Category: Daily Blog

This is my Daily Blog category.

My New Eyeglasses

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog2 Comments

I have needed new glasses for a very long time.  The glasses that I am wearing now are old, I got them in February 2006 so I have been due for a new pair for quite some time.  My main issue with my glasses is that they are scratched up beyond repair and I just can’t stand looking through them anymore.

Glasses are very expensive and Medi-Cal doesn’t cover glasses anymore.  I wanted to buy them at a place that I can try the glasses on, but they are too expensive.  Sears has a sale that is 2 pair for $99.99 which include bifocals, but nothing else and I wear prisms.  It was a good thing that I got an email today warning me that the sale that Eye Buy Direct has for buy one get one free is ending today.

I have wanted to buy glasses online, but nobody had prisms, but now they do thank goodness so I bought a pair.  The only thing about buying glasses online is that you can’t try them on to make sure they are a good fit, but thanks to webcams and uploading your picture, you can try them on.  Check it out, this is the pair of glasses I bought from them for $29.95 +$19 for the bifocals and +$19 for the prisms.

See, you can try them on.  They don’t look too bad I don’t think.  The price after the prisms and bifocals was $67.95 plus shipping it came to $72.90.  I didn’t get the free pair because that only covers the glasses, it doesn’t cover the prisms and bifocals so I had to just buy 1 pair.  I have been waiting to buy new glasses because I couldn’t afford them, but I withdrew the money I had in my SocialSpark account from getting paid to blog so I could buy them.

They have a code that I can give out for people to save 15% on their order which is IFAEUKIITB.  If you use that code, then I will get $5 in loyalty dollars which I can use to buy a pair of sports sunglasses with my prescription so I can ride my bike again with sunglasses on.

I don’t know how long it will take for my new glasses to come, but I look forward to a new pair.  I can’t even tell you how sick and tired I am of the glasses I am wearing now.  The metal irritates my skin and the deep pits and scratches are really annoying to look at 16 hours a day lol.

YAY NEW GLASSES WOOHOO!!!  I hope they don’t take too long hehe.

Oh and in case you are wondering, no I did not get paid to write this post, it would’ve been cool if I did though cause maybe I would’ve gotten a discount, yeah right lol.

Update: 1:10am – I got this email: “We are pleased to advise that work on your new pair of prescription eyeglasses has begun! Our team is now allocating the selected frame(s) and lenses according to your particular needs. We expect work to last a couple of days and we will be sending you your new eyeglasses soon!”  YAY!

Threatening Letter From Undisclosed Website To Remove Unauthorized Link

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

The last time I blogged, I spoke about a threatening letter I received from a company who had paid me to blog through Blogsvertise.  I wasn’t going to post the actual letter because I didn’t want to get sued, however, I figured if I blacked the websites name and their address, no harm would come to me.  Hopefully.  So here it is.  Oh, I don’t simply black things out, I rainbow them out LMAO.

You can click it for a larger view.

I got threatened by a company that paid me to blog for them

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog2 Comments

I began writing this blog in 2007 because, well, because I could.  I was putting status updates on my home page, but then decided to create a WordPress blog and use that instead.  My main goal was just to give simple updates of what was going on in my life so that friends and family could see.  I could have used MySpace back then, but I preferred using my blog instead.

I believe it was in November of 2009 when I first signed up with Blogsvertise to get paid to blog.  They would send me an offer and I would write-up a post about a website or the product and/or service available on a website and I would get paid $9-$15 after 30 days if the post was still there.

My main goal was to help me pay for my website hosting every month and my domain every year, it wasn’t meant to give me an income.

When I signed up with Blogsvertise, I also signed up with PayPerPost from IZEA.  A few months down the road I signed up with IZEA’s Social Spark.  I don’t get a lot of offers, but I get enough that I am able to pay for my hosting, domain and even help pay for my groceries when I run out of money at the end of the month since I am on disability.

So in early February 2011, I got an offer from Blogsvertise to write a post for a certain website which I cannot name, but let’s just say they have a few OFFERS available on their website if you catch my meaning.  I don’t normally do a post if it’s less than $9 or $10 because, well why should I?  I can afford to be picky because again, this isn’t an income.  They offered a measly $7.50 for the same amount of work as a $9, $10 or $50 post.  I liked their website product/service so I did it.

When I write-up a post, I don’t delete it after I get paid a month later because I don’t think it’s fair to the company to only get 1 month of advertisements, I like to continue to offer them free advertisement just because that’s how nice of a guy I am.  Ok, it’s really because I just don’t think about it, let’s call it laziness.

