Find out what I’m talking about in my next post.
No, this isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but I guess it could be, it depends how much you order goods online.
From time to time I will pass along deals that I find and personally use to help me either save money or even make money with little to no effort.
If you haven’t heard of eBates, it’s a pass through/referral website that you use to find many of your favorite online vendors.
For instance, if I want to order something from Home Depot’s website, I simply log into my account on eBates (which is free to sign-up), type Home Depot in the search field, then click on the Home Depot link which will bring up a screen where you click on the “Shop Now” button. You will then be redirected to the Home Depot website where you just shop as usual. From here on, it’s a seamless transacation, your eBates cash back percentage is automatically calculated and added to your eBates account. Every 3 months, eBates will send you what they call “a big fat check” as long as you have a credit over $5.00, if not it carries over to the next pay period.
Since 2001, which is when I first signed up, I’ve earned well over $500 just by going through the eBates website first, and a friend of mine, who signed up after me, has earned over $1,200. Not too shabby for free money, and it is literally free money, because you don’t pay anything to eBates.
It’s unfortunate that Amazon.com, which is a place that I order most of my stuff from, doesn’t have a bigger participation via the eBates website, they only just recently participated, but it’s mostly for clothes, shoes and beauty products, nothing that I usually purchase through Amazon. But you are likely to find some of your other favorite online retailers.
Here’s just a small fraction of of the online retailers you will find on the eBates site:
Home Deport, Groupon, Lowes, Macy’s, The Body Shop, Alamo Rent a Car, HSN, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bath & Body Works, Staples, K Mart, Verizon, Adobe, JC Penny, Office Depot, to name a few and there are hundreds more!
The percentage you get back varies from store to store, but you can get anywhere from 1.0 percent to 25 percent cash back.
If you’re interested in giving it a try, just click on the link below or on the screen capture of the eBates home page above, and start getting cash back! Note: Get $25 for the 1st friend ever referred. Earn $5 for every new member after that. Refer 5 new friends and eBates will add a $50 bonus in your Ebates account!*
*People you referred to Ebates.com who signed up and made qualifying purchases totaling $25.00 or more. You earn referral payments for every Qualified New Member you refer.
Remember back in ’70s listening to songs like Sara Smile, She’s a Rich Girl & She’s Gone? These were all songs performed by Daryl Hall and John Oates, or more commonly known by their stage name, Hall and Oates. I had the opportunity to see them back in the ’70s or ’80s at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California. It was actually an afterthought to see them, so me and my friend didn’t purchase tickets ahead of time, so we wound up sitting in the nose-bleed seats (the seats towards the back of the venue were actually bleacher bench seats and not individual seats).
Fast forward 30 plus years to August 2012, my wife receives an email from a friend of ours which asked if we wanted to get together to see Hall and Oates in concert at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California on September 22, 2012. My wife responds with a definite yes.
The day of the concert arrives and we prepare to make the 1-1/2 to 2 hour drive down to Palm Springs to meet our friends. We get to our hotel where we will be staying the night after the concert and get ready for dinner. We pickup our friends at their place and we drive to our dinner destination–Lulu California Bistro on South Palm Canyon Drive. Mmmm, great food!
Time to make our way to the concert, so we head over to Indio, which is the next city to the South of us. It takes approximately 30 minutes to get over to the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino and it takes another 10 to 15 minutes to find a parking spot, the parking lot is filled to capacity. After many minutes of driving around, a car pulls out of a spot and we’re there!
We’re inside and the concert is about to start. The band starts playing and the crowd is getting into the music and at about the 30 minute mark during their song, Say it Ain’t So, the audio and lights goes completely out, on the stage, in the audience, in the casino and more importantly, in the bathrooms, where many of the people went during the power outage. It takes about 15 minutes before the power comes back on and it was explained that they were running on backup generators because power went out in the area around the casino.
We’re back to enjoying the concert again and during the song Private Eye, the power goes out again, but for only a brief moment. The band completes the song, but without full stage lights or projection screens.
Despite the disruption from the power outage, the concert was great and it brought back many memories of the past.
Over the years, many music bands have come and gone, but Hall and Oates still survives today and are still actively performing and pulling in good size crowds to their concerts. During the concert, I noticed a yellow sticker on Daryl Hall’s keyboard, but couldn’t read it from where I was sitting, so I searched Google when I got home and it was advertising his, “Live From Daryl’s House” website/show.
