Website Recommendation: 3 Cool Phone-Related Sites

I don't know about you, but I spend a lot of time on the phone. There are days that I leave work feeling like a phone is growing out of the side of my head. I love to find tools, websites, etc. that can help me be more productive on the phone or that can help me eliminate some of the time I spend on the phone. Today I'm recommending three different websites that can help you be more productive or spend less time with a phone stuck to your head.


Don't you just hate sitting on hold when you call a customer support number? I absolutely detest it. Bringo.com helps with this problem. You go to the site, select the company that you're needing to get in touch with, enter your phone number and they CALL YOU when the human is on the phone. No more walking around all day with that hold-time song playing in your head over and over!

Jott.com solves another problem that I have regularly - forgetting to send a note to someone before I leave the office. Register at Jott.com, enter your contact list, and then you can dial Jott's 1-800 number anytime and record a message that will then be emailed to the contact you specify. The site will either transcribe your message to text or will send the recipient a link and they can actually listen to your voice when they click on the link. You can also use this site to send yourself notes or things you think of on the move - just make yourself one of your contacts!

Most of us probably have conference call capabilities at work but I don't know anybody that has a personal conference call service. With Rondee.com, now you do. Rondee allows you to have conference calls with as many people as you like and all they have to do is call into the Rondee service. It's based in San Diego, CA - so the call could be long distance depending on where you live. For those with cell phones or unlimited long distance calling, that's not an issue. The site offers all the features of a good conference call service - web based scheduling, call recording, attendance tracking, etc. - and it's all free with no need to download software!!

I hope that these sites can help you. Enjoy!

What to Buy at the Dollar Store (and What to Avoid!)

Dollar stores are well known to smart shoppers. These are places where everything they sell costs $1.00 and, if you know a few secrets, you can get some good deals. The flip side is true too - if you don't know some secrets, you can buy some pretty useless junk. Here's what SmartMoney says are the best buys at the dollar store:

1. Cleaning Supplies - sponges, detergent, window cleaner, etc. According to the Good Housekeeping Institute, the stuff for sale at the dollar store is made up of the exact same ingredients as the expensive grocery store stuff - it's just been diluted a little bit. They have to find a way to make it cost a dollar! So - unless you need super cleaning power, the dollar store variety should work just fine.

2. Gift Wrap - sells for up to 80% off of what you'd pay at Target or Wal-Mart. My luck has been hit or miss with dollar store gift wrap - sometimes it's pretty flimsy (and see through - which bugs me). I'm also not a good wrapper so that could be part of the problem.

3. Snacks - peanuts, chocolate bars, twinkies, potato chips, etc. If you're stocking up on junk food for a party, you can rack up big savings. Don't make a special trip if you're only buying a couple of things - the savings aren't that huge since the grocery store varieties aren't super expensive.

4. Shampoo - Paula Begoun, author of "Don't Go Shopping for Hair Care Products Without Me" (a book that I've read cover to cover multiple times), says that shampoo is shampoo is shampoo. It's all the same ingredients and it all goes down the drain. The real product to splurge on in hair care products is conditioner! So - buy shampoo at the dollar store and save big time.

5. Kitchen Accessories - save up to 90% buying things like measuring cups, spatulas, cutting boards, etc. at the dollar store. Honestly - is that Williams Sonoma measuring cup any more effective than a cheap $1.00 version? I'll answer for you. No.

Now - that said, there are things to avoid buying at the dollar store. Here's what Shop Smart magazine said should be avoided:

1. Vitamins - In their independent lab tests, some of the multi-vitamins were missing ingredients that were shown on the label. Others did not break down properly and would not have been absorbed by the body. Stick to the drugstore for these.

2. Electrical Products - These things are cheap because they don't go through the inspection process that more expensive products do. Look for the UL (Underwriters Laboratories) safety sticker on electrical products (you likely won't find these at the dollar store!).

3. Toys for Kids Under 3 - Super cheap toys are often mislabeled, have really small parts, and might even contain lead paint. Buy toys with large parts (so large they don't fit through a toilet paper tube) and buy them from somewhere other than the dollar store.

