We can harvest oysters in the summer months in Massachusetts (a rule of thumb is you can only harvest them in months containing an "R"). We'll go out on a clear winter day and get a bucket of them-my dad always collects a bucket for Thanksgiving and Christmas- and then sit down and eat them.
Everyone dreams of finding a pearl in their oyster. I have only found one in my life and it was a misshaped blob-not jewelry material. The pearls you find on a necklace are from specially cultured oysters, not the run of the mill kind you find on the half shell or in Oysters Rockefeller. Imagine if you could culture oysters to have a cool sports car inside, the beds would be picked clean!
Most folks out on the oyster beds aren't in it for the pearls, they want to chow down on a delicious delicacy. You need to be careful though. Oysters can get you very sick if you get contaminated ones or if you are a person with liver disease, diabetes or any illness or medical condition that weakens the body’s immune system. Many commercially available oysters, such as
Gulf oysters (like the ones I had in Florida last week) are harvested and processed in a way that greatly reduces the risk of getting sick from eating raw oysters (FYI: I have NEVER gotten sick from eating oysters). They'll either freeze them, low heat pasteurize them or put in a high pressure chamber after cleaning to reduce bacterial content.
If you want to Be Oyster Aware, you'll make sure you are buying oysters that have been processed to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination. Most Gulf oysters are processed in such a fashion.
And, if you don't like oysters, HAVE A HOT DOG!
Lucky Dog
Well I'm back from Florida and I am happy to say I missed a major snowstorm! 6 days of 80 degree weather and hanging out on the beach was tough to take, especially knowing I was missing out on all that shoveling!
One thing I like to do when on vacation is partake in local hot dog joints. This trip featured the discovery of Lucky Dog, a small, lime green diner en route to our favorite beach spot in Venice, FLA. We went at about 1:30 PM and there was good foot traffic outside.
We elected to sit at the counter and chat up owners Dawn Surak (below)
and her brother Alan Laskowski (below).
This is them when they were kids.
The Lucky Dog Diner has been around since 1952 and the brother and sister team bought it last year. They spent 4-5 months fixing the place up and painting it the signature lime green. Brother Alan did most of the work under the supervision of Dawn, who, by mutual admission, is the "real boss" of the Lucky Dog. The place is a real, honest to God, Hot Dog Joint with a sense of Americana you just don't get in the modern fast food establishments that litter the landscape of Florida (and everywhere else for that matter).
I told them about the Hot Dog Truck and asked if I could snap some photos and put them up here on theHotDogTruck.com. They were delighted and happy to share their story. Our server, Heish (sorry if I misspelled it) was not too keen on having her photo taken, but she took care of my gang so well, I can't help but embarrassing her! 
While I perused the Hot Dog menu,
the kids ordered up milk shakes, cheeseburgers, grilled cheese and hot dogs. I got to chatting with the guy next to me and he let me take a picture of HIS lunch, a Coney Dog and a Cheese Dog. YUMMY LOOKING STUFF, eh?
My 11 year old daughter, who would rather eat a cheeseburger than just about anything else (she had at least one per day on our trip), said her Lucky Dog Bacon Cheeseburger was the best one of the trip!
The three year old got a plain dog while I opted for the Relish Dog which was topped with a "secret recipe" house relish that had a bit of a bite to it (it was very good) and a good old Slaw Dog.
Both were excellent! I was pretty hungry so I got my own Coney Dog for dessert!
YUMMY!
to be continued.....
Investing Online
The old saying "it takes money to make money" has a lot of truth to it. If you have money to invest, you can make money on the returns on your investment. Before the internet, it was a more arduous task to research investments. Now, everyone can Invest online in one form or another.
The difficulty for many people is they simply don't know how to Invest online properly. For these folks, an investment management firm may be the ticket. Such a firm manages your money for you for a fee based on the size of your portfolio. This is a good way to manage money if you don't want to deal with the day to day mechanics of the market.
The money managers at My-Investment.Com
have tailored their services to be conservative in their approach which maximizes the possibilities of growing an investment portfolio. You can Invest online with their service and still be secure in the knowledge you are being guided by professional money managers. As they say on their site, they offer the "optimal combination of profitability, liquidity and risk for each private client." They care as much about your investments as you do.
Evaluating the Value of Referral Traffic
EVERYONE wants more traffic to their site. I take a periodic look at where my traffic is coming from to optimize what's working and to either improve upon or eliminate what isn't.
My recent look at my Google Analytics for the Hot Dog Truck revealed the following top 6 traffic sources:
I am getting 27% of my traffic from Google Search. I have my site loaded with the keywords I want to be searched for, I have meta tags installed and I have a healthy amount of links to my site. Search engines like my site!
I am getting another 27% of my traffic from Yahoo. Ditto what I said about Google.
Nearly 11% of my traffic comes DIRECT. This is folks who have bookmarked my site or type the URL into the browser directly. Much of this traffic comes from local sources who want to know about the Hot Dog Truck-when it's open etc.
