Christmas Shopping

Finally it's all over and out of the way! But in a small way I wish I could do it all again.

I only purchased stuff for my girlfriend this year and although I spent a fair amount, I didn't get the right gifts, in retrospect. So I would love to go back and fight the crowds for a second shot but that's for next year now.

I also found it hard to avoid buying myself stuff, especially in the book shop and especially in the queue where they line up enticing items.

I am sure this year will see many people short of money from over spending at Christmas and applying for secured loans and credit cards. Personally I am going to try and stay away from getting anymore as I already have some to settle. Hence the wish to continue making money with blogging. Maybe this year will be the year I pay a huge chunk of my outstanding debts?

New Year, New Reminder

If you are here first time this year then you may be wondering what's up!

Well basically I moved my personal blog to a new address www.therandomforest.com so if you are a subscriber then please stop by and if you like what you see there then add my new feed.

It's still in it's infancy and the design / writing direction and general feel needs work but I think it is a positive step. Feedback from anyone would be much appreciated, good or bad!

So this site is now, as you see, a review center and will be where I can post without fear of turning off my regular readers. Hopefully traffic here will eventually be mostly from search engines. I will however still be posting the odd personal thought here and there so please so stop by every now and then.

Lawsuit Cash Advances

I have never been involved in anything that has required me to hire and pay for a lawyer but I would imagine it is ridiculously expensive and stressful.

Lawmax are a US based firm that offer Settlement Funding so that you can pay for your case through a loan from them.

I guess this could be great if you make sure that it is right for you. The best thing about it seems that you don't have to pay them back if you lose your case and they give you an answer on the loan within two days.

Hopefully I will not be in a situation where I need someone like them anytime soon.

Yummy Sandwich

If you want and idea for a quick lunch sandwich then please do read on.

Ingredients:
2 slices pumpernickel bread
2 thin slices of your favorite cheese
Mustard
Handful of baby spinach leaves

Instructions:
I almost don't need to give these but.... for the sake of making this in standard recipe format I will.
Apply a thin layer of mustard to both slices of bread.
Lay the cheese slices on 1 side and top with spinach.
Close sandwich, cut as desired and scoff it down as quick as possible.

In an effort to avoid eating out I took one of these yummy sandwiches out with me today and just recently finished eating it. I want another one.

What's the price for Freemium?

Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired has written a new book about his idea called the 'freemium' model.

In his interview over at 123-reg blog he explains how he believes the model works and what it means for the future of free services, software and sites on the internet. He also discusses his thoughts on where social networking comes into play and what role he believes it will begin to play.

The idea is pretty straightforward and on the surface very beneficial for us. Basically in the good old days a company would give away 1% of it's products in order to promote and sell the other 99%. Freemium works by giving away 99% of products in order to sell 1%....... remind you of Google?

The customer, that's us, gets so much free stuff these days that a lot of premium competition will find it harder and harder to survice. Only problem is in many cases we have to give up our private data or deal with a herd of adverts.

Still I am all for Freemium. Hopefully he has indicated that his book will be free online too, so go and read the review and see what it's all about.

The Bloggers Message Board

I just wanted to try and get a few more people over and joining in at the Bloggers Message Board which was set up by Garry Conn late last year.

It reminds me a little of Digital Point Forums but much more personal and with so many great Bloggers including Garry Conn and Cyber Coder regularly giving out opinions and advice it is a great place to pick up tips and info.

Sadly I have seen the subscribers list sitting still and the core members are not really growing as quickly as this place deserves.

I hope this plug at very least makes you vist. Hope to see you there.

This post has also been posted over at my main blog site www.therandomforest.com

Pro 360

I am not a huge gambler but do occasionally go online to play poker. I deposited about $30 a year or so ago and have never needed anymore as I tend to keep a reasonably even win/lose ratio.

I am registered with 888.com which is one of the most well known online casino sites but there are tons more and Pro360.com is a review site that can help you determine which ones may be worth signing up with.

Pro360 has a very straight forward design and immediately you are presented with a list of online gambling sites with an editor and reader rating with the easy option to read the full review. These reviews seem pretty well done and honest also showing screen shots so you can check out the graphical style.

Alot of the stuff on this site seems to be helping US players find ways to gamble online and although I don't know if this is a positive thing I suppose it provides a service for those seeking such info.

I don't think gambling is something for everyone and I hate it when it is abused but this site could certainly prove useful for the casual player looking for a reliable place to sign up.