Five cheap trips for anyone, anytime

hese days, it seems as if everywhere you turn you encounter one of three things: 1) People complaining about the economy, 2) People complaining about their job or complaining they don’t have a job, or 3) People saying, “I need a vacation!” Although it may seem a bit ironic that in a down economy more attention is paid to travel, the two really go hand in hand. Financial hardship is a day to day difficulty that is impossible to ignore. The constant stress and worry to make ends meet is all consuming. Even if you’re fortunate enough not to be living paycheck to paycheck, odds are you aren’t planning your summer trip to Europe right now. And if you are, kudos, but you’re probably reading the wrong column! Whoever said, “Money can’t buy happiness” must never have been broke. Maybe money can’t buy total happiness, but having just the right amount of it can sure as hell alleviate the stress of not being able to pay the bills and can even save a marriage. No, it’s not surprising people want to take a vacation during hard times; not surprising in the least. The ability to “get away” from reality is a necessary respite most of us can’t afford not to take. It is crucial in our lives, especially during chaotic times. No need to feel guilty if you temporarily abandon your daily responsibilities in an attempt to preserve your mental health!

In this light, it is no coincidence more attention is being paid to cheap travel. The cover of the Sunday edition of USA Weekend was a feature titled “Land of the Freebie,” detailing top ten travel destinations across the United States that could be visited for a nominal cost, if not completely free of charge. The Contra Costa Times did a piece on Amusement Park specials. Affordable travel is everywhere and can be yours for the taking! In this spirit, the following is a brief list of affordable travel ideas close to home, be it overnight, all day, or just for the evening.

1) Big Sur: Featured as one of the top ten freebies in the country by USA Weekend for whale watching, Big Sur offers so much more for the weary traveler of life. Numerous campsites, cabins and resorts will run you ~$35 - ~$200+ per night, depending on the type of accommodation that suits you best. Home to almost half the population of the California Condor, Big Sur also hosts the once almost extinct Elephant Seal along its shoreline during the Seals birthing season between December and February. If you do decide to get away to Big Sur, don’t forget to pack your binoculars, because no matter what time of year you decide to escape to this immaculate destination, you can always watch these gentle giants for free from shore: Humpback whales between late April and early December, Gray whales from December to April, and the Blue whale from June through October. It’s no wonder Big Sur was crowned the Travelers’ Choice 2008 Award winner. The combination of natural beauty and affordability is just enough to shed a little perspective on life!

2) Hop aboard a Carnival Fun Ship: If for you “travel” constitutes a suitcase and somewhere tropical, then pack your bags and head to the Port of Long Beach and hop on a cruise to Baja California. Starting as low as $227.09 (including taxes and fees) per person (for the entire trip), you can take a Carnival Fun Ship on a 4 day cruise to Baja, and then loop up to Catalina Island before docking back at port. Although you don’t actually have a port of call in Mexico (you can wave from on deck), this is a great way to get away for a fraction of the price of an extended cruise vacation. Add in all of the activities Carnival offers and you get yourself a “fun” ship, and one hell of a fun and cheap vacation! Bring your camera, we all know Facebook is just dying to witness your conquest!

3) Golden Gate Fields: Horse racing may be losing its footing among modern sports, but a day at the track can transform a beggar into a blue blood and will pack in thrills you just can’t expect to get anywhere else for the price, especially when you’re talking about dollar Sundays! If you want to watch the ponies run, it’s just $1 for admission to Golden Gate Fields every Sunday. Included under the dollar umbrella are: beers, sodas, hot dogs and programs, not to mention a free concert after the final race! If you have the gambling bug, try placing dollar bets on the long shot from each race to win. If you happen to get lucky, take your friends or family and your winning smile across the bridge to Scoma’s for dinner. And “don’t forget to tell them Sam sent you!”

4) The Lafayette Park Reservoir: If you’re in the mood for a little exercise or just a day of recreation, the Lafayette Park Reservoir may be right up your alley. With a paved walking trail that wraps 2.7 miles around the lake, a playground for the kiddies, picnic areas, paddle boats and fishing, this park is what happens when “earthy crunchy” meets suburbia. You can even bring Fido here to play. If sharing a sandwich with nature’s little creatures and insects doesn’t appeal to you, then try Squirrels Coffee Shop at 998 Moraga Road before you head out to the Park. If you’re looking for a great 60’s style diner with simple but flavorful food, this is the place for you. Two people can easily have a filling breakfast for $20. Don’t feel too guilty about the caloric intake; it’s nothing a few laps around the lake can’t take care of!

