The rules are pretty simple - register with Overstock’s competition by the 7th December, and you could win a prize from their site. How could it be better? How about five of your friends winning a prize at the same time (up to a total value of $1000)? If you are really lucky and win the grand draw prize, then you and your five best friends (they will soon be your best buddies even if they weren’t before ) get a $5000 pot to spend on your prizes!
So, click the link for the “All I want for Christmas Giveaway“, watch the flash presentation and start thinking which of your friends would most appreciate the gift if you win. You can enter once per day, and your friends can also enter in their own right. (Please see the rules section for exact details).
Personally, I would go for some classy diamond earrings for Irina, and maybe a new digital camera for us. Anyway, ChrisD, AlexC, Oleg, NickM and Seb (who could share with Con :)) would be my 5 nominated friends, if we all lived over in America, rather than Europe. Taking a moment to look at overstock’s inventory, I feel I would probably have difficulty in keeping to the 1K or 5K total, but then again its Christmas, so I suppose I could always dip into the bank account to top up the total budget…
As many regular readers will know, I sometimes supplement my income by writing posts for companies that want some links placed, or products reviewed. The vast majority of them pay via PayPal, and in US Dollars. In the past this was not too much of a problem, but having just checked my balance today, I can see that the weaker dollar means I am earning less and less (in UK pounds or Kazakh tenge) for each post I write.
As an example, my current PayPal balance is $171.05, which just a month ago would have equated to around £85. However, if I currently withdraw that money into my nominated UK bank account, I will get just £78.98. Whilst this may not seem a lot in isolation, over the course of a month or even a year, that means losing around $800 in currency exchanges. Of course, the dollar may well bounce back, and I can start looking at an exchange rate of around $2=£1 again, but until then, I’ll just have to hope the US politicians decide they no longer want a weak dollar, though that would obviously make US exports seems less attractive.
Never thought the US economy would effect my income so directly!
Apparently Northern Rock branches have been inundated with customers withdrawing money from their accounts? The reason is that they had to apply to the Bank of England for an emergency loan. Although the bank allegedly has enough financing to honour all customer’s requests, the situation came about after two major banks withdrew from separate negotiations to buy Northern Rock.
So why am I posting about this? Although I do not have a bank account with them, our mortgage is through the company, so I need to try and find out what would occur if the worst should happen and the bank goes under.
If anyone from the UK has professional knowledge of these matters, I’d appreciate it if you could make contact, either through the comments section below, or via the Contact page. I’m not looking for anything binding obviously, I just don’t know what happens to mortgages if the provider goes under - will the payments we have made already disappear, if a new company takes on the mortgage, are they at all obliged to keep to the original terms and conditions etc?
For anyone currently searching for a Direct Distributor of Apple, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft Products, then BestPricedBrands have a web site that will be of interest to you. The first time I loaded the site, there were no products on the front page, though a quick refresh sorted that temporary issue out.
When you arrive at the site, all you need to do is click on the link that most interests you at the top of the page in their menu. You will then be taken to a page listing all the items the site currently has available. In most cases, you will find that their prices mean savings for you, compared to buying them at Amazon for example. Thankfully, each item has a price comparison section, so you can quickly see just how much cheaper they are.
Should you require a little more background information about the product, simply click on it, and you will be taken to a further page that details all the relevant information. One thing that immediately stood out is that they do accept PayPal as a form of payment, which means earning I make from the blog could be spent there immediately, rather than having to wait four or five days for the money to transfer to my bank account, as I would with other sites that only accept debit and credit cards.
I’m not referring to which state your finances should be in, that is rather obvious. Instead, I’m talking about credit cards and debit cards.
When in Britain, the answer was nearly always obvious - using my Switch (now Maestro) card made more sense, as I could only spend what I actually had (I specifically asked for no overdraft on my bank account), and there were no fees involved. If I needed to immediately buy an expensive item, and would not get paid for a couple of weeks, then a credit card could help bridge the gap.
However, when it comes to spending money internationally, matters are complicated somewhat. It certainly makes sense to compare credit cards from different companies, as some charge more than others for overseas purchases; combine that with the fact that most shops in Kazakhstan do not accept Maestro, and you need to make sure you have the right card with you when you go out. Of course, if you already have a credit card and wish to swap, then the balance transfers available in the current market could well swing your decision as to which company to give your business to.
How To Tell When Blogging Is Taking Over Your Life
(collated from a few sources, added a few personal lines, removed non-relevant ones)….
