Four and a half long years ago I wrote How not to hire a wedding photographer, an article that was a response to a Craigslist ad about someone who had very unrealistic goals about what they wanted.  In the article I broke down each and every absurd request the person had and gave reasonable answers.  I’m going to attempt to do the same thing with a recent Craigslist ad where a bride is flying off the chain at what she seems to think is a case of hanging out and shooting photos.

The original ad posted to the Seattle Craigslist:

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I’ve been driving half my life now, being 32 years old and getting my license when I was 16.  One thing I’ve always been keen to do is vehicle maintenance, wanting at one time as a youth to be a mechanic.  What I can’t do myself is usually done by some of my very talented friends, and thankfully none hate me yet when I ask for help.  In my 16 years of driving I’ve also never bought a new car, always a higher mileage used one and the few weeks after purchase are usually followed by routine maintenance because I never trust the seller and want to ensure the car is running up to par.  This is all stuff most garage & driveway mechanics can do themselves.

• Change oil & filter
• Adjust tire pressure
• Fill washer fluid
• Check all bulbs
• Check all belts for signs of cracks
• Replace wiper blades
• Replace air filter
• …and on and on

Part of the new-to-me car ritual for myself and many others is the dawning of an air freshener to help cover the smell of rank ass, wet dog or cigarette smoke the previous owner left for you.  I’ve done it myself, standing in the auto parts store or mega box store’s auto section wondering what exactly black ice smells like, or if I am too manly for a clip-on-vent style freshener thus putting me back to the traditional tree section.  There’s a solution for all of this, but it’s in a different isle. Continue reading »

There seems to be a million single-use kitchen gadgets to solve all your problems.  I’m a big fan of Alton Brown‘s theory on kitchen tools, the only single-use tool in the kitchen should be a fire extinguisher.  Of the tools I use the most, a cutting board is near the top of the list.  A quick note about cutting boards, they hold true to the old saying bigger is better.  I see friends use these super small cutting boards, mostly because they are easy to store or are cheap and wonder how the hell they manage.  Your cutting board should be at least as big as your biggest knife diagonal on it.  I personally prefer end grain butcher block style boards, without the grooved channels as seen in the photo above, but everyone has a preference.

The biggest problem with nearly any consumer grade cutting board is that they are thin and don’t weigh a lot, because they are meant to be stored off the counter when not in use.  Because of this they can slide around while you’re working on them, especially if there’s a little water or oil on your counter top, causing an unsafe working environment.  A quick fix can be made with non-stick shelf liner, a more green alternative to wetting some paper towels and putting them down and throwing them away after your done.  Best of all, it’s usually at the dollar store, or at nearly any discount store like Big Lots for a few bucks.  It can be cut to any size you want, washed and if it tears, cheaply replaced.  Several other sites also suggest placing kitchen towels under a cutting board, my experience is that the towel is always too big, has to be folded so many times that it makes the cutting surface unstable.

The photo used above also showcases my favorite knives, Global.  Hands down, one of the best investments you can make in a kitchen is a quality chef knife.  There’s little need for a 27 piece knife set, one good chef knife will do 90% of the work you need to do in the kitchen.

I’m a huge fan of eBay, the 5th most popular post on this site was about making money with eBay auctions, so clearly everyone who reads Randomn3ss likes it too.  Last month eBay sent me a nice little email message to thank me for another year of being a member, my 11th year!  1999 I joined, seems like yesterday, time flies.  Anyway, I have a lot of issues with eBay, one of which is that they are driving users to start using Craigslist because they fees are becoming insane, more of my rants can be found here.  Anyway, I still buy stuff on a regular basis because eBay can often be cheaper than local stores and even Amazon when buying items less than $25.  Last night I found some hidden categories that have me scratching my head and subsequently consumed the following few hours of my life.

The parent category is Weird Stuff, and there is just that, a lot of weird stuff.  I did see a bunch of Nazi stuff, which I guess there’s a market for, but then you’ll find something you never knew existed but now need, an egg white separator called A Booger Boy / Snot A Mug.

Within the Weird Stuff category are three more sub-categories, that get stranger. Continue reading »

This is totally insane.  It’s sad that most people in the west never see this, and they should.

I have become totally in love with time lapse videos, and this isn’t the first one I’ve posted here and won’t be the last.  It’s a skill I’m working on myself and hoping to get a little better at, but love the concept of this 11 hour journey over 2 minutes.