4. Soundalike Brands - Those Dinacell batteries that look like Duracell batteries - don't buy them. Fake goods are often cheap (really cheap) imitations of the real thing and are designed to lure people into buying crappy merchandise. Don't be that guy.

5. Soft Vinyl Lunch Boxes - If you're getting a lunch box for a dollar, something's wrong with it. Often times they have high lead content. You don't want your food stuck inside one of these!

So...now you know what should and should not be bought at the dollar store. Does it bother anybody else that there are stores with dollar in the title that aren't actual dollar stores? What's the deal with places like Family Dollar and Dollar General? Don't put the word 'Dollar' in your title if you're not a dollar store. That's my new decree. Oh well. Enough from me - enjoy your savings.

Here Comes Santa Claus

Britney and I recently engaged in the timeless tradition of taking your young child to the mall to sit on Santa's lap. Fortunately it was a good experience. Bailey thought Santa was really funny and we got a couple of really good pictures. Even better, this particular Santa looked great. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. I remember sitting on Santa's lap as a kid and wondering why he was wearing wingtips with black bags around his legs. I also remember thinking that several Santas I met had fake beards. Kids get smart pretty quick.

In honor of the bad Santas I had growing up, I give you a collection of bad Santas for your very own trip down memory lane.


This child's Christmas memories will include the stale smell of Wild Turkey on Santa's breath.

Sorry kids. There's no Santa Claus this year. Santa's in lock down for 10-20 for inappropriate contact with minors.

The economic woes reached new lows when Santa was forced to get a second job as a middle school principal.













You WILL HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS. Is that understood?















Just terrible. "Vinny! Have you seen my bag of cotton balls?"

Celebrity Guessing Game

Since last week's wildly popular NBA Guessing Game was such a mega-hit, I decided to give it another go. So...other than never having been in your kitchen...does anybody know what these 7 celebrities have in common?

NBA Team Names - What Could Have Been

I am not a huge NBA fan. I watch Charlotte's games when there is nothing else on (meaning no other sporting events) - but I would definitely not say I'm a fanatic. I am, however, excited about some of the upcoming games this week. The highlights include:

Charlotte Spirit vs. Milwaukee Skunks
Minnesota Polars vs. Orlando Juice
Miami Suntan vs. Memphis Express
Phoenix Dust Devils vs. Portland Chinooks

If those names are unfamiliar to you, it's because those were all franchise names that were NOT chosen when these teams came into existance. I remember well the public uproar over the name Charlotte Spirit. The original proposed colors were red, white, and blue and the mascot was going to be some kind of ghost. It was so lame. All of the names here are pretty bad - probably why they weren't chosen. The Orlando Juice ended up being used later by a team in the short lived Senior League (baseball league filled with 50 year old ex-big leaguers - I remember that too).

You can read more about how team names came to be HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Don't Go to an Ugly College!

With three nieces and a nephew heading off to college in the next two years, I thought it appropriate to post Campus Squeeze's 20 Ugliest College Campuses. If you want to read the reasons why these campuses are on the list, you can read the original article HERE. To satisfy my own curiousity, I'm also going to list where each of these 20 ugly schools ranks in U.S. News' college rankings (in parenthesis). Maybe we'll uncover a relationship between campus beauty and educational quality. Fun!

20. University of Maryland - College Park (54)
19. Rutgers - State University of New Jersey (59)
18. Texas A&M (62)
17. Ithaca College
16. Rochester Institute of Technology
15. Northeastern University (96-tie)
14. Harvey Mudd College (That just sounds ugly!?)
13. UC - San Diego (38)
12. University of Texas at Dallas
11. Drew University
10. Pitzer College (I've heard this place is the pits)
9. Illinois Institute of Technology (96-tie)
8. SUNY - Buffalo (118)
7. NC State University (85)
6. Rowan University
5. Carnegie Mellon University (22)
4. Brandeis University (31)
3. Southern Connecticut State University
2. UMASS - Amherst
1. Drexel University (108)

If there's no ranking shown, the school didn't rank in the top 125 in the nation and nobody reading this blog has any business attending a college ranked 126 or below! Key takeaways from this list:

• It is possible to get a good degree on an ugly campus (see Carnegie Mellon or Brandeis)
• Insitutes of Technology do not fare well on the beauty scale. As an Institute of Technology alum, I can vouch for this fact. I'm just glad GT didn't make this list.
• Colleges with ugly names have a high probability of being physically ugly (see Harvey Mudd and Pitzer). The fact that THIS school and THIS school are not on the list is a mystery.
• Don't go to college in upstate New York.

