This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Incendia Health. All opinions are 100% mine.
Hey there friends. Most people that I know do not have perfect vision. They either have glasses or wear contacts. I, myself, wear glasses all day, everyday. I can't see a thing without them... and it frustrates me when I don't have them on, because, well.... I'm blind as a bat without them. I've even contemplating getting the LASIK procedure done. I've wondered how my different my life could be by having near perfect vision. I'm not the only one who wondered and thanks to the iLASIK Video Contest, I've been able to see what others have thought of having their life changed by LASIK.
The iLASIK Video Contest is now over, so you can't submit your own video, but you can still check out the contest winners here. My personal favorite being the “Contacts Stink” video.
I'm still debating on whether or not the procedure is for me. I'm in my late 20s and I don't know if my vision will continue a slow decline or if it will finally hit a plateau. I'll talk it over with the wife some more to get a better feel of what we think is best. I know I'm not the only one contemplating this, as evidenced by all the videos that were entered in the contest! Until then, later!
Hey there. I just recently found out that that my blog, Metallman's Reverie, is considered a business. How great is that! This site has existed for over 2 years now. The first year was spent experimenting on writing styles that ranged from all sorts of topics. It was also spent trying our many of the social media networks that welcomed personal blogs such as this one. I also tapped into the stream of online revenue but was not very successful that first year. And rightly so. It takes time to build a name, an audience, and reputation as a dedicated blogger. So for that first year, Metallman's online income was not very much. However, year #2 is a different story.
It may not be an amount to live off of, but I managed to make over $1,000 last year in online revenue. That averages out to under $100 a month, BUT it's good enough to pay a few bills and have some "fun" money to use. Not bad for someone in their second year of blogging, no? Once I received my tax forms and handled that whole process, I was advised that my blog is considered a business and it is allowed to have business expenses. Who knew! I surely didn't so I was advised that if I have certain expenses that my business needs, I would be allowed to deduct those for next year.
I'm actually excited about this. First and foremost, because I'm a business owner. My own boss! Second, because I'm able to deduct certain expenses to reduce my tax bill next year. Now, I still consider myself a rookie here. I just starting my third year (Earlier this month) with this blog and it's the first time I encounter the "business expense" aspect of it all. So I'm curious as to how it will work. I was thinking out loud the other day with my wife and we came across certain items that may or not be considered business expenses. If I were to get a laptop, would that be considered a business expense since I would use it to work on my site? What about the FiOS internet that I use to log online? Or my cell phone which I use to receive and respond to Emails in regards to my site? I have plenty of questions and if you're on the experienced side of it all, I would love your input. In the mean time, I'll just keep tabs of those expenses, just in case I'm able to chalk them up to, "Metallman's expenses". =oD Later!
Hey there. Today marks the day that Entrecard has died. Well, at least to me it has. It started off as a great tool, especially for a rookie such as myself, and it did wonders to my site. It brought traffic, it brought readers, and it made me friends. The downside of it all is that you had to devote quite a bit of time to drop your card on sites. Now, this wouldn't be so bad until you realize that you can only drop 30o cards a day, minimizing the amount of credits that you can earn in a day. Then it hits you, you need well over 1500 credits just to advertise on one of the popular sites. That's almost a week's worth of credits to advertise on one site! The time has come where I just don't have the time or the patience to continue with Entrecard. I plan on leaving the widget on for a few more days. I don't want to cheat out those that purchased ads. Once those are done, Entrecard will be gone.
Entrecard, I thank you for the friends. I thank you for the jump start. But somewhere along the lines, you lost your way. You promised cash outs, you introduced a market, and ultimately crashed down with paid ads. My needs have changed and even though you've tried to accommodate some of them, it just isn't working out. I'm sure they'll be others, I'm sure others still love you, but as for me, I just don't have the time. Wish you the best of luck. Later!
Hey there. Back in the day, when I was a young one, the weekends existed for one purpose and one purpose only: To play as much video games as possible. Going to the mall? Nah, not me, Street Fighter has been calling my name all week. Going to the park? No thanks, I still got to get first place on Rainbow Road in 150cc class. Calling a baby sitter? Why, I'll won't do anything but play games. You don't need to worry.