This next one surprised me. Blog Catalog sends me 5% of my total traffic! That is powerful stuff. If I were a new blogger, I would definitely sign up for Blog Catalog!
Blogger.com, where my site is hosted, sends along 4% of my traffic. This is from the "next blog" button and internal Blogger searches.
Stumble Upon sends 3.5% of my total traffic. I have been trying to get more referrals from Stumble Upon over the past few months. Darren Rowse, the ProBlogger, has a good article on making your site Stumble Upon Friendly. I was getting ZERO referrals from Stumble Upon two months ago, so I was very pleased to see the recent numbers!
The rest of my traffic comes from other referral sources too numerous to list here. These are the top referring sources that any newbie should try to use. I would like to see the Stumble Upon numbers go up and I'm working on it! I'll keep ya posted.
Ringtones
As much as Verizon sucks, their cell phone service is good. Try to get a land line or FIOS brought to your house and you might as well go get a root canal-it's about the same amount of pain. They do the cell phones right though. Verizon has the best coverage out of any of the cell providers and their customer service is actually pretty good.
I don't even need a land line. I prefer to use my cell phone for everything. I even have some cool Verizon ringtones on my phone. Different people have different tones on my phone, so I know who is calling without even looking. I have a Three Stooges Verizon ringtone on my phone that cracks people up!
If you have a Verizon cell phone, get yourself some free Verizon ringtones.
Shaving time
I grow a beard every winter. I start it after Thanksgiving and shave it Christmas day for my mother (she hates the beard). I then grow it out until Spring. I have been doing this for almost 20 years. I can't wait to get back out there and start slinging dogs-I am getting restless. It's as sure a sign of Spring as any to see the hotdogman's clean shaven mug.
It's almost time to shave........
Watch This
I usually wear a watch everywhere I go. My wife likes to buy watches for me as gifts, so I have a half a dozen good watches in different styles. I like my Seiko Watch best. I have one like the one in the picture.
It's a really good watch. I can wear it anywhere, even when swimming since it's a diving watch safe to 200 meters under water. I like being able to go to the beach and not worry about my watch and then be able to go out for dinner with the same watch. Since it is made from stainless steel, my Seiko Watch looks good almost anywhere-above or below water.
I don't know where she gets my watches when she buys them for me, but she ought to check out BlueDial.com. They have great prices, 2 day shipping and they'll even size the watch before they send it.
Confession Joke
Little Patrick O'Toole, an altar boy, goes to see Father O'Callahan for confession. He sits in the booth.
"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned."
"And what is your sin, boy?"
"I have been having impure relations with a girl from our Parish."
"Ah. That is a problem lad. Pray tell me the young lass' name."
"I am sorry Father, I cannot do that."
"You realize I will probably find out anyway, boy. I would like to know so I may help the young girl as well."
"I am sorry Father, I cannot."
The priest begins to think of all the girls in his flock who may be guilty of such an indiscretion. "Was it Mary Fitzpatrick?"
"I cannot say, Father."
"Perhaps it was Margaret Sullivan?"
"I cannot say Father."
"Maybe it was Alice O'Rourke?"
"I cannot say."
"Was it Sally O'Brien?"
"Father, I cannot say. I cannot betray the girl."
The priest is exasperated and decides to mete out the boy's penance. "Since you have confessed to such a serious sin and since you won't confide the young lady's identity to me, you have given me no choice: you are hereby suspended from your duties as an altar boy for a period of three months."
Young Patrick leaves the Church to meet his friend, Sean O'Malley outside.
"Patrick, what did you get?"
"Three months vacation and four good leads."
To Lease or Buy a Car?
This is one sweet ride! It's a Bugatti Veyron, a sports car made by Volkswagon and named after French LeMans racing Champ Pierre Veyron. This baby has a top speed of 252 miles per hour and is quite possibly the finest sports car in the world. At a $1.7 million base price, it is most likely out of range for most people!
Even with far lesser priced cars, many folks want to get into "more car" for their money. A popular way to do this is by leasing your vehicle instead of buying it. Depending on the "spiffs" a new car dealer is offering, you can often get a low payment on a nicer car than if you were to purchase it outright.
But how do you know you're getting a better deal?
One way is to use the Lease Tool at shrewdlease.com. This free online tool lets you enter all the financial variables related to your vehicle lease and give you a "true cost." You can compare leases on similar vehicles to see where you are getting the best value for your money.
The way they do this is they take all the information: down payment, monthly payment, lease term, excess mileage charges, purchase option price at lease end and warranty costs. Their software then calculates a "Shrewd Lease Factor," a number that represents the relative value of one lease over another. The higher the Shrewd Lease Factor number is, the better deal you are getting on your lease.
Going into a car dealer armed with this information should help consumers get their best deal. Nobody EVER wants to over pay for a new car, whether they're buying or leasing and sometimes dealers can confuse customers with numbers and what my brother the accountant likes to call "salesman math." When you have a clear understanding of what your total costs are, you're less likely to get bamboozled by some fast talker who just wants you to sign on the dotted line. You can also get a better grip on your budget for your car payments. Sometimes, just paying a few dollars more per month can save you thousands over the lease term.
