Dallas is My Home

27
Aug

Dream Home Options

Author: Raine Devries, Category: Financial, Reviews, Savings & Cost Cutters

In these economic times, many people who are homeowners are wanting to know if they can modify their mortgage with their current servicer. Typically, these people are in adjustable rate mortgages that have expanded which has lead to huge mortgage payments that all too often owners are falling delinquent on.

The process of modification is not easy but it can be done with some steel will and resolve to see it through. However, if you succeed you will have a competitive rate that is fixed and secured for typically thirty (30) years.

But where to start? The best way is to visit a site that has loan modification leads so you can begin your search. By researching the available options, you will have far more clout because knowledge is power. Find out which companies can offer you the best rates. It can be tempting to sugar coat your financial situation but it’s important to be honest because no matter how much your sweet talk someone, your financial numbers are in black and white and won’t fudge for you.

Be sure to keep detailed notes in an application like a spreadsheet so that you can refer back to whom you spoke with at which companies and the results of each call. This IS a time consuming process but it can be accomplished.

Set your sights on your goal and hopefully with determination you will get your mortgage payments back under control.

14
Aug

Kewl ways to jazz up your tech projects

Author: Raine Devries, Category: Arts, Education, Reviews

There’s a great blog that provides tips on ways to spice up your blog, incorporate Flash and 3D elements. It’s called Papervision3D Blog.

Papervision blog is a great resource tool that breaks things down into categories such as 3D, Commercial, Conferences, Contest, Examples, Games, Programming, Technology, Training and Tutorials.

The blog also provides links to other developers, Flash components, codes and more.

Papervision3D is a resource for those starting out as well as the more experienced developers that are looking for short cuts and new ways of adding some eye candy to their sites, blogs and projects.

The blog is often updated - sometimes with multiple entries per day - and is a fantastic way of staying apprised of the upcoming conferences and tools available to the industry.

One of the things I like most about this blog is that at the bottom it has a listing of the postings that have the most recent comments and the postings that have the most comments. When you are on the fence about deciding whether to try a new tech application, there is really nothing better than to hear from others and what their pro and con experiences have been. It’s also a good way to meet like minded people and brainstorm ideas.

If you love delving into kewl technology and enhancing your projects, this is a resource blog that should definitely be marked as a favorite on your browser.

11
Aug

A Brand New Lease on Life

Author: Raine Devries, Category: Commentary, Health, Reviews

When people here comments about a drug rehab center, all sorts of pre-conceived notions go through their minds. For those souls that need assistance in battling alcoholism, drug abuse, weight issues, etc., finding an environment that makes them feel safe and welcome sounds like a challenging experience.

A vital element in having successful treatment is being in an environment that is soothing, compassionate and provides great care. Cliffside Malibu is located along the Pacific Ocean and looks so inviting, that you could be tempted to book a holiday there even if you don’t need drug rehab.

With specific goals and objectives, the staff at Cliffside Malibu works to ensure you meet your goals whether that’s dealing with the psychological issues that cause you to overeat or breaking an addiction to prescription Oxycontin or Xanax. Cliffside takes a proactive approach by ensuring your body truly detoxes so that you can start upon your new life walk with enhanced skills in handling drug treatment.

A highly respected clinical team will oversee your treatment in an environment that has the ocean waves a few yards away and amazing meals prepared to help nurture your body back to it’s best.

If you or a loved one is needing assistance in cleaning up your life, take the time to check out Cliffside Malibu.

07
Aug

Time to Visually Spice Things Up

Author: Raine Devries, Category: Commentary, Education, Media, Reviews, podcasts

Often we receive questions about how to set up one’s own site and/or blog. There are so many resources out there to choose from but every once in a while a really cool set of components will come along to give some added spice to your own part of the virtual world.

In this case, we’re talking about flash components from Partigen which has a real-time Flash engine capable of creating realistic effects like explosions, snowfall, smoke, falling leaves, etc.

Flash is one of those items that adds great spice to a website when used properly but it can be very time consuming for the novice to figure out. A site like this that offers flash extensions makes life so much easier.

The requirements on using this application are Macromedia Flash MX 2004, Flash 8 or Adobe Flash CS3 for authoring (Windows or Mac). Movies using this component must be published for Flash Player 6, 7, 8 or 9, ActionScript 2.0.

