Financial days

Tip! When buying seized cars at government auctions, inspect the car very carefully. If you are not that familiar or if you are not really an expert in scrutinizing and eye-testing second-hand cars, try to bring in an expert or a mechanic at the auction.

Of course they do, and here’s why I know this.

I hit the streets at six a.m. The early hour is important. It gives me quiet time, mental foraging time. Any later and I’d be dodging kids swarming off to summer school and adults drizzling off to work, dogs jerking sleepy owners off to the happy dumping ground, and crazed drivers, knuckles white on steering wheels and spit dribbling from the corner of their turned down mouths, careening off to God knows where. But at six it’s mostly quiet and my mind can forage.

Tip! Check the car plates. Inquire whether the government issued special registration for such cars would easily be shifted and transferred.

Two days earlier I’d seen Who Killed the Electric Car, a neat movie about really nice people who loved their cute electric cars that the big bad auto companies took away and smashed to smithereens. I cried along with their owners as the broken little car bodies got fed screaming into the shredder. Those cars felt love and they felt pain.

So, I wonder, power walking along at a good clip, what about all these cars along West End Avenue and Riverside? Do they feel love? Do they feel pain? One thing for sure, they certainly are loyal, sitting here night after night waiting for their owners who don’t seem to realize these metallic beauties aren’t emotionally bankrupt objects that can be cast aside and be expected to come running at the crook of a finger.

Tip! Beware of the actual car conditions. Cars sold in the government auto auctions are sold in ‘as is’ basis.

And yet they wait, some like glittering cotillion debutantes ready to be swept onto the floor, to strut their stuff, to prove their superiority to the rest of the world; others like faithful servants to do their flawed masters’ biddings. The black Mercedes, whose clothing costs more and accessories shine brighter than the green Honda’s immediately behind, can’t wait to shake her booty. What about the silver Ford with the dented fender who shyly leans against the far curb? You just know she’s heard things tender ears shouldn’t have heard, and everyone can see she’s been abused. The binge-eating Hummer isn’t shy, throwing her ample hips around and telling the world she isn’t at all concerned her hoity-toity dress looks like a big brown tent.

The Olds is older, not just by a few years, but she has a dignity the younger ones lack. Her dress certainly isn’t new, but it’s been cared for, loved even, and though she sits proudly, she knows she will be last chosen if at all. And yet she waits. I want to touch her, to tell her it’s OK, but I fear she may become startled and cry out.

Tip! When shopping for seized cars at state auctions, try to bring along a peer or a friend who is somehow more expert in vintage and second hand cars than you are. Expert opinion and advice is a must.

A cab, dirty and missing its hubcaps, clinks past, a hussy, trying to catch an eye. Disgusting! The others laugh and shout, “Hey you in the hideous dress, you don’t belong here. Please leave, now, and don’t you dare try to lure anyone into coming with you. They’re not your type, if you even have a type.” More laughter.

The haughty Beemer, a 330Ci, sits apart. “She thinks she owns the street,” the others say. “She thinks all she needs to do is snap her fingers and the world will come running.” A blue Maxima says, “What she needs is a good dollop of pigeon poop right in the middle of her smug face; that will teach her.” The others giggle, but sadly; for they seem to know that pigeons don’t poop on Beemers.

Tip! Bring someone with expertise on automobiles. He will help you decide appropriately especially if you don’t have enough knowledge with regards to cars.

A garbage truck sits at the intersection like a giant cockroach feasting on morning garbage. It grows quiet and waits. The red Nissan stares. Tension is building. Who will be first? Who will get to strut off, leaving the rest in a wake of essence of Exxon, an ‘I’m better than you’ look plastered across her face that the rest want to run up and punch.

Uh oh. Here it is. The moment of truth. The guy in 420A is coming out. The green Jag stiffens and throws out her breasts. “Such a tart,” some whisper. “If he only knew.” But she’s the one he wants and heads straight for her. She embraces him and begins to purr, then snarls at the others as she pulls away, wiggling and flashing her rear in a haughty way. “Bitch,” the others say. The Beemer starts to throw around a lot of attitude.

Tip! Repossession cars sold by the government at public auctions are to be considered second-hand commodities. That is why it just follows that the prices of these merchandise should also fit that for second-hand products.

The garbage truck shrugs and heads south, some say filling the air with a horrible stench, but in reality, it is the cars passing gas…airing their feelings.