If you are thinking of buying or leasing a new car, it would be a good idea to spend a few minutes calculating your costs with the Lease Tool. You only have your own money to gain!
Great Joke for Married Couples
I got this one via email from a friend. This is my wife's new favorite joke!
A man wakes up with a huge hangover. He forces himself to open
his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins
and a glass of water on the side table. He sees his clothing
in front of him, all cleaned and pressed. He looks around the
room and sees it is in perfect order. So's the rest of the
house. He takes his aspirins and notices a note on the table:
Honey,
Breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping.
I Love you.
He goes to the kitchen. Sure enough, a hot breakfast and the
morning newspaper await him. His son is also at the table,
eating. The man asks, "Son, what happened last night?"
His son says, "Well, you came home after 3 a.m., drunk and
delirious. You broke some furniture, puked in the hallway,
and gave yourself a black eye when you walked into the door."
Confused, the man asks, "So why is everything in order and
so clean, with breakfast on the table waiting for me?"
His son replies, "Oh that! Mom dragged you to the bedroom,
and when she tried to take your pants off you shouted,
"LADY, GET YOUR DAMNED HANDS OFF OF ME! I'M MARRIED!"
Child Care
I went to Florida with FIVE KIDS last week. My wife had to skip this trip because she had to coach a major swim tournament all week. My kids are 3, 10, 11, 13 and 15 years old. I took them through the airport and on the plane without incident and I trucked them off to the beach every day while we were there. One day at the beach, as we were packing up to go, a woman who was seated nearby with her daughter and TWO grandchildren came up to me and said I was the "best beach dad" she ever saw! She complimented me on my patience and my ability to juggle the needs of all the kids. Boy did that make me happy. I told her I have had lots of experience and I thanked her for her praise.
Experience is a key parenting tool. I remember when I was a wide eyed new parent. I didn't know what I was doing. I am amazed my oldest turned out so well! Every little thing from how to feed the kid to finding a child care nursery was a huge decision.
We have always been blessed with good Child care nursery choices. I would certainly NEVER leave my kids with someone who I wasn't comfortable with. Often times, good day care centers can be a good source of information, even if they are too far away to use for your own kids. Teddies Nurseries is a UK based Child care nursery that not only provides top notch care for kids 3 months to five years old, they also have a plethora of information on their website about parenting, child care and children's health. It certainly looks like the type of place I'd feel comfortable with and it has the information first time parents can use for lots of their kid's issues.
Going MOBILE
The Hot Dog Truck will be truly MOBILE this Spring. Gone are the days of a rusted hulk of a truck at the edge of a parking lot. I will be able to go virtually anywhere (within reason). This means that if you would like to have the Hot Dog Truck at your event or even at your office or school for the day, I can make it happen!
If you want to secure the services of the Hot Dog Truck, email me at hotdogman@thehotdogtruck.com and we can work something out!
Free Custom Refrigerator Magnets
Our refrigerator is loaded with artwork and photographs. Many of them are held up with magnets given to us by area business people. Everyone from the local plumber to the local Real Estate broker has their own custom magnets they hand out to people. We get a LOT of Real Estate magnets because my wife works in a Real Estate office.
The people who give out custom magnets as advertising WANT you to hang your kid's artwork up on the refrigerator so you can see their advertising message every time you go for the gallon of milk. It's like having a mini billboard in a customer's home. I have a few of my own magnets from my mortgage brokerage days on ours. I even have a friend who sends out his family Christmas cards in magnetic form.
It is so easy to make your own custom magnets online these days. At VistaPrint you can design it yourself and even upload your own photos or artwork. They're so confident their service is good, they are willing to give you 25 FREE MAGNETS to try their service.
Simply go design a small custom magnet and when you are done, you enter the following COUPON CODE into your checkout: Blog25FreeMag. Then you'll get your FREE MAGNETS in a week or so!
I'm going to get mine!
Weather, Permitting
It looks like the March 3 opening of the Hot Dog Truck will be put off for a week or two. The weather this winter has been horrible. There have been no HUGE storms, but it has been a consistently wet and snowy season. It's supposed to snow and or rain for the next week or so. This has prevented me from doing some of the things I need to do to get set up which has led to a delay in getting my Board of Health permit. I hope to have that sewn up by the end of next week.
While the weather is crappy, I am getting the NEW HOT DOG TRUCK serviced so it will be ready to go. I got a nice new sign on the side and I am having the entire truck checked over by my mechanic.
Looks like a first day of Spring opening date is more realistic.
Stay Tuned......
Forex Trading
When I was in college, "Forex" was a condom. Many of you probably know about the FOREX market, but for those who don't, it's short for FOReign EXchange. Basically FOREX is a currency trading system using margin that allows virtually anyone to trade currencies. If you haven't seen a ridiculous ad claiming you can get rich overnight trading currencies, you probably aren't paying attention when you're online.