I got a letter in the mail yesterday from unsaid website threatening to take legal action against my web host company if I don’t remove the “Unauthorized link.”  I was gobsmacked because they have a thing on their website telling people to share their website with a “LINK.”  Why is it ok for someone to share the link, but I’m not allowed to share the link anymore?  I don’t get it.

So what I did was I immediately removed the post that I had written for them, along with every other paid blog post that I had already gotten paid for from Blogsvertise, you know, just in case.  Their letter also said that I have to write them a letter telling them that I removed their link.  In my letter I told them that not only did I remove the link/ad, but I am also no longer going to use their website and I am not going to recommend their website to friends and family anymore.  Not that I ever did, but now I definitely won’t.

In addition to my letter, I also sent them a printout from Blogsvertise and circled the amount of money I got paid for the ad so they will see it, and I sent them a copy of their original letter too.

I have PTSD from my childhood (yeah I know, I’m 42, those should be gone but their not) so I have panic attacks that I’ve had since childhood, and thanks to their letter I got a major panic attack.  I had to take two Klonopins just to calm myself down.  I think one would have sufficed, but I was walking on sunshine with the two lol.

When I got the letter, I emailed Blogsvertise and of course they never responded.  I also tweeted @Izealove asking about old posts and they haven’t responded either.  I left all the IZEA posts because they don’t have a Google Page Rank requirement like Blogsvertise does, which I think is the reason this happened, because my page rank dropped from 3 to 2.

At any rate, my Ad’s went down and it is a good possibility that I am going to quit using Blogsvertise because of this.  I will stay with IZEA primarily because they have way better opps.  IZEA has Sprint, TGIFridays, Lenovo, Kia, AM/PM among other major companies.  Plus they pay better lol.

I don’t want to speculate on why they made the decision to send me that threatening letter, but I have a feeling it’s a homophobia issue.  I mean, why is it ok for everyone else to link to their website, but not my website?  I mean I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that I’m right.

Well, that is all I have to say about that.  I am done with their company forever.  If I want to get good “offers” on coupons, I will use Gaypon from now on.  At least they like me, they are following my book on Twitter lol.

UPDATE: I finally got 2 emails from Blogsvertise today.  I sent them both the original letter sent to me by the company who wants to take legal action against my web host so they can deal with it now.  I am still going to blog for them because I really do like the opps they send me, not all of them but most of them, but it’s not fair to them to stop working for them when this one company threatens me.  So I think I overreacted a bit when I said that I was going to drop them.  What I like about them is that when the 30 day comes, they don’t make me wait until I have $50 in my account like the other websites do, they will deposit the $10 or even $7.50 right into my PayPal account which gives me that extra few dollars I need when I’m in a pinch at the end of the month.  So I will continue working with them because they really are a good company.

I am still waiting for this company to contact me though.  See, they sent me the letter on the 14th and I got it on the 18th and sent my response letter out on the 19th.  Well, they said I had 7 days from the date of their letter to respond, well, that means on the 19th, I only had 2 days to get that letter to them.  It took their letter 4 days to get to me because of the weekend, will my letter get to them in 2 days?  If not, will they take action on the 7th day despite the fact that I removed the link?  Or if they got my letter, will they read it immediately, or will it sit on someones desk for a couple of days unopened?

If you no longer see my blog, it’s because my web host took it down.  If that happens then I guess it was fun while it lasted…  If it does happen I will just move my domain over to another host.  I have my domain with a different company, so of course I will just get hosting with them.  I hope that doesn’t happen though because I will end up with a blank slate.  I will have to start all over from scratch.  UGH!  Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that though.

So… I guess the only thing left to do now is start copying my entire website using an FTP program, you know, just in case.

Clipix

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I have a TON of bookmarks that I have been hoarding over the years, actually since 1997 to be exact.  Every so often I go through them and delete the ones that are no longer valid, but the problem is it is very time consuming.  I would like to replace the invalid ones with more current links, but all I can do is add to the growing pile.  I want to add a link for my favorite books or my favorite websites and be able to find them when I want them.  I have wished there was a website that had images that I can see to find the website easier.  I have good news because I found clipix.

Clipix isn’t a bookmarking website like my browsers bookmarks, it’s way more evolved than that.  Clipix is a social networking site which allows me to share my favorite websites with friends and family.

It’s really easy to work it, just go to the clipix website and watch and like the video, drag the Clip button to your bookmarks bar, go to your favorite website and click the Clip button and a new window pops up.  You have the choice of adding an image from the website by whatever is available.  Pictures make it easier to distinguish which website is the one you are looking for, even if it is an author picture and not a website logo.  You can choose which clipboard you want to add it to and click Clip!  You’re done.

