This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Overnight Reputation. All opinions are 100% mine.

Now that I'm a homeowner, I've been trying to come up with ways to not only decrease my monthly outflow of cash, but increase my green footprint through proper recycling and being even more mindful than before as to what I'm putting down the drain to avoid any bad clog-ups in the house. Primarily due to the fact that it's hard to afford a plumber with a mortgage when things pop up out of no where.

So, I've been doing some reading on how to slowly bring myself into the Green realm of life.  By default the first thing I looked into was solar panels, I feel that the electric companies charge way too much for their services, especially when you have the new luxury of Google technology being hooked through your thermostat helping you out in the house to tell you exactly where your energy consumption is, have I purchased this particular technology yet – no – but reading into it does give me some insight on where to get things started. The other thing that kills me is if you're someone who has a wind turbine or solar panels on your property and the electric company winds up paying you because you have so much energy saved up and can give them extra energy to use for other homes/businesses, even though they aren't giving any of their other customers a break. So that's just bad business to me.

The second thing I've looked into are more environmentally friendly vehicles, I think anything running on battery is beneficial to decrease the carbon footprint. There was one thing that concerned me though… what do you do when the battery runs out when there's no Gas to back things up? That brought me to a company called Ace Parking.  Scott Jones, Ace Parking, is a company that's looking to enhance the "Go Green" efforts by installing Solar Charging Stations and electric vehicle charging stations in parking lots.

Now, all my readers would know that I recently purchased my home in Delaware – however I was born and raised on Long Island (NY). Spending quite a bit of time in and out of Manhattan, I have, somewhat recently, seen an increase in "Green Charging" stations. Am I aware of the company responsible? No. BUT I did think that they were a pretty cool way of making sure anyone with an Electronic Vehicle (EV) wasn't stranded in Manhattan due to a dead battery. I did, however, find it concerning that the ones I've seen weren't actually solar powered, they were working from the same power source as every other light on the block – the local power company.  What makes Scott Jones, Ace Parking different, from anything I've personally seen is the introduction of Solar technology in order to power the charging station. 

As of right now I'm only able to locate a list of their parking stations in California, specificially the San Diego area. It's my hope that sometime in the near future they're able to carry the technology Nationwide to increase Green awareness, and give those potentially stranded EV's a fighting chance.

As many of you know, I’m still looking into colleges. I’m leaning towards Devry right now but that’s because they have exactly what I’m looking for. A quick two-year degree that I can complete in six months. I’m going to need financial aid and all kinds of things in order to afford it but eventually I’ll be able to figure it out so I can just enroll and get it done with – finally.

During my search for schools I did come across Kettering University, they’ve taken a unique viral approach to getting students to look into their school. They have little webisodes, which I find amusing on top of being informative, I posted one of the first ones. I saw them all and they were equally interesting but this one basically gets to the point the fastest:

So after that I went floating around to see what they had to offer and while there isn’t anything of interest for me personally, they do have more ‘hands on’ kind of methods for those looking into mechanical engineering and other majors like it. Supposedly the US News and World Report has ranked Kettering as the #1 University in the nation for Industrial and Manufacturing engineering in it’s America’s Best Colleges Guide for 2008. That, to me, shows just how highly regarded the school really is. It’s too bad I’m stuck on the computer technology kick. They do have a Computer Science course but there really isn’t a focus on the field that I’d like to go into so I’ll have to overlook that for now. I do think if you’re looking for a good school then they’re worth checking out. If you go to their website you can view all of the Webisodes and laugh along with me. Why wouldn’t you want to look at something that’s considered one of the US News Best Colleges?

I know that I was lucky enough to get mine last year but there are still people waiting desperately to pick up a Wii. I have to say that it’s one of the best systems out there when it comes to having fun. A lot of people purchased a PS3 over the course of the last year but there’s really two reasons for that. While the graphics are nice on it and all it really was just the only one left to find because more than 50% of the Playstation users saw that minus the blue-ray , it’s a complete waste of money. I know a few people with PS3’s but none of them actually use it for more than watching movies. When it first came out there weren’t any good games for it, at all.

So while everyone else spent a wasted $800 on a PS3, I spent a very nice $275 on a Wii. It was $25 more because we bought it from a seller in Canada. It works great and even looks pretty nice on our new 37″ HDLCD in the office. We do have quite a few games for it but have limited ourselves to the WiiSport games, mainly because we’re now bowling fanatics. The sports game comes with the Wii, something a lot of people don’t realize. We did buy “WiiPlay” which has a controller and tons of mini-games to play, including Pool – something I’ve got down to a science at this point.

For those interested in getting their own Wii, however, there’s a company that’s giving you a chance to win one. Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo¬Æ Wii‚Ñ¢!. It’s worth it if you truly want one, nothing like winning something great – right?

Have any of you seen the commercial for the new program called Lifelock? They’re a service that protects your identity, they’re so confident that their systems are secure that the representative of the program actually lists his social security number in public in hopes that someone attempts to use it so that they can instantly be proven of Lifelock’s effectiveness.

