RECOMMENDED VAPE SHOPS
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
How to clean your Smok Alien 220W tank?
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
What do you think of Blueberry Cheesecake from Green Forest Vape Shop in Belleville Illinois?
But I do like blueberry cheesecake. The real stuff. So when I saw there was a flavor available in that offering of course I had to give it a go. It was not disappointing at all. In fact, Blueberry Cheesecake vape juice from Green Forest Vape Shop in Belleville, Illinois has become a favorite of mine. Respectably this juice actually does taste quite a lot like actual blueberry cheesecake. I am sure there are other vape shops that offer this flavor, it is of course not unique, but as I like my beer I think I like my vapes—so far. That is, I enjoy trying some of the different offerings from different vape shops, and since I travel a lot, I do get to see a few shops around that are worth giving a go and will likely write about what flavors I find to like and give those shops a bit of a plug. Besides, if you have followed me, you know I am a huge fan of supporting small business, and these vape shops are all of course, small business. They all need some love, and if we are part of the vaping community we want to keep these shops alive so we can all enjoy the benefits of vaping over smoking.
If you want to check them out, or check out this fantastic flavor you can find them here. I think their house juices are reasonably priced, most of the flavors I have tried I have liked. The staff is friendly and helpful. They are worth supporting and checking out.
Here's a little video for YouTube I did on this particular flavor. Unfortunately I got the website wrong. But no worries. It was correct here.
Vape on people.
Sunday, August 27, 2017
What the hell is the Springboard Journal?
A while back there happened to be a few sites that came along that paid a little bit, and were fun to write for mainly because you could write about just about anything you wanted to. The "articles," and I use that word lightly, did not have to be informative, or explanatory, exploratory, or anything else of that nature. I likened these sites to expanded versions of Twitter or Facebook. You started off with that one simple thought in mind, "What's on your mind?" And you simply went with that and wrote about it.
People would come by, read, like, and comment. It was as simple as that.
Of course what made those sites die a slow and painful death was not that they did not require phenomenal content, or even that the vast majority of writers for those sites could barely write their own names. It was the business model that they used that was simply not sustainable. They were desperate to attract writers. Any writers. And they paid for those likes and comments in order to entice people to not only dance around the site and the posts, but to keep on posting. Even though when I started on these sites I knew they wouldn't last, I wrote for them anyway knowing that before they were laid to rest I would at least cash in on a little bit of that enticement. That made it worth it even if it wasn't ever going to last.
That all aside, I did enjoy reading many of the daily posts. Even the ones which were just about what someone had for dinner. You got to know people through their posts, and while the content was not all extremely entertaining, there was still enough entertainment value, and even perhaps enough of a feel of being that proverbial fly on the wall, that it kept you coming back.
I post often for Twitter and for Facebook, and of course I maintain a few blogs here on BlogSpot. But I kind of longed to go back to those old sites, to that old format, to just simply post whatever is on my mind. To post what I did today, what just happened to me a minute ago, and perhaps what I plan to do to tomorrow. It was also an opportunity and a great place to share a little bit of what else I do on the Internet like music, YouTube videos, or whatever else strikes my fancy.
To that end I thought what the heck? Why not? Why not just start a blog whereas the aim is simply to do exactly what I described above. A blog about nothing and everything all at once, and a blog that requires no set word count, or post count, or even great and phenomenal content, but at the very least content which someone out there might find interesting enough to keep up with.
My life can get quite interesting actually. I am a bit of a character for those who know me.
So what the hell is the Springboard Journal? It's a blog about nothing and everything in the daily life of me. If you want to come on over and see what's going on, I'd be happy for you to join me. The aim is to post as often as things come up that I care to post about. Again, about nothing and everything. Should be fun, and we'll see where it goes. And knowing me, the blog will probably be all over the place from funny happenings, to fun times, to not so fun times, to all out rants about things that might be irking me at any given time.
THE SPRINGBOARD JOURNAL
People would come by, read, like, and comment. It was as simple as that.