With more than 80 built-in particle effects, on-the-fly dynamic configuration, user friendly interface, creation of your own custom movie clip, library to save and load effects, and fast compiling, you’d be hard pressed to find a better solution at the price of $99.

The Partigen site also offers many cool applications like a flash colorPicker that basic and advanced modes that allow you to work in HeX, RGB, CMYK, and HSV formats.

It’s well worth your time to check them out!

31
Jul

Roommate Solutions

Author: Raine Devries, Category: Commentary, Free, Freebie, Reviews, Savings & Cost Cutters

The economy is funky, Bennigan’s has laid off hundreds in the Dallas area; American Airlines is doing the same so people are looking for ways to cut costs.

One option is to get yourself a roommate. I found a kewl site called Roomster.net and I really like the way they’ve broken down their search queries — you can look for a specific gender, age range or even zodiac sign! I know that last option would come in handy for me because there are some signs I would definitely stay away from.

Doing a quick search on women that are looking for a roommate, some of the titles ranged from “Cat lady seems similar in old east D” to “Seeking mature Christian female. On the guy side….the titles are pretty dull. I was really amazed by how much creative writing was put into the posting by the females versus the males.

The site also has an apartment search feature with options from size to pricing. Other features include Google maps, Quick Messaging, ease of use and a large, dynamic membership base.

What I like about this site is that there is a photo function which allows you to get a feedback of who your new potential roomie might be.

You can create a FREE profile to further browse the site and get in deep with the descriptions. If you don’t want to register, you can’t click for further details.

All in all, I really like this site and it makes it fun to browse roommate ads. Check it out for yourself!

15
Jul

Let The Music Play

Author: Raine Devries, Category: Commentary, Free, Freebie, Music, Reviews

The other day I was chatting with someone about this crazy world of ours.

10 years ago, the Internet was a novelty and those of us that used cell phones as our “home” phone numbers were considered half a bubble off. I vividly remember one guy saying that the Internet was a fad and it would never last. On another occasion, a couple people I was speaking to regarding a service or something that had to do with me couldn’t grasp the fact that I willingly had no home phone.

Fast forward a decade and the Internet is a major component of our entire lives in the modern world. Who does not have a website, personal blog, social networking accounts, etc?

Who does not have a cell phone? I know quite a few people that even have multiple phones with different numbers and using different carriers. Different phones, different carriers, all these options and I’ve never understood why people do this and then have the standard pre-installed ringtones with the phone.

Personally, I have Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” that plays on mine — every time someone i know calls it’s, “Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side….”. It’s nice to have options and some sites provide you with the ability to have free ringtones, truetone ringtone, or to pay a monthly fee so you can plug and play to your heart’s delight.

One of these sites is Ring Tone Factory which has a nice variety of tones; however, I would like to see them offer a sample of the tone you are interested in before asking for your phone number, etc. It would seem to me that their sales would increase significantly by allowing people to hear the ring tones before committing their numbers.

14
Jul

Where To Find Low Air Fares?

Author: Raine Devries, Category: Reviews, Savings & Cost Cutters

In our continuing effort to provide our readers with resources to help them save money, this is another posting on Savings & Cost Cutters.

It’s getting crazier every day over what’s happening with the airlines: Fuel surcharges, price per piece of luggage, elimination of free beverages, removal of in-flight entertainment systems…..I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that they don’t charge us to use the lavatory! But of course, that could change at any time.

So, its summer time and you need to take a vacation to get away from things with all this Dallas heat - but which airline and which price comparison site do you use? Or perhaps you just want to travel to the Texas Gulf Coast and find cheap hotels on the shore.

The major airlines have websites that offers pricing, scheduling, etc. But each site is designed differently so short of opening up multi browser windows, there’s no way to compare apples to apples.

I’ve checked out www.LowFares.com and this is an easy way to quickly compare amongst many sites for airline tickets and cheap hotels. There’s a big difference between cheap and thrifty. Let’s say you want to head towards Galveston or South Padre Island and you only want to spend $40 a night on a room. Is it possible? You can find out by visiting the web site, choosing up to 3 sites you would like to do comparisons with, plug in your destination, nights and number of occupants and away you go.

As with anything else, there will be peak and non-peak times of the week and month for various locales so if you are able to travel during non-peak times, you will be far more likely to find that special, sweet deal you are looking for.