They offer pretty great service for only $10 a month. They include:

• Proactive Identity Theft Protection
• Reduced Junk Mail
• Reduced Credit Card Offers
• $1 Million Service Guarantee

Based on the reduce in Junk Mail alone I’m pretty interested in signing up with this company. I can’t tell you how many credit card offers I receive on a weekly basis. At least two a day from numerous companies, mainly Capital One which I find strange considering I’m already a user of Capital One’s services. Junk mail isn’t fun either, magazine offers, magazines I never signed up for but companies insist that I have to pay for them.

It’s unfortunate but identity theft is at an all time high and finding a service that helps you from falling victim to it, can really benefit you financially. It may not bring in any extra money during the month but it will help you avoid having to go into debt because someone else was a loser and decided not to do things on their own name and insisted that dragging someone else’s name into the mud would be the way to go for financial freedom.

For quite some time now I’ve made it a point to be a member of any community I live in. I was always part of fundraisers for as long as I can remember. I remember raising funds for the Drama class in middle school, I’ve also helped to raise money for breast cancer research in high school. On top of that I always sold items for the school to bring in some extra funding for sports and academics alike. Even to this day I donate to random charities around the US. I know that there are other countries out there in need of help but with all of the poverty and other problems that American’s have, it’s hard to give something to another country when we’re just as much in need thanks to the bone head running our country. That’s a different rant though.

You’re probably wondering where this is coming from?

Today I came across a company named Shout Back. They’re a website that runs many different options for you to raise funds for your cause. The point of their site is to have a medium where all of your group members and supporters can come together and get the job done. You can type in your ZIP code and look for the activities going on around you. Unfortunately I was unable to locate any for both Rehoboth Beach and Glen Cove, but that’s OK. I know that my money is still going to fundraisers that are valued throughout the US. You can start your own group or sponsor an existing one. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find ANYTHING but I’m sure there’s something that I’m just overlooking. I was hoping to get around to an auction but that’s ok.

For Christmas, Sean and I are taking a trip down to Ocean City to see the “Festival of Lights”. We went last year and they were pretty busy. Instead of going on a Saturday night we’re planning on going earlier in the week. There’s also an Italian restaurant down there that I’m interested in trying. There aren’t any good places in Delaware so maybe Maryland would give me something to look forward to. We do hope to take another road trip though, I’m actually considering going up to Washington DC, it isn’t really that far from here, I’m just dreading going over the bay bridge in order to get there.

I’ve always wanted to completely submerge into all of the attractions that D.C. has to offer. Walking the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial. Going to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum even the International Spy Museum. I’d also love to go to the top of the Washington Monument and look at everything from a birds-eye view. Maybe even head to Capitol Hill to shop at the Eastern Market or visit Union Station. There are just so many endless possibilities.

I’ve just recently signed up for the Trusted Travel eNewsletter. They give you information on all of your destination spots from around the USA. Destinations from Atlanta to Washington DC, even Tampa and New York, the possibilities are endless.

Driving home last night was pretty difficult. It was a bit chilly and the rain didn’t help very much either. I started thinking about how nice it would be to get back to the house so I can curl under my comforter and just drift off to sleep. This weekend was a bit exhausting, even though I got more sleep in the last three days then I have in the last three weeks – but I guess that’s besides the point. It was more than likely the depression from losing money that was taking it’s toll on me, sleeping it off was the only option last night.

Sean and I were talking about taking another vacation in the future though. I’ve been poking around the net in search of a warmer vacation spot. While I absolutely love the cold, it’s nice having warm weather at some point in time as well. I actually got pretty lucky though, I found this place called Amelia Island in Florida and they’re having a Lodging Special. If you stay for two nights you’re given the third one for free. This is good for either a Hotel or even a Bed and Breakfast, it just depends on who’s participating in the offer. Supposedly Amelia Island was voted one of the top 10 islands in America. There’s golf courses and shopping plus a lot of activities as well. The offer they’re running right now is valid until the end of February – we were looking to take a vacation for Valentines Day so I want to say that this place is moving towards the top of the list – that’s for sure.

I’ve been searching the ‘net for Christmas ideas so I can figure out what to give my grandmother. It’s hard to shop for her because she has specific taste and while she appreciates everything she receives, that doesn’t mean she’ll actually find a use for it. So to avoid getting her the typical and traditional gifts of clothing or knick-knacks to keep around the house, I’ve actually been looking into grandfather clocks. She recently got rid of one that she’d had for years, while it was worth quite a bit of money – it was also in poor condition so she decided to bite the bullet and say goodbye to it. So I figure I’ll poke around for different clocks and I came across Howard Miller clocks, they’re gorgeous quality clocks that really make a statement in every room they’re in. I wouldn’t want to replace the mantel clocks though, the areas surrounding her fireplaces are typically done in a very traditional Italian style that everyone could appreciate. But after that, I’m unsure of what route to take. Home decor could always be an interesting gift but you have to make sure it matches the rest of the decor in the house or there really is no point in buying something for her.

So I started thinking outside of the box and realized that she was going to be redoing her deck this upcoming spring while they’re fixing her underground pool. She always has it decorated nicely out there so naturally she’s always in search of gorgeous accessories to create the whole look and feel of the backyard. So I figured I’d look into an Indoor/Outdoor Pool Clock. It’s water-resistant and can be mounted to a solid surface. It’s battery operated but I think it’d be cooler if there were a solar powered option, but that’s the “green” side of me kicking in. Either way I’ve been doing my homework before buying a clock for my grandmother so hopefully I’ll be able to find something interesting.