As far as statistics go, there’s a 10% chance that you WON’T be in debt at some point in your life. With the cost of living going up, and pay checks remaining the same, it’s hard to live within your means without some kind of outside help (loans, credit cards, etc) or even the ability to just break even. Unless you have a joint budget with your wife/husband/mate, you’re most likely spending more than you’re bringing in. Savings accounts are dwindling and no one is really happy with where they currently are.

I’m a saver, while I do binge on random items, I penny pinch. It’s how I was raised. There’s no point in dropping money on items that you don’t really need. Money earned is meant for bills, food, etc. Sure, sometimes you can find me at either Wal-mart or Kmart looking for clothes but that depends on the status of my closet. I don’t intend to be making any immediate purchases considering I’ve been losing about 5 pounds a week for the last few weeks. My goal is to drop quite a bit and there’s no point in spending money on clothes when I’m going to have to keep buying more.

I like nice things, I won’t deny this. I just don’t see the point in spending money on them when they aren’t really necessary. Yes, I don’t need two computers but when you work online as much as I do, it’s nice to have a bit of variety. I can’t sit at a desk all day, I need to move around. I’ve been on the desktop all night while my laptop takes a break, you can find me on that more than half of the time.

I just think it’s important that people start living within their means, and not depending on the banks/government to pay their way. It’s sickening to me.

I know that I’ve been talking a lot about loans lately but this is based on the fact that while money is coming in fairly well at the moment, it’s all going towards my trip on the 12th. In the long run, however, I don’t ever see myself actually getting a loan. The reason so many people are in debt is because they’re living far beyond their means. Sure, you need to get a mortgage on that house of your dreams, but even if you paid for the house in cash you’d have to pay off a mortgage for a possible tax break in the future.

No matter which route you take, you’re screwed. Secured loans, home improvement loans, re mortgage loans, car loans, personal loans, student loans, and any other financially damaging thing they’d give you a loan for. Everyone is so willing to give you money just so they can beat you senseless with interest rates.

I don’t like the idea of a secured loan. I don’t like that in order to borrow a couple hundred dollars to pay the bills that you have to put your house or your car up as collateral. I’m sorry but anyone stupid enough to take this route deserves to lose their property. If you don’t have enough money to pay your cell phone bill, why not throw out the phone? If you can’t afford your rent because of your location, move to a place that you can. Having a cable internet, HDTV cable and a VOIP phone is a want, not a need.

Anyone can cut corners in order to cut back on their bills, the problem is that no one wants to because they feel they deserve everything that they’re getting. If it’s the choice between feeding your children or getting yourself a new outfit, and you choose the outfit – forget the debt, call CPS.

That’s just my take on it, at least.

Finding someone special online can be a costly experience. The crew over at justsayhi.com went out of their way to make things easier on you. They offer a 100% free dating service. You don’t have to pay a monthly subscription just to contact someone you’re interested in. Sites like match.com and matchmaker.com may offer a specialized formula to finding the best person for you but only YOU know who’s best for you.

Justsayhi.com doesn’t have a long sign-up process. You create your account, upload a few pictures, make a profile and then you’re connected to thousands of people who are all there for the same reason – to just say hi in order to find someone they may be compatable with. You can search their database for men or women within any age group (over 18 of course) and within any distance from your house. If you happen to come across a profile that interests you, you can email them for free. There’s a 60-second sign up process in order to get yourself into their database, a MINUTE to sign up as opposed to the half hour exam you need to take in order to get onto eHarmony just so you can find yourself the perfect match. They claim this exam is free when in reality you have to pay to get your results, so what’s the point? You made it that far – you have no choice? I don’t think so. Take the free route and keep your wallet happy – head over to justsayhi.com.

With the upcoming remodel of both the office and the bedroom, we’re going to do some serious updating as far as lighting is concerned. The ceiling fans are in good condition because the house is only two years old. The lighting attached to them is OK but it’s a little too bright to help with concentration. I know that may sound strange but when you look at a monitor all night, extremely bright lights around you can make it difficult to see anything by the end of the day. It also makes it hotter in there because the room is literally a little cubby-hole with one window that barely picks up a breeze because of it’s location in the room.