Yup, that was the story of my childhood. If there was a Nintendo in the house, I was sitting in front of it. It taught me how to do everything! From learning to drive (Mario Kart) to saving damsels in distress (Mario and Zelda) to learning to defend myself on the streets (Final Fight). Parents... who needed those? Long as I had a few games, I was set for life! lol Later!
Hey there. Why do they call it pi? I'm sure that there is some scientific explanation out there somewhere but I'm feeling a little too lazy to figure out. But then... it dawned me! Lo and behold!!! The REAL reason it's called pi!
At age 4, success is not peeing in your pants.
At age 12, success is having friends.
At age 16, success is having a driver's license.
At age 20, success is having sex.
At age 35, success is having money.
At age 50, success is having money.
At age 60, success is having sex.
At age 70, success is having a driver's license.
At age 75, success is having friends.
At age 80, success is not peeing in your pants.
Hey there. Have you ever had one of those days where you feel as if the people you are working with are incompetent? I don't want to bash anyone in particular, but it's frustrating when we're all part of a team and someone just doesn't give a crap and screws everything up. I mean... we do work for the same company, right?! I understand the segregation of duties, I understand that you should do your job, but if you know that you're doing something wrong, how about you speak up instead of saying, "I'm just doing my job".
I've had to make several calls to the controller of a certain account several times today. Each one outlining mistakes that were done by our people because they were being extremely careless. And the frustrating part of it all is that we'll all experienced in the field. This is not our first day on the job. There are other accounts that are in a similar situation as this one and yet we can manage to screw this one up but not the other? You knucklehead... Can you learn by example?! You're already doing it correctly with the other account... can't you apply the same techniques to this one?!?!?!
Hey there. Is it me or do women in general own too many bags? When I first met my wife, I was astounded by the collection of hand bags that she owned. Small bags, big bags, colorful bags, monotone bags, expensive bags and not so expensive bags. She seemed to have one in every color and one for each occasion. The top half of her closet was dedicated to bags alone.
Now, I never really understood why she needed so many. Me, being a man, I simply may not have the brain power to fully grasp the concept. I always viewed bags a the female equivalent of a wallet. In my mind, since women tend to wear fitted clothing, pockets are kinda meaningless in pants and a bag is necessary to carry stuff. I don't change my wallet unless it's falling apart... The bag, however, will alternate with several other bags and they eventually stay in pretty good condition.
"Why are you telling me this, Metallman? I don't care about whether or not your wife has 2 bags or a million bags."
Well, my friends, you're about to care. A few days ago, my wife got the urge to clean out the closet. Must be the Spring Cleaning bug, I don't know, but she pulled out several handbags that she wants to get rid of. The bags are of the BCBG variety and are in great shape. Now, let me tell you, my wife takes really good care of her stuff. Some of the bags still have the tag in them and others, she never really used. After a brief discussion with the wife, I decided that instead of donating the bags the local Salvation Army, I've decided that I'm going to give them away to my readers, one at a time.
I'm still debating on how I'm going to do it. Will it be a contest type thing where an entry is earned for every comment, post, or tweet? Or should it be a comment only sweepstakes where the random.org gods determine the winner? I'm still thinking about how to go about it and I welcome suggestions. Keep on the look out the first one up for grabs some time next week. Until then, later!
Hey there. About a week or so ago, we got to meet our new neighbors. The family that lived there before moved out and it turns out that they are renting out their home. It turns out the the neighbors are good people. They seem friendly and they have kids that seem to get along great with our kids. They call each other over, which seems like every day, and they hang out and have a good time. Which is great, because the kids didn't really play as much with the previous neighbor kids even though we would push them to go play so it's a good thing that they hit it off right away with the new neighbor kids. On Saturday, though, they came home from being next door and asked if they could go to church with the neighbors on Sunday morning...
