The Chronic Consumer

I love audiobooks and I love freebies, so when I heard that the audio version of The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman is being given away for free for a limited time, I immediately signed up to participate.

First published in 2005 and updated again in 2006, The World is Flat is a bestselling nonfiction work about the way globalization has changed the economic structure of the world forever. The book is often discussed and referenced, and so has been on my “To Read” list for a long time, but I’ve never quite gotten around to tackling it yet. Now that I can get the entire audibook for free, however, you can bet I’ll be listening very soon!

To get your free audio download of The World is Flat, you have to go to http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/giveaway and simply enter your name and a valid email address. You’ll receive a confirmation email with a validation link that you also have to click. A short time later, you’ll get a link to Part 1 of the audiobook, which you can then download and load on your MP3 player.

The links to parts 2 and 3 will be sent to you in subsequent emails (I believe it’s one per day, though I’m not sure).

Anyway, this limited time offer ends on August 4, so be sure to sign up before then. Free is ALWAYS the right price!!

When I was growing up back in the ’80s, airbrush t-shirts were one of the most popular clothing items for middle and high school kids. The airbrush artists would either set up a kiosk at the local mall or have a booth at a carnival or fair, and charge $10-$15 to create a design. Most people just got their names airbrushed in multicolors, like the picture to the right, but I remember seeing other things like cars, school mascots, and sports logos.

But I haven’t seen these kinds of shirts in YEARS, so I’m wondering if people still wear them. I personally never cared for airbrush t-shirts, but to each his own, right?

Does anybody even use PDAs anymore?? I like my PDA well enough, but for the past year or so, I’ve just been using it to read ebooks and track appointments. Now that I have a dedicated ebook reader, I’d like to get rid of my PDA and get a smartphone instead.

I’ve been looking around at a few different phones already, even though my current contract doesn’t expire for another 6 months or so. Out of all the ones I’ve checked so far, I think the Nokia N82 Black is the best for my needs. It’s got a ton of great features and is reasonably priced for a cutting-edge smartphone.

I want a new phone RIGHT NOW, but there’s no way I could afford to pay for a Nokia N82 plus the early cancellation fee on my contract. Bummer

I graduated from high school more than 15 years ago, and have since lost touch with most of my classmates. Every once in a while when nostalgia strikes, I think of how nice it would be to reconnect with a few of my old buddies to exchange an email update or a phone call.

My generation (I’m 34) missed out on the MySpace and Facebook craze, so hardly anyone I know is on those sites. Plus, places like Classmates.com charge recurring membership fees to be able to view email addresses, which is something I don’t want to get into.

So I decided to try the online version of Net Detective to see if I could use their resources to help me find what I wanted. A one-year membership costs just $29 and permits me unlimited lookups during that time period. Not a bad deal — or so I thought.

Getting signed up and entering the site were both very quick, easy processes. Once in, I spent a bit of time looking around at all the different options available for my basic membership. I had access to:

• People Search (look up a person by name and city)
• Neighbor Search (look up an address to find info about neighboring properties)
• Search by Phone Number
• Business Search
• Social Security Validation (just checks to see whether or not an SSN is valid)

(Click image to enlarge)

In addition, the site offers articles about how to search for info the right way, as well as a guide to getting your hands on your FBI file (through the Freedom of Information Act) if you’re so inclined.

I’ve been using Net Detective online since the end of May, and I have to say that I’m not overly impressed by my experience.

First of all, the basic People Search function is flawed. For one thing, you MUST enter a state to search, which means you can’t search the entire U.S. at once. This is fine if you have a general idea of where the person lives, but if not, then you’re stuck doing a brute force state-by-state search until you come up with a hit.

A second problem with the People Search is that you can’t enter a city or zip code. This sucks for those times when you DO know a bit more about where the person lives, but don’t have an exact address. For example, say I’m looking for a John Smith and know he lives in Woodstock, IL. On Net Detective, I have to search for John Smith in ALL of Illinois, which of course returns hundreds of results that I then must sift through — whereas there might be only a couple John Smiths in a small town like Woodstock. So the option to enter a city/zip is really necessary here.

The Neighbor Search function is also faulty. In many cases, this search simply returns information about the property that you listed in your search — NOT the neighboring properties, which is what it’s set up to do. I’m not sure why anyone would need Neighbor Search anyway (I was just checking to see what it was), but I still think it should actually work properly.

And finally, the search results that I’ve gotten from Net Detective haven’t been anything that I couldn’t come up with by simply using the Google White Pages or Yahoo! People Search. Basically, if I can’t find a person on Google or Yahoo, I won’t find them with Net Detective either. If I can find them with Google or Yahoo, then yes, they will be on Net Detective — but what’s the point of that? The only difference I can see is that Net Detective sometimes gives a more detailed address history, especially if the person you’re looking for has held several addresses in the same state.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend purchasing a membership to Net Detective. Although they say they use more powerful tools than free online searches, that has not been consistent with my personal experience. I say save your money by sticking to the free people searches!

I have a desk drawer full of logo pens, notepads, baseball schedules, calendars, and even letter openers from various companies, such as restaurants, oil change places, and house painters. Many of these companies offer freebies with each and every order or purchase, and while scoring a free pen might not seem like a big deal, it does in fact influence my buying decisions. I’m much more likely to spend my money at a place where I know I’ll get something in return, no matter how small.

I know I’m not going to get rich this way or anything like that, but I can always use pens and notepads, so I’m not complaining. Every freebie helps in my household!

I like contributing to good causes whenever possible, but sometimes I simply don’t have extra money to donate outright to charities. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for special causes that I can support merely by shopping as I usually do.

I’ve mentioned a couple of these “good cause” purchases in the past, including my Women’s Empowerment Bracelet from Avon, my DVDs For the Cure from Fox Home Entertainment, and my Humanity Bracelet from St. Jude. These are all terrific items, and part of the purchase of each was given in support of women’s rights or cancer research.

There are a number of campaigns out there that let consumers support such diverse causes as AIDS in Africa, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, arthritis research, or even animal sanctuaries. All you have to do is run a few quick Internet searches for the particular causes you believe in, and see if there are any current campaigns that you can participate in. This is an easy way to show your support while getting great merchandise in return!

If you like Body Butter (moisturizer), Scrubs, Home Fragrance Oils, Lip Butters, Lip Balms, and accessories from The Body Shop, then now would be a good time to stock up. I just received an email alerting me to a Buy 1 Get 1 Half Off sale on these products. There was no indication when the sale would end, so I would hurry up and place an order just to be safe.

In addition, The Body Shop offers free shipping on all online orders over $60, so if you end up spending a lot, you could get even more savings that way.

There’s no need to enter a code for any of these savings; discounts are automatically calculated at checkout.

Enjoy!

I had the day off today, and decided to spend part of it at the mall doing a bit of window shopping. Although I’m working a lot at my office job these days, I won’t see a big paycheck for a couple more weeks, so I really don’t have any extra money yet. As a result, I limited myself to “just looking” today, even though I came across a ton of things I would love to buy.

For example, I saw a beautiful strand of Akoya pearls on sale for a great price, and was so tempted to swoop in snap them up on the spot, but I managed to restrain myself. I also saw a cute pair of sandals at Journeys, and some great tanks and tops at the Gap. Plus, I won’t even go into how many DVDs and box sets I wanted to buy!

I’m now counting down the days until I get my check. Then I’m definitely going on a major shopping spree!