Take a look, I have created two clipboards with several of my favorite websites, books and YouTube channels.

It’s a really fun website.  You can add whatever you want, where ever you want and whenever you want.  You can create clipboards, combine more than one to create a multiboard, share them with syncboards.  Create a clipboard for your favorite shopping websites, recipes, craft ideas, restaurants and/or gift ideas, the list goes on.

Say you are a private person and you don’t want anyone to see your clipboards or multiboards, no problem because you can lock it with the padlock.  Say you want the world to know everything, or maybe just the people you invite as friends, then let them see.  Syncboards are awesome because you can add links and other people can add links.  The thing that I love is that you can move the links all around within your clipboard so you can organize them any way you want them to be.  You can also rearrange the clipboards themselves in and out of multiboards.

I’m have gone through my bookmarks and have pulled out some of my favorite websites and added them to my clipboards.  Those are the ones that I want to see and share so I’m going to keep those.  I can add to it whenever I come across something new and I will finally be able to see what I’m looking for.

There is even an iPhone app so you aren’t limited to what you can do.  You can finally take your bookmarks with you.  Amazing!

If you had Clipix, how would you use it?  Leave a comment and let me know, I’m very curious to know what ideas everyone else has.  Comment, like it, tweet it… etc.

Promoted Post
Visit Sponsor's Site

5-Hour Time Lapse – Red Lava Lamp

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BuXTJBAD2w

I have loved lava lamps since I was a kid when my parents had one.  Since I saw it every day, the novelty wore off so I kind of took it for granted.  I never had one of my own until this Christmas when Darrin bought one for me.  We watch it every night because it is so mesmerizing, so I wanted to do a time-lapse video of it so I can see it at really high speed.  Oh yes, I am enjoying my new lava lamp.

The background by the way is a pillow case because my wall is plain white.  I probably should have bought a tie dye t-shirt to put up against the wall, but this was all I had.  I think it looks cool anyway.

Header and Page Issues in OOo

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog1 Comment

I am still waiting for my book to return to me with highlights on what needs to be fixed so it’s not really ready to publish.  I have been working on learning how to do headers and page numbers for the paper book.  I am using OpenOffice.org and I know how to do headers, in fact on one page it says my name, and on the other it says the title of the book.  The problem is, I don’t want that to start until the first chapter and I don’t want that to be on the first page of each chapter.  Open a book, you will see what I mean.

I am also having trouble with the page numbers issue.  I mean, I can deal with not having i ii iii iv… etc, before the first chapter, I can have those as numbers, but I’d like to not have the page number on the dedication page and the copyright page.

I can write a book, I just can’t figure out the styles and formatting lol.  It’s very frustrating.  I would love some help if someone can reply to this because I don’t want to publish my book if it doesn’t look right, you know?  I would love it if CreateSpace would add the numbers and headers, but they don’t so I have to deal with all of that bs.  UGH!

*steps down from my soapbox now*

California Lemon Lawyers

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog3 Comments

Did you buy a car only to find out that it was a lemon?  That could happen if you buy a car from someone through Craigslist without checking carfax first.  Don’t worry because there is an attorney who is on your side.  California Lemon law lawyers are there to help you file a claim if you were misled into buying a car that was a lemon.

California Lemon Law attorneys have law offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Newport Beach.  You can either call them and tell them what happened, or you can fill out a form on their website describing your lemon case, and one of their representatives will get back to you within 24 hours.

I don’t have a car, nor do I even know how to drive, but if I did and I was misled into buying a lemon, I would be sure to contact the Lemon Law attorneys in California.  I like knowing that there are lawyers that have your back.

Their website has stories from other lemon victims, maybe you might be able to learn from other people’s mistakes and take advantage of that knowledge.  They also have a blog so you can get more information.  I hate to repeat the same thing over and over again but knowledge is power.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, or call a lemon lawyer today.

Brand Thunder Holiday Browser Theme Contest Results

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog2 Comments

On November 29th 2011 I wrote a sponsored blog post for Izea’s Social Spark to advertise for Brand Thunder, which is a cool website where you can create browser themes for Internet Explorer and Firefox.  One of the requirements was that I create a holiday browser theme and enter in their contest to win an iPad2.

On December 17th 2011 I found out that my browser theme was good enough to be in the top 5 browser themes eligible to win an iPad2.  I asked for votes here on my blog, and on Facebook and Twitter.  I wasn’t as successful as the 3rd and 4th holiday browser themes because not enough people voted for me, so I lost.

Well, I didn’t really lose, I was still in the top 5 so I consider that to be successful enough.  Because I was in the top 5, I won a $25 gift card for Amazon.com, and tonight I bought a new webcam for my desktop.

