National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

For those of you who didn't know, October is the national breast cancer awareness month which explains my pink theme in support of the NBCAM. If you want more information about breast cancer or NBCAM please check out THIS SITE

Will Halloween Continue?

A lot of talk about the safety of trick or treating has been brought up recently. I remember growing up my friends and I would go trick or treating and knock on the doors of complete strangers houses expecting to get candy and were usually greeted with a smiling man or a woman with a handful of candy. The safety of trick or treating was never brought up during that time except for to watch out for cars. The other day I was watching the news and the local police were going around looking for sex offenders to make sure they were at the place that they're supposed to. It turns out that several of those offenders were unaccounted for. With Halloween being just days away from when this News was on I wonder if parents feel safe about letting their kids go trick or treating tomorrow. We all also know the dangers of eating those sweets as well and not because they rot your teeth, but because of those who think it's "fun" to put stuff into candy that'll hurt or sicken kids that eat them.

With all this and I'm sure it's only going to get worse I wonder if trick or treating will eventually die out and Halloween will have a different meaning?

Picture by Josh Lee www.daily-encounters.com

Magazine Company Threatens then Sends Magazines

I've always been interested in working out and building the body so I would get subscriptions from different health magazines from time to time. One of my favorites is Men's Health and about a month ago I received a letter saying that I haven't paid for my subscription and that they were going to send it to a collections agency if I did not pay. From my understanding I have already paid my subscription up front as I have always done, but I decided to go ahead and pay for it to "clear my name."

Done deal right? No, about 2 weeks later I receive a Men's Health magazine in my mailbox! They make me pay for subscription that I had already received saying I never paid for it and once they get my payment they send me the next 12 issues without my consent and then make me pay for it again after 12 months??? I've always enjoyed Men's Health and even as I write this I am looking at David Beckham on the cover of the September's issue, but I wonder if they're using a dirty little scheme to make a few more dollars. I will forward this to Men's Health and see if they'll say anything.

http://www.daily-encounters.com

Looking for a phone servcie provider?

I've owned a cell phone for what seems like ages. I remember my first cell phone was with Bellsouth before they became Cingular then AT&T. My friends used to call my cell phone "Tank" because that's how big it was. Since then I've mainly stayed with T-Mobile and usually had to fork over a little bit of money for a decent phone. Just recently I was introduced to an online website by my brother that offers phones w/ service plans at prices no stores would be able to compete with. You can get a lot of the top of the line phones for free and sometimes they even throw in a bonus like a bluetooth headset or sometimes even money back. Is it legit you ask? Absolutely! If you're looking for a new phone and your contract is up, Wirefly.com is the place you need to check out. They offer deals from all carriers. Click on the banner below and check it out for yourself. I'll never promote an ad on my page if I didn't try it out for myself and if it wasn't worth checking out. You'll be thanking me after you get your phone for either FREE or super-cheap. Enjoy!

Sign*A*Rama Overpriced

Ok I've been wanting to do this one for a while now and since I got my awning taken care of I will do a quick review for this sign making franchise.

Thanks to Hurricane Ike our store's awning got all ripped up. I called 3 different places to get quotes for getting the awnings replaced and Sign*A*Rama(SAR) was one of them. SAR was the first one to come out and take a look for $150 which they said would add it to the total so I could get it back from my insurance company. The other 2 companies came out and one of them gave me a quote right on the spot for $3000. The last one gave me a quote of $1500. So now I'm thinking OK since SAR is pretty well known I'll just go with them thinking their price will be somewhere in the range of $1500 - $3500. They call me back after A WHOLE WEEK and not before I contacted after 3 days of not hearing anything from them. Initially the lady (who was the owner) said she'll get back with me in 2 days. Anyways I'm glad she finally calls me back, but boy was I in for a surprise...$7000+ for the awning!!! Her reason for the huge difference in pricing? "It could be that they use different materials than we do." I wonder if their materials were made of gold. Needless to say SAR is ridiculously overpriced and charges for estimates when their competitors don't.

DSLR's Only for Professionals or Anybody?

I love going to gatherings or events and taking pictures, especially of people. I remember forking over $300 for my first digital camera that weighed around 2 or 3 pounds due to its size and the 4 AA batteries it took to operate it. This is when digital cameras were starting to make their way into the marketplace so to have one was truly a good feeling. I remember showing it off to my friends and taking pictures with it and seeing people's amazement as they were allowed to see the picture right away. As years passed I have gone through around 5 or 6 digital cameras always wanting to get my hands on the latest and the most compact digital camera out there.

Well a few months back I decided to get my hands on a DSLR camera after seeing the quality of the pictures taken with these OVERSIZED cameras. I started my way into the world wide web and its never ending resources. My choice for online purchase is Amazon so I started there and started comparing prices as well some basic things like mega pixels, LCD size, type of batteries, etc. After several days of research I decided on a Sony A200W which had great reviews from other users and was an entry level DSLR priced well below other similar DSLR's. I also bought it when it was on sale for $599.99 which now is going for $699.99. Once I received the camera I pulled it out and was excited to finally have a DSLR in my hands. Although I've never operated one of these bad boys before I simply took the caps off of the camera body and the lens and had it on immediately without reading any instructions.