I have been trading FOREX for a few years now. I have a mini account that I originally funded with only $500 and I started out trading in small lots. I have made money and probably could have made more had I had a larger account to start with. I treat my FOREX account like I treat playing BlackJack: only come to the table with what you are prepared to lose!
The reason many people fail trading FOREX is they try to trade too much without knowing what the heck they were doing. They put a bunch of money into an account and trade willy nilly until their account is gone and then they say the whole FOREX thing is a scam. They don't take being STUPID into account. You need to LEARN what you are doing and take some time to study about how the market works, terminology, money management and a whole host of other details. You should also practice trading with a Demo Account so you get a feel for how everything works. I practice traded for nearly 18 months before I opened a real account.
I tried many different kinds of Forex software with different companies before I funded an account. This allowed me to find a trading platform I was comfortable with.
I recently became aware of eToro, a Forex software provider and retail FOREX broker. They have a very web 2.0 approach to FOREX trading. The site explains the workings of the FOREX market very clearly and conciselyLike every other FOREX broker out there, they offer a Demo account. I downloaded it and the interface was pretty easy to navigate and the transaction interface looked easy to understand for beginners. I wasn't too crazy about their charts-I like to plot all sorts of indicators and time frames on my charts and they don't have this graphic capability on their platform. Of course I have my own custom charting feed and software so I wouldn't need it, but it is rather vanilla.
One cool thing eToro has is Monthly Championships where you trade your Demo account with a $2000 "virtual balance." The person who makes the most money trading wins $500! You have to fund an account with the winnings, but what better way to get into FOREX trading than with "house money!"
I'm going to give the March Championship a whirl. Stay tuned....
Roller Coaster Madness
One of the things we like to do when we hit Florida is go to Busch Gardens in Tampa. The kids (and my wife) LOVE roller coasters and they have some real doozies there. Being hurtled unnaturally through space is not my idea of a good time. We got to the park at 9:30 when they open and the kids rode the above coaster, "Mombu," twice.
We then ran to the next coaster, pictured below, and they were the first riders of the day. The attendant let them stay in their seats for the second ride. I was waiting when the two younger girls ran out screaming "Andrew's PUKING!" My fifteen year old, ambling further behind, said it was a classic projectile, streaming puke. 
To his credit, he got right back on the next coaster, "Sheikra" (which features a hundred foot straight drop and moments of weightlessness). He said it was "AWESOME!"
I sometimes just don't "get" kids. Or roller coasters.
Get a REAL Date
Even though I am married, I write about dating because I have a bunch of single friends, both male and female, and I hear the horror stories about their dating experiences all the time. The funny thing about finding a date online is it's such a crap shoot. There is a lot of attention given to sites that offer "adult" dating- sex sells after all. The reality is most of the people I know, while they may be interested in sex, really just want to find someone nice to date and maybe start a relationship with.
Some folks may want to find Internet matchmaking services for singles that believe in God, while others may be interested in dating someone from a similar cultural background. Whatever the final goal is, finding a date shouldn't be too difficult if you know what you want.
If you want to try online dating, define your criteria for what you want in a date and GO FOR IT. I know several people who have met their spouses online and they knew what type of person they wanted to find. They set realistic expectations for themselves and gave it time. I think too many people have unrealistic expectations when looking for love online. Sometimes your soul mate just comes along when you least expect it.
Florida, Here I Come!
I am headed to sunny Florida with my 5 children Tuesday. We're going to Busch Gardens and the beach. We'll probably spend quite a bit of time kicking back at my parent's pool too. The wife has to work (she's got National Championships for her swim team) so she's not coming. It will be a somewhat hectic week for me, but relaxing nonetheless.
While I'm gone, I'll only be posting sporadically (if at all) so don't think I dropped off the face of the earth or anything. I'll be back with a big splash about my spring Grand Opening next week.
HAVE A GOOD ONE!
Fast Business Cash
As I prepare for the upcoming season, I am outfitting a new Hot Dog Truck. I have to get registered, insured, permitted and a whole host of things done to the new Hot Dog Truck. I am getting the Hot Dog Truck lettered (with the dancing hot dog from my header) and completely tuned up. You'd think I'd need some Fast Business Cash to get this done, but between money I've saved and money I am getting from selling the old Hot Dog Truck and another vehicle I own AND the money I make from this website (and others), I have very little "out of pocket" expense.
For lots of businesses, getting Fast Business Cash for expansion or a new piece of equipment can be a challenge. Businesses that accept credit cards have a great financing option. Now you can get a business loan form companies like Merit Capital Advance based on anticipated future Visa/MC receipts. The lender just automatically takes the loan payments from your credit card receipts. It's real easy to set up, and it's a great way to enhance cash flow for a large business expense.
If I ever take credit cards, I'd be signing up for this! I may have to take cards soon if I plan on doing large events, so I could finance my next Hot Dog Truck with some Fast Business Cash with Merit Capital Advance.
