Making New Year resolutions is all very well but what is important is to be able to stick to them. Here are some tips that may help you stick to the ones that you do make:

KISS: for the uninitiated, that stands for Keep It Simple Stupid! Don’t make grandiose or unrealistic plans or set unattainable goals. Be realistic about your own capabilities as well as those of people around you. So if one is extremely overweight, it is unrealistic to set a goal of losing 100 pounds in a few months. Also if one’s goal is also dependent upon others, for instance if you are hoping for a promotion at work, you can only do your best.  Beyond that, being recognized for your efforts and abilities and actually being promoted in not in your hands; recognize that fact and save yourself disappointment later.

Have a plan: If your plan is to lose weight for instance, then you have to have a realistic workable plan to create that all important caloric deficit. You cannot cut down on a few things or add a walk to your weekly routine and hope for success. If you are going to save money have a plan for that as well (like reading this blog regularly) don’t expect things to happen on their own. They don’t!

Accept that sometimes you will need help: Sometimes the nature of your goal or ambition may be such that you need the help of another; don’t be shy to ask for help.  If you find that it is difficult to keep up with your resolutions by yourself, you may want to look at a couple of sites that help you achieve your goals:

My goals.com is a site that claims to be a personalized, private service to set and accomplish goals related to any topic you choose. Features of the site include goal-setting process and interactive tools and resources such as automated reminders, expert advice, and recommended solutions.

Similarly Joe’s Goals offers a simple single page interface to setup daily goals and track them with just a click.

So have a Happy New Years peeps and good luck keeping those resolutions!

Now here I found a bunch of really useless but highly entertaining stuff, such as an inflatable Bra bath pillow, some rather creative dice, furry handcuffs etc….

Someone with the right kind of sense of humor will really be amused by this inflatable bra bath pillow. For someone who likes the idea of resting their head on a pair of D cups in the bath! For $4.95, a bit of laugh isn’t it!

Now love dice could be just the thing to light a spark for that little something that went missing in a relationship. These glow in the dark dice, has a bunch of commands (and positions as well in case you are interested) that could just make things very interesting indeed! Priced at just 3.95, well one can certainly afford a bit of slap and tickle…. And there’s also some furry handcuffs ($5 per pair) and some strip tease pens ($3 for men and for women) if you are so inclined.

Novelties wholesale is subdivided into some pretty wacky categories: there’s fake money, fake teeth, flashing items, pranks and hold your breath, fart items; the list goes on!

Check out the fake Obama money. You can get yourself 100 bills for $19.95 and just for extra fun you can get yourself some $8 bills as well!

Now I really don’t know what sophomoric sense of humor thought of this one but apparently there is a market out there for fart whistles. Apparently it is hilariously funny when someone blows on these to make fake fart sounds. $ 5 of your hard earned cash for a dozen of these.

Now these are something called spatter back toys. You throw these on the ground and they kind of spatter or get squished and then you just pick them up and they regain their shape.  Reasonably disgusting sounding, but I do know people who would find this fascinating…

Well there’s no accounting for taste after all…..

They did a fabulous post about adverts aimed at President George W Bush all of which were excellent and a couple of which I cannot resist posting here to share with you all:

This one is an ad for the Smart Cars:

And this one is an ad for Stabilo Erasable pen made in Hong Kong, “Everyone makes mistakes” implying that with an erasable pen you could have corrected yours!

Another site I found had some super collections of all kinds of ads; TV, print media, radio and outdoor ads. I thought this ad for Scrabble was marvelous because I have often got that feeling while playing scrabble, that yes I recognize this there is a pattern discernable just like this jumbled up elephant.

Now I am not sure that I really like this one (it’s a bunch of rear ends after all), but I certainly admire the original thought behind it; ‘The other side of America’ for Queer travels:

Now this is one clever ad for a vacuum cleaner; pithy and succinct:

This is an ad for the TV series Sopranos, a campaign in New York taxis to promote the show: if I saw an arm hanging from a cab, even mere curiosity would compel me to watch the show:

Now this one by Vitae Shelters is clever not for the words or the cleverness behind the actual ad; but for its placement, which is the lid of a dumpster. Put in a place like that, where no one expects to see an advert, is really eye-catching.