Of course what made those sites die a slow and painful death was not that they did not require phenomenal content, or even that the vast majority of writers for those sites could barely write their own names. It was the business model that they used that was simply not sustainable. They were desperate to attract writers. Any writers. And they paid for those likes and comments in order to entice people to not only dance around the site and the posts, but to keep on posting. Even though when I started on these sites I knew they wouldn't last, I wrote for them anyway knowing that before they were laid to rest I would at least cash in on a little bit of that enticement. That made it worth it even if it wasn't ever going to last.
That all aside, I did enjoy reading many of the daily posts. Even the ones which were just about what someone had for dinner. You got to know people through their posts, and while the content was not all extremely entertaining, there was still enough entertainment value, and even perhaps enough of a feel of being that proverbial fly on the wall, that it kept you coming back.
I post often for Twitter and for Facebook, and of course I maintain a few blogs here on BlogSpot. But I kind of longed to go back to those old sites, to that old format, to just simply post whatever is on my mind. To post what I did today, what just happened to me a minute ago, and perhaps what I plan to do to tomorrow. It was also an opportunity and a great place to share a little bit of what else I do on the Internet like music, YouTube videos, or whatever else strikes my fancy.
To that end I thought what the heck? Why not? Why not just start a blog whereas the aim is simply to do exactly what I described above. A blog about nothing and everything all at once, and a blog that requires no set word count, or post count, or even great and phenomenal content, but at the very least content which someone out there might find interesting enough to keep up with.
My life can get quite interesting actually. I am a bit of a character for those who know me.
So what the hell is the Springboard Journal? It's a blog about nothing and everything in the daily life of me. If you want to come on over and see what's going on, I'd be happy for you to join me. The aim is to post as often as things come up that I care to post about. Again, about nothing and everything. Should be fun, and we'll see where it goes. And knowing me, the blog will probably be all over the place from funny happenings, to fun times, to not so fun times, to all out rants about things that might be irking me at any given time.
THE SPRINGBOARD JOURNAL
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
What is your opinion of the Super 8 in Fort Wayne Indiana?
Let me start off by being very clear that I actually mostly find Super 8 locations to be better than expected for the money. It is a value hotel, and so I am not expecting top notch anymore than I would expect a stellar steak at Denny's for breakfast.
So where is this particular Super 8 location? 5710 Challenger Parkway in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The perk? Well, it does offer a smoking room for anyone looking for a room like that. And if you are a member of Wyndham rewards as I am since I travel often for business, it is a part of the Wyndham Resorts family of hotels, and so you earn points for your stays which can be used to either get discounts on room rates, free rooms, or other perks like gift cards.
I happen to be a diamond member. Again, because I travel a lot for business.
In fact, very recently I cashed in 25,000 points of my 75,000 point balance for a Visa gift card valued at $100. But that's for another day. But it is certainly a perk. I have no affiliation with Wyndham and don't even own stock in the company anymore...so I am not trying to sell you on anything. But do check out the rewards program if you travel a lot, and there are other hotels in the Wyndham family like Baymont Inn for example which are a bit more higher quality.
I paid less than $60 per night for this particular stay. Not awful, and about right for a Super 8 depending on where you are.
What's in my room?
- Computer desk
- Single cup coffee maker
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
Not all Super 8's have a refrigerator, and not all have a microwave, so I call this a plus. Honestly, after a hard day on the road and conducting sales calls with customers I enjoy unwinding with a beer or two, so a refrigerator is a big plus in my book. It's also nice to have a microwave because often times I will indulge in a pizza on at least one of the nights, and while cold pizza is great, sometimes being able to take the chill off a bit in the microwave is an added bonus.
It's especially nice if I opt for Chinese food, which I often do as well on my business trips.
As for the room quality at this particular location at 5710 Challenger Parkway, Fort Wayne, Indiana, I'd say it is actually quite subpar for even a Super 8. For one thing the building is a bit dated, and the rooms are essentially outside, so there is no hope for security at this location. The access doors to the upper levels do have a card reader, but there are no locks. Even that makes sense since the lower level is all outside, so the entire building is pretty much accessible to anyone who could break a door in.