Stumble Cards
I was stumbling the other day and came across this:
It's called a Stumble Card, and according to the page, it's the "latest sensation sweeping the web." The idea is to Stumble the pages of every card you Stumble on until you collect them all!
Yet another colossal waste of time!
I found another!
And another!
And finally, the Stumble Cards that say it all.
Accuvue Oasys
I am blessed with 20/20 vision, as are all my children and my wife. We don't have to deal with glasses or contact lenses, thank God. I could deal with glasses, but I have trouble with eye drops-never mind trying to pop in contact lenses!
My brother wears glasses and contacts. He's got the whole business of putting contact lenses in down to a science. He uses Acuvue Oasys contact lenses. He says they're the most comfortable and easy to use contact lenses he's ever used. The Acuvue Oasys lenses are colored so you know which side to put them in. I guess this is quite a benefit as he makes an issue out of it every time I mention how hard it must be to put in his contact lenses.
He also likes them because they don't dry his eyes out. With his old contact lenses, he'd wear them to work every morning and switch to glasses in the afternoon when his eyes started to get irritated. Now he puts on his Acuvue Oasys lenses in the morning and takes them out when he goes to bed.
He gets his contact lenses in the mail from a discount online contact lens supplier. I guess he takes after me when it comes to shopping online!
Blog Your Blessings Sunday XLVI
The last time we saw the Red Sox, they were winning the World Series. Up until a few years ago, this was an unheard of statement. For 86 years, Sox fans clung to the hope that "maybe this year is the year." Hope was rewarded again last year.
Pitchers and catchers reported this week bringing another kind of hope to mind. The hope of Spring, of renewal, of "maybe this year is the year."
Proverbs 23:18
There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
Mayweather v De La Hoya II
I like boxing. I watch all the fights on HBO on demand and I'll occasionally buy a pay per view bout. Right now, boxing is in decline. There are very few "big stars" and the rising popularity of "ultimate fighting" has eaten into boxing's fan base. There's still nothing quite like a good boxing match in the world of sports. The sheer human drama can't be matched. It is sport at its most basic (and base): two men trying to knock each other out.
Last year Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather fought in the single most heavily hyped fight ever. There was an HBO series leading up to the fight which was like a four month "up close and personal" on the fighters and their training regimen. Needless to say, the fight didn't live up to the hype. It did set revenue records. The fight made over $160 million! That's a lot of money for one fight. The best part is Don King wasn't in on it!
When a fight makes that kind of money, a rematch is inevitable. There are plans in the works for a September 2008 rematch, possibly in Dodger Stadium of all places.
I've seen some live boxing in Las Vegas. I went to a James Tony v. Roy Jones Jr. fight about 12 years ago. It was quite a spectacle. I've seen a lot of no name boxers in Vegas too. These matches are often very good as the fighters are usually trying to make a name for themselves. I may catch a boxing match in Vegas in April. I don't think I'd spring for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Oscar De La Hoya tickets though. I'll most likely catch that one on pay per view.
Writing for Money, Writer's Market and an email RANT
So the wife wanted to watch some inane show and I decided to blog and Stumble tonight. With my increasing success with PayPerPost, I have become more interested in finding ways to make a few bucks writing on the side-particularly during my winter hiatus from the Hot Dog Truck. I Stumbled on this article about Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money and I read the whole thing-Stumbled it too. The author doles out some sound advice, even though he sounds like my mother!
After reading it, I scrolled back to a link for Writer's Market, a publication that lists just about every legitimate writing gig in the known universe. It was a link to buy the book on Amazon.com and I almost bought it. I decided to see if there was an online version first. Lo and behold there was! Writer's Market dot com features all the listings the print publication does with the advantage of frequent updates and changes. A subscription costs about the same as buying the publication every year and it's online. I'm thinking "Sign me up," so I go to register and pay. One problem; they don't take PayPal. Bummer.
So I wrote them THIS EMAIL:
Dear Writer's Market dot Com-
I was excited to hear about your site. I have purchased your books several times in the past and I am finally at a point in my life where I can honestly dedicate some time and energy to try to make some money writing.
When I read about the constant updating and other features available by putting Writer's Market online, I was eager to sign up. The internet has indeed allowed many people to operate without being "constrained by physical limitations," but your website has put a physical limitation on me.
I am physically unable to subscribe to your service. Several years ago, I decided to get rid of ALL my credit cards. I have become a strictly cash operator, no longer will I give money to banks for the privilege of buying things with my own money. It's a complex personal decision that I won't go into here, let's just say I don't have a credit card.
I DO have a PayPal account. I am a verified member and I use PayPal to buy all sorts of things online. I bought the computer I'm sending this email with online-with PayPal. I just can't buy a subscription to Writer's Market dot Com. Because you don't take PayPal.
