As most of you know, the DealTaker office is located in Plano, Texas and I live in Akron, Ohio. There are quite a bit of miles that separate me from the office which, obviously, makes me a remote employee. Yes, I am one of the lucky few that gets to work from the comforts of my own home. I have my little office area positioned right beside two windows that overlooks the great beyond. Living on a high elevation gives me quite the spectacular view into the distance.
Most of the time you can find me at my desk working usually with loud music accompanying my mission to put a dent in my work load or scoping out stores for deals and coupons. On the rare occasion that my chair is empty, you could find me in my backyard tending to the garden, running around the house cleaning, on the floor playing with our dog, in the kitchen whipping up some tasty vegetarian meal, or taking a walk around town. I’m one of those people that likes to be doing something at all times. If you find me laying in bed or on the sofa during the day it’s usually because I’m trying to get rid of a headache or I need a power nap (doesn’t happen often).
Here are some great new stores that have been recently added to DealTaker along with a brief description of the services they provide. Clicking on the store name takes you directly to the website and selecting the coupon option will bring you to the deals we already have for the store.
Just Answer(coupons): The largest online Expert Q&A site where people come when they need a doctor, lawyer, mechanic, vet, tech support, tutor or 20,000 other Experts in 100+ categories to answer their questions.
Movie Goods(coupons): With over 350,000 unique products its the world’s largest selection of movie and television memorabilia, including posters, photos, and custom frames.
Doba(coupons): Provides a place where suppliers can list their product inventory, and you can find items to sell. These different suppliers will drop ship products right to your customers, so you never have to handle or ship products.
Century Novelty(coupons): Specializes in party supplies, favors and decorations, offering a wide variety of themes including Graduation, Luau, Patriotic, Pirate, Breast Cancer Awareness and Oktoberfest.
Discount Office Items(coupons): Office Supplies company with over 40,000 items, offers the lowest prices on quality office supplies, technology items, janitorial supplies, office furniture & more. They even show how how their prices compare to other top competitors (even the big brands!) on every product page of the website.
Horse.com(coupons): Also known as Country Supply, has been the leader in the horse supplies industry for decades and specializes in horse supplies, both english and western tack and also offers a wide variety of horse blankets and sheets, riding apparel, gifts for horse lovers, and much more. They also have a lowest price guarantee where they will beat any other online price.
Paula Young(coupons): The world’s leading retailer of wigs, hair pieces and add-ons offering a number of brands and exclusive celebrity endorsed lines from Jaclyn Smith, Patti LaBelle and Diahann Carroll.
Heels.com(coupons): The hottest women’s shoes from sellers like Guess, BCBGirls, Naughty Monkey, and Chinese Laundry and celebrity lines like L.A.M.B., Jessica Simpson Shoes, JLo Shoes, Harajuku Lovers, Paris Hilton Shoes, and Fergie. They have a unique selection of the most coveted women’s shoes, without any unstylish distractions.
ArcSoft(coupons): The industry-leading retail imaging solutions for desktop enable consumers to capture, edit, create, print, and share their photo memories through such software applications as Print Creations®, PhotoStudio®, and ArcSoft Panorama Maker®. They allow consumers to author, edit, and playback various high-definition formats such as AVCHD and Blu-ray with titles such as TotalMedia® Theatre, SimHD and ArcSoft ShowBiz®.
Derm Store(coupons): A health & beauty ecommerce site that was created by a board certified dermatologist who saw the need to provide accurate skin care information and qualified, healthy skin care product solutions on the web. They offer a range of more than 300 skin care and cosmetic brands along with expert advice and esthetician recommended regimens.
I’m always amused by magazine articles that offer advice on how to quickly ease stress. They offer insightful ways to instantly calm daily stress gently easing you into a peaceful state of mind. Some of the more comical suggestions I’ve read are ”roll up your area rugs and walk around your house barefoot like your on a beach house vacation.” For those of us who have a fully carpeted house and have never been to a beach house this suggestion proves to be absolutely useless.