You meet new people, and really resent the lack of an ‘About’ page attached to their forehead.
You check your blog based revenue more than your bank account.
You can’t remember important dates - your wedding anniversary, family birthdays etc., but you know what your Technorati rank is.
You’ve got more “blog friends” than “real life” friends.
Your breakfast of choice is marmite on toast, cornflakes and Google reader.
You think LSD is something to do with RSS or XML.
Your family doesn’t call you anymore, they just check your blog.
You think Nike should make a shirt that says “just blog it”.
You would buy it if they did.
You’re listening to the travel news and get excited by the phrase “heavy traffic”.
You think the 3 R’s are Reading, Writing and RSS.
After 5 minutes of meeting someone really interesting you ask, “So, do you blog?”
You can’t remember what you did last week without consulting your blog.
Your blogroll is bigger that your phonebook.
When asked to feed the kittens, you wonder if they would prefer RSS or Atom?
You know what a blog carnival is.
You’ve participated in one.
You wonder if they do vacations at the Googleplex.
Your lifetime goal is achieving a Page Rank of 8.
You refuse to wear black hats because you think it will affect your SEO.
You understood the last one You have more than three friends with numbers in their names.
You try to offer links as a form of payment to non-internet companies.
You start getting withdrawal symptoms when you go a day without posting.
You get more “approve this comment” e-mail messages than spam.
The name Kubrick means more to you than the director of A Clockwork Orange.
You finish reading this and go to make a post with your own additions…
Back in Britain, I took out a loan to consolidate some of my debts. It was easier to have one debtor to pay, than three or four separate ones. As the interest rate I got was no higher than the individual debts’, it didn’t cost more money either. Before we came to Kazakhstan, with the help of my wife and both our parents, we managed to pay off all our debts, so we didn’t need to worry about them whilst abroad.
I had to spend quite a long time phoning up different companies, trying to find the best deal, but these days, it can be a lot easier to find your ideal loan. You can read about news in the loans sector, to find out if any recent developments affect the type of loan you are looking for. For example, if interest rates have recently gone down, and you wish to take out a secured loan, you need to make sure you are getting the best terms possible.
Similarly, if the Chancellor (soon to be Prime Minister) Gordon Brown has announced new tax rules regarding remortgages, you’ll want to check just how it affects people in your situation.
Finally, if you have been watching a lot of interior design programmes on television, you may have been inspired to spruce up your living area. In this case, unless you have a lot of cash just sitting in your bank account, a home improvement loan may be just the ticket to achieving that unique look in your living room.
If you are looking for Bank Accounts in the UK, it might interest you to know that the Alliance & Leicester have won the 2006 award for the Best Current Account Provider, here in Britain.
There once was a time in the UK that many banks did not seem to care about customer care, as there wasn’t a lot of competition. Things have changed now, as people looking for a bank account will search around to find the best deals, and the best service levels.
How does your bank treat you when you need to contact them? From the fact that the Alliance & Leicester won this award, I would definitely look into the accounts they have available. How does 12% gross p.a/AER sound to you? Assuming you can put 500 pounds in a month, and are over 21, you may be eligible!
If you would prefer to deal with someone in person, rather than digitally, you can use the branch locator service, which also handily lists local cash points.
Let me know if you have any experience with them, I’d be interested to hear your views.
I received a delightful e-mail, explaining how I could not only ‘earn’ a large amount of money, but also flick a ‘v’ at those nasty women-hating muslims (paraphrasing of their words, N_O_T mine…)
This is the e-mail
Dear Friend,
I am MRS. SUHA ARAFAT, the wife of late YASSER ARAFAT,the Palestinian
leader who died in Paris. Since his death and even prior to the
announcement, I have been thrown into a state of antagonism, confusion,
humiliation, frustration and hopelessness by the present leadership of the
Palestinian Liberation Organization and the new Prime Minister. I have even
been subjected to physical and psychological torture.
As a widow that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with everybody in
the country at the moment.You view this website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3965541.stm .You must have
heard over the media reports and the Internet on the discovery of some fund
in my husband secret bank account and companies and the allegations of some
huge sums of money deposited by my husband in my name of which I have
refuses to disclose or give up to the corrupt Palestine Government.
In fact the total sum allegedly discovered by the Government so far is in
the tune of about $6.5 Billion Dollars. And they are not relenting on their
effort to make me poor for life. As you know, the Muslem community has no
regards for woman, more importantly when the woman is from a Christian
background, hence my desire for a foreign assistance.