5) There’s always baseball: Yes, it’s baseball season, and while I’ll refrain from personally criticizing any particular team’s performance this year, a ball game is still an excellent excuse to partake in a few libations with friends on a weeknight, or, if you’re lucky enough, at a weekend day game with a little tailgating action in the mix. However, if you want to break up the monotony of the work week, an Oakland A’s game can be quite accommodating, offering $2 tickets coupled with $1 hot dogs on Wednesday nights. Or hit up Family Friday’s (not restricted to families), where a group of four can buy plaza level tickets that include 4 hot dogs, 4 medium drinks and 4 peanuts for $50, or $12.50 each. Not too shabby. And you have to hand it to the San Francisco Giants. While the tickets may not be cheap, they make up for it by hosting amazing community programs. Friday nights are Mystery Grab Bag nights; proceeds from a grab bag purchase benefit the Giants community fund and leave you with a premium item like a signed ball or t-shirt. So you can feel positive that the money you don’t have to spend in the first place is going to the greater good! And if you want to qualify this “outing” as travel, wear a jersey, shirt, or colors for the visiting team and pretend you’re at their home field!

Hosting Logies is 'toughest gig in the business' as Gretel Killeen cops a hiding

HOSTING the Logie Awards is the hardest job in the business, one of the nation’s top TV critics said as Gretel Killeen copped a hiding from viewers over last night’s show. 

Killeen continued the strong tradition of tanking as Logies host, but News.com.au readers reserved their main criticism for the Logies themselves, calling them “boring”, “embarrassing”, “tragic” and “self-indulgent nonsense”. 

‘Rob of Sydney’ wrote: “The Logies are an embarrassment full stop with or without Gretel hosting. They make the whole affair look cheap and nasty and wonder whether there is a balcony with someone doing snags on the BBQ.” 

“Unlike American awards shows where the audience is behind the host from the outset and if it isn’t going well will buck them up, in Australia award show hosts have to win the audience over,” he said.

One user wrote: "Oh Gosh. We have to put up with Gretel some more?''

Another wrote: "Hope Gretel gets drunk and falls over and her dress rips off on stage.''

Director of the Digital Technology and Culture program at the University of Sydney, Chris Chesher, said people were having conversations on Twitter that used to be confined to the lounge room. 

“There’s a sense of intimacy to Twitter conversations that belies its extreme public nature,” he said. “It can go straight to the person you’re insulting.” 

Dr Chesher said although people seemed to have no qualms about saying nasty things online, the way we use Twitter would change as people realised how public it really was.

“Twitter is not excluded from defamation laws,” Dr Chesher said. 

Although Killeen copped most of the blame for yet another lacklustre Logies night, segments featuring TV golden boys Adam Hills and Rove McManus also fell flat. 

Wendy Harmer, who became the first woman to host the awards night in 2002, likened the experience to having her arm sawn off with a blunt chainsaw, and Eddie McGuire, who had hosting duties from 2002-2005, was also panned. Last year’s series of presenters, rather than a single host, yet again failed to win over audiences. 

Perhaps the last word goes to reader ‘Chris of Sydney’: “I struggle to place any value on the opinion of anyone who uses twitter. All award ceremonies are crap, the Logies is generally the worst of them. I have never known anyone who hosted the Logies to be praised for the job they did.”

A Perfect Web hosting Solution for Everyone – Promised by Boldpal.com

Web hosting is the essential part of creating a website. Once you look into the web hosting world, you will be presented with an overwhelming group of web hosting plans. Picking the right web hosting plan from the countless numbers of choices will be a great challenge. However, if you are able to identify your needs, choosing

 the right web hosting solution for your website will be a breeze. We atBoldpal.com understand the needs of every type websites and that’s the reason why we are providing several web hosting plans” says Mr. Chris Baker of Boldpal.com

Speaking about the different web hosting plans available withBoldpal.com, Mr. Chris Baker said “Right now, we are offering twelve different types of web hosting plans. Hence you can pick the web hosting plan that you are looking for with ease. For instance let us assume that you are planning to launch an Adult website. You cannot simply spend hundreds of dollars for hosting Adult websites. You cannot also opt for cheap web hosting plans because Adult websites will need a lot of bandwidth. You will be well aware of the fact that it is hard to find the web hosting solutions exclusively for Adult websites. However, we have a perfect solution. Our Adult plus web hosting plan is very much affordable while meeting all the requirements of an Adult website.”

When asked about the upcoming super vps web hosting plan, Mr. Chris said, “Super vps web hosting plan will be a great shift in the web hosting technology. We are not revealing the features of this unique web hosting plan. Right now, we are providing information about this best web hosting plan only on special request. Soon this revolutionary web hosting plan will be available to the public.”

Speaking on the move, Mr. Cris said, “We will also be sending out some discounts this summer. Right now, you can avail a 10% discount on the reseller web hosting option available with us. We are proud to be on the top of the best web hosting service providers and the discounts and innovative new web hosting plans are the ways we say thanks to our valuable customers.”

