PayPal Coupon?

04.23.2006

I saw this listed on an auction for a PC monitor earlier:

eBay.com has $20 off a single $100+ item when you pay with their payment system PayPal. Use coupon code C-APR2006TECH [Exp 4/30] to participate.

I haven't tried the coupon code, but if you're making a $100+ single item purchase through PayPal you may want to give it a try.

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Change

04.21.2006

The other day I decided it was time to cash in on the change that I take out of my pockets at the end of the day. At some point in the past I read a little article about doing that and how you inadvertently save enough money for it to be at least a little substantial. At the end of the day 50¢ doesn't seem like much, well, if you're older than 3, but if you save up 50¢ each day for a year you end up with almost $200. For the last couple of years I've been throwing my change in old Steak-Out cups or little boxes. At times I've had to raid said containers for parking meter money or the occasional Coke machine run.

But the pennies always grow.

It's the pennies I was ready to get rid of. For those not aware, Coinstar sets up coin-counting kiosks to count your change, then print a voucher which you cash in (usually at the supermarket the kiosk is in). For this they deduct 8.9%, but that's the cost of convenience for not having to roll however much change you're cashing in. I had b een putting off taking my pennies to one of these kiosks because I really thought 8.9% was a little steep.

Before long I came across the Coinstar partnership with Amazon. If, instead of cashing in your change you instead opt for an Amazon gift certificate/credit, the 8.9% processing fee is waived. Hey, this means it's pretty much free! And I always want stuff from Amazon. Suddenly my change that has been laying around for years can turn into cold, hard internet merchandise. I'm all over this!

I load up a shoebox with (mostly) pennies and make my way to the Coinstar kiosk in Athens. I fill that sucker up and let it count my fortune. The geek in me liked the running display of what all I had put in. My 32oz cup and random little boxes of change yielded the following:

Pennies	3448
Nickels	19
Dimes	76
Quarters	19
Dollars	1
Grand Total	$48.78

I wasn't sure where all those nickels came from, much less a dollar, but now I had $48 Amazon credit, and 3500 fewer coins to keep track of. I then went home, entered the appropriate code in my Amazon account, and then had my promised gift certificate/credit. I think my credit stayed there almost 3 days before I used it.

Coin counting technology and the interweb. Gotta love that marriage!

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South Beach Diet: Day 21

04.17.2006

After 3 weeks, I can tell my body is starting to get used to the new diet. Not so much in theat my cravings for certain foods have mostly subsided (Tangent: regardless of how much certain craving have gone away, watching a show on FoodTV about brownies on a Saturday morning is not a good idea), but more in how my weight loss is less dramiatic.

• Week 1: -11 lbs
• Week 2: -6 lbs
• Week 3: -4 lbs

4 pounds is nothing to be ashamed of, but after 11 pounds in the first week it's a little of a let down. I seem to have the following formula for my weekly weight loss:

(Last Week's Weight Loss) ÷ 2 + 1 pound, rounded down

So, this week I should lose... 3 pounds. If I end up losing 3 pounds, I think it'll freak me out a little.

My body measurements didn't change too much from last week. I lost ½" on both my chest and waist, while my stomach went down 1".

This past weekend, Mom came down to see me. She ended up taking part in my diet as we didn't go out to eat and I ended up cooking for the weekend. Mom's about as big around as my ankle, so her eating all of this low-carb food was kind of funny once you think about it. But she seemed to enjoy most of what I fixed, whith the high point being when I tried to grill salmon along with some vegetables, with mashed cauliflower (mashed potato style) on the side. If nothing else, she was able to keep it all down.

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Return of the Optical Engine

04.14.2006

I've finally gotten my tv back after being in the shop for... 6 weeks? They replaced the optical engine, whatever that still really is. Interestingly enough, along with the tv I got an invoice for the repairs with a note that it was being billed to "Hitachi Electronics".

• Labor: $160
• Optical Engine: $1100

The tv cost around $3000, so for whatever the optical engine gets around to doing, it accounts for a third of the tv. That's how match works, right?

Now I've got to go program my new remote so I can once again enjoy my 60" lcd viewing pleasure!

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Goody Had It

04.12.2006

The Athens branch of the Sam Goody Store is going out of business. Liquidating merchandise. 60-80% off. Everything must go.

Last week (or maybe it was the week before) I sauntered into said Mr Goody and found myself with deals I couldn't pass up, mainly on XBox & PS2 games. One of the joys of being both an infrequent gamer and a niche (read "wrestling") gamer is that I tend to miss a lot of titles that come out over the past year. Whether they be good or bad, I've missed both of them the majority of the time. That's not to say I'm not interested in different types of games, it's just that at $40-$50 a pop, I tend to be a little stingy on what I take a chance on.

Enter 60-80% off. I'm a lot more willing to take a chance on games that I've heard a little about (or even heard nothing about). Over the course of 3 trips to the Goody, here's what I've ended up with:

	Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance	Roman Empire fighting RPG. I think.
	The Warriors	Based on the movie, which I've never seen. From the makers of the Grand Theft Autos.
	Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain	I haven't played a Syphon Filter game in a while. I hope they still have the taser!
	Terminator 3: Redemption	I think I remember a review that said this was a mediocre game. It ended up costing me $8.09. I hope I get my money's worth.
	The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction	Russ SMASH!
	Ultimate Spiderman	Russ THWIP!
	Batman Begins	Russ BATARANGS! The back of the box says "Fear Is Your Weapon". I can't think of any other games where "fear" has been in my arsenal. I hope I get other weapons, too.
	Battlefield 2: Modern Combat	I generally suck at FPS games on consoles. The reviews say this one plays more like an arcade shooter than a classic FPS, so maybe I can kill more than I'm killed.
	Gun	I western. For the XBox. How can you pass up something like this when it's less than $12?
	Fantastic Four	It's supposed to be based on the movie. I know it can't be good (movie tie-in video games usually aren't). I got caught up in the moment full of savings. Damn You, Goody!
	X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse	I wasn't very good at the first Legends Game - I kept getting Wolverine killed in his first mission. Luckily, this one has some cheat codes!
	GoldenEye: Rogue Agent	A 007 game where you get to play the bad guy. Like the above, there are some handy cheats so that maybe I can get further than I did in Everything or Nothing (which would be the end of the first freakin' mission. No wonder I only play wrestling and driving games, I seem to suck at the rest of them.
	From Russia With Love	Another 007 game. The commercials sucked me into getting this one. For $9.

With all of those games, you would think I would jump on them and get to playing. But not me. I've decided that after a year and a half of off and on playing of GTA San Andreas, I've got to finish the game. And in looking at one of the walkthroughs, I seem to be about ½ way through the game. I finished Vice City, so now it's just a matter of pride. I know I can finish this game (especially with some infinite ammo, regenerating health code, and all the other cheats that are out there), it's just a matter of wading through the billion missions.

But after those billion missions are complete, I've got 13 more games a-waiting: 5 Super Hero games; 2 007 games; And whatever the others are. I think my free time is well occupied for the next year or two.

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