We got snow up here this morning. Kathy said it was big ol' flakes. And for the first time this season, it stuck to the ground. I went and got our Christmas stuff out of storage. It was the type of day where you wanted to hibernate. We took a nap this afternoon. We got up just after 6 and started putting the tree up while Kathy started getting dinner ready.
And if you're wanting to get in the spirit of things, Luke Ski has a link to the first 5 minutes of the new Muppets Christmas special, coming December 17th.

I just read the news that the show Deal Or No Deal is no longer a series but will be specials. The daytime version will continue. I'm surprised I didn't read this on Mark Evanier's site. While we were still watching it, I'm not going to lose any sleep over this. Take the last one we just watched. The commercials were hyping that there was going to be a $1.1 million offer made and that the contestant would go all the way. Not only did it make you feel like they were giving away the ending of the show, it wasn't actually how it ended. She took a smaller ending and did the "if you continued, what case would you have picked/and the offer would've been" situation. Just the latest in a long line of their shennanigans, also killing it with overexposure. It won't be missed.

They're reporting that this year's Black Friday sales were up 3%. So for one, that kind of screws up the naysayers with their annual predictions that this year will be the worst for retailers. Another is that it will encourage the stores to keep up their doorbuster deals, since it looks like it works. Or at the very least, that discontinuing it with sales going so well would be stupid. There'll have to be more injuries and death before it ends, or it'll look that way.

Don't let the cold weather throw you, even in the winter time the sun comes out, even in the grayness of the Rust belt. Rather than keeping your hand up to block out the sun, why not get you a pair of one of these Wayfarer sunglasses and look a lot better keeping the sun out of your eyes?

Steve Thompson has a movie list that isn't based on opinions, or subject to outside debate. This is one of his lists of movies that he wanted to see, that he revisited with an update on status on whether he got to see it or not. This isn't like other cinephiles that would list movies that are lost or locked up (although there is one on the list) this is merely a listing of movies that he hadn't got to see at the time the list was made. He says he's had other versions of the list he's made in the past but he doesn't know where they are at this. Hopefully, he'll find those other lists and share them with us.

With the times getting tougher out there, a lot of companies are cutting back. But for a lot of companies, the dilemna is what to do about advertising. If you cut back on advertising you may end up cutting back on increased business which is only going to hurt you more. But you don't want to waste money on advertising, especially if it isn't going to result in any increase in business. You might as well throw your money away. What you need to do is to see about employing more effective methods such as social media marketing where you can create advertising on a ground roots level, with people who want to write about your goods and services in their own words, stirring up interest and getting people more interested in your business. IZEA has a variety of options and methods to help you get the most out of your advertising dollar.

Gas prices have really went down, and I never thought that it would ever happen. And now they're worried about stabilizing the price of oil and don't want it to get much lower. And there's a Saudi king who thinks the price should be $75 a barrel. We'll give it a lot of consideration. In fact, we'll give it as much consideration as you did to our request to make it less back when it was about twice that price. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to see about getting some bills paid, and maybe getting some Christmas presents.

Widget is a very small program that allows a user to store files on their computer. It isn't something that comes preinstalled on your computer, but downloaded from Yahoo! Konfabulator was the former owner of this type of file until Yahoo! acquired it and offered it as part of their programs. Konfabulator still some files on its' own such as opera widget file type. Although the widget is a very small program, if it isn't downloaded and installed right it can interfere with other programs on your computer and can cause major problems that you might not be aware of until it is too late. Or at the very least it won't operate as efficiently, so you want to make sure that downloading and installation is all done properly. After you download it you need a dock that will allow you to manage it on your desktop. Although they are small files, they can help you with many practical functions, such as a calculator or clock. Not only that, but if you use a lot of wifi, it can let you know what the signal strength is at the location you are using it. Plus it can come in handy on a mobile phone such as determining internet strength. Although all of this sounds intimidating and overwhelming, it's easy to learn and utilize, but forwarned is forearmed.