I have deposited the sum of Fourty-Three million dollars with a Diplomatic
Security firm in Europe whose name is withheld for now until we open proper
and full communication.I shall be grateful if you could receive this fund
into your bank account for safe keeping and any Investment opportunity.
This arrangement should be known to you and I alone and all our
correspondence should be strictly on email alone because our government has
tapped all my lines and are monitoring all my moves.
In view of the above,if you are willing to assist for our mutual benefits,
we will have to negotiate on your Percentage share of the $43,000,000.00
that will be kept in your possession for a while and invested in your name
for my trust pending when my Daughter,Zahwa,will come off age and take full
responsibility of her Family Estate/inheritance.
Please note that this is a golden opportunity that comes once in life time
and more so, if you are honest, I am going to entrust more funds in your
care as this is one of the legacy we keep for our children.
In case you don’t accept please do not let me out to the security and
international media as I am giving you this information in total trust and
confidence I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good
faith.
Please expedite action. And you can reach me anytime on my private email:
suhazuha@aim.com
So this is the reply I sent to the addresses mentioned, their associated abuse departments, and all my friends…
Dear Ms Suha Arafat,
My sympathies at this tragic time of your life. If you ever see this e-mail, hope you are doing well.
Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms BLATANT 419 Scammer,
Your message is a bit low, even for someone with your obvious low moral fortitude. Please, if you must insist on trying to con innocent people of their money, do not sully a well known person’s reputation. Apart from anything else you sound sooooo much less convincing than when you all used to use random African politicians, that we in the West were normally ignorant of (General Sani Abacha or Alhaji Erowo Iman, for example). I hope that you earn enough money from other means to place food and drink on your family’s table, but know that some of the people you succeed in ripping of from within Europe aren’t well off themselves. Greedy and stupid for getting involved in this sort of scheme, obviously, but not necessarily able to spare the 1000’s you, on average, manage to extract before they give up or go and meet with shadier people in Amsterdam to ‘finalize’ the deal.
Yours,
The Owner of CactusTips.com (To any friends who read this, it is your UK friend in Kazakhstan, I BCCed (hence no chance the scammers will harvest your e-mail addresses) you in on my reply, in the hope that this message will bring this type of scam to your attention, please check out The 419 Coaltion Site , Anatomy of a 419 Scam & Wikipedia’s Article on 419 Scams for more information on this fraudulent attempt to fleece me of my money. And maybe then visit 419eater.com & scambuster419.co.uk to get a cheap laugh at the scammers being scammed themselves ;>)
PostScript to the scammers - I used to work in the Abuse dept for a British ISP, so on a positive note, I thought you’d like to know the standard of grammar and spelling in your type of message has come on leaps and bounds since I used to trace this type of fraudulent activity. PostPostScript - Windows 98 !?!?! Please see the mail headers… I’m assuming you must be based somewhere on the African or Asian continent? (A cursory glance at the IP address indicates the registering authority for the domain associated is in Japan?)
Dear Abuse dept. of AOL/AIM & yahoo.com.tr,
I am formally requesting you immediately investigate the owners of the mail addresses suhazuha@aim.com & suhawa55@yahoo.com.tr .
I have pasted in the original mail header below. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further information or assistance; in fact I would appreciate it if you could confirm receipt of this message, and that an investigation will be taking place. Whilst I understand that the relevant laws (in your judicial system) governing client confidentiality may preclude you from informing me of the exact action you will be taking against these criminals, I would like to know that action is being taken. You can use this address (email@cactustips.com) to respond via.
Return-path:
Envelope-to: email@cactustips.com
Delivery-date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:44:03 -0500
Received: from [61.120.100.243] (helo=yahoo.com.tr)
by beast.mkoh.com with smtp (Exim 4.52)
id 1GpPjF-0006pK-Uw
for email@cactustips.com; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:44:02 -0500
Message-ID:
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:20:47 -1100
From: “Mrs. Suha Arafat”
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-GB; rv:0.9.4) Gecko/20011128 Netscape6/6.2.1
X-Accept-Language: en-us
(anti-spam-(anti-spam-mime-version:)) 1.0
To: “Mrs. Suha Arafat”
Subject: YOUR URGENT RESPONSE IS NEEDED
(anti-spam-(anti-spam-content-type:)) text/plain;
charset=”iso-8859-1″
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
) get a $5000 pot to spend on your prizes!
You have more than three friends with numbers in their names.