I'd like to think that the folks at Writer's Market are smart. You've been around for nearly a hundred years, you organize an immense amount of information on a constant basis and I'm willing to bet the company makes piles of money. You're obviously smart enough to understand the power of the internet to disperse the undulating sources of information you provide; it's a far more fluid medium than a semi annual soft cover book.
If you were smart enough do do all these things (and probably many more I haven't touched upon), why is it you would not accept PayPal? It's the complete no-brainer way to pay and be paid online. I accept PayPal for crying out loud! There are a few other "little" companies that accept PayPal too, maybe you've heard of some of them: South West Air, Dell Computers, Amazon.com etc. I would be willing to bet some fresh faced college intern on your staff could set your website up to accept PayPal in a day or two.
Why don't you have them get right on that? When you get it figured out, let me know. I want a two year subscription and instead of perusing your listings, I'm firing off this email. I'm wasting time and you guys are out $44.99.
What a shame.
Very truly yours,
the Hotdogman
And so it goes.....
UNBELIEVABLE
My dad sent me this via email:
Read caption on 1st photo, then look at 2nd -- WOW!!
This was in the Black Canyon of Gunnison and the picture was on the front page of the
Grand Junction, CO paper.
Look at the picture below and you can see where this guy broke through the guardrail, right side where the people are standing on the road (pointing). The pick-up was traveling from right to left when it crashed through the guardrail. It flipped end-over-end, across the culvert outlet and landed right side up on the left side of the culvert, facing the opposite direction from which he was traveling.
Now look at the 2nd picture below....
If this guy didn't believe in God before, do you suppose he believes now?
Identity Theft
I have a favorite joke about identity theft. I'll tell people I got my identity stolen, but it GOT RETURNED! (I wrote that one myself) For millions of people, identity theft is no joke. When I was in the mortgage business, I encountered many people who had been victimized by identity theft. It stressed them out and it made qualifying for a mortgage an arduous process.
There are many things folks can do to protect themselves from identity theft. Some of them involve common sense, like not handing out your social security number willy nilly or not getting credit cards stolen. Unfortunately, identity thieves are a pretty savvy bunch, so even people who are very careful can be victimized.
There are new weapons in the war against identity theft. There's a service called Life lock that has a comprehensive identity theft protection program. What they do, once you enroll is immediately order your credit report, set a credit "lock" that requires any new credit issuer to contact you by phone directly, take you off all junk mail lists, and block all "pre-approved credit" offers in your name. They renew this information on your behalf every 90 days. If your wallet is lost or stolen, they'll contact all your credit issuers on your behalf, cancel all your credit cards and arrange for new ones. You can call them 24/7 for this service from anywhere in the world.
Life lock is so confident in their service, the founder of the company publishes his social security number prominently on the site AND they offer a ONE MILLION DOLLAR GUARANTEE! That's a pretty bold statement about their comfort with their service.
I think companies like Life lock will proliferate in the future and if they work as advertised, they'll prosper. Never again will someone seeking a mortgage be blindsided by identity theft.
Not in the News
My mom sent me this via email today. It's quite a story!
The Media (Accidentally?)Missed this one!!!!
Please read this:
The troops overseas would like you to send it to everybody you know.
Don't know whether you heard about this but Denzel Washington and his family visited the troops at Brook Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, Texas (BAMC) the other day. This is where soldiers who have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the United States, especially burn victims There are some buildings there called Fisher Houses. The Fisher House is a Hotel where soldiers' families can stay, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled most of the time.
While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build. He took his checkbook out and wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it.
The question is - why do Britney Spears, Madonna, Tom Cruise and other Hollywood fluff make front page news with their ridiculous antics and Denzel Washington's charity doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the Local newspaper in San Antonio?
Denzel Washington: A true American and friend to all in uniform! 
Number One Coupons
February and March are great times to shop for lots of things. It's a time of year when retailers get rid of all the old inventory to start bringing in new stuff. This is especially true for consumer electronics like TVs and stereos. You get the best deals on these items at this time of year. HDTVs have come WAY DOWN in price this year, an HDTV that cost over $3000 two years ago can be bought for around $1000 today!
August is a good time to shop for sneakers. It happens to be the time of year when they clear out last year's styles to bring in the new stuff for the pending holiday season. I have actually had the opportunity to buy shoes online at low prices from Zappos, Eastbay, Footlocker and Road Runner Sports for myself and for my kids.
Whenever I shop, I try to shop online. Whenever I am ready to buy, I look for coupons online at sites like #1 Coupons. There are lots of coupon sites out there and this is one of the better ones. They have coupons for dozens of online merchants. I am in the market for a new laptop and I have been watching the prices and coupon codes for the past few weeks. I am ready to swoop down and buy when the right deal comes along.
Regardless of the time of year, sometimes you just need to replace something that gets lost or breaks and you need to buy right away. It only makes sense to get a discount by finding a good online coupon.