Mark Evanier writes about the fun he had at Boston Market yesterday. You'd think if a place sells soup, they'd have spoons. You don't even think about it, you just kind of assume. You don't know what's worse, the restaurants or the customers. And it's another reason why there's going to be less Boston Markets as time goes on.

If you have a sportsman on your Christmas list, and you're not sure what to get them, I heard about this deal I want to tell you about where you can save money and get them something great.

With this Nikon Ultimate Hunter's Package Promo you can get them presents that they'll really love. This package includes a ProStaff 3-9x40 Riflescope with BDC Reticle, a ProStaff Laser Rangefinder, a Silent Technology Rangefinder Case, Mastering a Long-range shot with BDC DVD, and a $50 NikonProGear Gift Card. So not only do they get a lot of items they'll love to receive, there's a gift card so they can pick out something and get it just as the post-holiday letdown sets in. And you save $144.90 by getting all that for them. If you're looking for something else, Nikon is offering $20 off on their Nikon Action Extreme ATB 10x50 Binoculars. And they're expanding their gift card promotion to include Nikon Monarch Binoculars, Trailblazer Binoculars, Nikon Action 10x50 Binoculars and ANY Nikon ATB Binoculars. And they're offering special holiday prices on ProStaff Riflescopes, Nikon Monarch Rifle Scopes, Buckmasters and Omega Riflescopes. So if there's anyone on your list who'd love any of these items, and you'd love to save money getting them, head on over there today.

Everybody else is gone for the holiday, so I guess I will, too. There's all sorts of other things I can get into. I might pop back online, maybe not. Have fun, and I'll see you next week. And in case you missed it here's a cool moment from yesterday's Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Update 7:30pm: Haven't finished yet, checked my e-mail before logging off to find I made a sale through Amazon and had to get that ready. Checked a couple of other things, including Comic Book Resources' gift giving guide for toys and apparel, DVD and game, and book recommendations.

If you're currently dealing with a lawsuit you're frustrated with how slow it's going. Meanwhile, the bills are piling up. If you're looking for a way to get money before you get the judgement see about legal funding to help you out. And there's no risk, you pay only if you win. So stop the worry and the calls by getting a loan.

With the holiday season now underway, some of you aren't sure what to ask for for gifts. And it's hard to keep track of everything that you see, and you might forget something when you're making your list, even if you check it twice. Fortunately, one good source of gift ideas whether for yourself or someone on your list is Ain't It Cool News' annual lists of gifts for the holdays. They've got part 1 with DVDs, Blu-rays, Electronics, and Geek Clothing. And part 2 with books, toys and video games. And part 3 with collectibles, art, and other rich stuff. I found a lot of things I didn't know about. I don't know if there'd be enough to add the new Star Wars Encyclopedia to the list, but it looks intriguing. And I knew Carrie Fisher had a memoir out now, but my interest shot way up when I saw the cover (Steve Thompson has a picture of it and his review of the book here). And the crazy thing from Neiman-Marcus? This year it's making a you out of Legos. And a watch made from moon dirt and the melted metal fragments of Apollo 11 for between $15,000 and $450,000.

One thing that I like about these times is that the things that we didn't have a choice in getting now have so many choices available. Remember when cable TV got popular and moved from the areas that didn't get aerial reception to more populated areas? It was like a utility where there was only one company that offered it, and they would get to your home whenever, and when it was available you had to make an appointment and make yourself available to get their service at their convenience because what are you going to do, hook up a coat hanger to the back of your TV? Same with the phone company and internet. I was anxious to get online back in the 90s, and even paid long distance charges to hook up because there weren't any local internet available to me. Now not does my local phone company provide my internet, I have other options to choose from.

And with those choices comes competition, with businesses wanting your business and competing for it, not taking it for granted. And Charter has a great deal going on their bundled services. They've got a black friday/cyber Monday deal that doesn't involve having to camp out all night for the possibility of getting. Sign up for their services, whichever ones you want, like cable TV, internet and phone; and whichever package you select not only will you get the best price out there, you will get a gift card for at least what the monthly charge will be. Want to finish up your holiday shopping, get a card for your favorite store, or go out and have some good meals? They have a card for you. And you'll be entered in a drawing to win one of 45 XBox 360 systems. With XBox Live there's yet another way you can enjoy your services from Charter, either with online gaming, chatting with your friends or streaming movie and TV shows via Netflix. So if you're looking for a company to get cable, internet and phone service; or you're looking for a better deal, check out what Charter has to offer you today.

