First is a blog of my friend Mike who has recently graduated from law school and is preparing to take the bar late in February.  To prepare he has taken a month of off work and is going to track his study and daily progress/thoughts while preping in his blog.  As an added bonus he has decided not to shave for the entire time.  Check it out at Bearded for the Bar

Lastly I have finally finished designing our “family” website and transitioning it from our wedding blog.  You can track and follow Kate and I over at TimandKateAnderson.com.  Like I said in the past, I’m not exactly sure how this will impact my posting here.  Most likely not at all as I have two separate goals and aspirations for both sites.

That is all.

This got me thinking about how having a common name, actually provides some amount of anonymity and with that a little bit of added security.  If someone google searches for my name, there are 100s of Tim Andersons out there on the internets.  Now granted, my presence on social sites probably makes me pop up a little more often, and if you search out the name I use as this website’s domain and on other sites you are provided instantly with a lot of information about me.  But in general, if you have a more common name, it is less likely that someone can simpley google just your name and find out information about you.  Alternatively, if you have a very uncommon name, you are probably easily searchable.  Either way, it was an interesting reminder that you should be sure to protect your public identity on the internet.

I’m a deal junkie and love finding the very best value.  Some of you may have heard that Kroger is offering a bonus if you buy their store gift cards.  For every $300 in gift cards that you buy, you get an extra $30 loaded onto them.  Basically an instant 10% savings.  If you have a rewards credit card that gives you money back for groceries you can save even more.  One card I have, that I use for gas and groceries is the Chase Freedom Rewards Visa.  It will give me 3% back on the top 3 categories of spending I use per month.  So if I use it to purchase these gift cards, I get to save an additional 3%, totaling the 13% I can save on groceries per month.

I just discovered this past weekend, that  I can use the gift cards I purchase, at Kroger Fuel Stations to fill up my car.  In addition, if you’ve bought $100 worth of groceries in the past period (I’m not sure how often this gets reset) with your Kroger plus card  you save 10¢ per gallon.  With the price of gas at $4 per gallon, this is an added 2.5% savings.  If you haven’t spent $100 in groceries you still get 3¢ off and I think there is a scalling effect to where the more groceries you buy the more you save per gallon.  But in the end it is equivalant to about 15% off when you combine all these which is pretty nice.  Giant Eagle seems to have a better Fuel Perks program, because I think it’s for ever $50 you spend you get 10¢ off, and the discount lasts for 3 months…. but it is also only for 1 fill up (up to 30 gallons) so there are trade-offs.

The next thing to figure out is if I can use the Kroger gift card to purchase other store gift cards, and get double fuel points (a limited time promotion currently running).  I was originally not going to buy the limit of 4 $300 Kroger gift cards, but since discovering that I can use them for gas, I very well may buy all 4 that I’m entitled too before this promotion is over at the end of July.

High Quality WMV download link

First a quick note on the song. As soon as I saw the “look” of the video during a test run the night before I knew what song I would use if this was successful. One of my favorite songs from last year is “All Your Friends” by LCD Soundsystem. The rhythm is perfect for the type of video that was produced, and the theme of the song hits home. If you listen to or read the lyrics they might be a little confusing, but what I get from it is that later in life, looking back you’ll mostly remember the good times with your friends and not much else, even if some of the stuff you did with your friends was pretty stupid. It’s a theme that really struck a cord with me.

I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision
For another five years of lies
You drop the first ten years just as fast as you can
And the next ten people who are trying to be polite
When you’re blowing eighty-five days in the middle of France
Yeah, I know it gets tired only where are your friends tonight?

Sorry to get sidetracked on the song. Anyway, I can watch the video a few times and still notice something new that makes me smile since there is so much going on. One thing that might change if I keep doing this, is this no one knew that the camera was recording, so everything goes on unrelated to the camera. We might be able to perform some pretty cool captures if people know its recording every 4 seconds. Also we’ve talked about setting up a second one somewhere else to capture even more, but I think the placement of this one got a much as possibly ( you can even see corn hole action outside at one point). Let me know what you think in the comments.

Great Blizzard of 08

I just realized that my site has been running a fairly default layout and theme for almost 6 months now. I really should get on the ball and produce a more customized and visually pleasing timjanderson dot com.

Read 

One that has come up recently and somewhat paid off already is participating in surveying.  A few months back I signed up for a a few survey websites that send you various surveys based on your demographic to have you fill out, and for your time you are compensated.  The best ones send you cash to a PayPal account, but there are some that run off a point system that is then translated into gift certificates or mileage credit.  So far, over the past…. 2 months I’d say I’ve taken maybe 2 hours worth of surveys, probably less.  Most are less than 5 minutes and even if you don’t qualify, will get partial credit just for filling out your age, job function and income level.  For those two hours of work I’ve received $30 worth of PayPal funds and a bunch of points that I can cash out at anytime for quite a few miles on an airline of my choosing.  Not bad!