Grand Canyon Tour
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Cher in Las Vegas. Since then, we've booked a trip! I'll be closing the Hot Dog Truck for a few days during April School vacation as we fly out to see my wife's folks with the kids. We're a month too early for Cher, but the wife and I plan on a "sleepover" on the Strip sans children as a little vacation within a vacation! The best part of this trip is I paid for the flights with my PayPerPost earnings!
One thing we plan to do is revisit our Grand Canyon trip we took with the Grand Canyon Tour Company. They picked us up at our hotel to take us to the airport where we hopped on a small plane and flew over the Hoover Dam en route to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. From there we took a helicopter ride to the bottom of the canyon and hopped on a boat for a short cruise on the Colorado River. After the helicopter ride to the top we went to a BBQ Lunch at the canyon's edge before flying back to Vegas. The place where we had lunch is where they have since built the glass bottomed sky walk. I think the kids would love it and we'll definitely go with them again. The Grand Canyon Tour Company offers the BEST tours at the BEST price from Las Vegas.
We had such a good time, we sent them a Thank You email which they published on their website:
Dear Grand Canyon Tours-
We took our 3 in 1 Tour 2 days ago and we are still awestruck by the enormity and awesome natural beauty of the Grand Canyon. Top to bottom from initial contact to hotel pickup, flights and lunch, the service was friendly and efficient. We plan on taking another tour with you on our next trip to Vegas and we have told just about everyone we have spoken to since our tour about the trip and your great service. Our trip is in our "Top 5 COOLEST THINGS WE HAVE EVER DONE LIST!" Thank you for providing us with an enjoyable and memorable experience.
-Mr. & Mrs. Hotdogman
P.S. We are attaching a picture of us with our pilot, Patrick. Feel free to use this photo any way you wish.
3 in 1 TOUR INFORMATION
Maybe we can have PayPerPost pay for that trip too! If you plan on going to Las Vegas, take some time away from the casino and TAKE THIS TRIP!
I am sure I'll have plenty of stories and pictures ( I'll be sure to include some shots of the Grand Canyon) from this vacation. Hopefully one of my stories will involve some sort of Jackpot.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing has gotten very big and only promises to get bigger. You see all sorts of ads for ringtones and "text this code and get a prize" type offers. Large corporations are using mobile marketing via cell phones and PDA devices to get their messages to the consumer. There isn't room for much spam as the mobile carriers police their own networks and simply won't allow spam traffic.
I think it would be great to be able to send a mobile marketing message to every cell phone within a 3 mile radius of the Hot Dog Truck! Usually, you will only receive mobile marketing messages you have asked for. Companies like SJA Mobile aggregate mobile content for consumers who subscribe to their services. You can get weather, horoscopes, news, sports, stock quotes and much more via your mobile device. The mobile messages are just like short text messages. You subscribe to a service like SJA Mobile and VOILA! you receive the messages. You can opt out of the service at any time.
This form of advertising is exploding. I will be looking for the players in this industry and investing in them!
Blog Your Blessing Sunday XLV
Last Sunday, the day of Super Bowl XLII, I was basking in the inevitability of my New England Patriots winning the Big Game. The Giants had other ideas as their defense crushed Tom Brady in the pocket and their offense made some key big plays.
There was shock and sorrow as Plaxico Burress caught the seemingly unbelievable winning touchdown. After the game our group dispersed quietly as we and the entire region were dumbfounded by the devastating loss. This brings to mind the fleeting nature of victory. I could answer "me," to the following questions last Sunday.
Proverbs 23:29
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?*
And finally, in a departure from my "standard" BYB format, I leave you all with this bit of wisdom:
"Though it is not in our power to know by ourselves the things of faith, if we follow the guidance of natural reason, God will not fail to give us what is necessary."
- St. Thomas Aquinas
*I sure had some bloodshot eyes Monday morning! It was a depressing day to be celebrating this blog's Birthday.
Red Sox Truck Day
While this might just look like an ordinary moving truck to most people, it signifies a landmark early right of Spring to members of Red Sox Nation. This is the truck that leaves Fenway Park with all the Red Sox equipment every February for Fort Meyers, Florida. The truck left this morning, signaling the first spring training ritual.
ONLY 59 days until OPENING DAY!!!!
Learn Japanese
A guy I went to high school with lives and works in Tokyo for Sony. He makes HUGE amounts of money. He majored in Japanese in college because he knew there was a demand for Americans who are fluent in Japanese due to the large amount of Japanese companies doing business in the English speaking world. He had a lot of foresight.
You too can learn Japanese right online. At eLanguageSchool.net you can learn all sorts of languages, including Japanese for FREE.
You probably won't be able to get a job with Sony, but you could certainly learn how to ask for direction or order dinner in Japanese.
Make Your Blogger Links open in a New Window
I wanted to make my links on my web pages open in a new window. Normally, you'd just make your link URL look like this:
target="_blank" title="TITLE">Text.
This will create a link that opens in a new window.
I wanted ALL my links to open in a new window and I found how to do this in a Blogger Blog. Check out this article: Make All Links Open in A New Window.
It's easy peasy!