“Blow up a balloon in slow puffs” was another option. Well, if you can get past the dizziness and the feeling that you’re going to faint, I’m sure this will work well for you. Another one on the list was “drink a large glass of cold water and go for a walk.” I was fairly optimistic about this one until I got down to the end of my road and had to rush home to use the little girls room. The urge to try that one again simply wasn’t there. My all time favorite suggestion was “crawl between your sheets after washing them with Tide Simple Pleasures Lavender.” I think it’s fair to say that most of us don’t have the option to walk away from our work or other daily obligations to do a load of laundry and take a nap.
It has been a long time since the stock market fell from the roof and the economy stays in a bad shape. From time to time, my friend will ask me the same question : ” Is it a good time now to buy stock”. My answer is always simple, it depends on your personal strategy, risk tolerance and time frame.
If the purpose is speculation, I won’t say anything about it. However if it is for long term investment like 401k, I will say yes to that question. Why? Basic rule of market is so-called “random walk”, it never makes sense to guess how the market will behave tomorrow. So the best way to handle that is to do right asset allocation according to your age, risk tolerance and time frame, then implement dollar cost averaging. After the automatic contribution is set up, you just relax and forget it and waiting for retirement.
Remember, since we dont’ know what will happen tomorrow and we do expect in the future the economy will be better, it is always good time to invest into a PORTFOLIO (not individual stock or bond) unless people have no faith in the future.
After much research, discussion, development and tweaking; we are getting very close to officially releasing DealTaker UK. We are pretty excited to see what will happen and hope our friends across the pond will be just as excited to see some great deals and vouchers (voucher = coupons) on DealTaker catering to them.
So, keep your eyes peeled for the British flag to show up on the top of DealTaker, and for a sneak peak check it out here.
We have added some great new stores to DealTakerthis week. Listed below are the new stores along with a brief description of each of their services.
Country Store(coupons): This online general store offers more than 1,300 practical and hard-to-find goods, from apparel to food, kitchen to outdoor, and home décor to cookbooks and as seen on TV items.
Shop Taste of Home(coupons): Is the catalog division of Taste of Home magazine that features delicious, practical home cooking in a very personal way. This website offers a great selection of cookbooks, cookware, bakeware , kitchen tools and small appliances to cook the perfect meal or snack.
Biz Filings(coupons): Professionally forms corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), and nonprofits in as little as 24 hours making business incorporation easy for entrepreneurs.
Tweet Adder(coupons): Automated Promotion & Marketing software that targets your potential Twitter followers so you get a response to your tweets. Its the perfect bonus to any marketing campaign.
Smith & Hawken(coupons): Offers a wide selection of products focused on outdoor living – upscale furniture, decor, plants, and gardening equipment. They’ve even just introduced a line of outdoor flat screen televisions!
Global Test Market(coupons): An online opinion research community in which members are invited to participate in online surveys on numerous topics, and in return for the time and opinons they are given regular and frequent entry into sweepstakes for the chance to win prizes. Membership is free and our registration process is quick and easy.
Ssense(coupons): Canadian online retailer that provides its customers with the latest fashion and the best designers for men and women that strives to give the personal service found in prestigious boutiques.
Suburban Extended Stay Hotel(coupons): A hotel that specializes in helping guests feel at home while on the road. With well-equiped kitchens, free high-speed Internet access, free cable and movie channels and decreased rates for longer stays this hotel focus on the guest that is planning on an extended stay.
A few years back my hubby and I took a trip to Minnesota. I had planned quite the itinerary – Mall of America, trip to Fargo, brief stop in Alexandria to see a small historical museum, then back to St. Paul to stay at a Casino for the night. But the brief stop in Alexandria turned into a day long event as we learned more about the Kensington Runestone recovered nearby in 1898.
The story is that a Minnesota farmer named Olaf Ohman unearthed the Runetone while digging up a tree stump. Roots were wrapped around it and could have given experts a very good indication of how young the stone wasnt. But Mr Ohman removed it and turned the stone over to the University of Minnesota. A debate over its authenticity began.
It’s been a couple weeks now, so lets get back on track with this series of tutorials. This tutorial will get into models and how to play with data. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Today, in a press release, CheapTweet announces a partnership with DealTaker.
CheapTweet is a site that aggregates deals which are passed along through Twitter. There, a growing community of bargain-hunters vote on the best tweeted deals, making it a great resource for anyone to see real time information about the best deals out there.