Now - go choose an aesthetically pleasing campus and get educated!

Dealing with Annoying Coworkers (or Annoying People in General)

We all have them in our lives - the people that just annoy the heck out of you. To be honest, there are quite a few in my life. Some of them I don't even know. I just see them on the elevator or on the bus everyday. If you are the guy that takes the elevator down from the 9th floor to the 8th floor every time I get on the elevator - you annoy me. If you are the guy that holds the elevator door open for people that are not even in the elevator lobby yet (think holding door open for about 45 seconds) - you annoy me. If you're the guy that clips your nails in the cube next to me - you annoy me. Sorry - my list is just getting going.

Fortunately for the easily annoyed (people like me) - there are several websites available that help you deal with these situations. These sites allow you to send anonymous tips to people. Some allow free form text - meaning you can be as friendly or as mean as you choose to be (remember - you get more flies with honey). Others have pre-populated emails that are kind of funny but get your point across.

Probably the most obviously named site in the list, AnnoyingCoworker.com allows you to send emails anonymously. The site publishes some of the funnier/ruder emails on the site (anonymously) - so don't be so mean that your email ends up there. Just remember, you probably had bad breath at some point in your life too.

AnonAdvice.com also allows you to send anonymous emails. Pretty generic/plain input screen but it gets the job done. If you're so nice that you don't want someone to get the email from annoyingcoworker.com (you don't want them to know they annoy you), go here instead.

SendaTip.com is a little different than the other two sites. This site serves the same purpose but does not let you enter the text yourself. It has a menu of annoying habits that it lets you choose from and then it does the rest. Sometimes this works better if you don't know exactly what to say to someone that needs to bathe more often. Let the site handle that part. It does not, however, have ever potential annoyance - so if the thing that bugs you isn't on the list, you're going to have to do the work yourself at one of the first two sites.

I used to work in Memphis with this guy that wore blue jeans EVERY day. This was in a company where the dress code was business casual. We were allowed to wear jeans on Fridays but, for some reason, he just decided that every day was Friday for him. It got to the point that it started driving me crazy. It was great to have a site like this to send him the 'Inappropriate Pants' email - and it did the trick. The next Monday, he showed up in some khakis that looked like he slept in them. I considered sending a 'Get an Iron' email - but decided to let it go.

A Better Gift Card Site

Given my post yesterday regarding gift cards, I thought it'd be timely to tell you that in the last 24 hours, I've found an even BETTER gift card site. Leveragecard.com offers features that none of the others offer. It's not the place to go if you're looking to sell your gift card. It IS the place to go if you want to:

• Track the balance on a gift card
• EARN INTEREST on gift card balances - even if you didn't buy it from this site!!
• Buy VIRTUAL gift cards - you don't run the risk of losing these the way that you do with the plastic cards

Given that $1 of every $4 given on gift cards goes unredeemed (either because cards get thrown out, stolen, etc.), this site is great. Track balances and earn interest on them too - that's a great feature. Check it out!!

I'm Annoyed

I had that very poster hanging on the back of my bedroom door all the way through high school. Yes, four guys that look like ugly girls - but that's beside the point. What is not beside the point is that this thing is selling on Ebay right now for $74.00. I knew I should've hung on to all my Stryper gear. Dang it!

One Less Item for My Christmas List

I am in the process of finalizing my Christmas list and was thinking of adding a carpet cleaner to it. We have a dog and a baby and between the two of them - what with all the spills, accidents, etc. - our carpet looks pretty bad at times. I was just about to add it to the list when I stumbled across this video. Now - the real question - does this really work?