Allan McLeod

http://wammac.web.aplus.net/ http://wammac.blogspot.com/

Tip! Beware of the actual car conditions. Cars sold in the government auto auctions are sold in ‘as is’ basis.

Can we make a system at a modern carwash, which captures all runoff from the rain, washing of cars and even the drippings from the car while drying and then recycle and reuse it all? You know this is a decent question and there are systems being made in South Korea, which are supposedly totally closed loop systems. In other words once they are filled they never need to hook up to city water supplies.

Once in a while the need to be cleaned out and recharged but for the most part are totally self-contained. Paula Chavis has said what if we recycle and reuse all the water. Well that would mean all the rainwater from storms on the property too right? Well can we do it?

You know I think we could make one and in the world today with billions of people and scarcity of water in so many regions of the world, sure we could do this. Even makes sense for steam cleaning sidewalks in China after this hellacious dust storm in Beijing.

Tip! Repossession cars sold by the government at public auctions are to be considered second-hand commodities. That is why it just follows that the prices of these merchandise should also fit that for second-hand products.

Yes we could make a system, remove the sand which was just dirt, let some bugs tunnel thru it and eat the bad stuff, end up with potting soil rich in nutrients and re-use the filtered RO non-spot water to wash the cars. In fact such systems already exist. But taking it one step further and using all the water including the rainwater, well that is adds a whole new dimension to the proposition and that would truly be revolutionary in the car wash industry. I really think it is indeed possible.

Tip! Find out details about every law dealing with import of foreign cars in your country.

Cannot say if anyone is smart enough to have made a sellable system which would allow this, but have talked with mobile washing equipment manufacturers all over the world who already have the systems which could be used for this purpose including Doug Latimer of “Latimat” in Canada.

You know it is truly amazing that a sharp Business Student writing a paper for a marketing class in Business Management, could come up with such a brilliant idea. You know that just proves that some people can really think outside the box and leave the flickering lights on the cave wall to come up with the next great innovation for industry. So consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Riding a motorcycle is not that simple. You need to build yourself a “brand”. Branding requires suitable clothing, and what can be more suitable than a naked leather motorcycle jacket? If you are thinking to get yourself one, take a look at TheBazaarOnline.com, as they have lots of models, for both men and women, fully warrantied and guaranteed. For an easy search, the online store is structured on several categories such as Mens leather, Ladies leather, Chaps & pants, Gloves, Novelty helmets and more.

Should you attempt to buy an item, you’ll be shown the number of pieces still available in stock and the manufacturer, plus you’ll see a reasonably big photo of it.

Your orders will be processed the same day, and you have the possibility to track them online. The site is secured for online payments and they accept international orders.

If you are more of a “researcher” type, you can order the 2008 Dream Apparel Leather Catalog, for only $5.99.

Isn’t it funny how, year after year, we make resolutions which then we easily break or forget? Sometimes we share them with our friends, hoping that we shall stick to them, fearing that we might lose credibility otherwise.

Amongst the most common New Year’s resolutions are:

Lose weight

If we managed to keep a constant weight over the year, the last two-three weeks are really a eating paradise, so if we are not strict to ourselves, gaining weight is the easiest thing in the world: you just sit and eat and talk with friends, only to realize after a while that you need to buy larger clothes.

Overcome procrastination

I wonder why so many people hate the sweet procrastination which helps things sort out by themselves? Maybe because they feel overcoming procrastination would bring them more productivity, thus making them feel like they have more time.

These are the two big ones. I’m sure there are many others almost as popular as these two, but I’ll talk about them in another article.

What’s your biggest resolution for this New Year?

There’s no secret that the Yankees are already a legend, known even by people who have nothing to do with baseball, or with sports in general. This is my case. However, my nephew is a big fan of Yankees, and he doesn’t lose any occasion of telling everybody about his experiences, about the games he saw, about the collection of baseball cards and other collectibles, or about the New York Yankees Spring Training tickets he got this year for his birthday. He went there with his father and with his best friend, and even after so many months we still hear the stories of how good were their seats, and how well they’ve seen everything, and most important, he was impressed with the atmosphere.

Briefly, he was so positive about attending this Spring Training, that he will make it a habit. Moreover, he promised me that next year when I go visit him and his parents, we will go there together. I think I’ll go, not necessarily because I have a strong interest in baseball, but because he will adore to see that I care. Besides, I think it can be interesting to see how such professionals train, so I’m looking forward to next spring, and I hope we will have good tickets again.