Needless to say I have really enjoyed taking pictures with this awesome camera. I was a little embarrassed at first carrying this huge camera around, but after seeing the pictures and sharing them with friends and family I have fallen in love with it. If you ever wanted to buy a DSLR camera, but wasn't too sure if you would know how to use it, believe me it's easy as using you digital camera except a lot more fun and rewarding (in more ways than you think). Check out the camera I bought here:

Unfriendly person at McDonalds

I pull up to a McDonalds that I recently started going to and there's a line of about 5 or 6 cars which is normal for this location. I don't know about you, but this is the first McDonalds that I've seen that has 2 drive-thru's. So I've been waiting at the most 2 minutes when I hear tires spinning behind me so I look and this lady in her mid 40's pulls into the other drive-thru like a madman. I just shake my head and mind my own business.

So because of her quick maneuvering she got in front of me and once she pulls up to the first window to pay she starts giving the cashier a hard time about how her order never came up on the computer after she ordered and she didn't know what was going on. The old lady at the register kept her calm and never once raised her voice. She simply rings up her order and takes her money. Not the end of it. This rude driver pulls up to the second window and she starts yapping at the associate there about what had happened while she war ordering. The associate hands the rude customer the order simply sends her on her way. The rude drive had to leave one more mark with her tires as she quickly left the parking lot.

I wanted to ask that driver to put herself in the other person's shoes. I think we're so self-minded at times that we forget that the people we interact with are PEOPLE just like me. I've said and done things in the past to friends and family that I regretted and had to apologize (always fighting with my pride). It's a good feeling when I do that, but admit it's not easy. So for you readers out there, even if you're having a bad morning or day you don't have to take it out on people that didn't cause you to have a bad day.

Skateboarders - Punks or just don't care?

So I operate a business here in Kentucky and have been dealing with some local high school skateboarders. I consider myself a nice guy and try to understand teenagers as much as I can and try to relate to them. I don't see skateboarding as a bad thing, but when they're skateboarding on my property while I'm trying to run a business I do see that as a problem. So I see a group of boys skateboarding on my parking lot so I walk out and nicely ask them to go somewhere else. They say "ok" and they're gone simple as that. Well few days later they return, so I say the same thing and they say "ok" again. Guess what? You guessed it, they're back again a few days later. Any normal person would be pretty upset by now, but I kept my cool and this timed I simply called the police and had them come out and talk to them.

It has been about a week and guess what? You got it! They're back! No more nice guy, I walk out and simply say "not on my property." They're response? You mean just here? I do my best to not laugh at him and say, "not on my property anywhere!"

Growing up in high school I had skater friends so I have no hatred against skaters whatsoever, but man these kids had no respect for myself or the police and the law. I understand they're at their rebellious age, but man their lack of respect for others just blows me away. Maybe since I was raised to respect others and especially adults I see it differently, but isn't that how we're all supposed to be raised? What do you think?

Flip Videos Product Review

The compact video recorder, Flip by Pure Digital Technologies packs a big punch for it's compact size. My brother first told me about his and how convenient it is to carry around and record his kids. I was hesitant at first, but figured @ $130 it was worth the risk. When it arrived I took it out and inserted the batteries that came with the camera and just recorded some things around me. Next, unlike other camcorders and even cameras I didn't have to search through the box to find the USB cable to connect it to my laptop. It has a built in USB chord that simply flips in and out! As soon as I plug it into my laptop a window pops-up and I am surprised to find that it also has a built-in video editing software! Another point for Flip video. It takes a few seconds and I'm already watching my video and given the option to use one of the templates to edit my video which did an amazing job of making it look professional. Editing and saving was a piece of cake!

The simplicity of the camera and its use is like no other. You turn it one with a slide-button and once it's on you simply push the red button and it starts recording and then push it again and it stops. You can instantly watch it by pressing the PLAY button and if you don't like it you just press the button that has the trash can on it to delete it. I honestly think a 5-year old could operate this thing without a problem.

I bought the 60-minute model from Amazon, but they also offer a 30-minute model for a bit cheaper. I think getting the 60-minute model is worth the extra few bucks since you don't want to run out of recording time. It came with a hand strap, batteries (2 AA's), and a nice little pouch to put it in. I've had mine for about 6 months and it's still in perfect condition with no problems whatsoever. I've posted some of the videos on facebook and my friends were amazed at the quality of the video and sound of this little beast.

So what are the cons you ask? Of course there's a downside, what do you expect from a $130 camcorder these days?
1. Ok you only have 2GB of memory and max recording time is 60 minutes. Yeah that sucks a little, but seriously this isn't the type of camera you would take to your kids football game!
2. This sucker will eat up your batteries after about an hour of straight recording. Solution? Rechargeable batteries, simple.

Really these are the only 2 things that I could come up with that I somewhat didn't like about this thing. If you're looking for a cheap way to record those special moments in life in and out of your home, this baby's for you. Here's the link at Amazon to check out some of its specs and read other reviews.