Yep. New commandment. But seriously, I’m not one for posting affiliate links in my blog posts. I save them for the sidebar so I can make a “little” bit of cash. This time, however, I’m going to post my affiliate link because I’m selling something that is free and that makes you at least a little bit of cash.

It’s called Scour. You’ll notice it’s already on my sidebar under the EC widget¹. Basically, it’s a search engine that gives you results from Yahoo, Google, MSN, and gives many other really great features.

See, I’ve used things like Yuwie and found them to be trash. Tons of spam. Bad service. But this one is a really good service. It’s a better search engine from what I can see so far. You can even vote up and down search results so that only the good stuff starts showing at the top.

And here’s the kicker: EVERY search earns you points. And those points can be used to get VISA Gift Cards. You also earn points for commenting and voting. Here’s what you get with your points:

25,000 = $100
12,500 = $50
6,500 = $25

See? Nice huh. I do tons of searches as I do a LOT of research on the web². Might as well get paid for those searches. Right? Make sure to check out their FAQ page while you’re there. Very informative.

But again, that IS an affiliate link so I can earn points on YOUR searches. It’s not multi-tier. You only earn 25% of the points from your direct signups. But hey, every little bit counts. And this time, it’s actually a really good FREE service. So check it out. Here’s my link one more time:

http://scour.com/invite/saphrym

(If you absolutely HATE affiliate links, feel free to sign up on your own through scour.com, but I appreciate any signups through my link.)

Feel free to discuss other affiliate services in the forums: Affiliate Services and Products

1. directly below the Ask Saph link… hint hint [«]
2. I’ve even been paid to look up medical diagnostics equipment and tests. Go figure. [«]

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I know many of you have probably already heard of Pandora, but I just have to give my own opinion here. Paying for XM radio is basically silly if you’re only looking for music. Sure, they have some great talk radio, but if you’re only there for commercial free playing of songs, you can’t really do much better than Pandora.¹

Ok. I admit. It’s not advertisement free unless you pay $36 a year. Oh, wait, did I say $36. Must be a typo, right? XM Radio costs $7.00 a month. I’ll let you do the math. But it is commercial free. And it has tons to offer. See, you pick your own favorite music and artists and it uses the Music Genome Project to determine what other music you would like and plays it for you. Now, like a radio station, it won’t let you rewind, but you can skip songs you don’t like (up to about 3 to 5 times). And you can quickly thumb up or down a song so it knows to play more like it or less like it. For example, I like John Mayer and have a channel just for his music and others like it. Wanna listen to it? Here’s a link: John Mayer Radio

“Ok. Sounds good. I can listen to music on my computer. But what about in my car?”

Got AT&T or Sprint? Then go here: http://pandora.com/on-the-go

That’s right. They have a mobile version. And with all of the neat wires and such that are around nowadays, well, it would be easy to play your phone music through your car’s radio. Oh, and if you have an iPhone, they just released an iPhone app specifically for Pandora. And the mobile versions seem to work without a subscription. At least the iPhone version does. I haven’t tried the other ones yet.

So why pay for commercial free radio? If you’re into music as much as I am, you’ll find Pandora to not only be a great service, but it’ll open your ears to music you never knew you would like.

(And no, Pandora is not paying me for this post. I just love their service tremendously. Been using it for a while and still meet people who have never heard of it. So I felt it was definitely time to share.)

Do you have favorite channels that you listen to on Pandora? Share them on the forums.

1. It’s kind of like paying for luxury vacations when a walk down the road or a drive to a local city you’ve never been to could be just as entertaining, if not more entertaining. [«]

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Yep. Going to talk about dieting again. I was recently tagged for a meme by John, but you guys know I never follow the rules of memes. I will go ahead and tell you my fitness vice though: lack of exercise. I can blame it on lack of time, but that’s just an excuse. Until I decide to do it, I guess it won’t happen. But I did manage to have some breakthroughs in my dieting. And I’m going to tell you about them because I think they’re much cooler than surfing those top rated diet pills sites. Of course, fi diet pills are your thing, feel free if it works for you. It doesn’t work for me.

I told you guys about Diet Power recently. It’s a program that monitors my caloric intake and weight loss and tells me how many calories I can have per day to get one day closer to my goal. Well, check out this graph from the program:

Notice the line is going down. That jump at the beginning was when I started the new calorie based diet¹. But after that, I’ve managed to make the line go slowly down. Now, the straight line at the top is my current progress. It follows the red line. The straight line below that one heads to my goal of 200 pounds by April of 2009. They don’t match, but I’m working on that. I’ve tended to eat a few more calories than the program allows per day because I’ve been trying to find foods that “trick” me into being full. So the fact the weight line is going down is one breakthrough. As for the “tricky” foods. Well…

I bought a Magic Bullet a couple of days ago. That’s not an affiliate link. It’s to the best source of information on the machine. But for purchasing it, I recommend looking one up on eBay. I got it for much lower than the price on that site. But basically, it’s an awesome blender. I’ve been using it to mix my Slim-Fast shakes and I recently added smoothies to my diet because frozen strawberries, bananas, water, and Splenda make a 150 calorie 16 ounce smoothie. Gotta love it!