This is a sponsored post

Tip! The old jokes are often the best.

I remember my parents and their friends telling jokes as a regular part of the day’s entertainment, much as these days people watch cartoons on TV. And people don’t read books of jokes so much any more either.

The well-oiled joke was indeed the best medicine and arguably did more for political and economic advancement than all the staples of television: the news clips and soap operas and reality TV shows.

I also remember Party Games. No, dear, this involved more than throwing the best-looking girl in the swimming pool or spiking the punch. There were Charades, which traditionally dissolved into hysteria before anyone could even take a guess at the tableau played out by arbitrarily drawn teams of tipsy revelers.

Then there were the word games such as Word Association and Capitals. In word association the starter came up with a random word and then, going around the room, the players had to come up with properly associated words – fast. This offered an interesting insight into the popular subconscious. Capitals involved the first player starting with a word. The next player had to start the next word with the last letter of that word and so on round the circle, at speed. It’s harder than it sounds.

Tip! Indeed, I would think that a higher-end artificially intelligent robot should be able to think enough to come up with its own jokes that their human companion would indeed laugh at.

Then there was a lovely game called Tombstones, which my mom invented. The principle was to come up with the most unlikely tombstone engraving for any particular person. The funniest one was the winner. Imagine for instance a literate, wise and meaningful inscription on George W. Bush’s tombstone.

Although we cannot be considered particularly old or even noticeably middle-aged (to one another anyway), my contemporaries and I sometimes become nostalgic about those days, when a joke was a joke. It could be so funny you would cry and sometimes so cogent you could laugh yourself to death.

Recently we were reminiscing about those endless days in the sun, with wine and whisky flowing and great pots of steaming barbecued meat and corn. Out of this came a new, latter-day party game that I shall call Punch Lines. The idea is this: to provide the punch line of known joke. Those who are familiar with it can then have a good laugh at the memory of it and those who don’t know the joke are free to guess how the joke goes.

Tip! Writing humor isn’t necessarily easy, but it is great brain exercise. Whether it is easy or not, by using these ‘algorithms,’ anyone can write jokes and riddles.

It’s a joke form for the new millennium: fast, diffuse and everyone gets to have a say. New jokes come out of old jokes. Politically incorrect jokes become acceptable because they are all in the ear of the beholder. No one gets laughed at for telling a joke badly. Joke telling takes on a lateral thinking aspect that is lacking in the old music hall “I say, I say, I say…” school of wit. It’s a kind of a broad network search for a consensus of what is funny. Democracy made jolly. Or we try.

The other night Priscilla came up with this punch line: “So the guard said, ‘Hans, bring the steamroller.” None of us knew the joke so Priscilla provided the second-last sentence in the joke. “The Jewish prisoner answered: “Squash”. We were still unsure. Priscilla gave the third last sentence. “So the guard gave the Polish prisoner a racquet and told him to go and play tennis.” We got it then. There was a bit of clucking and couple of wan smiles. Priscilla was not happy. “That was the funniest joke I had ever heard when I was 14, back in the seventies.”

It’s not funny anymore. We have TV. We are serious. We are cowardly. We jump at our own shadows. We don’t want to offend. We avoid joke books and jokes. Have you heard the one about the Gypsy, the Homosexual and the Nazi officer? The punch line is: Not while I’m alive you won’t.

About the author: Justine Eaglestone is a journalist brick-and-mortar bookstore owner, online bookdealer and booksite specialist. See her blog at http://search-book-sites.blogspot.com/ and website http://www.abillionbooks.com/

I’m trying to get more organized, so today I innaugurate my daily bottom line: every evening, I’ll write down what I had planned for the day, vs what I managed to accomplish.

What’s left undone, moves on tomorrow’s list. If I do more than planned, I deserve a break next day, to do what I like. If you wish, you are welcome to join me, and post your accomplishments in the comments.

So, what have I done today?

1. Planned: finish a website I had in work. Done almost 90%.
2. Planned: clean the kitchen. Done – none. I’ll do it tomorrow.
3. Planned: write 5 blog posts. Done 2, plus this one.
4. Planned: wash the car. It snowed, so this was not an option. Cancelled.

This is it, tomorrow I’ll have to finish that website. Too bad I encountered a serious problem which I cannot solve with my knowledge.

I’ve never been able to execute a proper golf swing in my whole life. It is true that I tried to play golf only twice, but each time I failed miserably.