More recently, I was talking to a friend at work who participated in a little more advanced surveying that paid much better.  She sent me the email address of a woman that contracts the taste testing for Wendy’s International.  Since Wendy’s is based in Columbus, when they are getting ready to release a new product, they need to test it against the market to see what kind of response they can expect and to see if the product needs any adjustment based on consumer feedback.  I sent my information to the testing contractor, and this past Wednesday did my first taste testing.  It was the easiest money I’ve ever made.  I drove a couple minutes away from where I live to Wendy’s headquarters, walked and signed in.  A few minutes after I arrived (along with 20 or so other people), we were led back to a lab type area where we were seated in front of a computer screen and desk.  A food item (I signed an agreement not to disclose what it was exactly) was distributed and as we ate it, were instructed to complete a survey on the computer.  It took me around 10 minutes to eat and complete the survey (the item was quite delicious) and as I walked out, was handed $25 in cold hard cash!  I practically skipped to my car that was so easy. 

I’m definitely going to keep my eye out for more opportunities like that.  I’ve heard of things like mystery shopping and mystery dining, where your meal is paid for, for trying out a new restaurant and reporting on it.  The Midwest (especially Columbus) is the middle of test market USA, and I don’t know why I haven’t discovered these opportunities until now.

1. Patch a radiator hose
2. Protect your computer
3. Rescue a boater who has capsized
4. Frame a wall
5. Retouch digital photos
6. Back up a trailer
7. Build a campfire
8. Fix a dead outlet
9. Navigate with a map and compass
10. Use a torque wrench
11. Sharpen a knife
12. Perform CPR
13. Fillet a fish
14. Maneuver a car out of a skid
15. Get a car unstuck
16. Back up data
17. Paint a room
18. Mix concrete
19. Clean a bolt-action rifle
20. Change oil and filter
21. Hook up an HDTV
22. Bleed brakes
23. Paddle a canoe
24. Fix a bike flat
25. Extend your wireless network

Looking through it I knew a lot of them, but not all.  To spare my manliness I won’t specify each one, but I will tell you the following:

•  18 of the 25 I have performed before
• 23 of the 25 I’m pretty sure I know how to do without instruction
• 2 of the 25 I would not know how to do, but being a man would attempt without caution and probably end up either hurting myself or someone, or destroying something.

The article was later updated to describe how to carry out all of the skills listed.  Some of their solutions were more quick fixes and low level skill knowledge, which I guess is all that you would need in most situations.  I found it very interesting (and I guess was kind of the point of the article) that there are at least 5 items on that list that deal with technology.  I guess I never realized all my computer tinkering and tech interest was increasing my manliness.  Now if only blogging was on the list.

How many of these skills do you know how to do?

 Full Article

As I said in my last post, my family and I took an amazing trip down to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador. It was an awesome time and a once in a lifetime trip. The wildlife and scenery was amazing. Between 5 digital camera, we took over 2500+ pictures, and I have slowly been working on getting them organized, edited and posted online. You can check out our first few days by clicking on the links below.

Galapagos – Day 1&2

Galapagos – Day 3

During my trip, Kate moved down to Nashville to start her 2 year Masters program at Vanderbilt.  It was an event we had not been looking forward to, but now 2 months after the move, it has worked out alright.  We are getting to see each other once ever 2 or 3 weeks and with communication and technology the way it is today, we can talk online and on the phone all day.  The drive to Nashville isn’t half bad (only 6 hours) and we’re looking forward to being a mid-way point for future traveling friends who head south for vacations and whatnot.

I also moved to a new residence once I returned from the trip.  Now I am renting a large house in suburbia with Matt, Newbs and Nick.  So far the setup has worked out really well.  We have tons of room, including a backyard and a basement where we have setup some weight lifting equipment and stuck to a weekly workout program.  It has been a small challenge to get the 4 of us on a chore schedule to keep this huge place in some sort of order, but I think we everything has been going pretty well so far.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that I really wanted to get a dog once I moved to a place with a yard.  Well, after a week or so of debating and discussing the idea with Kate and my parents, I have decided to wait yet another year (until the move to TN) and not get a dog quite yet.  It was a tough choice, but I think I have plenty of other things to keep me occupied and this way Kate and I will raise the dog together.

Even though the combination of work and life has kept me fairly busy, I still have found plenty of time to keep up my video game recreation.  2 weeks back Halo 3 hit stores, and I have been playing it nearly every night.  The game is a ton of fun, and has a lot of different parts to keep you entertained and coming back for more.  I also have been playing the sequal to an old classic – Team Fortress 2.  This is an online PC game that is only multiplayer, but the balance, variety and presentation is top notch and I find myself constantly debating between starting up a match of Halo 3 or TF2.

Finally, wedding planning has not really been taking up much of my time, but I like to thing with everything that Kate has accomplished, I was very much occupied participating in the “yes dear” aspect of our decision making.  I won’t go into great detail, but you can find all our updates and information over at our website that I linked to before.  http://www.timandkateanderson.com.  Moving forward I’m not sure how I plan on splitting time and content between this site and that.  I know I’m going to keep posting my general life updates here, but eventually, once we’re married, we plan on turning T&KA.com over to a combined blog for the two of us.  I’ll probably end up moving all my general posts to that site, but still use this site for my personal interests like gaming, technology etc…

That’s all for now.  I know I promise this almost every post, but I’m sure I’ll write more frequently than once every two months.