The room also seemed a bit dirty honestly. In fact, there is a sitting chair close by the bed which is positioned well to watch TV if you don't want to lay in the bed and watch. But from the looks of it, honestly I don't think I'll be sitting in it. The arms are blackened, and in fact the whole chair just looks used and abused.
My best assessment is that for the price it is what is to be expected even if I have paid a similar price for a better room at other Super 8 locations. But that aside, if I ever have to make a stay in Fort Wayne, Indiana again, the Super 8 at 5710 Challenger Parkway will not be on my list of places to stay. Next time through town I might choose a Baymont Inn, or see if there is a higher end Wyndham offering in Fort Wayne.
What hotels are associated with Wyndham?
- Dolce
- Wyndham Grand
- Wyndham
- Wyndham Garden
- Tryp
- Wingate
- Hawthorn
- Microtel
- Ramada
- Baymont Inn
- Days Inn
- Super 8
- Howard Johnson
- Travelodge
- Knights Inn
Overall recommendation for the Super 8 at 5710 Challenger Parkway in Fort Wayne, Indiana? I do not recommend this hotel.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
What should I do with online earnings?
For several years now I have involved myself with many different online content sites, or some people like to call them revenue sharing sites. You can lump sites like WebAnswers, HubPages, Bubblews, and one I have recently joined called Niume, into this category.
By the way, if you want to check out Niume, here's a way to get started.
The truth is, for a while it wasn't so difficult to make thousands of dollars per year doing this. Especially if you happened to be someone like me who has at least a smidgen of knack for writing content.
Some people in the past have called me a windbag actually.
Of course, the one downfall for me in writing online content has been that I write mostly opinion pieces, and mostly on politics, business, and finance. The business and finance pieces have a bit more longevity. But because the politics pieces tend to be in the now they aren't relevant over a longer period of time and tend to fizzle out over time.
No matter.
So, what is the catch here? The catch is that many of the models to pay you that these revenue sharing sites use are faulty. In other words, the money will come, but it may also be short lived because what the creators of these sites are trying to do is to attract as many content providers as they can in as little time as they can, pay up a bit to incentivize and motivate those content providers, and then slowly begin to siphon off whatever pennies they can before the site shuts down, gets caught cheating, and content providers begin to head for the exits.
Such was the case with certainly WebAnswers and Bubblews.
But until that day comes these sites do pay actually quite well. So, what do you do with any money you earn online?
I think the key here is to understand that one day the cash cow will die. It's just a fact that seems to be the norm when it comes to online revenue sharing sites. So, I have always resorted to at least taking the money while it is free flowing into my bank account from these activities...
And running.
Many people choose to spend it. They may buy new shoes, a new TV, hell, a new laptop computer to make banging away at the keys and providing more revenue producing content easier—or more fun since getting a new computer can be fun.
I happen to think that it is better to make the money last longer. And to do that I think it is best to plunk the money into an investment which pays dividends over the long haul. That way, even when the revenue sharing site dies, the money is still there that you earned, and still able to earn for you as you work to seek out new sites to make up the difference.
So where do you put it?
Look, the reality is many people simply aren't too keen on investing in general, and so this can be a daunting task in and of itself. But one can keep it simple. Simply open an account at a site like Ameritrade or ShareBuilder and start depositing your online earnings into that account. When you've accumulated enough to start buying shares, pick stocks or ETFs which are fairly stable and that produce good dividends.
Here are a few I recommend; BXMX, F, KO, MRO, and YYY.
BXMX is an exchange traded fund, or ETF, that pays almost an 8% dividend, and I have owned it for over a decade. It's been stable, providing mostly dividends since the price doesn't move much. I hate to use the word 'safe,' but actually BXMX is fairly safe. It's a part of the Nuveen family of funds, and before it was BXMX it was JSN.
Ford (F), Coca-Cola (KO), and Marathon Oil (MRO) are all fairly stable stocks to own as well that pay a fair amount of dividends. Ford is somewhere around 6% if you account for the regular dividend and annual special dividends. Coca-Cola pays around 3.5%, and MRO is about the same as KO.