I suppose I lack both technique and practice, and since I know only one golf field nearby my city, and that is crazy expensive, I think I’ll skip it until more fields will open within the area.

For people who are passionate about this beautiful sport, TwoMinuteGolfPro is the place to be: it is a golf instruction website, where you can find lessons and tips for all types of players, from beginners to advanced. Besides, you will have the opportunity to join a group of passionate golf players and to discuss with them in the forums.

TwoMinuteGolfPro is a paid membership site, with three levels for the members. At the lowest level, Birdie, the membership is only $5.95 per month, and you’ll receive 10 free videos from their video library, free unlimited access to the online personal golf lessons, non-stop access to consultation services, exclusive golf tips, plus discounts at partner stores.

As you can see, even at the basic level of membership, you still get a lot of value for your money. The other two membership levels offer even more.

The instructors who run the courses are Don Trahan and Greg MacDonald, respected and appreciated professionals in the golf world.

What is happiness? It is hard to give a universal definition. Happiness is personal and relative. One’s happiness can be other’s disaster. You love your husband, your husband dies, it is a disaster. You hate your husband, your husband dies, it is happiness.

If I now earn $1,000 per month and I get a similar job offer for $5,000 per month, I’d be happy to take it. But if now I’m working from home, making $10,000 per month, I would be very unhappy to go to a normal job paid with $5,000.

What is happiness for you? Are you in search for happiness? Have you found it yet?

1. It is very hard to find something you don’t know what it is. So, in order to get one step closer in your pursuit, you need to give happiness a definition. Make a big list with all things that you imagine happiness being made of. Make it really big.
2. Be specific. It is not enough to write down “I want to be rich”. You need to figure out how much money you’d need in order to achieve the “rich” status.
3. Prioritize and categorize your list. Split your happiness pieces in things that will make you happy now and things which will bring you a happy future. Each category should have its own priorities.
4. Take the top priority in each category, and define ten steps to reach it. For example, if your priority was to be rich, namely to make $100,000 every month, write down the steps you imagine are necessary for you to achieve this objective: to build an online business which will be so innovative that people would love it, and they would become customers and spread the word. Opinion leaders will be happy to write about my business and they will encourage even more masses to join, so in a timeframe of three years, I’ll earn $100,000 per month from advertising and paid membership fees.
5. Before starting pursuing your steps, close your eyes and try to feel your future. Do you feel like this path will satisfy you? Will you be willing and enthousiastic to work in tihs direction? Will you have intermediary rewards before reaching your final goal? Does your path have a soul?
6. If your path seems to “have a soul”, go for it. Happiness is there for you, not only at the end of your journey, but all over it.
7. If not, move on to the next priority on your list, and repeat the process. If working to reach a goal doesn’t make you happy, it’s probably not worth doing it, because in the end you’d be exhausted and you’d only discover that you pushed yourself so hard for an illusion.

In the end, all goals are illusions. The only material thing we have is the journey we undertake in the pursuit of our illusions. As I’m sitting here, writing this, I’m happy. My final goal is not to finish this article, I just started it because I wanted to clear up my mind between two difficult projects, but I found happiness in doing it, and I discovered once more how much I love writing.

I’m even happier thinking that my writing could be of any use for you, my unknown reader seeking for your personal happiness. Stop seeking! Look around you. Happiness was always with you. If only you knew how to see it!

Making presents is a very nice thing to do, but unfortunately this leads to a higher cash demand for December. Some companies give their employees Christmas bonuses, so they can cope with the avalanche of gifts they need to buy for their kids, parents, cats, dogs, or friends.

What if your company doesn’t, or if you are self employed? Big holiday bills and no way to pay them?

1. Find yourself a second job for the period before Christmas (you could do something which doesn’t require thinking, as dishwashing, or cleaning, or windows cleaning)
2. Join an affiliate network and try to sell some products and get commissions (if you never did this, maybe it’s a good idea not to rely on it a lot, because you’ll need to invest money in PPC campaigns, and you may lose a lot until you develop some skills)
3. In case you run a blog, join some companies which pay you to blog, and get some extra cash for holidays (this works very well, but in order to get accepted, your blog has to be 2-3 months old)
4. Take a payday loan (many options are available, and you can do it even if your credit score is not so great)
5. Borrow money from some friends (they want to get some presents from you, after all)

If none of the above works, just stay within your budget and try to be creative in selecting your gifts. Sometimes, creativity makes other things fade away.