If we look at our daily habits, the few times that our kids watch tv we pop a dvd in because they want to either watch “Bugs Life” or “Ratatouille” or “Finding Neemo”… never did they ask to watch the Disney Channel. As for the adults, after long days of work and kids by the time the kids are in bed and you finish up cleaning and prepping up for the next day it’s already 9pm, if you decide to watch tv you end up flipping the channels through commercials, “reality” tv, commercials, gossips, commercials, commercials… oh did I mention commercials?

So once again I face the same question again: is it worth the $700/year to watch non sense after non sense? Or should I just kill the cable guy?

I’m curious of your opinion, what is your daily routine after a long day? Please share and comment.

s2c97

So for all the INJUSTICES happening in the world, on this day of May 15, 2008 – Bloggers Unite for Human Rights!

Bloggers Unite

Amnesty International – USA

Please visit those sites, the minimum we could do is at least be aware of it.

If you have some comments or links or even stories you would like to share please do so by adding a comment to this post.

s2c97

So we went to our local credit union bank to speak with a financial adviser from the loan department. After explaining to her that we wanted to see if we could get a loan to payoff the credit card at a lower rate, she replied to us with a question:”What year and model is your car?”. And I replied a little bit frustrated:”What does our car have to do with this? I’m not applying for an auto loan!”. And that’s where she started explaining that the reason she was asking is because you have the option of borrowing against your car, if it is not payed off.

Here how it works, you can apply for an auto loan with your bank up to the amount of the blue book value of your car. The bank becomes the new owner of the title of your car and you get a loan at a very low rate! In our case we still owed $300 on our car, and the blue book value of our car was evaluated to $12000. So the maximum amount I could apply for was $12000. The best part was the interest rate for our auto loan was at 5.6% for 3 years. Since we only needed $8000, we applied for a loan of $8300 (since we still owed $300 to pay off the car) at a fixed rate of 5.6% for 3 years.

This solution is not ideal if you still owe a lot of money to pay off your car:

blue book value of car = total amount of loan

total amount of loan = Amount owed to payoff car + loan amount needed

So the more you owe to payoff your car the lower the portion of the loan you are getting since both cannot exceed the total amount of loan (which is the blue book value of your car).

If you do borrow against your car and you end up wanting to sell your car before you are done paying off your auto loan, you have to make sure that the minimum amount you are selling your car will be the amount you still owe to the bank on the auto loan. If not you will have to come up with the difference at the time of sale because the bank has to hand over the title to the new owner of the car.

Please note: I am not a professional financial adviser. This solution worked out great in my situation, but it can be different for others. Make sure to consult with a professional financial adviser beforehand.

This online software is a collection of tools permitting you to:

• Record your different workouts (running, cycling, swimming and weight training);
• Measure your running routes with their mapping tool;
• Share your routes online with other RunningAHEAD members;
• Graphs the progress of all your workout entries;
• Participate in the forum discussion group.

Signing up is totally free and using all of the tools are free as well.

The tool I enjoy the most is their mapping tool. You can trace your desired route over their map (powered by Google). The accuracy is very good. It permits you to discover or create new routes just by looking at the map in all the modes you want (map, satellite, hybrid, topographic and USGS satellite). On your map that contains your route you can add water notes, medical notes, route points, mile markers, display the elevation graph and much more. When you are done with the route you have the choice to save it as private or share it with the RunningAHEAD community. By sharing routes with other users you give them the opportunity to discover new routes and can be useful if they are living in the same area.

I encourage you to give it a try, it’s free!

When Skype (Google) announced their unlimited long distance calling plans from a Skype account to regular land line phones, with Skypeout, that’s when they got me really interested. They have 3 different unlimited calling plans:

1. Unlimited calls to landlines and cell phones in the US and Canada for $2.95/month;

2. Unlimited calls to landlines in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey for $5.95/month. And discounted rates to landlines and cell phones in the rest of Mexico ;

3. Unlimited calls to landlines in 34 countries worldwide for $9.95/month.

Plus you save 1/3 when you buy a 3 or 12 month subscription by June 1st 2008.

So a month ago I went on the NewEgg website and purchased what they call a Skype certified VoIP cordless phone. After a lot of research on different VoIP phones I concluded on the Philips VOIP8411B. It looked pretty slick, nice features, it was a little bit pricey ($119) but considering the fact that I would be saving around $25 on long distance per month it would take little less than 5 months to come even so it was worth the purchase.

So this is how it works: the skype cordless phone can be used without having to boot up your PC. With this phone you can make Skype calls (skype users to skype users), SkypeOut calls (skype users to regular landlines), and regular calls (landline to landline). All you need is:

• High speed Internet connection (DSL or cable);
• Router or Modem Router;
• 1 Free LAN port;
• Skype account (free sign up).

It took me 15 minutes to install. You connect the base station to your modem or modem router, another connection goes to your regular land line phone jack and of course one connection to power. The cool thing is that you can set the handset anywhere in your house close to a power jack (far from the base station if desired). Once the handset is powered-on it searches for its network (connects to the base station) and asks you to sign-in the same way you would sign-in to your skype account on a pc. Once signed in you go through a couple of basic setting steps and then retrieves you’re skype contacts if any. And voila you are ready to make calls. So here is my take on this phone:

pros:

• easy to install;
• nice color lcd display;
• different ringtones;
• great call quality;
• built-in skype software;
• automatic update (if necessary);
• good range between the handset and the base station;
• can use the phone (landline or skype) without the need to turn my pc on;

cons:

• weak speakerphone;
• can’t set the line preference (landline or skypeout) for programmed phone numbers in memory;

My wife and I have been using this phone for over a month now and we are still very pleased with it. In average we make 2 to 3 long distance calls a day and so far no dropped calls, crisp clear conversations with the handset. We basically dedicated the Skype phone for our outgoing long distance calls (you can still receive regular local calls on it) and our other regular phone for outgoing landline calls.

On last thought: A nice advantage about all this setup is the fact that if the Skype phone is in use for a long distance call, it is not keeping your regular land line busy. So basically you have two independent lines. You can talk as long as you want on the skype phone (only on outgoing long distance call with Skypeout or incoming/outgoing Skype call) and still not miss/send a call from your regular land line phone!

Thank you for visiting and be sure to bookmark this site. I hope to see you again soon!