I checked out the website and it was great, Daryl invites other musicians to his house and they play a combination of that artist’s songs as well as Hall and Oates songs. There was a session between Diane Burch (who I’ve never heard of before) and Daryl. Diane’s song “Nothing But a Miracle” fast became one of my favorites from the site. I actually like this arrangement better than Diane’s original on iTunes. Check it out at the link below:
Diane Burch Session with Daryl Hall:
http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/currentep.html?ep_id=21
Another song I liked was Ceelo Green’s “Crazy” Session with Daryl Hall:
http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/currentep.html?ep_id=67
Here’s a video of the band singing Private Eye, when the second power outage happens (at about time marker 1:41)
News article on power outage (not sure why they say Las Vegas though):
http://entertainment.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981657560
Daryl Hall’s long time bass/guitar player since the early ’80s dies from heart attack. Tom ‘T-Bone’ Wolk dead at Age 58:
http://www.gigwise.com/news/54967/hall-&-oates-bassist-tom-t-bone-wolk-dies-aged-58
Tribute Website for T-Bone Wolk
http://www.tbonewolk.com/
In case you’re interested. Amazon.com is having another one of it’s 100 albums for $5 each sale again, that’s about 1/2 off of what they usually cost. There are some newer albums and older ones too. Granted, you’re not going to find today’s top vocalists, but if you want to add to your audio collection, you just might find something here. Just click on the following link to go directly to the album site: 100 Albums for $5 each
Who tooted? If you asked my little niece this question, she would probably deny that it was her and point to her accuser, because in her vocabulary, the word “Tooted” means to pass gas, fart, break wind…need I go on?
However, because of my broad intellect 
, “Tooted” could mean a number of things and in this particular case, it means to honk, blow, or toot a horn, (see how smart I am). I recall on long road trips with my family, my dad taught me the “secret” truckers gesture that makes them toot their air horns.
Many trucks had air horns that were typically mounted on top the roof of the tractor or cab portion of the big rig. These were no doubt much louder than the wimpy factory installed horns that came on the truck. And there was a cord, cable or chain suspended from the ceiling of the truck, that when pulled, honked the horn.
Well, back to the “secret gesture”. So here’s the scenario, you’re a kid in the back seat of the family car, and as you pass a big rig truck, you look up into the cabin at the driver and make eye contact. When he’s looking, display the “secret gesture” at the driver, and with any luck, he’ll toot his air horns for you. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
To perform the secret gesture, you bend your arm at a 90 degree angle with your clenched fist pointing up. Then pump your arm up and down. Simple, but effective. You now know how to do it!
Laura Bush knows the gesture and even Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel knows it.
Check out this YouTube video of a new generation of kids on the sidewalk using the secret gesture (sorry their video is so shaky). I’m starting to think that this is not really a secret anymore.
Remember this commercial? I remember it well.
I was the proud owner of a first generation version of both the Creepy Crawler (Thingmaker) and Incredible Edible toys back in the ’60s. The Thingmaker was a very entertaining toy back in those days. It allowed me to make all kinds of different types of bugs and a multitude of other shapes, in an unlimited number of colors based on what color Plastigoop I used and/or mixed together.
I especially remember the strong smell of Plastigoop as it heated up and started to bubble in the metal molds. The fumes were probably toxic, but who cared about safety back then. I probably lost a mass of brain cells making Creepy Crawlers all day long. I’m sure my friends and family are saying to themselves–now that explains a lot.
Us kids were given all kinds of potentially dangerous toys back then, remember the chemistry set? Can you say chemical burn or BOOOM!!!
The Incredible Edible set was similar to the Creepy Crawler toy, in that it used molds to form different shapes and a heating element to cook it, but it used an edible liquid called Gobble De-Goop, that when heated, turned into what I can best describe as the consistency of a Gummy Bear. The taste was indescribable, not too bad, but not great either. If they had sold these at the candy store, they would definitely not have been my first choice.
I was amazed to see that they still make the Creepy Crawler toy. The toy has changed hands a few times since Mattel manufactured it in 1964, and it has become safer to use (that’s no fun). I also found out that they created a Saturday morning cartoon called, what else, Creepy Crawlers, that lasted two seasons.
To read more about Creepy Crawlers, visit wikipedia.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creepy_Crawlers
You Asked For It was an American television show that aired from 1950-1959. Viewers were asked to mail in requests for things they wanted to see on the show. The program showed how things worked, a behind the scenes look at movie effects, curiosities, etc.
The one episode that I remember seeing, was how they made it look like an actor was riding on a moving horse (close-up shot). The horse or fake horse was actually stationary (but would rock back and forth) and the background scenery would move behind the horse creating the illusion that the horse was moving forward. I believe it was in this same episode that they show how they used red colored wax bullets, so when they shot someone in say, a western movie, it would appear as though the person was shot and bleeding.
You know how they say that “Everything old, is new again”. Well, there are a number of current day television shows that take you behind the scenes of how things are done, such as “How It’s Made”. This is a show on the Science Channel and they have a series of episodes that show how just about anything is made. This is somewhat similar, but not quite, because they only show how things are made (hence the title How It’s Made) and they don’t show how special effects are done or any of the other curiosities someone might request. Even good ol’ Mister Rogers on “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” took you on field trips to show how things were made.
But the one show that comes the closest to the “You Asked For It” show, is a kids show called “Curiosity Quest”. Just like “You Asked For It”, they ask for viewers to send in requests for what they wanted to see. They’ve been to places like, the Vermont Teddy Bear factor showing how the bears are made, how bread, bikes, snowboards are made, to how they train fire fighters. A great show, even for adults that are curious about these things.
Curiosity Quest:
http://www.curiosityquest.org/
A few youTube videos of different You Asked For It episodes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRp55vdxzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztd5B_rAKAM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8LVfdKmln8&feature=related
Wikipedia.com–You Asked For It
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Asked_for_It
