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Nothing to buy here, but you have to see this video. My wife says she likes Lady GaGa. I say “lady what?” I hear a few songs on the radio, whatever. But then I come across this video. This woman is a huge talent. It’s time for the old school divas like Cher to step down and let Lady GaGa take the throne.

Before this, I’ve only heard Just Dance and Poker Face. Bad Romance is a phenomenal song. It has some great changes in it that really hook you. I can’t hear it enough.

This is hands down the best music video I have ever seen. Brilliant production, choreography, direction, editing and characters. It’s not for everyone, but that’s part of the appeal for me. I have become a huge Lady Gaga fan on just seeing this video. I am floored by her talent.

I only hope that most of the songs of Lady GaGa’s that I have not yet heard can come close to the greatness of Bad Romance.

Scott

It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything here. I have spent the last year buying a bank owned fixer-upper home and selling our previous house at the worst point in the real estate downturn, and in so doing we lost over $70,000. The good part is that we moved to a far better area, we downsized and now our housing and almost every other living expense costs less, including car insurance. I have spent almost every minute of my time working on our 1956 ranch style fixer-upper.

I got the Bendaroos for my six year old daughter that were featured in my last post way back in February. They were a huge hit. They promote lots of creativity and keep her busy for a long time.

I hope to be more active here this holiday season and post some good buys and recommendations.

Happy Holidays!

Bendaroos includes

* 250 Rainbow Colored Bendaroos®
* Plus 250 More Bendaroos® in Neon Colors
* Bendaroos® Fun Guide

Click go get Bendaroos now!

Included as a bonus is another eBook called “The Vintage Christmas Countdown.” This is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated book that has a series of articles about the history and origins of Christmas. Includes recipes, vintage art and wonderful vintage Christmas desktop wallpaper downloads. Each day features vintage artwork and illustrations from the turn of the 20th century and earlier.

Note that these are electronic books in Adobe PDF format that you download to your computer. Go check out “Home Made Christmas.“

One of the hottest Christmas toys this year has to be Elmo Live. My wife and I saw this in a store the other day and I thought it was totally cute. My two year old would go crazy for it. It can be a bit pricey though. Keep up with changing prices by clicking Elmo Live.

Here is a list of the top 25 hottest Christmas toys this year. This list is not in any particular order, since it is essentially a composite of many lists found during my research of the hottest Christmas toys. Click on each link to go to an updated page for that toy.

IPod
Ben 10
Naruto
Pokemon
Dragonball
Barbie
Inuyasha
Webkinz
Wii
Harry Potter
Xbox 360
Playstation 3
Spongebob
KOTA The Triceratops
Gundam
Monopoly
Neopets
Bratz
Disney Princess Movie Maker
Scrabble
Rubik’s Cube
Bakugan
Cranium Game
Elmo Live

For continually changing availability and prices, go check out the hottest Christmas toys for 2008. Note that the “home link” is the same as the Elmo Live link.

These limited edition coins are now available to the American public for the first time ever through this special offer. President Barack Obama is depicted in glorious full color on a genuine United States Inaugural Presidential Dollar and layered in genuine 24 karat gold.

During this introductory release, you can get the President Barack Obama Inaugural Dollar layered in genuine 24 karat gold for only $9.95 and just $4.95 shipping and handling.

You’ll also receive the President Barack Obama 2008 Kennedy Half Dollar layered in genuine 24 karat gold for FREE, just pay $4.95 to cover the shipping and handling.

Click Here to get your Barack Obama Historic Gold Coin

This offer goes until 12/31/08 or until supplies run out.

At only $5, it’s not a bad deal for this much fun. Check out these Halloween Fun Activities for Kids!

Of course, in parallel, it would make sense for the teams to license their throwback designs for sale. And with the arrival of football season, now is the best time to pick up the NFL throwback jersey of your favorite team.

I’ve found a site called The Fans Edge that offers up to 20% off and shipping is only $4.99, no matter what size the order is.

Go to the Fans Edge to get your NFL throwback jersey!

So we got the idea to move to a smaller and less costly house. You’d think this would be no problem except that the challenge for us is that where we live now, the schools are not so great and we need to get into a better school district. This means that even if we manage to get what we paid for our current house, we’d barely be able to afford little more than a cracker box in the better areas.

So after a few months of looking, we could no longer ignore the sad world of short sales, REO’s and foreclosures. We were pretty much ignoring them because we felt that even considering them would be preying on other people’s misfortune. But I guess it’s like thinking that if you don’t eat a steak you’ll save a cow. Foreclosures are not something that most Realtors talk much about, nor even seem very happy or proud to show. And rightly so.

The sad reality is that if we can save money, or get a house in a better area, then it might be worth considering. There are many drawbacks, such as banks sell them as is with no guarantees or disclosures. Anyway, I have found several web sites that specialize in foreclosure listings and information, so I have a lot to learn. I’ll add to this post or write a new one detailing the best sites and/or any pearls of wisdom I come up with.

When the internet became more widely used by the masses, dial-up access was all that was available for most home users like me, so although it was slow, I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Then in early 1998, my cable company announced they were going to have a demo at a local high school of a new internet access service they were going to offer.

Well, to say the least, I was blown away. Web sites just flew onto the screen. I signed up on the spot and I haven’t looked back since. Once or twice since then I have used somebody else’s computer to access the internet with a modem and found it to be excruciatingly painful.

My cable company at the time was AT&T, which later became Comcast. It’s great to have TV and internet coming into my house on the same cable. Comcast is also now offering voice/phone service.

Over the years, Comcast has constantly been increasing the speed of the service. It started out at about 1.5 mbps (about 5 times dial-up speed), now they have it up to 6 mbps. That’s not bad when you consider they have never increased the cost of the internet service. With typical DSL broadband service, if you want higher speed, you have to pay more. The other drawback of DSL is that some carriers require you to also pay for a voice line, even if you do not want voice service. Many people who opt to use cell phones as their main phone service may find this requirement quite unwelcome.

One of the only criticisms of cable broadband access I have heard is that if there are a lot of people in your area using the service, it will be slower. So far I have not found that to be true. I moved into my new house in a large development in 2002 and the area has been expanding rapidly. If anything, the service has gotten faster.

One of the cool things about broadband internet is that it’s always on. No connecting, no scratchy phone noises. You just open your browser or email and go. Another great thing that Comcast or any other provider won’t tell you is that if you hook up the right router(about $40), you can connect up to 255 computers and they can all be on the internet at the same time.

Typical dial-up is around $20, and cable is a little over double that, but the speed is way more than double. How much is your time worth? With all that Comcast is offering, signing up is a no brainer. When I signed up, all they offered me was the ability to split the installation fee over two months. Now installation is free because you do it and the first six months of service is less than half price. Also when I signed up, you had to buy your own modem, or rent it from them for an extra monthly fee. Now they give you a free modem and a wireless router. I think the router is a nice touch, and something they didn’t need to provide, but they do anyway. Every account includes online storage and the ability to host your own web site. At the moment they are also offering various cash back deals for high speed internet as well as for their digital cable and digital voice service.

I have been extremely pleased with Comcast High Speed Internet, and couldn’t imagine ever going back to using a modem. If I had to make any criticism of Comcast, it would be that they don’t seem to have any interest in rewarding customer loyalty. But then, how many companies really do that these days?

Go check out Comcast High Speed Internet.