Also, it’s great for just about any chopping and food processing. It really DOES clean up as quick as they say on the infomercial. It really is as easy to use. I love it. And here’s a neat trick if you’re dieting and feel hungry. It’s also good for adding water to your diet². Fill the mug up with ice, add an extract of your choice³, add a little Splenda to it⁴, blend, and you’ve got flavored ice with no calories whatsoever that you can eat with a spoon. It makes you feel like you’re eating even though you’re only drinking flavored water with no calories.

So there’s my tips for doing some dieting. I’m hoping that my smaller meals that I’ve started eating⁵ will lower my weight even more. We shall see. Between those two products, I hope to see some great results soon. I’ll scream it right here if I do.

Feel free to share your own Magic Bullet recipes in our forum: Magic Bullet Recipes

1. as I’m no longer diabetic so the low carb diet was actually hurting me in other ways such as cholesterol [«]
2. Diet Power tells you how much water you need in your diet too [«]
3. I like raspberry, vanilla, or cherry [«]
4. Or some other no calorie artificial sweetener, but I prefer the taste of Splenda [«]
5. To stay in line with what Diet Power allows me [«]

Posted by Saphrym | 6 Comments »

Some people have too much money. So I’ve decided to compile a list of some items that I think are just right for those kinds of people. I know I couldn’t afford them. Might be nice if I could for a few of the items. But here it goes:

• Ironkey Thumb Drive - Ok. I understand military applications. I also understand corporate applications. But if someone in the real world (meaning those of uss in the middle income bracket and lower) have that valuable and secret of data that they ened to spend the extra bucks on the extra security, then I’m guessing that the data should be sold so you can afford the darn drive.
• Wendy Culpepper’s handcrafted jewelry - A lot of famous people wear this stuff. I mean some of it’s nice, and if she does custom work and I had tons of cash, I’d look into getting a fairy pendant designed for my wife. Or maybe I’d work on world peace. Hmmm.
• 14 MPH Cooler - That’s right. It’s a cooler and scooter all in one. Doesn’t look very comfortable to sit on. And it costs around 500 bucks. Sheesh!
• Remote Controlled Caddy - Speaking of weird things that move. 2000 dollars for a remote controlled golf caddy. Wow. I think I’d rather just pay some guy a few bucks to do it instead. Or maybe, just maybe, carry them myself? While riding around in my solar powered golf cart?

I can’t look for more. Some items in some of these places actually catch my attention and bring out the consumer in me that wants to spend money on an animatronic roommate for my daughter (cause I would have loved one when I was a kid). So feel free to look around the Internet and show me your own ideas for items that would fit this list.

Posted by Saphrym | 6 Comments »

(For more information about my dieting and weight loss, click here. For more information about the specific foods I eat, click here.)

I bet you thought I meant something else with the title, right? Nope. I bought an iPhone. Our taxes came in and I asked my wife if it was ok to buy myself an iPhone, because that’s what husbands like me have to do when making big purchases like this.

Of course I pulled out all the stops too. I mentioned how we could use the map feature while on the road so we wouldn’t get lost. I told her I could hang out with her more now and still be able to get e-mails read and such. But the truth is, I meant them. I was not only telling her, but I was telling me. See, I used to spend money very easily. But about 6 or 7 years ago I stopped. We have a Wii, but I sold tons of stuff like games and hobby stuff just to get it. So I had to “sell” the iPhone to not only her but me too.

So today I splurged. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that with money I haven’t earned specifically for the “fun stuff.” I’m proud of myself for having gone this long without a purchase like this. But this time, I gave in to my consumer side. But this has been a planned purchase for 2 weeks now, so it was definitely not a spur of the moment thing.

I still can’t believe you thought I splurged on my diet. I know you did as soon as you saw that title. You should know better by now. I never splurge on my diet. I try, but it just doesn’t happen. You’ll understand what I mean with tomorrow’s diet post.