“There will be many other updates in the web hosting plans. We are trying our best to include some unique cost effective packages that will be beneficial to many small businesses out there.”

About Boldpal.com

Boldpal.com is a fast and reliable web hosting service provider. They are very popular in the webspace as they are only web hosting service provider to present many different types of web hosting plans to suite everyone’s needs. For more information, visit www.boldpal.com

Real Estate cheap Web Hosting Service RealEstateHomepages.com Updates MLS Search to Reflect NorthstarMLS Changes

Real Estate Home Pages provides 100% editable websites for real estate agents.  - Two new fields are available to filter results when searching for homes and properties to buy.

HUDSON, WISC., 5/12/2009 – (WiredPRNews.com) — Keeping in step with area MLS service provider NorthstarMLS, the Twin Cities-based RealEstateHomepages.com has added two new search fields to their property search feature.

The two new fields are “Lender Owned” and “Short Sale.” With the amount of homes in foreclosure and others selling far below the ideal price, home and property searchers can now customize their search to better suit their own needs and interests. Likewise, Realtors and brokers who use the REHP service will have these new options in their MLS search feature without having to make any changes themselves.

NorthstarMLS defines “Lender Owned” as “the homeowner being served official notice of foreclosure by a governing entity.” These generally sell much cheaper than other properties, because the banks or lenders who own the property have a vested interest in selling it as soon as possible.

Likewise, NorthstarMLS defines “short sale” as “a transaction where title transfers; where the sale price is insufficient to pay the total of all liens and costs of the sale; and where the seller does not bring sufficient liquid assets to the closing to cure all deficiencies.”

Both search fields are qualified with either “Yes,” “No,” or “Not disclosed.”

This is just the latest example of how RealEstateHomepages.com keeps up with sudden changes in the services they are able to offer through their partner, NorthstarMLS. They also continue to have the web’s easiest to use, WYSIWYG-style web editor. They also championed a new era of contact and client management with their drip-email system, EclientContact.

How to Easily Build Your Own Website For FREE

This may come as a surprise to you, but you can actually build your very own website with no prior knowledge and no money! All that’s required of you is an average intelligence and a will to succeed. The remaining tools and resources can be found for free on the Internet. The following article will give you a basic understanding of what’s involved and what specific things you’ll need. The rest is up to your creativity and perseverance.

Find a free website template that suites your business. Just do a Google search for ‘free website template’ and start looking for one that goes along with the theme of what you’re website will be about. For instance, if you’ll be selling children’s books you might want a template with lots of bright colors with a simple layout and big lettering.

Get a free html editor. Kompozer is generally considered to be the best free html WYSIWYG editor. By the way, WYSIWYG stands for “what you see is what you get.” Again, simply do a Google search for ‘kompozer’ and you’ll not only find links where you can download it, but also at least one site that contains free tutorials on how to use it!

Get a free header to make your site your own. Use the same strategy as above and do a Google search for ‘free headers.’ Just pick one that looks appropriate for what your website is about and download it to your hard drive for later use. Now, go through your kompozer tutorials so you can learn how to add elements (such as a header) to your website and DO it.

Add content to your site that your target audience will want to read. Within the content add links to information outside your site, add links to other content pages you can build and add links to affiliate products related to your niche that you want to sell. The more content you add to your site the more your visitors and the search engines will like it, so try to add new content to your site at least weekly.

Get free or cheap hosting for your site. You can very readily find free hosting for your website, but you might not want to choose that option anyway. Free hosts are notorious for going out of business (I can’t imagine why) and you risk losing a lot of time spent uploading files and configuring your website. Very cheap hosting can be found that is not only reliable, but also comes with free tech support, which is invaluable if you’re a newbie. The tech support people will generally walk you through any type of problem, with just one exception. They cannot be counted on to help you with programming; it’s simply not the responsibility of the hosting company.

This IS something you can do! Start immediately by using this article as a general guide to point you in the right direction. Reading this article doesn’t magically bestow you with a customized website that you can be proud of. It’s like anything else in life; you’ll get out of it what you put in. If you do at least something everyday, and do it well (even if it’s merely learning what you need to know), soon you’ll be able to look back and see that you’ve accomplished something worthy of calling your own. None of this is rocket science, it just takes some initiative, so get started today and you’ll have your very own website up and on the web in no time.

WebHostingReport.com Names May's Best Web Hosting Company, Top Providers Across 14 Distinct Categories

WebHostingReport.com announces the release of its May rankings on the best Web hosting company for each of 14 distinct categories, as well as the overall best Web site hosting provider for the month. Updated constantly with a new report issued monthly, Web Hosting Report provides consumers the best, most up-to-date information on the Web's leading host providers. The company consistently monitors changes and news in the industry and modifies its provider rankings based on select criteria for each individual category, providing consumers accurate pricing and details on a large number of providers.