Check out the DealTaker/CheapTweet cobranded page here. It’s a great way to see all of the great deals that the DealTaker team tweets and resulting conversations.
We are exited about this partnership with CheapTweet and look forward to seeing our communities grow together!
API or Application Programming Interface is a ubiquitous term used in the tech world everyday. With the popularity of online social networking sites and the need to add features and content easily into your own site, executives are starting to understand the benefits of using and or providing a public API to third party organizations. The term has become so popular that most executives now use API in their repertoire of business terms. They should, considering users want these features and most organizations such as Salesforce.com, YouTube, eBay, Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and LinkedIn provide an API for the public. So, what exactly is an API?
We are always adding new, top quality stores to our site in order to get more deals out there for you. Here are some great stores we have added recently along with a description of their services.
Dimdim(coupons): Meetings start with a single click in a web browser – no software is required to host, join, even record a Dimdim Web conference.
Day Spring(coupons): A leading manufacturer and distributor of Christian cards, gifts, jewelry, art, decor and more with over 1100 products.
Zenfolio(coupons): Offers photography hosting and selling solution for professionals and enthusiasts making it easy to upload, present and sell photography online.
Buyz(coupons): A jewelry superstore offering everyday low prices on brand name jewelry and watches.
Overstock Drug Store(coupons): Specializes in brand name diabetic, over-the-counter and health and beauty care products direct-to-the-consumer.
Ellusionist(coupons): Creates best-in-class magic, magic tricks and Shop top magic supplies, magic DVDs and videos, magic tricks and playing cards.
World Class Nutrition(coupons): Supplying sport nutrition products at rock bottom prices and providing the latest in training and diets.
Supplements To Go(coupons): Providing customers with the ability to purchase the best supplement products on the web and seek the advice of professionals that know how to get results.
Apothicia(coupons): An online beauty boutique, which carries the finest selection of skin care, body care, aromatherapy, and cosmetic products.
Guitar World(coupons): Lessons in guitar style and technique of the greatest songs in rock, metal, blues, punk and more for professional and beginning players alike.
<Water Warehouse(coupons): Family run business offering Discount Pool Supply Fulfillment with 8 giant warehouses full of the best quality supplies and equipment.
Quality Smith(coupons): Bringing customers and contractors together by setting appointments for homeowners with pre-screened, reputable contractors for their home improvement projects.
iFloor(coupons): Stocks premier flooring and rugs at great prices while giving advise and flooring information.
Home Decorating Company(coupons): An online bedding superstore that carries luxury bedding and decorative products from some of the world’s best-known designers.
On June 9th I tweeted a great deal I saw on DealTaker. Not all that uncommon – I see many great deals each week that I try to proliferate to my friands and family as much as possible. This item was the Energizer Energi-To-Go cell phone batter back-up. The cost for the product was $9.99 and had free shipping. The special part of the deal was that once the item was received, a survey would be enclosed that provided a $10.00 rebate when the survey was completed. I am happy to report that the item arrived sooner than I expected, was packaged well and as expected, and a survey was in the packaging as promised. I filled it out, and am now awaiting the arrival of a check. For 10 minutes worth of work, I get a free item. Plus, I got to participate in a deal. It is the little things in life sometimes that make it fun. In this case – very small. The bonus: I also got a $2.00 off coupon for some more batteried when needed. Stealing and enhancing a line from “Hannibal” Smith of the A Team - “I love it when a deal comes together”.
People that know me will tell you that at any given time, without rhyme or reason, I will break out in a silly dance if the mood strikes. I could be in a grocery store sniffing cantaloupe for ripeness and I’ll hear Barry White’s deep voice plastered on the overhead and I’ll break into a funky groove of some sort. I’ve been in JC Penney during the Holiday season and Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree starts playing and I drop what I’m doing to break out in dance. Even at home when I’m at my computer working a good song will come up and I take a few seconds to get my groove on. Sometimes people do tend to shoot me a weird look, but for the most part I hear giggles or they join me in my crusade to get my dance fix in for the day.