Keep in mind the most volatile of these three stocks is MRO.
I consider income earned from online sources as extra. And because I love to write it means I get to do what I love and make some money doing it. But I also like to increase all of my streams of income overall. And so putting the money I earn online away to earn over the long haul is simply a great way to make any money I earn doing what I love last longer than any of the revenue sharing sites will ever last.
By the way, if you want to check out Niume, here's a way to get started.
The truth is, for a while it wasn't so difficult to make thousands of dollars per year doing this. Especially if you happened to be someone like me who has at least a smidgen of knack for writing content.
Some people in the past have called me a windbag actually.
Of course, the one downfall for me in writing online content has been that I write mostly opinion pieces, and mostly on politics, business, and finance. The business and finance pieces have a bit more longevity. But because the politics pieces tend to be in the now they aren't relevant over a longer period of time and tend to fizzle out over time.
No matter.
So, what is the catch here? The catch is that many of the models to pay you that these revenue sharing sites use are faulty. In other words, the money will come, but it may also be short lived because what the creators of these sites are trying to do is to attract as many content providers as they can in as little time as they can, pay up a bit to incentivize and motivate those content providers, and then slowly begin to siphon off whatever pennies they can before the site shuts down, gets caught cheating, and content providers begin to head for the exits.
Such was the case with certainly WebAnswers and Bubblews.
But until that day comes these sites do pay actually quite well. So, what do you do with any money you earn online?
I think the key here is to understand that one day the cash cow will die. It's just a fact that seems to be the norm when it comes to online revenue sharing sites. So, I have always resorted to at least taking the money while it is free flowing into my bank account from these activities...
And running.
Many people choose to spend it. They may buy new shoes, a new TV, hell, a new laptop computer to make banging away at the keys and providing more revenue producing content easier—or more fun since getting a new computer can be fun.
I happen to think that it is better to make the money last longer. And to do that I think it is best to plunk the money into an investment which pays dividends over the long haul. That way, even when the revenue sharing site dies, the money is still there that you earned, and still able to earn for you as you work to seek out new sites to make up the difference.
So where do you put it?
Look, the reality is many people simply aren't too keen on investing in general, and so this can be a daunting task in and of itself. But one can keep it simple. Simply open an account at a site like Ameritrade or ShareBuilder and start depositing your online earnings into that account. When you've accumulated enough to start buying shares, pick stocks or ETFs which are fairly stable and that produce good dividends.
Here are a few I recommend; BXMX, F, KO, MRO, and YYY.
BXMX is an exchange traded fund, or ETF, that pays almost an 8% dividend, and I have owned it for over a decade. It's been stable, providing mostly dividends since the price doesn't move much. I hate to use the word 'safe,' but actually BXMX is fairly safe. It's a part of the Nuveen family of funds, and before it was BXMX it was JSN.
Ford (F), Coca-Cola (KO), and Marathon Oil (MRO) are all fairly stable stocks to own as well that pay a fair amount of dividends. Ford is somewhere around 6% if you account for the regular dividend and annual special dividends. Coca-Cola pays around 3.5%, and MRO is about the same as KO.
Keep in mind the most volatile of these three stocks is MRO.
I consider income earned from online sources as extra. And because I love to write it means I get to do what I love and make some money doing it. But I also like to increase all of my streams of income overall. And so putting the money I earn online away to earn over the long haul is simply a great way to make any money I earn doing what I love last longer than any of the revenue sharing sites will ever last.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
A porn star speaks out against Trump?
Now don't get me wrong here, will you? I am a typical guy. I like porn. And don't you start to get all righteous and fuddy duddy on me here because I came right out and said not only do I like porn, but as a typical guy I like porn.
Folks, the numbers don't lie. Sex sells, and so does porn, so it's not like anyone isn't watching it—and if they say they're not they are either dead or lying through their teeth.
