Ryan McFarland

If you have begun to replace your incandescent Christmas lights with LED lights then you’re already well on your way to saving money. LED lights don’t need constant replacement like incandescents do. They use up to 90% less electricity and since they are cooler there is a reduced fire hazard. The only real reason to keep your old lights is because you have them. Well, what if you knew your old ones would be recycled and you could get 10% off your purchase of new, cool, inexpensive to operate LED Christmas lights? Sounds like a deal to me (even though we didn’t put a tree up this year). So recycle your old Christmas lights and save some money in the long run. You have to have them postmarked by the end of January to get the discount.

It might be a good time to mention the Instructables LED contest with prizes of Robot t-shirts and TV-B-gone kits. I have an idea for a project that would use LEDs to light up our house number that is etched in plexiglass. Hmmm… I do have a piece of glass and some chemical glass etching that i could use to make this little project. The contest closes on the 10th of January.

I better go pack up our old Christmas lights and maybe lay out some house numbers on glass.

Klas takes some great pictures.  He’s been doing a lot with his fish-eye lens recently and judging by his angle taking this shot this picture is no exception.

Have you bought a diamond in the last 13 years? I have. Three. One on an engagement ring and two on earrings. Well, it turns out that there’s a nice little class action lawsuit against DeBeers for their inflation of the value of diamonds. Seems like it almost rains money when i really decide to buckle down! File your claim here.

[tuned in thanks to Consumerist]

Bailee and Skye were playing some sort of online Scrabble game while they were visiting.  Cena invited me to a game of it and now i’m hooked.  Well, not hooked - but always looking forward to my next turn.  This is kind of like people playing chess over long distances - “correspondence chess” where you can be notified of your turn by email and then when you have time sit down and make your play.  In real-life Scrabble you often sit waiting for your opponents to take turns.  This virtual game called Scrabulous allows you to do the dishes, sleep, or wait however long you want before playing.  No table occupied by a board.  No tiles knocked by cats.  Feel free to invite me to a game if you want - i can’t promise a quick play but i promise i won’t use any online tools to look up the best word given my tiles.

One thing i have learned about being on top of technology is that you leave behind you a wake of discarded items that just are not good enough anymore. I have used the following PDAs… Visor Deluxe, Visor Prism, Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 680. My cell phone ancestry merges into my PDA lineage like this… Nokia 5165, Sony T61d, Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 680. Add the computers, printers, and other electronic stuff i’ve upgraded and i start to feel bad about the pile of tech trash left behind.  Sometimes i have done trade-ins for my cell phone - send in the old one for a rebate toward the replacement.  But you’re always required to buy that new product.  Selling items on eBay or Amazon has worked for me in the past with some items.  In the case of my laptop replacement i couldn’t send it to anyone in good conscience.  There seems to be a short that causes it to heat up and the fan runs constantly.  But the components are worth something.

Enter Costco’s Trade-In and Recycle program.  Looks like they will give you a Costco cash card in exchange for your unwanted electronics.  In most cases i think you could get more money using online sales though.  But this is one more option available.

Yes, lately i have been fascinated by people that get paid to blog. Isn’t there something luring you into a career that involves telling everybody and nobody what you think about things and getting paid for it? I guess the only job better might be writing those two word reviews that end up on the backs of movie boxes - “Riveting entertainment…” or “Suspense spectacular!”

So we’re six days into November - just three work days for us M-F folks. That’s $618.24 worth of gross income for me. Let’s see how the top income blogs on PayPerPost are doing so far in November. They are prominently displayed on the bottom of the main page of the site but there are not links to the user’s blog or any way to tell what these people are writing about. So i did some snooping. Ok - googling.

Crissy has earned $442.94 which comes to $18.45 if she worked as many hours as i have this month. She runs Dear Crissy which is a Pagerank 4 site and has an Alexa score of 133,997. She is 27 and lives in Ohio. She works full time according to her about Crissy page so she made that in her “off” time from work - nights and weekends. That makes that kind of a chunk of income pretty spectacular. That comes to $73.82 a day in additional income or $26,945 a year (at that rate) in side money. Nice going Crissy!

Laurie has earned $416.20 to date in November. That comes to $17.34 an hour. She runs La Vie de Laurie which has a Pagerank of 2 and Alexa score of 206,307. She is 29 and lives in Texas. Laurie seems to have a full time job also so her income is also a nice addition to her salary.

Colleen is not on the top earners for November but she is the all-time top paid postie. She runs seven blogs including Simple Kind of Life which is a Pagerank 5 site and scores 57,202 on Alexa. She is 31 years old and has been paid $17,870 for her PayPerPost posts.

Hrm - there is a trend forming. Female bloggers - in late 20s or early 30s. All have mentioned a husband or boyfriend on their about me pages… Looks like i should change my gender and rename my girlfriend and i might be able to work my way up there in my off time.

Oh dear me.  Finally.  Myspace just got with 2004.  They now have a mobile page.  You can’t go there with a desktop browser because they kick you right back to the main page with the ads (if you have not blocked them already).  So bookmark mobile.myspace.com in your phone - if you’ve ever tried going there with a phone before it was torture waiting for the pages to load.  They finally got with the times and did something right!  You even can click on numbers on your keypad to navigate some of the pages!

I’ve been bragging about my smartphone since my first one - my Treo 600.  Well there’s a round robin going on right now where writers from four sites are swapping phones and giving their honest opinions of the hardware, software, and function of the phones they don’t use when compared to the ones that they are used to.  Participate in forum posts or the comments on the stories and you’re entered to win your choice of a smart phone.  People ask me my opinion of my phone often enough - here’s a good chance to get a comparison from the pros.

Kaboodle is a decent way to collect things you want from many websites into one online wish list.  All you need to do is add some items and you have the chance to win them daily between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  Check out the Wish-A-Day on Kaboodle rules.  Of course, by having a wish list and letting people know about it you’re far more likely to “win” an item from your wish list by having a friend or family member buy it.  But maybe Kaboodle wants to be your friend.

Sign up for SmartHome’s email newsletter and you’re entered to win $500 worth of home automation merchandise.  These systems allow you to control the house lighting and appliances wirelessly or with a PC.  I’ve always wanted to be able to use my DVD remote control to dim the lights during a movie and then bring them back on afterward.  Some of these products can do so much more.