Yahoo has the story up I talked about earlier. I forgot to mention earlier I first read this story as reported on Cooper's Retail Blog, "written" by the fictional character in the comic strip Retail. They're reporting that the pregnant lady and her unborn baby are okay, and that would be good if that were the case. But with the footage of shoppers storming in each year, and behaving in such a way that I have described it in the past as "The opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, only without the laugh track", something like this was bound to happen.
Shoppers kept storming into the store as emergency workers tried to save the man that died.
I have just one question to retail establishments that participate in Black Friday with their doorbusters specials, creating an environment like this where as I said in the headline to my last post that it was a matter of time "Why?"
What benefit are you getting from all of this? There are a lot of customers like me who realize that those good deals you advertise aren't there by the time I get there, even if I get to the store before it opens, unless I plan to camp out the night before. But the trouble so outweighs the deal that I opt to pay a little more to get something without the hassle. And it can't be that the day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year, as that has been long disproven.
The only thing I can think of for the reason this still continues is that it's the way it's always been done, so we must continue to do it, because who wants to rock the boat? And fear. What if a store decided not to participate in the madness, and didn't have hyped up Black Friday doorbuster deals? And what if that retail chain didn't do as well this holiday season as last year? With the news stories we read each year, it's a certain fact. They'll look back and come to the conclusion that they didn't do as well is because they didn't offer a small quantity of loss leader items sold below cost that's long done 5 minutes after they opened their doors on Black Friday. Well, who made that bone-headed decision? He did? YOU'RE FIRED!
And after that plays out in their head, they realize they don't want that to happen, and the cycle continues.
A lot of people say that they don't want the government to step in and do something in a case like this, and I can certainly see the point they're making, but how's it going to stop? Are people going to wise up and quit participating in this? Is management in stores going to decide not to participate in this madness, or let fear and sheep mentality keep them going?
How many more people have to be injured and killed?

Have you seen night vision and thought it would be cool to have? Let's face it, most of you reading this post aren't in the military or mercenary fields or go out hunting, but a lot of you just think it's a cool thing to add to your arsenal. And good for me that a lot of you don't want to be Batman, either. But no matter what reason you'd want night vision OpticsPlanet has it all at a low price. If you're looking for night vision for various applications, night vision goggles, night vision binoculars, night vision scope, night vision cameras, night vision monoculars and night vision rifle scope; they've got what you're looking for. Whether you need night vision for neighborhood watch, hunting, security, SWAT, law enforcement and military, they have the right equipment for you. And they offer a variety of brands such as ATN, Yukon, Bushnell, Trijicon, Weaver, Aimshot, Insight Technology, ITT and many more. Not only that, but OpticsPlanet offers a full line of military & tactical gear, holsters, flashlights, rifle scopes, rangefinders, binoculars, hearing protection, red dot scopes, tactical gloves, safety goggles & much more.

For some reason (if pressed, I would say because I saw the machine across the street and it still had papers) I went and got a copy of the Indianapolis Star yesterday. I think the reason there were copies left was because it was $1.75 instead of 75 cents, the price of a Sunday paper instead of a weekday paper, in other words. The only difference was the amount of sales papers for Black Friday deals in it. There was a disagreement over in Tony Isabella's board about paying more for ads that some thought should've been paid for by the businesses themselves. And there was the great deals and hype that's all there if you go to their stores when they open, you can get all this stuff. Been there, done that, not falling for the okeydoke this time.
But with all the hype and seeing the footage of shoppers stampeding in when the doors are opened, and the stories of injuries while shopping, everyone wondered how long it would be before something terrible happened. It was today. Ironically, in Long Island. Not ironically, at a Wal-Mart.
On a related note, The Great Luke Ski has his new song "Black Friday" available for free download. I wish I had a better segue for this, but there isn't. And it fits in with what I'm saying here, which is why it doesn't get it's own post. But Luke Ski says it in song and in a better and shorter manner than myself. Which is why he's an entertainer with fans and I'm a schmuck with a blog.