Mortgage Rates Reduced
With all the doom and gloom about the sub-prime mortgage market causing a huge rise in foreclosures, there is finally some good news about mortgages. The Federal Reserve recently cut its prime lending rates which has resulted in a trickle down effect for mortgages. Mortgage rates have come down and that is always good news. Whether or not this will spark the lackluster housing market remains to be seen.
In the UK, they've taken rate reductions a step further. People who hold a Commercial Mortgage will have the rate on their loans automatically reduced to reflect the new lower rates. Lenders are passing rate savings on directly to customers to help deflect a slowing economy there. In the USA, you'd need to refinance altogether-a lender won't automatically reduce rates.
I think the Brits have this one right. The money is costing the banks less, so they can cut rates on a Commercial Mortgage and still maintain their margin. I think this shows more social and economic responsibility on the part of UK lenders than their American counterparts. Take a lesson from the Brits, US banks!
Visit All Around!
I was yapping about my URLs for some of my other sites yesterday. My new pet project is All Around, a crudely constructed web comic featuring a wisecracking computer. The Hot Dog Truck is an underlying theme. I plan on updating it a couple of times a week. It's kind of a pet project for me, but it would be nice if someone actually read it! Here's a sample (click the image to view full size):
Please, give All Around a look.
Virtual School
As I pursue my Master's Degree in Education, I am becoming increasingly disenchanted with our Nation's public schools. There is a mandate for excellence, but no money to fund it. What we are creating in our public schools is an educational culture obsessed with testing and test grades. Schools don't really support teachers who want to teach a subject matter they are passionate about and they won't allow kids to pursue academic interests beyond a narrowly defined curriculum. It is not a promising prospect for would be teachers or their students.
A new spin on an old trend is the virtual school. It is in effect a modern version of home schooling. When people think of home schooling, they picture a parent at home with their kids performing the same functions as a traditional teacher. This is true to an extent, but it is changing. A parent must still take on a lot of the responsibilities of home schooling, but virtual schooling is changing that.
Virtual schools fill the academic gap for parents who may not have the knowledge to teach a subject to their child. A curriculum is provided to the parent online with an actual real live instructor available for support. All the traditional structures for a curriculum in a subject matter are available to the parent and student. So if a parent is a whiz at math, they can teach math any way they see fit; but if they need help teaching American History, the help is there with a virtual school.
Religious education has always been at the forefront of home schooling. Many home schooled children have a significant religious component in their education. It should come as no surprise that virtual schools like St. Gabriel Catholic Academy have a religious origin. They recognize the trend and they are using new technology to bring a traditionally excellent educational institution, the Catholic School, into the virtual world. (I wonder if they have virtual nuns?)
While home schooling is certainly a big challenge for parents who choose to pursue it, virtual schools like St. Gabriel Catholic Academy will certainly make it a little easier and present unfamiliar coursework in a more relevant and organized fashion. Who knows, maybe the hotdogman will ad "virtual teacher" to his resume someday....
URLs
I have some other sites I have been tinkering with. None of them get the attention the Hot Dog Truck gets. Winning Football Picks and All Around are two that have a reasonable amount of eyeballs, put not the PR 4 juggernaut that is the Hot Dog Truck. I have set the others up to "be there" for when I get to them. They all have a niche, silly as the niche may be.
The one thing they now all have in common is they have their own URLs. No more "dot blogspot" domains for me. I'm going with URLs all around. My active URLs include:
Thehotdogtruck.com
allaroundcomic.com
Goofonmyblog.com
Ourseaglass.com
Oncoachingkidsbaseball.com
Winningfootballpicks.net
and my favorite Splibble.com
All these URLs point to blogger blog sites I've set up. None of them get much traffic, except for the football site and baseball sites in their respective seasons. What I want to do is build their content and do some SEO on them when I get the time.
I also got some other URLs I don't have sites for:
Ifyoulikemoney.com (and .net & .info)
Bostonhotdogman.com (saved for a future info site for hiring The Hot Dog Truck for catering & events)
and The Hot Dog Trailer.com (I got this because I came close to buying a trailer last month). I'll eventually have them all pointing to something.
I got all these URLs at www.GoDaddy.com . I sometimes just go there to see if an URL that pops into my head is available. If it is, I'll buy it. GoDaddy
may not be the cheapest, but they are the World's #1 Domain Name Registrar
and while bigger may not always be better, they have always given me good service. I can actually call them and SOMEONE WILL PICK UP THE PHONE! I even have an account rep, though I haven't needed him- it's nice to know I can actually get an answer if I have a question.
For you bloggers out there who don't have an URL yet, SPEND THE SEVEN BUCKS! A good URL does wonderful things for your SEO (just Google "Hot Dog Truck" to see what I mean). Page one on Google. Not bad for an ameteur, eh? The URL has a lot to do with that search placement.
If you want to buy an URL at GoDaddy, use this coupon code cjcdeal22
when you check out to save three bucks on your URLs.
Tell them the Hotdogman sent you!