Now... we're not really church going individuals. I strongly believe that people can worship however they see fit and if going to a church every Sunday is their thing, then go on, my friend. But us, we're not those kind of individuals. My wife and I are also not one to block our kids from what we don't do so they expressed interest in going to church. Which is fine... but considering that the neighbors have only been there about a week or so seems too recent to allow them to take off with our kids. I don't know... I don't feel comfortable with that idea. Knowing that our kids are not exactly early birds... we told them that if they got up, got dressed, and cleaned their rooms by 8:30 the next morning, they can go. Of course, they slept right through the morning and got up closer to 10 am without a mention of church.
The question I pose to you, dear readers, is how do you feel with the notion of allowing your young ones to accompany a neighbor to their family outing? Something doesn't feel right about allowing your kids to go with a neighbor... I mean, unless, they are extremely close with the family and are like best friends for life. Since we've only known the family for a little over a week, are they out of place by asking the kids if they want to join them? I don't know. The whole thing seems a little odd and uncomfortable so I'm wondering how others have dealt with similar situations. Until then... Later.
sHey there. Today was just one of those days. We relaxed at home and tried to do as little as possible. Quite frankly, it was one of those "we aren't going to do crap" day. You need one of those every now and then to stay sane. Especially when we have 3 school kids, a baby, 2 jobs, and a whole slew of chores that need to be done. My wife and I are constantly on our toes so for us, it's a day where we can be lazy. But for others... it's a way of life. lol Later!
Hey there. Tonight we're off to my comadre's birthday party. We're some fun loving people and we like to do things a little different. Considering that Alice in Wonderland was remade and she's a huge Johnny Depp fan, she decided that she's throwing herself an Alice in Wonderland theme party. Who's being who was decided long ago and it turns out that I was meant to be one of the guards. The card guard, I suppose. lol So today, I started on my get up.
I saw that we had this cardboard thing that came as cover to our young one's floor mat thing. It looked like something that I could use, so I cut a hole in it for my head and decided to use it as some sort of armor. I drew a spade on it and pasted all sorts of playing cards on it and I must say, it doesn't look too bad for something I mad on a whim. Check it out.
Then, I realized... These guards have spears! Well, at least the OG ones from the original Alice in Wonderland did. I haven't seen the remake so I don't know how the guards come out in the film. I don't have a spear... BUT I DO HAVE A SWORD! So I texted my comadre to make sure was cool with me taking a sword to a party. I wouldn't hurt any one with it, but it is considered a weapon and well, you know, I wanted to make sure she would be comfortable with me taking it. After she said that would be awesome, I took a pic. Lo and behold...
Don't I look heroic? Not too bad, right? lol My wife plans on going a flower. She's gonna put in a few flowers in her hair and wear an Alice shirt that she has. It would have been cool if she would have gotten the Queen part. Then I'd be guarding the Queen all night long, but you know what.... there's nothing wrong with standing guard over my precious flower. I'll try to take some pics tonight and post a few. Until then... Later!
At the end of the tax year, the IRS office sent an inspector to audit the books of a local hospital. While the IRS agent was checking the books he turned to the CFO of the hospital and said, "I notice you buy a lot of bandages. What do you do with the end of the roll when there's too little left to be of any use?"
"Good question," noted the CFO. "We save them up and send them back to the bandage company and every now and then they send us a free box of bandages."
"Oh," replied the auditor, somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer. But on he went, in his obnoxious way.
"What about all these plaster purchases? What do you do with what's left over after setting a cast on a patient?"
"Ah, yes," replied the CFO, realizing that the inspector was trying to trap him with an unanswerable question . "We save it and send it back to the manufacturer, and every now and then they send us a free package of plaster."
"I see," replied the auditor, thinking hard about how he could fluster the know-it-all CFO. "Well," he went on, "What do you do with all the leftover foreskins from the circumcisions you perform?"
"Here, too, we do not waste," answered the CFO. "What we do is save all the little foreskins and send them to the IRS Office, and about once a year they send us a complete d*ck."
Hey there. We all need a little place to escape. Many of us have hobbies, such as reading or playing guitar. Recently, I've been introduced into the world of Travian. It's a military type game that plays similar to that of Command and Conquer and to a lesser extent, Risk. You start off with a city and you build your resources: Wood, Clay, Iron, and Wheat. You need certain amounts to build barracks (to train your army) or build a palace (where you can send out settlers and expand your empire). Of course, you're not the only player, other players are scattered across the grid and each is out for blood. You can be a lone wolf, but trust me, you will be devoured. It would be better to make friends and join an alliance to protect yourself and coordinate an well thought out attack on stronger players to destroy their cities and take their resources.