Look folks, can't you see the media is really grasping at straws here? I mean, there's all of this stuff that is out there, front and center, being put out by Wikileaks that gives a glaring insight into the inner working of the Hillary Clinton campaign and all of those spineless fuckers that surround her.
Yeah, I said spineless fuckers. I am not worried about my language folks so long as it happens to be the truth.
I am not going to say that Trump may never have groped anyone. The fact is I don't have any proof he didn't. But then, I don't really see any proof that he did either. I mean, even the first one (or was it the first one) that came out about the woman who was groped by Trump in first class on an airplane was a bit debunked. It's not the only debunking factor that the arm he raised between the seats to get to her actually could not have been raised. But it's the fact that once you have one detail in the story off, you have to question the entire story. Maybe there's some truth in it. But probably there's more story telling than truth.
I didn't mind the groping until he went south.
What? Again I ask that question. What? Now I am not going to say that just because a woman lets me touch her breasts, and maybe even her arm or her belly is an open invitation to go south and just expect that she wants me to finish the job. But certainly I have to ask, "What did you think I was going to think when you said 'ooh' and 'ahh' when I touched your top lady parts? I was probably going to think something else might also be okay."
It's not that you touch me ladies. But if you touch me a certain way above my southern regions and I don't mind, I may be surprised if you don't reach down a little farther.
Well. If I wadn't married girls. Yeah I say wasn't with a 'd.' Then I'd have to stop you. But I would have stopped you at the first soft caress personally.
But now we have a porn star that not only says Trump groped her, but asked her how much? How much? Well, she is a porn star. Now granted, being a porn star is different than being a prostitute to some extent I must say. After all, this is a profession with credentials to boot. Yeah, you get paid to screw on screen, and you're choosing your partner...
Do you choose? Well, maybe after you've been doing it for a while. Before that you have to screw who the director tells you to.
But I digress. I don't want to make light of any situation a woman may find herself in. Even a porn star. Even a prostitute for that matter. These are still human beings of course. But I mean, does the media really take itself seriously that this is what they put out there? A porn star who may have been groped and may have been asked if she'd be willing to do it for money off screen?
I wouldn't doubt there have been many porn stars asked this question by the way.
And all the while what are we missing? Four dead Americans in Benghazi. Where Clinton was on the night of the call? What happened to the missing emails? What was in them? And why she seemed to deny she knew what the letter 'C' meant but she is otherwise qualified to handle the nation's greatest secrets? And the list goes on.
I just hope that the people who the media hopes has their heads up their asses when they report this nonsensible trash are few and far between. Because what Hillary Clinton may do to us could arguably be far worse than anything Trump may have tried to get his hands on in his past.
What makes you think Donald Trump is actually winning the election?
It used to be that while one could not completely rely on the polls, the polls still got you somewhere closer in the ballpark. Sort of like the local weatherman giving his report on what the weather will look like tomorrow, you know? It may not be exactly 66 degrees and sunny. But you could expect that it would at least be somewhere within 60-70 degrees and the sun would probably shine for a good part of the day.
The polls have always been slanted. Or at least they have always been mostly slanted. Keep in mind all polls are, really, are interpretations of consensus which are formulated using mathematical calculations—and weighting. The weighting part is a key factor in how a poll result is formulated mind you, since the idea behind it is that certain weight is given to a particular representational factor within the poll itself.
For example, hispanics may only represent a very much smaller percentage of the population. So, naturally when you poll, less answers will be representative of the hispanic population as a whole. So you have to calculate how much weight should be placed on that answer in order to better calculate (or speculate depending on your perspective) how that answer weighs in for that particular group on the focus of the question.
But someone ultimately decides how much weight gets placed on any answer. And of course, they also have the ability to word a question in a way that presumes an outcome, and distracts from a more complete answer, and even can overweight a segment to sway a poll one way or the other.
I am not suggesting polling is rigged, per se. Although it may well be to some extent, especially nowadays. What I am suggesting is that polls are often times wrong—and since they are largely controlled by the media, or special interest groups, pollsters go into a poll with a predetermined desired outcome and will go to whatever length is necessary to have the poll answer their question in a way that better fits their desired narrative.