Video made by beepshow.com

Going back to the early 90′s when I first started to heavily use the Internet I wanted to make money doing it.  Back then I used it to get mailing addresses for a small business I had going in High School and wanted to mail out a sales flyer to generate sales via phone, it worked.  In the late 90′s I remember All Advantage, a pay to surf the web tiered affiliate program.  Shortly thereafter I started to build websites and the rest has kind of been a blur.  It seems everything on the web can be monetized, Twitter is just another means to make some money for those who use it.

Back in the summer of 2007 I joined Twitter and while four and a half years isn’t very long, it’s forever ago in technology times.  The micro blogging service was quirky and no one really had any full understanding as what they were supposed to do with it.  It wasn’t long before I asked WTF was I thinking using Twitter? and vowed never to update it again.  Well, I have, and a lot.  By 2008 I was finding useful reasons to use it and for all intensive purposes, it’s a staple in my tech life and virtually everyone I know.  Twitter is so large now that I see TV commercials who no longer advertise their website or even Facebook page anymore, they are simply promoting the use of a #hashtag, this goes for major networks too.

Just over three months ago I joined SponsoredTweets, a site that links advertisers and tweeters together.  The company has some very high profile celebrities and some quick searching on Google made everything here seem pretty legit.  You fill out a short profile, including tags of things that both interest you and that you talk about on a regular basis.  Based on the date you joined Twitter, the number of followers you have in relation to the number you follow and a few other specifications, SponsoredTweets suggests a price for you per tweet.  When I initially signed up I had about 920 followers and it’s suggest price per tweet for me was $1.27 based on the tags I chose. When an offer comes in, you can accept or deny it, then use the given guidelines to write a tweet which will both include a link to what the advertiser wants and a disclaimer of your choosing, such as #ad, Ad:, #sponsored and a few others to indicate this is indeed an affiliate link.  When you accept and write your tweet it’s then sent for review by the advertiser, if they approve it SponsoredTweets will automatically tweet for you within a given time frame that the sponsor chooses.  Provided a few people click the links, you’ll get paid.  Continue reading »

My local newspaper, The Morning Call which is owned by the Tribune Company, publishers of The Chicago Times and the LA Times, among other has announced it will be changing it’s online terms to paid content.  It’s been nearly two months since the move was announced, but with the end of the free versions of online content readers are starting to become outraged.  I’m going to make an attempt to point out why this is not only a bad idea but one that will ultimately bring an end to my local newspaper.

Full disclaimer, I get paid to write articles for other sites, I understand nothing in life can be free and those who create work, tangible or not, should be compensated.  Randomn3ss has been a passion of mine for years as a way to explore my own writing and more specifically in this case, there is no option on The Morning Call’s website to leave comments for the article, which I find odd, so I’ll rebut it all here, piece by piece.

The Morning Call’s publisher is quoted as saying,

the decision to begin charging for digital content is based on readers’ strong demand for local news, features and sports on the Internet and mobile devices

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Everyone has their own specialized list of things that just get on their nerves. In many places on Earth, it’s things like “will someone steal my food?” or “will someone kidnap my wife and daughter?” But those lucky enough to find themselves living in the first world don’t have real annoyances like these. We just sort of find things to complain about no matter how well our lives are relative to the rest of the world. It doesn’t have to be a splinter to really get under your skin, or a bullet for that matter; not getting what you wanted at Starbucks is enough to ruin your day here. Being a privileged human is tedious sometimes and life can turn into a gauntlet of irksome odds and ends. Here are a few on my list:

Incomprehensible cell phones

It can take me years to learn how to use a new cell phone. It doesn’t matter if it’s a smartphone, a prepaid phone, or a GPS enabled phone, these tiny computers baffle me! They are the remote controls of the 2010′s. That said, without them I would probably get lost walking my dog. I can’t quit you, technology!

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I’ve been a happy iPhone user since picking mine up on launch day last summer for the iPhone4.  With the announcement of the much anticipated and then slightly disappointing 4s I’ve chosen to not upgrade, there’s not enough bang for the buck and I’m still tied to my current contract for another 8ish months.  What I did do was upgrade to iOS5 though, curious to get some of the new features and functions; one of which is iMessage.

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