I’ve always been this way. Years ago, in my early 20’s, I worked for my Mom, who had a professional home daycare/preschool, full time. I spent my days with anywhere between 7-13 kids between the ages of 18 months all the way up to 7 years old. There were many days that we were stuck inside due to weather and the kids would be restless and cranky regardless of how many activities we had planned for them. My remedy for these days was to turn on some silly music and start dancing. The kids would laugh, jump up and down and eventually break into their own style of dance. I’ve learned throughout the years that kids think it’s cool when an adult dances and acts silly.
I’ve held onto this for my entire life. I’ve learned that adults think it’s cool too when another adult acts silly and breaks out into a Brady Bunch style dance in the middle of the local grocery store. I look at these people and I know deep down they want to drop their loaf of bread or gallon of milk and join me, but this little alarm goes off in their heads with that cautionary message: What Will People Think?
My most memorable moment was at a mall back when I was in my late 20’s. There was a vendor selling audio equipment in the center of the mall and swing music was playing. The vendor was trying to demonstrate that music from the 50’s and 60’s could sound just as good as modern music today on the speakers. Out of blue, in a loud voice, I asked, “Who wants to dance?” An older gentleman, who reminded me of my Grampie, stepped forth and said, “I will Miss.” He took both of my hands and led me into a dance that was probably popular back in the era of the music. People watched and smiled. When the song was done he told me that his wife had passed away two years ago and hadn’t danced like that since then.
A few days ago a friend of mine sent me a video to something called, “Where The Hell Is Matt?” I sat there watching the video completely intrigued by this man dancing a silly dance in various areas of the world. In some portions he danced alone, but in most of the footage a large group of people are dancing with him. Everyone, regardless of the location, appear happy and they are smiling. There is something about this concept that moves me and I am completely inspired by this.
I looked into it a bit further and there have been accusations that the “Where The Hell Is Matt” videos are some sort of marketing hoax. I had a hard time believing this and watched a video of Matt himself confronting this issue. His response was exceptionally brilliant and, with the use of gentle sarcasm, he addresses this to the skeptics who have made these claims. At the end of the video Matt asks if there is anyone that wants to dance with him. People get up and the dance begins.
To Matt and to all of us who sporadically break out in dance, keep doing what your doing! Dance I say! Dance!
I am not one of those fans that is at the Rangers game every time that they have a home game.
What it means to me is youth baseball. I am a commissioner of our local youth baseball league and I coach. Being on the board is usually not so much work (most of the time), but coaching is. Every Spring and Fall (we have a fall season) I am looking at about four nights a week at the ball field. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it. I think I have more fun that the kids do sometimes. Watching kids play baseball and eating hot dogs with chili and jalapenos while you watch (in their mind) is the next Babe Ruth or Nolan Ryan.
I am not one of those coaches that screams and yells. If a kids makes an error he knows it and will be harder on himself than you can be. I try to teach them the fundamentals of the game as well as good sportsmanship. To me a bad day playing baseball beats a good day at work anytime. (Sorry Kevin, I do love my job but it’s not baseball. )
The end of season playoffs are this week then we have about three weeks of All Stars then we are done until Fall season at the end of August. At least I will have a little time to recover before the Fall season.
It’s 11 o’clock and I send the kids outside to play. I’m at my desk and see one of them riding a bike across the lawn. No big deal, right? Here’s a peek at what goes on when mom is in meetings.
I didn’t make it out in time to catch her on the bike with this on. There were five kids here total and they for some reason think they can do as they please when mom and dad are busy. So not only is the mask being worn while at play the water hose was also going at the same time. My next meeting I had dinosaurs were involved. I have a whole summer of fun meetings ahead of me.
You did it! You accomplished your goal and I am so very proud of you! I know there were times when you didn’t want to study or write that 20 page paper, which you may have put off a little longer than you should have (no worries Mom and Dad she got it done just in time). Sister, you’re awesome at cranking it out when you need to and now you are a Master of Criminal Justice with a 3.917 GPA. I wish Brian and I could be up there to help you celebrate, we are just going to have to plan a fun weekend so we can all celebrate together.
Two seasons ago, the Boston Red Sox, took a step in the right direction by dumping off Manny Ramirez. Much of the media bashed the BoSox for letting a premier player go and then bashed the organization even more when he was replaced by Jason Bay, a solid outfielder from Pittsburg.