Sort of like saying if you ask ten people whether or not you are ugly and 5 people say you are and the other 5 say you're not, just ask one more person to see if you can get one more vote for not ugly and there you have it...
If 6 out of 11 say you're not ugly, then roughly 55% of those polled think you're not. You must not be ugly.
The polls have always been slanted. Or at least they have always been mostly slanted. Keep in mind all polls are, really, are interpretations of consensus which are formulated using mathematical calculations—and weighting. The weighting part is a key factor in how a poll result is formulated mind you, since the idea behind it is that certain weight is given to a particular representational factor within the poll itself.
For example, hispanics may only represent a very much smaller percentage of the population. So, naturally when you poll, less answers will be representative of the hispanic population as a whole. So you have to calculate how much weight should be placed on that answer in order to better calculate (or speculate depending on your perspective) how that answer weighs in for that particular group on the focus of the question.
But someone ultimately decides how much weight gets placed on any answer. And of course, they also have the ability to word a question in a way that presumes an outcome, and distracts from a more complete answer, and even can overweight a segment to sway a poll one way or the other.
I am not suggesting polling is rigged, per se. Although it may well be to some extent, especially nowadays. What I am suggesting is that polls are often times wrong—and since they are largely controlled by the media, or special interest groups, pollsters go into a poll with a predetermined desired outcome and will go to whatever length is necessary to have the poll answer their question in a way that better fits their desired narrative.
Sort of like saying if you ask ten people whether or not you are ugly and 5 people say you are and the other 5 say you're not, just ask one more person to see if you can get one more vote for not ugly and there you have it...
If 6 out of 11 say you're not ugly, then roughly 55% of those polled think you're not. You must not be ugly.
Of course, you can ask the question another way and get a totally different outcome. You might ask ten people, for example, if you are butt-ugly. Well, most people might think you are ugly. But probably most people won't think you are butt-ugly. So no matter how many people you ask, the most likely result is that you will come out with a desirable answer.
It's a silly analogy I know. But stick with me if you will. I like Springboard Answers to have a bit of tongue-in-cheek about it these days.
But okay, the question was "What makes you think Donald Trump is actually winning the election?" Because of course I think the polling is wrong, and I think the electoral map is skewed by wrong polling data, and of course there is also the factor that the media wants Hillary Clinton to be the victor in all of this, and so thus becomes the portrayal we all get to see.
But do you ever notice one thing that the media also does when it reports on the rallies? Yeah, you know, those things that the candidates hold for their actual supporters? It pans in on Hillary Clinton when it shows snippets of hers. Why? Because when you compare how many people are attending her rallies as opposed to how many people are attending Trump's...
Wow, is the result amazingly glaring and different.
And therein lies, at least for me, a very telling truth about the polls, and what the actual outcome of this election is going to be when all is said and done. Why does Trump win? Why are the polls wrong? Why do the electoral maps and all of the predictions of the liberal pundits paint a picture in favor of Hillary Clinton advancing to the White House?
It's in the rallies.
Trump is gathering enormous crowds. Can I use the term yuuge? On the flip side, Hillary is drawing very small crowds. While most of the time Trump is speaking from a podium in front of masses, we see Clinton stumping before very small groups.
The proof is in the rallies, folks. I'm telling you. Take that in for what it's worth. The people are gathering for Trump in far larger numbers than they are for Hillary, and it has the pollsters and the liberal media grasping at straws trying to make it look like it's the other way around. They're really trying.
Now look. I am no genius. I am not smarter than anybody and certainly I am not suggesting I am. But I do think there are times when I see things that others do not. And this is one of those times. I am able to see the forest for the trees, you know. I am able to read between the lines. The story is in there, folks, plain to see. The deal is not done, mind you. I am not calling this election now. That would be foolish and downright stupid. And of course I am not going to put any money on it. But mark my words, the truth is that I think more of the country is for Trump than are not.
But, like the polls may be rigged, there's a very good chance that elections are rigged, and so we still may see an outcome that flies in the face of things that should be obvious.
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