The webcam that I have on my desktop is a Flexic@m which at one time was acceptable, but it’s such a horrible webcam that I no longer want to use it.  I would much rather have this Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 because it is HD 16:9 and it has a mic.  I would like to be able to call my aunts and friends with Skype, but I can’t because I don’t have a mic.  I can use the built-in webcam on my Chromebook, but it doesn’t do Skype.

I would also like to be able to do time-lapse videos to put on YouTube.  I have a time-lapse video of my Scooby Doo Chia Pet, which is not that great because of the horrible webcam.  Tonight I tried making a time-lapse video of my lava lamp, but the webcam is so horrible that you can’t see the beautiful colors of the lava. That was my motivation for choosing to buy a new webcam.

This webcam was only $24 and it was available for free shipping if I paid $25.  In order for me to get the free shipping, I had to buy something else, so I chose to buy a $5 4GB USB memory stick.  I needed a new memory stick anyway so this is perfect.  The USB memory stick I have now is only 1GB and it’s almost full, so I had planned on upgrading anyway. What I’d like to do is take all of my photos off of the 1GB stick, and put them on the 4GB stick.  I can use the 1GB stick for my book as a backup.

I wasn’t expecting to win the iPad2, and frankly I didn’t think my holiday browser theme was as good as the other ones, so I’m happy for the person who did win because they certainly deserved it.  Even though an iPad2 would have been cool, I’m happy to have a new webcam and USB memory stick.  So thank you Brand Thunder for the Amazon $25 gift card, I really do appreciate it.

*This post is not a paid advertisement for Izea‘s Social Spark or Brand Thunder.

I Haven’t Blogged in Ages

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I wrote a book and ever since I finished writing it, it seems like I have abandoned my blog.  Well, that just isn’t true.  I just haven’t had anything to blog about.

I would like to give an update on my progress though.  A long time friend of mine volunteered to edit my book but it was taking her way too long. She couldn’t really work on it due to the fact that she is running her own online business and doesn’t have time for my book.

Well, I can’t let my book collect dust while she is too busy with her own stuff so I told her that I would do it myself.  Of course I don’t know what the heck I’m doing so I can’t really do it myself.

I can’t afford to hire someone to do it so I thought I could just do an online course in English grammar but I have a learning disability and ADD.  I am not learning jack squat.

I found a software that I can use called Grammarly.  They charge $20 a month to use their software.  I signed up for their free 7 day trial but closed my account immediately because it wasn’t what I thought it would be.  I thought they were going to tell you what the issues were then you could click the correction.  Instead, they explain what the issue is and YOU have to figure it out.

The reason I closed my account so soon was because I knew I wouldn’t have any time to work own it this week so my free 7 day trial would have just gone to waste and I don’t have the money to pay them after the trial is up so I canceled.

I emailed them telling them what happened but they have a strict policy, you only get one 7-day free trial.  If you cancel then that’s on you.  Which I think is stupid, especially since they knew I canceled after 5 minutes.  They could manually delete my account information to give me the opportunity to try again but they chose not to do that.  I’m pretty sure I could try the trial again with a different email address though.  I won’t know for sure until I try, and you know that I will try lol.

So other than that I’ve been playing Lord of the Rings Online.  Not really much else to report…

Well, see ya when I have something else to blog about.

Forced Days Off

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I’ve been writing my autobiography which takes a long time, especially for someone who is still learning how to write.  I think I’m doing a pretty good job.

Yesterday I couldn’t get anything done because I got a phone call from a friend of mine in the mid west who likes to talk on the phone for a long time.  We were on the phone for over an hour.

I tried to go back to editing a chapter and I start hearing “BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP” because the city was resurfacing the street in front of my house.  So instead of working I decided that I would get on the instant messenger and see who was online.

I talked to someone for an hour then went to the store to buy some lunch.  Frozen pizza by the way.  It was good.

I didn’t get anything done yesterday.

This morning I get up and walk the dog and the city men are back.  They are working on the other side of 3rd street.  They sprayed the oil on the street so the resurfacing stuff, whatever the heck it’s called will stick to it so they can spread it out and smash it down.

“BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP” is all I am hearing right now from my bedroom window.

I can hardly concentrate on writing or editing anything right now.  I can barely write this.

My new motherboard is coming today between 2-4pm via UPS so when that comes I will be able to transfer all of my chapters to my Open Office word processor so I can continue writing on that instead of my Chromebook.

Tomorrow is Chips day off which means another day off because there is no way I will be able to write with him home.  So… back to work on Friday lol.