With all the Turkey Day talk here, I forgot to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. It's cliched to do the "take a minute and think of what all you're thankful for" post, but if that thought doesn't fit the holiday, what does? Especially with those still mad at me for calling it "Turkey Day". I could go in the whole song and dance about how bad a year it has been for all of us, others have it tougher than us, look at what all you have, etc. but I don't think shaming you into something is the way to go. I don't like it when it's done to me. When I first read the comic American Splendor years ago, Harvey Pekar had a line in one of his stories where he said "I know I've got my health. So what?" A lot of you might write it off as his being a curmudgeon. But I read that line and said "Yes! Thank you!" because I think all of us feel that way, but supress that thought the minute we think about it because we think we're bad people for thinking that. And no one ever said they've thought that, so we think we're the only ones who ever did, and we push it down more. But there are some thoughts that all of us have had at one time or another, and it feels good when someone finally acknowledges that they've had that thought as well.
But c'mon, if you think about it for a second, there is a lot of things to be thankful for. Forget about the internet being in the top 5, if the Internet isn't the top 5 for me there's something wrong. Okay, Kathy and some family members would get mad they didn't make the top of the list, and they should be there for more reasons than just to pacify them, but the internet tubes alone give me so much to be thankful for. Like the blog roll on the right side, each and every link there (even the ones I haven't been to in a while) is a present and treasure trove to read when you click through. And instead of having to wade through hours of parade coverage to get the one float you want to see, and having to keep track of the tape you taped it on, a quick search on YouTube can find it and you can even embed it on your blog, like I did earlier. Missed seeing something? No problem, it's either on YouTube, their site, or somewhere else where you can see it without wading through all the chaff. And there's so much more online to sing the praises of before we even think about porn.

Let's face it, with all the talk about the housing market taking a dive and when is it going to go back up and make our economy all better, we're focusing too much on the forest and forgot about this thing called trees. No matter what shape the market is in, people are going to be moving and looking for a place to live no matter what. They only worry about housing markets and retail value and all that stuff the economic talking heads talk about on the talk shows because they want to get the best deal on a place of their own. They're not looking for investments or return on capital or anything like that, they want a place for their stuff, as George Carlin put it. And if you're looking to move to Oklahoma you would do well to check out this oklahoma real estate site. Not only do they have houses for sale there, they have tips on how to find the home you're looking for, real estate agents that can help you, resources and articles to help you buy and sell your home in Oklahoma, and more. So why do all that travelling looking at homes all over the place when you start at this website? Get a better idea of what you're looking for and where it might be.

TV shows cancelled too soon. Guess how many were on Fox?
And how bad is it out there? If you buy a toaster you can get a free bank.
And what better way to celebrate the holiday than with some Turkish Star Wars?
Mental Floss busts the myth (because due to copyright laws I can't phrase it any other way) that Turkey makes you tired. Liked pigging out today? Here's some other places where you can go nuts.
Other comics bloggers had this picture up for the holiday, but only Mark read my mind.
And Retail has been doing a series about stocking the hot new videogame system that started here. Although I hate the idea of stores holding that hard to find item back for employees, I hope Cooper finds a way to foil ol' Zucchini Head's edict to put them all out for the customers. Might I suggest the top of a ral high aisle that people can't see?

For some reason I associate sunglasses with warmer weather. It's probably since they associate sunglasses with summer time, relaxing by the pool, being on vacation, and generally taking it easy. But they would've come in handy yesterday while I was out and about. I had to use my sun visor to keep the sun out of my eyes while driving. What I need is some good quality eyeglasses that can serve me well year round. The only problem is I don't want to spend a fortune getting a pair. That's no problem at OpticsPlanet. They offer a wide variety of sunglasses and eyewear that will suit any budget and taste. No matter what you're looking for whether it's polarized sunglasses, aviator sunglasses, sun glasses with interchangeable lenses, designer sunglasses, safety glasses, shooting glasses, or if you need a pair while participating in sports such as tennis, golf, or other sports; they have all these and more. If you're not sure what kind of sunglasses would be the best for you, they have a how to buy sunglasses guide that can narrow down the choices and let you pick the best ones for you. And with free UPS shipping on all orders over $29.95 you can save even more money. So don't wait until summer to get some sunglasses if you need them now, even in Indiana the sun comes out once in awhile, get a good deal at OpticsPlanet.

