Where, wha...what's going on?
Heya. Same deal as before, I forgot about my poor blog. I thought I had all summer to cram it full of witty comebacks and intriguing ideas and stories. Well crap, its almost August now too late to be full of catchy topics. So what's up you ask ....*crickets*
Heh
Crazy travel plans is what is up. Its official, I'm a travel addict. Priceline and Hotwire are my drugs. I peruse travel forums like a gambler frequents his favorite casino. Like a World of Warcraft player mocks his teammates in AV and over uses the term WTF. Like a porn addict sits and home and ...uh that's too much isn't it?
Matt has a Microchip conference in Phoenix the beginning part of August, so we decided I would tag along and we would take a side trip to L.A. to see some friends and hang out at the beach. So I have been hitting the travel web forums, priceline, hotwire, fatwallet, bidding for travel, etc. like mad since July. Well today I got 3 things accomplished. Booked our round-trip tickets from Phoenix to Burbank, rented a convertible from Hotwire for an obscene $40 a day (I was proud of myself in a good way), and booked my very first Priceline hotel room in Burbank.
I spend a lot of free time nowadays reading various websites and forums. And not just ones related to Travel. We rarely do enough travel to make it worth my while to keep researching travel sites everyday. I'm sure Matt appreciates that, as today I kept running down the stairs - "Hey guess what! I can get a convertible for $40 a day...should I wait and see if it gets better." His response - "Hell no - rent it right now so you'll stop bitching talking to me about it."
Here's my must hit list for websites and blogs that I must read at least 2-3 times a week:
Consumerist.com:
A compilation of daily stories about bad (and good) things that happen for consumers. One of my co-workers stories was mentioned on there once. They are also the ones that brought you the Verizon brou-ha-ha concerning the price difference between 1/10 of a cent vs. 1/10 of a dollar. Hilarious.
Violent Acres:
This is the only blog (besides friends) that I read on a daily basis. The synopsis is, I'm a crazy, mean bitch and I say what I want. If you are easily offended, don't read her site. I love it though.
Travel Websites (they are sweet, tasty crack to me):
BiddingforTravel.com:
Just a forum that gives advice on how to use and abuse Priceline and Hotwire for your own evil perfectly innocent uses. Users post their 'wins'
BetterBidding.com:
Same thing as BiddingforTravel.com - forums seem nicer and they have Google Mashups!! Yay!
FatWallet.com:
I've heard of this site for awhile. They don't just deal with travel stuff, they have forums for finding all sorts of deals. The travel forum is spiffy because of all the coupon codes for rental cars they have on there.
Other than that - things have been peachy. Keeping busy helping out the SSOL with a project (I'll make a separate entry for that) and stuff with Open Engineering. We've been looking at doing some projects and SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) things too. A lot of this stuff is exciting and scary at the same time. A lot of things for Matt and I to look at in regards to the future of Open Engineering. And to keep us very busy too.
More later on how the travel plans work out and my methodology behind picking out hotels. You've been warned.