The good news from this change was that the club house was happy to see him go. It seemed that he wasn’t much of a team player and only cared about his personal progress and goals, overlooking the leadership duty he should of portrayed. As true team players know, it’s about how the team feels and gels with one another, making playing and winning fun. You want to be sure that no one’s just in it for the money or the fame. Look at Manny now. Do you think he got what he deserved? (50 game suspension)
And for Bay, well, he’s hitting .277 right now with 16 home runs, the most on a team that can hit’em far. Bay will be an integral part of answering why the BoSox make it back to the World Series this year (buy a baseball ticket). Give the man a chance to shine and he will. Encouragement is the key.
10. Cotton Jenny by Gordon Lightfoot – I remember it playing one summer when I was a little girl and is one of the first songs I memorized the words to. One of the lyrics is “I ain’t got a penny for Cotten Jenny to spend” so I called it the Penny Song.
9. Touch too Much by AC/DC – Starting around 13 or 1979 I couldn’t get enough of AC/DC – I remember being at a party with this song playing and when the words “when you turn out the light” came on in the song one of the guys turned the light off. Everyone loved it and some major energy was created to which AC/DC just helped to make stronger.
I have noticed more and more laptop stickers, and stickers in general, recently. Even Ken (one of our developers – the one who eats EVERYTHING) said something yesterday about DealTaker stickers. So, I decided that we needed to get some laptop stickers that we can use and giveaway to our users. As part of an initiative we have here at DealTaker – “DealTaker on DealTaker” - we always turn to our merchant partners first looking for deals and the best prices available . In this case (and with a great referral from Shawn Collins) we turned to StickerGiant.com. The process was easy and the prices are great (especially with Sticker Giant coupons). Now, soon, we can all have laptops that look like this -
If you want one, send us your name and mailing address by reaching out through Contact Us - be sure to put “Laptop Sticker” in the Subject line. Send us a picture with your laptop sticker in place and we will create a montage to be posted at a later date (mail to moderators (at) dealtaker (dot) com.
Growing up I didn’t spend much time with my dad. My parents divorced when I was 2, so from then on it was just me and mom. Every year when Father’s Day rolls around I just celebrate Mother’s Day again. I think of how my mom worked so hard to provide me with the best life possible and how she did such a great job of being both mom and dad to me. She was and still is a great example of how to live a life that is meaningful.
Every time she got knocked down by circumstances she found a way to overcomeand better herself from the experience. Her parenting was the perfect balance of encouragement and motivation.
As most of you know, the DealTaker office is located in Plano, Texas and I live in Akron, Ohio. There are quite a bit of miles that separate me from the office which, obviously, makes me a remote employee. Yes, I am one of the lucky few that gets to work from the comforts of my own home. I have my little office area positioned right beside two windows that overlooks the great beyond. Living on a high elevation gives me quite the spectacular view into the distance.
I’m always amused by magazine articles that offer advice on how to quickly ease stress. They offer insightful ways to instantly calm daily stress gently easing you into a peaceful state of mind. Some of the more comical suggestions I’ve read are ”roll up your area rugs and walk around your house barefoot like your on a beach house vacation.” For those of us who have a fully carpeted house and have never been to a beach house this suggestion proves to be absolutely useless.
A few years back my hubby and I took a trip to Minnesota. I had planned quite the itinerary – Mall of America, trip to Fargo, brief stop in Alexandria to see a small historical museum, then back to St. Paul to stay at a Casino for the night. But the brief stop in Alexandria turned into a day long event as we learned more about the Kensington Runestone recovered nearby in 
People that know me will tell you that at any given time, without rhyme or reason, I will break out in a silly dance if the mood strikes. I could be in a grocery store sniffing cantaloupe for ripeness and I’ll hear Barry White’s deep voice plastered on the overhead and I’ll break into a funky groove of some sort. I’ve been in JC Penney during the Holiday season and Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree starts playing and I drop what I’m doing to break out in dance. Even at home when I’m at my computer working a good song will come up and I take a few seconds to get my groove on. Sometimes people do tend to shoot me a weird look, but for the most part I hear giggles or they join me in my crusade to get my dance fix in for the day.
Spring always means baseball to me.
)
My Ten Favorite Songs