And because it plays in real time, you are producing resources as you sleep. You find yourself checking in from time to time to assure that you do not have any incoming attacks and if you do, you act accordingly and build your defenses. Check out the battle report below.
I must say that it's definitely the game of the moment, at least for me. It's easy for me to check in, upgrade some stuff, attack away, and build defenses. All within a few minutes. If you're online as much as I am, and are looking to get into a military type game, definitely check out Travian.
Hey there. I'm a little on the late side in reporting the winners, but nevertheless, we do have winners! Congrats to Elin and Canada Provinces! You guys win free pizza. I will be contacting you shortly to ask for an address to where I can send your coupons! Considering that there were only 3 comments (I didn't include myself) you guys had a 33% chance of winning. lol I guess that's my fault for not pushing to contest strong enough. Either way, hope you guys enjoy! Later.
Hey there. Today, our young one is off to get his hearing tested. It's usually done at the hospital within the first 2 days of the baby being born. When the technician came in to test our baby, it turns out that one of his ears produced a result of "inconclusive". Now... that may be nothing, since she stated that it could be that there is still some fluid in his ear so the machine couldn't get a proper read. Nevertheless, because of that inconclusive result, we've had to go through all sorts of calls, authorizations, and what not just to get our boy scheduled for a hearing test.
We're hoping that everything will be fine and it was just some build up in his ear. But the fact that this hearing test is hours long is a little scary. Our baby will also have to be sedated and he can't eat hours before the test, which must be hell cause, well... he's my son. lol My wife has been texting me how he's struggling to stay awake and he's fussy cause he's hungry. The test is scheduled for 1 PM, which is approx. 3 hours away from the time of this post.
I'm trying to occupy my mind with work. It's helping... but not entirely. Guess I should go back to reviewing these files... Later.
Hey there friends. You notice something different this time around? No more top blogs... No more top droppers. It's all about the comments now. I simply cannot find the time to drop on Entrecard anymore so I simply do not have the credits that it would take to supply a monthly contest. So I'm just going to drop the top blog thing altogether. I'll still have the widget up and I'll probably drop my card IF I see the widget on a site that I'm on, but I won't take a very active part in it anymore. It's just too time consuming. With that being said, I'm adding a blogroll link to the top commentator winners.
So here we go. Top commentator was once again Ann (Ann's Snap Edit and Scrap), earning a blogroll link and $5 (paypal). Runner ups include Silvergirl (Live for Life) and Jennifer (Redhead Ranting), earning a blogroll link and $2.50 (paypal).
Winners, please contact me at Metallman555@gmail.com to claim your prize. You'll have until March 10th to claim your prize or you'll forfeit the prize. Many thanks to all of you who commented and keep in mind that this is a monthly contest. Keep at it, and maybe you'll end up with some cash. Later!
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Tony's Pizza. All opinions are 100% mine.
Hey there friends. For those of you in the know, I tend to have a few get togethers at my place from time to time. They usually involve friends and family coming over for a night of good eating, a few drinks, and some crowd pleasing Rock Band or Guitar Hero. One of the problems that my wife and I tend to have when having company is over is what we should feed our guests. It's always a problem since everyone has a unique taste and we usually can't agree to a single thing. On some occasions everyone just gets what they want. lol But that changed the last time I had a get together. The one food that everyone can agree too? PIZZA!!! You can never go wrong with pizza. More specifically, Tony's Pizza.
Our good friends at Tony's Pizza sent me a few coupons to try out some of their pizza and I must confess, I didn't need coupons to buy Tony's. I'm a regular customer since I was a young one. But for this instance, it was not intended for me, but for my guests. Whether they wanted pepperoni, all cheese, or a supreme pizza, Tony's had it ready to bake and serve.
