Monthly Archives: February 2007

$400 bucks a month (or a free car) to drive around a car with advertising.

Pringles Drivers.Freecarmedia.ComGet a free car or get $400 a month to drive yours. If you get a car from them it looks like it cover maintenance and tires too. I’m not sure how I feel about this but if it was a product I loved and I could make (up to) $400 a month, that doesn’t seem to bad.

If you are chosen, you will receive a new car, wrapped in an attractive advertisement, to use for two years or you will be given the option to wrap the vehicle that you currently own and get paid up to $400 a month.

I could drive something like a TiVo, Apple, SixApart, some musical performer I like or a travel costa rica wrapped car. I’ve said before I like my convertible because I can put the top down, not because it’s sporty and I could be happy driving a box. Well, it would definitely take away any considerations of being sporty and getting paid would be nice… Continue reading

Movable Type 3.34 Upgrades today (and yesterday)

I upgraded my Movable Type yesterday and today (the blogging software that this site runs on) from 3.2 to 3.34 so if you have any problems commenting or even reading don’t be shocked. I’ll post a note here here when I start (and when I’m done) so outside that range everything should be fine.

DONE! (Well, mostly done, but it’s almost 6 am and I’m off to bed). Details you probably don’t care about (unless you have problems) are listed below… Continue reading

Silent Violet CD Release Party

SilentvioletcdI’m heading on over to the Magic Bag in Ferndale (Michigan) to see Silent Violet tonight. It’s a CD release party and Ben Cyllus and Daniel Zott are also playing this evening too (I don’t think I’ve ever heard them before).

So I figure I’ll see a few new bands and buy a new CD and get it autographed!

300 Free Text Messages a month from Sprint for College Students

If you are a college student you can get 300 free text messages from Sprint every month for a year. Just take your ID to a Sprint store. (Don’t forget to cancel in a year!)

From SlickDeals.net.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

heartI hope everyone has a Happy Valentine’s Day! Try and make it a great day for everyone else too. Smile at everyone today!!!

And remember if you do get a card for someone they (she) really does look at the back to see if it says Hallmark.

And remember, some people take this day really seriously. So be nice to the extra-sappy people… Continue reading

Link Love on Valentine’s Day

I’m always disappointed that I used some other web addresses for my blog (GaryLaPointe.com/blog, GaryLaPointe.com/nice, GaryLaPointe.com/mypointe) before I settled on http://GarySaid.com/. The problem is I’ve been linked by all sorts of sites to the old address and it’s impossible to change them*. Many place on your blogs, search engings, listings in Blogrolls, BlogShares, Techortati, etc. You can’t just delete them since they do point towards you but they’re not correct (and some you can’t even delete if you want). I’ve got good redirects so I’m probably okay with links, but it really bothers the obsessive compulsive part of my brain.

One of my biggest sets of incorrect links are on other sites where I’ve left comments or trackbacks** to my old URL, well it wasn’t old then, but it doesn’t link back to here (but most times will redirect you to the correct page). I know some of you have changed your address by switching from Blogger to Typepad to your own website, etc. and the old links just go to a redirect, a note that says you moved or sometimes (the worst) an error page. I also know some of you have deleted them on purpose and started over but maybe you’d like that insightful comment you left here 3 years ago to link to your new site…

Here’s my offer for you: I’ll replace your old comment links on my site with your new site. This will help with people reading the archives and who click on your link so you may get a few new readers since your old dead links will now work (and it’ll probably help with some search engine stats as I get reindexed). Leave me a comment and list some old blog addresses you have posted comments here with (make clear which is the new one) and I’ll see if I can do a search and replace to fix the links. It probably won’t help with any specific page links or trackbacks but at least they’ll point to the correct site (if I see broken ones as such I can redirect to the front page). I’ll fix your blogroll link if I’ve got one too (be sure to point that out). I’ll even fix things like remove/add the WWW if you’ve since settled on one or the other. Continue reading

TTLB Ecosystem Near Me – revisited 2007

So I’ve done this before. Taken a look at the TTLB Ecosystem (a rating system for blogs based on links) and I’ve looked at the 10 blogs above me and below me and listed the ones that I liked. Today, I rank 908 (this always varies but I’m much higher than usual) and the list has about 43,000 entries at this time. I wanted to see what was “near” me at this time so I took a fresh look….

  • 898) Pesky’apostrophe – always better than an unexpected period
  • 899) First Draft
  • 900) Dane Bramage
  • 902) High Desert Wanderer
  • 903) Bettnet.com – Musings of Domenico Bettinelli
  • 905) Yankeemom
  • 906) Da Goddess – Friends are like bras, a good one never lets you down Continue reading
  • Locked out of my car!

    Do they intentionally just put the car door buttons for the locks / windows just out of reach of a coat hanger in case you’re fishing one through the window? Well, it sure seems that way to me…

    I guess I should start at the beginning (actually a little before that). I’m the kinda guy who misplaces things but since I know that, I’m prepared for it. I keep spare keys for my car / house at home, work and with friends. And I label all my stuff like my camera, computer, pda, backpack, etc. Back when I used to really misplace things (I’m not as bad any more), I’d put post-its in the front of the books I read with my name and number on it so when I left them somewhere. I do still keep a spare tie and belt at work in case I somehow walk out of the house without one or the other. In essence, I never “lose” stuff since I always get it back :)

    And if I ned to leave my car running with keys in it (to scrape windows or check mail or whatever) I open one of the smaller windows so if the car decides to lock it’s not a problem, normally I could start it without keys in it except that the remote start broke and I didn’t fix it yet (I actually had someone follow me the other day to drop it off, but the place went out of business, so I did actually try). Twice times at work I’ve had to call someone from my office to come meet me at one of the schools with my spare key (the other few times I was at my building so no one had to know). What happens is I end up dropping them while carrying something into a school with my hands full or answering the phone as I climb out or something else distracting like that.

    This time it was different. I was leaving and I put my stuff in the car from the passenger door and thought, “gee it’s cold, I’ll start my car before I get my mail” so I started the car and pushed the little lever to open the tiny passenger back seat window. Then I got the mail, threw some out, put some in the house and went to get in the car (you saw this next part coming, right?) and it’s locked. Turns out I don’t sit in the passenger seat enough, there is not button for the back window, it’s just the front passenger window and the button for the lock. So pretty much all I did was lock the door. I was fine with it, stuff like this doesn’t upset me, even though I can’t seem find a spare for the car anywhere I look. And I start to realize everyone I know who has access to a spare key isn’t going to able to bring me one for hours. The problem is the car is running (and has a full tank of gas) and it’s parked in the garage. Continue reading