And finally I leave you with a series of Top Ten Super Bowl Ads 2008 – Commercials from Super Bowl 42, a youtube video of 10 ads put together for your enjoyment.

There were enough Budweiser ads in there for there to be a Cheers! moment as well, so may I finally wish you all a very Happy New Year and God Bless!

]]> http://www.greatpriceshere.com/2008/12/30/the-best-commercials-of-2008/feed/ 14 http://www.greatpriceshere.com/2008/08/25/comics-by-email/ http://www.greatpriceshere.com/2008/08/25/comics-by-email/#comments Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:58:01 +0000 Nicole Price http://www.greatpriceshere.com/?p=94 I want to take my own advice and cut down on one of the family’s recurring expenditures: that of the daily news paper. After all reading the news on the internet slakes my (limited) thirst for current affairs and information. The one thing that is making me chary of taking action here is the fact that I will not have access to the comics section of the newspaper (I admit that I am one of those who scans the headlines and heads for the comics section right away). The internet (its wonders never cease!) provides me a solution to this as well.

If, like me you like Peanuts, then the Peanuts site is a must visit for you. Read a months’ worth of comics, send a comic to a friend, or send an e card from here.

Now the Dilbert website I liked even more because you can sign up for a daily animation, daily strip, most popular, newsletter etc. What I also liked very much is the Dilbert Widget which gives you the option of seeing Dilbert in color every day; enjoy archives, rank and share with friends. The widget comes in different sizes.

This site offers you the option of free as well as paid subscriptions. If you sign up for the freebie, you get a comic strip delivered to your email inbox 6 days a week. If you want to go in for one of the paid subscriptions you get a lot of bells and whistles such as multiple strips everyday of the week, puzzles, access to archives etc. You can also purchase a membership as a truly unique gift for someone.

I love Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes and Dilbert; they have to be my fave comic strips and each of them are available on this site. Your favorite comics appear in your personal RSS/RDF feed, in your (optional) daily emails or on your own Comic Digest page.

Here you can read comics and post your own comments too. So if you are a serious comics buff it would be a really nice place to hang out, share opinions etc.

Arcamax.com is also a really neat site where you can read comics, jokes cartoons etc, and also have them delivered to your inbox for free. I don’t know about you but I like to start the day with a laugh so I think having comics and funnies delivered to the inbox is a great idea!

Prank place.com has a really funny collection of tees with this nice clearance section here. I loved this one that says, “Why don’t you stick that cigarette up your ass? It would be healthier for you“; rude but makes a point loud and clear! It is at an 80% discount and available to you for $6.99.

Jiggy.com is a really cool site for Tshirts, especially if you like to declare what band fan you are. They have t shirts for practically every band from Elvis to Aerosmith and then some. I liked their Aerosmith T shirt for $9.95 but what I liked more is this offensive George Bush T shirt (also on sale at $9.95) and this one that proclaims that a village in Texas has lost its idiot (this one is not on sale though).

Now this site is called so cheap it hurts.com (but IMHO cheap never hurts) and I liked this one that says “Will work for gas”. Very appropriate seeing the prices at the pump these days and even more appropriate at just $6! Oh, and its green: even more appropriate!

This here is a good collection of discounted Tees from Giftapolis with gems such as this “Stressed Out” tee for just $3.95 which will basically warn people to stay out of your way! Then there is this one that says “I am such a bitch”; don’t know if that is a boast or a confession!

Now if you like really offensive Tees, take a look here; they offer 5 tees for $25! Sample this: “Men are inferior” and this one is actually a very accurate but satirical comment on the world as we know it: “Religion: The World’s first weapon of Mass Destruction“

So, go out there and make a statement!

This one is superbly funny and so very topical, seeing Obama and Hilary’s cutthroat race for the presidential spot disguised by thinly veiled animosity. You’re not likely to see the two of them sharing pool-space this cordially in real life.

This one is a bit sexist, but I have to admit that we women can be very vain sometimes.

Ah! The quality of mercy is most certainly strained these days, to misquote the good poet Milton. Not so many of us reach for our pockets to make a charitable contribution in these tough times.

And here is one that is one of my favorites: an attempt to find out about one of the great mysteries of life!

This one in not really money cartoon except for the way law suits are invariably linked to monetary settlements and awards. Really the law of torts especially in the US has reached the point of ridiculous; you have to be so careful with anything that you do lest you get sued for the slightest infraction or even oversight!