No guest left unhappy. We all had our fair share of Tony's and some were even quite surprised. For being a budget saving pizza, Tony's is pretty good and considering that some of my guests have never had it before, they were quite pleased by the quality of the pizza. It's nice and crispy, tastes great, and is definitely one of the finer pizzas that comes out of a box.
If you don't believe me, here's your chance to prove it. As I mentioned earlier, my friends at Tony's Pizza supplied me with a more than few coupons so I am more than willing to share the wealth so that you guys can try it too. Here's the deal. Leave a comment on this post telling me what you look for in a pizza. All qualifying comments will then be numbered and I'll have Random.org choose the winner for me. I'll let you know if you've won and I'll send you 2 coupons for 1 free Tony's Pizza.Winner will be announced on March 15th so that gives you a little under 2 weeks to leave a comment.
It's quick, it's easy, and it tastes great. Especially when coupled by chicken wings. Really, friends... when was the last time you had pizza without wings? lol So join me in supporting my number one choice in pizza when it comes to family entertainment! You can never go wrong with a little Tony's. Later!
Hey there. I'm off to Phoenix, AZ for a credit conference later this week. I'll be in the Phoenix area most of Thursday and Friday, coming back home on Friday evening. I've never been to Phoenix so I'm excited about visiting a new city. One of the perks of my job (Sr. Credit Analyst/Credit Manager) is that I've been asked to attend credit conferences/meetings. I've been fortunate to be sent to New Orleans, New York City, and San Diego. San Diego shouldn't count, since that's just a car drive away, but still, it make me feel somewhat important to represent our company at these meetings.
I was hoping to catch some sight seeing, as I did in New York and New Orleans, but to be quite honest with you, I'm not exactly sure what I can see or do in Phoenix. My brother suggested seeing the "Shaqtus". lol I would if I could find it, but if I remember correctly, only Shaq knows where it is and I doubt I'll be running into Shaq on the streets of Phoenix. lol
I don't know any people in the area and I don't believe any one that I know have visited the area. I'll try to spend some time later to day to find a good restaurant or something to check out. If you guys are from the area, let me know what's good out in Phoenix. Local knowledge is a lot better than online information. Later!
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Moviestorm. All opinions are 100% mine.
Hey there friends. Have you sat through a movie and then thought to yourself, "Hey, you know what... I think I could have done a better job." Most of us have that thought. Whether it be in movies, music, or anything else that we believe to be pretty great at. And while many of us can write our own music, not many of get to direct a movie. It's just to a big a scale for many of us to experience first hand. Luckily, we have the Moviestorm application, a virtual movie studio, that allows us to take the directors chair right from from your computer.
While it's not taking the crew outside for filming, it does allow you to create animated movies while you orchestrate every detail. With the options to build your own set, customize your own characters, direct the action and film your movie, you have an endless array of possibilities to allow you creative mind to roam free. And with the option to add your own images (logos & backgrounds) and audio files (voice acting & sound effects), the movies you create are 100% unique. With enough practice, your creations may be even good enough for TV!
Don't believe me? Then check out the Moviestorm Challenge . They are so confident in their product that they are willing to give one lucky winner a top of the line iMac. Anyone in the world can enter and all you have to do is make a movie (intended for kids) well enough to get landed on TV. Any channel, any station. It doesn't matter as long as it's aired on TV. To enter, you must use Moviestorm and create you movie using the new Fun Land Pack. The content pack contains many kid friendly characters and backgrounds so it shouldn't be too tough to come up with suitable content.
Now, I mentioned that it is free to download to try out, but that will only get you the basics. For us serious movie makers out there, many sets, characters, and other goodies can be rented for your personal use. That's what makes this subscription based program so great. Instead of paying out a lot of money for many scenes, accessories, and what not that you'll probably never use, you can choose what you need and rent it out. It's really that simple. For about $8 a month, you can choose which content pack (which include horror, romance, sci-fi, etc. etc.) you would like you subscription fee to apply to. This eliminates the need to purchase expansion packs and if you decided to take a break from filming, you can do so without a hitch.
Get to it, friends. Make that movie and get it on TV to win a top of iMac computer. Check out the video below. An original piece from a regular Joe like the rest of us. This showcases what the program can do. Later!