DIET DIARY

Numbers from Today

Blood Sugar: 101
Weight: 282.8 (See? Came right back after a normal day of food.)
Fat Percentage: 48.4
Water Percentage: 30.2
Muscle Percentage: 34.7

Food and Exercise from Yesterday

Fluids: Water (16 oz - 5 times a day)
Exercise:
20 Curls of 85 pounds.
20 min of cardio
Friday from my exercise plan.
Meal 1:
Oatmeal
Multivitamin
B150 Vitamin Complex
Snack 1:
1 Slim Fast 220 Calorie Optima Bar
Meal 2:
Pizza
Snack 2:
1 Slim Fast 220 Calorie Optima Bar
Meal 3:
Leftover Pizza

Posted by Saphrym | 16 Comments »

I was going to make this into a guide on how to get yourself screen protectors for life. I was going to give step by step instructions, publish it as an eBook, and then sell it to you for $9.99. Actually it was only a temptation. Here’s the information for free:

It all began with a portable Nintendo DS game system. I was looking for a screen protector for it. Looked on eBay, looked on Froogle.com, etc. I couldn’t find one that was reasonably priced, and since I have an original DS instead of the “Lite” version, could barely even find one at all.

So a couple of weeks pass. I’m in Wal-Mart looking around in the craft section because I like to browse, and I wander over to the fabric area. I see rolls of clear stuff. I go look closer and find out they are clear vinyl rolls. I start messing with them and try to figure out what they would be good for. They say they’re for covering patio furniture and the like, but as I stare at them something “dings” in my head.

“Screen Protectors!” I shout. People looked at me weird. The lady that runs fabrics looked like she might call security. So after assuring her I was completely sane, I told her why I got so excited. She got excited too because she had a DS. This time I had to reassure the customers around us that the fabric lady was quite sane. However, I decided not to tell them why we were so excited as this might have caused a relapse that would have spread.

So, that’s how I found the stuff. It’s the second thinnest clear vinyl covering they carry. One is paper thin. You don’t want that. You want the next one.

Now, I know you may be wondering what this has to do with “Screen Protectors for Life,” well, I’ll tell ya: Screen protectors for any device run from $10 to $30. This stuff is able to be custom fit (measure, cut, place). But the really great part, an entire YARD of this stuff only cost me $1.77. Yeah, you read that right: $1.77. And I have enough to probably cover all the portable devices in the city. So, I’m figuring I’m not gonna run out of this stuff until portable devices are installed in your brain and screen protectors aren’t needed anymore.

Oh, this stuff goes on without any glue, liquids, etc. Just press to the screen and rub it with something until it looks good. You could put a tiny drop of water underneath it to make it look even better, but I don’t. I’m fine with it the way it is.

Quick Recap

For cheap screen protectors:

1. Go to a Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, etc.
2. Buy some clear vinyl. Not the paper thin stuff, but the next thickest one.
3. Measure the screen you want to protect (great for cell phones too).
4. Measure the vinyl.
5. Cut the vinyl.
6. Clean your screen carefully and completely.
7. Place vinyl on screen (Add a drop of water under it to make it look nicer if ya want).
8. Rub until the air bubbles are gone and it looks nice and clear.

That’s it. You’re done. Enjoy.

Oh, and one last thing, remember The Saphrym Magnet? This material is what I made his glasses out of. So, it can actually be used for crafts too. Go figure. Oh! Oh! What if you attach some to your refrigerator and then use a write-on-wipe-off marker? Or, what if you cover one of your walls with a large piece of it and let the kids paint it with t-shirt paint? It could be rolled up and stored after everyone gets a good look. Hmmm… Let’s see… what else is there? *walks off talking to himself about more ideas for clear vinyl*¹

1. The *something between the asterisks* method of typing is usually used in Internet chat as a way of portraying an action the writer is taking. [«]

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Neil, over at NeilShearing.com, started a “Which Internet Marketer has the worst digital watch?” contest. Now, I’m not a professional Internet Marketer like the guys over there, but I put my two cents worth in by proving that not only was I a Geek, but that I don’t even HAVE a digital watch. Matt Garrett, in the comments, had mentioned having a binary watch but hated trying to tell the time so sold it on eBay. So I decided to tell them that -I- had a binary watch. Now all I did was link to the picture of it at ThinkGeek.com. I don’t think people believed me. So, in living color, below is a picture of the watch (which is showing a time of 10:14 by the way) on my arm and next to my face (Ok, so the face part is a fib. Sue me.)

So yes, not only do I have the binary watch from ThinkGeek Gadgets, but I know how to read it. And heck, why not, I’ll explain:

• Two rows of lights. You push the button on the side and the lights light up.
• The top row is the hour. The lights have numbers above them in this sequence: 8 4 2 1
• The bottom row is the minutes. The lights have these numbers below them: 32 16 8 4 2 1
• Basically, you add the numbers above the lights in the top row to get the hour. (So in the picture, 8 and 2 are lit. 8+2=10)
• Then, you add the numbers below the lights in the bottom row to get the minutes. (In the picture, 8, 4, and 2 are lit. 8+4+2=14)
• So again, the time is 10:14.

So, scientifically speaking, if I own the watch and know how to read it, I must be a geek. But look what I chose and designed as a logo. My inner geek.

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