Petroleum prices being what they are per barrel these, days, this one is obviously outdated.

The money cartoons at cartoon stock are super, but are all copyrighted and way too expensive for me to reproduce here, so may I gently nudge you in that direction for several very hearty guffaws for free.

Another site which urged me to buy their admittedly great cartoons for a stiffish price is this one. I can’t resist at least describing this one: Couple of pastors are chatting. In the foreground is a hearse with a furniture trailer linked to it, and one pastor says to the other “I have always told my people ‘you can’t take it with you’; Harry must not have been listening“

Freebies Archive is a site that claims to offer all manner of things free, including free laptops and free iPhones. Now that made me very suspicious so I delved a bit. Lots of pages regretted to inform me that the offers were no longer available or had expired; others redirected me to pages where I saw that in order to get the alleged ‘free’ iPhone you have to do all kinds of things and the rules stated:

“Please note Sponsor offers may require you to sample and/or purchase products of interest and/or take other actions such as applying for or obtaining a loan or extension of credit (including credit cards), transferring a balance, or similar steps. In order to remain eligible for your gift, you must complete all of the sponsor offers that require you to sample and purchase products of interest within 180 days of signing up for our service.”

Hmmm, not free after all. I looked with rather less suspicion upon the free samples sections. However a lot of these also redirected me. My desire to get 6 free toothpastes took me to a site called Brandrama (wonder if this one was named by someone hung up on the ghastly 80s band Bananarama) where I was firstly asked for my email address and the home page told me that the six tubes would be mine if I “took a survey and completed participation requirements where I sampled and purchased products of interest”. Most of the offers ominously informed me “Participation required”. Lots of strings there, and sounds like work to me.

Frankly disheartened I clicked on the free antivirus software, very hopeful that at least this would yield a genuine freebie? Nada, me hearties! The page offered zilch, it came up blank! Thoroughly dejected I ploughed on to the free Books and magazines section. A free magazine subscription offered me “the opportunity to participate in health surveys and polls.” And in all probability it will be an email subscription, so my ebbing enthusiasm evaporated entirely. Then there were free fonts to be downloaded, which I did, but my computer informed me that I would need to go and find the appropriate program to open the damn thing.

I hereby, most gloomily conclude that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But you know what, I am an eternal optimist and my quest for the freebie shall continue, I will bring you good tiding about it anon!

Straightaway we come to this self-explanatory site which claims to bring you the dumbest ads.

This ad is apparently for toilet paper, why it has a dog and cucumber slices could be anyone’s guess.

“I drove a co worker home. To my place” OK so far, but this is an ad for hair color!

These ones here are actually one line classified ads but really funny:

Lost: Small apricot poodle. Reward. Neutered like one of the family.

Dinner Special: Turkey $2.35; Chicken or Beef $2.25; Children $2.00.

For Sale: Antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.

Now is your chance to have your ears pierced and get an extra pair to take home too!

No matter what your topcoat is made of, this miracle spray will make it really repellent.

For Sale: Eight puppies from a German Shepherd and an Alaskan Hussy.

Dog for Sale: Eats anything and is fond of children.

Tired of cleaning yourself? Let me do it!

Man, honest. Will take anything.

Used Cars: Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come here first!

Our bikinis are exciting. They are simply the tops.

Auto Repair Service: Try us once — you’ll never go anywhere else again.

Wanted: Preparer of food. Must like the food business, be dependable, and be willing to get hands dirty.

Mixing bowl set designed to please a cook with round bottom for efficient beating.

And now, the Superstore — unequaled in size, unmatched in variety, unrivaled inconvenience.

Then here is a really dumb one for Old Spice:

And this one for a Mercedes Benz is actually really funny, not dumb at all but does feature a dumb blonde, so here goes:

Check out these super dumb product warnings on this page. You cannot stop reading till you reach the end.

As for the stupidest commercial in recent times, I would have to say it is the Absolut vodka commercial, which shows Texas and California (among other US states) as being part of Mexico. Admittedly this was an ad aimed at Mexicans but it has managed to piss of the Americans to the extent that the advert has been recalled, unconditional apologies issued, etc.

Talk about ‘absolutely’ shooting yourself in the foot! Your views? Let me have them!