Every month, the site names the best Web hosting provider, determined by several factors, including price, customer service, disk space, bandwidth and the number of domains allowed to be hosted with one account. The rankings are updated frequently based on changes in the marketplace.

Also ranked monthly are 14 distinct categories of host options, including best cheap, best domain, best ASP, best dedicated and best forum host provider. Every month, consumers can visit the Web site to determine if their provider is still the greatest deal available for their needs, or if there may be a better host available.

For more information on the best Web hosting company for any business or personal need, and for more information on the other top providers for the month of May, visit www.WebHostingReport.com.

About Web Hosting Report

Owned and operated by Memphis Web Enterprises, Inc., WebHostingReport.com was launched in 2008 to review and provide comparisons of the best Web hosting company for a number of host options. The rankings are updated frequently based on changes in the marketplace.

Using a Cheap Web Hosting Company To Initiate Online Presence around Smit

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Learning Lessons From free Web Hosting Experiences

Finding reliable hosting for your website can be a real challenge, especially when you're trying to save some money on your costs. But the danger of finding hosting that is so cheap it's too-good-to-be-true, is the fact that it is too good, because you'll often come across hosting resellers who are selling someone else's services, and are very shortsighted when it comes to offering proper webhosting services. It doesn't really count as saving money if you do business with flybynighthosting.com and they are nowhere to be found two weeks after you set up your site with their servers. And sure, you could sign up with one of the "big" providers, but you might end up paying for more than you need. And when you're trying to squeeze an income from your blog or your niche site, you might not need all that power that those big guns provide, especially when your site doesn't need all that fancy backend stuff.

What you really should do is learn more about web hosting from a portal site that lives and breathes hosting, offering news and reviews, consumer reports, special offers, and supporting testimonials from people who are actually using real hosting from real web hosts.

Whether you are looking for simple hosting for a simple site (sounds simple), or you need something more in the area of a virtual private server or a dedicated server, you still need to do your homework before you sign up with a service provider. Getting stuck in a long term deal isn't going to be too pleasant when your online revenue is being sucked down by a huge service contract with an unreliable host. Or maybe you're operating an environmental website that deals with global warming, and you would prefer that your website is operated on a server that provides green hosting, environmentally friendly servers that use alternative energy or recycled products to maintain their sites.

Well whatever you decide for your site's web hosting, you're going to learn something from the experience...and perhaps you'll be willing to share your best practices with others who will be looking for the same web host solutions that you did...and they'll learn something from you. :)

Using a cheap web hosting company to initiate online presence

Online presence is the prime cause of profits in this era of electronic commerce, and for every business it is now a challenge to search out a cheap web hostingcompany. It is prudent to note that in terms of e-commerce Australia has been the frontrunner, the Australian businesses initiated online trading in the time of communication convergence and finally have come up with colors.

In this highly competitive market online presence is must to gain an edge over the competitors. Even if the competitors have web portals, with better quality and performance of the sites you can easily run leap ahead. Millions of consumers hunt for desired products and services and only a proper Australian web hosting company can help a business to focus up products and services. Actually as Australia led in e-commerce implementation, the web developers of the nation bagged huge experiences. Now they just execute their skills to prevail better.

A proper web hosting company develops and hosts a web portal to make a business up and successful. In this time of recession, many online trades are not largely affected. This is another good reason of making online presence prominent. Internet and communication convergence have revolutionized the world and now conducting business transactions over the net is in vogue. To ensure secure online transactions it is advisable to go for the reputed web hosting company.

While providing the specifications to the web hosting companies, each requirement should be clarified to get the web site exactly as desired. For facilitating the visitors with online shopping, nowadays online shopping carts are used. A customizable page layout along with a soothing look and feel of the web page is always nice. Besides these, the payment processing tools should also be created considering the security issues. Highly secured payment gateways provide security and in addition this makes the purchaser’s confidence high. Australian web hosting providers are aware of all these details.

There remain several packages and it is possible to select a suitable one. There are different uses of technologies and while developing a web site several specifications can be done regarding the use of technology and tools. The renowned web hosting company may provide effective suggestions and guidelines related to usage of specific software and tools. Performance of the site largely depends on use of tools during development and launch of the site.

It is a proven fact that with an up to date website it is possible to increase profits. Instead of procrastination it is best to search out a cheap web hosting company. Local yellow pages and community newspapers offer classifieds of different website hosting firms. A comparative analysis among the various sites helps in finding quality web development firms who offer affordable rates.