I'm checking out the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade while online today. Hopefully the group they put Kathy in lets her watch it on TV as well, as it's one of her favorites. And if you're an online junkie like me, you're probably scrambling for something to read. C'mon, what are you going to do, watch football? Here's a float they should bring back to the parade:

And if you ever get sick of the sticky, sweet holiday shows and specials, check out this list of 10 Unconventional Winter Holiday Movies. They run the gamut from realizing right away it is a holiday movie, to taking a minute to realize it did take place at Christmas, so it qualifies.
Someone finally fulfilled their dream of recreating the Thanksgiving meal from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, especially the way it was made.
And if you're still on the hunt for Black Friday deals, here's a list of them, including some you can get online now.
And Augie De Blieck Jr talks about the troubles he's had due to the studios protecting their content that only hurts the people who pay for it lawfully.

You ever watch a science fiction show where someone is talking but you find out that they're actually dictating to a machine that's typing into a machine? Are you looking forward to the day when you can do that? Well, like with cell phones fulfilling the promise that Star Trek communicators made, that day is here right now. Check it out:

With Dragon Naturally Speaking what you want to write can be as easy as saying it out loud. Being able to increase your writing productivity can also increase your income. And now Nuance is allowing me to offer my readers a 25% Discount Coupon CODE Exclusive for Dragon Naturally Speaking, but you must click the image below and use this code (DNSMSBG) Together. Code will not work from other sources. And if you're a Mac user, no problem. There's 10% off MacSpeech Dictate as well.

If this software sounds interesting to you, don't forget to Get Dragon Naturally Speaking using Discount code DNSMBG to save money and get this cool program for your computer.
The following is an excerpt from a white paper on the software. You can read the whole article here.

This is an excerpt from a white paper discussing how bloggers can earn more money through several different monetization and freelance writing services. It shows that bloggers that utilize Dragon Naturally Speaking can earn more money through these various services and how fast these extra earnings will pay for the software itself.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Blogger Break Even Analysis with Average PayPerPost Earnings