We’re looking for lighting fixtures that don’t give off a lot of heat and are still enough light to keep us both comfortable enough to work. We also have to factor in that, since we’re in a small room, we don’t need a vast amount of fixtures. Simple desk lamps may suffice but I think anything over a 40 watt bulb would be kind of stupid considering a 40 watt would brighten up the room more than enough for our eyes to focus.

Recently an old friend of mine moved to Amsterdam. I’m not sure he moved there for the…kosher…purposes but I do know he loves the environment (when he’s not stoned at least). So it got me to thinking about the places around the world that I’d like to visit and oddly enough, after doing some research through easytobook.com, I learned quite a bit about Amsterdam that I didn’t know before.

I was already aware of the red light district, but show absolutely no interest in it…even though it seems to be one of their key attractions for coming there. I also knew of the Anne Frank house but there’s an erie feeling in my stomach when I think about going through it. What I wasn’t aware of, and was basically ignorant for it, was all of the museums. By my count there are EIGHT of them for you to visit during your stay. There are also quite a few theaters as well.

I’ve also priced a few things in relation to a stay there. A four night stay will only run me about $1,000. Of course this is just for the hotel stay, there really wasn’t much listed about air-fare, I guess that can be factored in later though. It may actually be a prominent possibility for a future trip, who knows.

The nice thing about easytobook.com is they also show you the pricing in two other countries, Barcelona and Rome. In the future they’ll offer prices for hotels in London and Prague, not just Amsterdam Hotels. It may be worth keeping it bookmarked for future reference.

I’ve got my newest bookmark and it’s probably one of the cooler ones to ever come across. FlipTrack.com uses patent pending technology that lets users create their own music videos using their photo and video content. Their technology automatically matches images to the rhythm and beats of the song which makes it easy to create movie-quality videos. There are a few examples on the site, you can find them in the fliptrack.com browse section. They have videos in all categories and after watching a few of them, I have to say that they’re fairly interesting. The images morph in and out the way any slide show would but it really does morph them to the beat of the background song. A few of the ones I came across were rap songs, not in my personal taste, but there’s so many to choose from that it was easy to find a video or two that I like. I think you should check it out, those of you with large photo galleries and a play-list would have some serious fun with it, I’m sure.

Head over to fliptrack.com, you may enjoy yourself.

Over the course of the next few months I intend to purchase an iMac (probably the 20″ but I’d kill for the 24″) the only real problem is the fact that I’m going to have to get all of the mac versions of programs I use frequently. I’m sure I can easily find Adobe CS and what not, it’s just my games that may be an issue considering a lot of them are based on Windows platforms. While doing some surfing again, yes – I love Google – I was able to find a few sites that have their programs based completely on Mac users. One of which is macpokeronline.com.

It’s nice to come across a site that will dedicate it’s scripts/programs to Mac based users intead of just Windows Based. I know that mac users are like 1:4 but with the rise in stability, people are slowly embracing Mac a bit more and converting over to it. Knowing that you can use all of your favorite programs on a Mac really helps make life a bit easier. I don’t consider myself a gamer but I do like playing games when I’m in the mood to. This is probably why I love Casino’s so much because there’s just so much to do there. Tables, slots, and video games make for a damn nice trip.

Mac Poker Online isn’t what you’d think it is. It’s an exclusive provider of information regarding online poker and casino games for Macintosh, saving Mac users hours of time. It’s hard looking for a site to play online Poker for Mac, let alone trying to find a site that you can trust with a good reputation. This site houses links for the best online poker sites for Mac based users. You can play for free or even for real cash at all of the sites listed. Each of the sites recommended to you have an excellent reputation and are by no means scams in any way shape or form.

The person who runs Mac Poker online put quite a bit of work into his website. It’s extremely organized, easy to read and gives you very clear and detailed reviews on all of the best sites for you to play online Poker. He rates the sites based on everything from Customer Service, Compatible Operating Systems and even the online Poker Tournaments.

Anyone who uses a Mac and is looking for top-notch sites to play Casino Games on should seriously consider checking out Mac Poker online.