Basically, Dragon NaturallySpeaking can help you type so much faster, that you can earn a lot more money per hour.
In this article I'm going to walk you through another scenario focusing on how much extra you could earn if you wrote for PayPerPost.com and you had a single average blog. Now at PayPerPost.com, the amount of money that you earn for your writing is not paid on a per word basis.
PayPerPost.com offers up opportunities, they call them opportunities, but you can also think of them as piecework or a job, and these "opportunities" typically have a minimum word count. The minimum word count is typically 200 words for your average article. In general the average article at PayPerPost on a high earning blog pays about $8.3. Sometimes they pay a little less, and sometimes they pay a little bit more, and a few go to extremes on the positive side.
Now if you are paid $8.3 to write a 200 word article, then that breaks down to about 4.2 cents per word. That is about 6 times more than what you can make at textbroker.com. I mentioned that only for comparison purposes, because PayPerPost.com limits you to writing three articles per blog per day.
That means that you cannot write at PayPerPost all day long for your single blog. (If you have additional blogs, you might be able to write additional articles on those other blogs.)
Tip! – You can write your three articles at PayPerPost, write some additional articles without any sponsors in between those articles (as is required), and then write some articles at PayU2Blog, and when the work is exhausted there, you can write some articles at TextBroker.com! The trick is working for the company that pays you the most first, then moving on to the next highest margin provider, over and over again.
You will see in the case studies with Adsense that writing MORE articles is actually good for building traffic to your blog!
But if we assume, just to have a comparison to our textbroker.com example, if we assume that you could type articles at PayPerPost for fifty minutes straight, earning 4.2 cents per word, and you could type 35 words per minute, you could earn $72.88 dollars per hour at PayPerPost. Now obviously, you cannot take 9 articles on a single blog in a single day, but this does point to the rate at which you can earn things with the work that is available. That $72.88 would be the earnings you could make from about 8.8 Opportunities at $8.3 per Opportunity.
So bear with me again with this example. :-)
So what can faster typing skills do to help you earn more money at PayPerPost?
Well if you could type at 150 words per minute with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and you currently type at 35 words per minute, then you could earn about $239 per hour more! (Dragon only costs between $99 and $199 remember!)
Reminder - This would assume that you could type articles nonstop at a hundred and fifty words per minute for fifty minutes. For most of us, that doesn't mean a whole lot.
But to put this in better perspective, if you earned $72.88 from writing about nine articles, and those articles were each 200 words long, then you would have written a total of 1800 words.
• 1800 words can be typed and 50 minutes at 35 words per minute
• 1800 words can be typed in 12 minutes at 150 words per minute
Dragon NaturallySpeaking can essentially save you 38 minutes when you write nine articles.
Now with those additional thirty-eight minutes, you can spend more time:
• promoting your blog,
• networking with people,
• researching other projects,
• taking on other work from other networks
• build up a new blog to command $8.3 per article!
• Go write some articles for PayU2Blog
• Go write some articles for TextBroker
• Go write some articles to bring in more traffic and earn more money through Adsense!
You can pocket your $72.88 from twelve minutes worth of work. You can then spend the rest of that hour, working to ensure that the blog you publish those on performs very well. But the point is this, Dragon NaturallySpeaking can save you so much time, that it will pay for itself very quickly.
Your average part-time blogger will easily pay for Dragon NaturallySpeaking with the additional profits that they would earn from using Dragon NaturallySpeaking in less than 1 hour worth of blogging through PayPerPost alone. :-)
Plus just think of all of the time, that you would now have to make yourself and your site even more successful!

The past couple of days has had the webstrip PvP going through the Chinese curse of "living in interesting times". They had to pull the plug on their forums which due to bandwith issues had to make it a sudden development that judging from the posts showing up in my RSS feeder has ticked a lot of people off. And then he talks about this article about that mentions how PvP the comic has been doing that Kurtz says was hurt by mentioning it reprints what you can get for free on the web. Being super late surely wasn't that big a factor in his world. Since I switched over to getting my comics via mail order at the start of the year, PvP has been the title that has been super late. In fact, before pulling the plug on their service, I don't think I received any of the PvP I ordered, and had to order some issues that had shipped late. Kurtz says he's going to stop with issue 50 and go to a trade paperback shipping schedule in 2009, which sounds like mutually exclusive goals to me. I might go ahead and stop getting the monthly comic and just "wait for the trade" on that comic, since I don't want to get socked on shipping charges if I quit this subscription service with his books still on the yet to be shipped list.

Thanksgiving. The holiday where people can stuff themselves silly and reflect back on all that they're thankful for. But for some people, strategy is being planned. They're looking at all the sales flyers in today's paper and making their plans. Which stores to go and when. What they'll pick up. Some are even planning to go out tonight to camp out to get those deals.
For those who want to skip the madness but don't want to skip the chance to get one of those good deals, I say play the lottery. You'd have as much chance to get it, and you don't have to sit outside all night. Or if you want good deals without having to sit outside for hours you could go to Kmart and save time and money. They have lots of gifts under $25. They've got a hug sack which is a robe/blanket combination that I know my wife would love to wear while lounging around the house. And they have a foot bubbler that would be just the thing to put your feet in after a hard day. And if you have a child on your list (or a big kid like me) you can get the Iron Man car and action figure set.
You could even shop online and never have to leave the house. They offer free shipping if you order more than $49, and if you sign up for their e-mails, you can get two $5 coupons on a purchase over $50, one to use at the store and one to use online. So enjoy the holiday more without worrying about getting the Christmas shopping done.