More Things on a Stick Thing 44: The Economy

I was not inspired to use cartoons in Thing 36 "Comic Relief" but this economic Thing calls out for relief of some kind.

Even a non-mathematical bozoid like myself can appreciate the visual explanation of how we got to this crummy place in the article It's the Economy, Stupid! It is truly boggling to think that we could get rid of the national debt by each forking over $516,000.



The Thing about Banking 2.0



My Money.gov

I haven't used Digg since the original 23 Things but I added this article to Digg. Digg seems to ask for more confirmations than it previously did, not only tossing up one of those encrypted text thingies that you have to re-type to prove you're human, but it also presented me with a list of articles which it thought might be similar or the same as what I was submitting. I had to confirm my Digg had not already been...dugg. The article/site itself gives tons of information on budgeting, credit and credit repair (including how to handle creditors if you've lost your job), retirement planning and how to start a small business.

Mint

The first thing this site asks for is for you to log into your bank account or credit card through Mint!



I assumed this site would let you fill in figures but no, they let their fingers do the walking through your account information. This does not seem safe or advisable.

ClearCheckbook appears to let you enter your own information, get reports, operating more like a free version of other money management software.

What Bills?
They propose taking the paper pile out of your bill paying by emailing you reminders of upcoming due dates.

Thrive

...is not thriving today, "web page not found". This is something to think about with these helpful financial sites, they can be here today and gone tomorrow with your financial information. Tsk.



Feed the Pig!!!

Feed the pig gives sound savings tips and advice using a very strange pig in a pink suit, with piercing piggie eyes and a genuinely disturbing coin slot in the top of his head. There are also pages devoted to Tweens and Kids which use cartoon pigs so as not to frighten the wee folk.



GasBuddy



I used Gas Buddy before leaving work last night to check on gas prices near home because I was nearly empty. This morning I was all set to get the pricing posted at my local station, only to find it was four cents more per gallon. The information appears to be volunteer/spotter added so my local spotters have been snoozing it appears. The site also gives national pricing averages in list and map form.

Pennypinching



WiseBread

Blogs, tips, bargain alerts (which do not appear to be localized) and forums. The forums look reasonably active which is a good sign that the site might be valuable if you'd like to compare notes

Frugal Dad

Frugal Dad is a blog site that promotes frugality and saving. It is a surprisingly personal website as well, so don't expect dry tips. His 75 tips for surviving in this economy are practical, and his driving tips are most interesting.

Yard Sale Treasure Map

Ahoy! My mother in law would love this Google Map. Just select your area and what day you'd like to cast off for Yard/Garage sale land and a map with locations and descriptions of what's on sale is produced.



Retail Me Not



This searchable site lets you know what is on sale at your desired shopping destination. It also has printable coupon codes, but couponer beware, they also ask for users to rate their success in using the codes and many do not have good success so, I'm picturing you have to be the type of person who can blow on in to the store and demand satisfaction with your coupon or code.

Fat Wallet



Fat Wallet seems to be a site that lists deals and sales, sort of one stop shopping. It has a coupon search feature as well, but without success comments/ratings.

Self-Sustainability

Mad City Chickens



If you are able to have chickens in your yard, this is the place for information on coops, feeding, growing, tending chickens of all sorts. The coops and chickens looked so nice I checked to see if my city allows these little feathery little cuties. I would never be able to do the chickens in, though, so we'd best not go down that path. My veggie garden this year will have to sustain us.

Gardening




I liked the three recommended sites for information on local gardening. The garden forum would be especially useful because we do have some unusual growing conditions here and it is nice to be able to ask about what we can grow and how best to grow it, Minnesota style. I would recommend these companies as well for those wishing to start an herb or vegetable garden.

Burpee Vegetable seeds and supplies

The Cook's Garden Seeds, tools, recipes

Edible landscaping Fruit trees and shrubs

John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds Flower, vegetable and herb seeds

Thompson & Morgan Vegetable and herb seeds, garden tools, seed starting supplies

Totally Tomatoes Vast variety of tomatoes and peppers.

More Things On a Stick Thing 43: Online TV and Video

After my twitchy experience with Pandora, I'm pleased to report I liked Hulu very much. I think it gives the viewer a chance to try out a show they might not have had the chance to see, and at their leisure.



I saw "Fringe" in the Science Fiction category (category searching another plus), highly recommended by staff here but I planned to wait for the DVD. Now I can take a look at it and see what I think. It looks like the earlier episodes from the season aren't available, just episode 10 on. Still, I could get a feel for whether I liked it or not.

You can search movies too, and look! They have The Crawling Hand starring Peter Breck!

Joost




Joost offers another series I missed, Babylon5. This was not a series you could jump into in the middle. I see the pilot is there. Fun.

These services both have commercials but they are brief. You can also tag and favorite and review on Joost so there's the 2.0 aspect. Joost also allows you to tie into your Facebook account and let people know what your're watching at any given time, tossing out comments as you go.

Hulu has most watched and most popular categories so they're not quite so tuned in, as it were.

I'll be exploring both of these more on my own.

More Things On A Stick Thing 36: Comic Relief

Another fine Thing! I am going to make the deadline of the 20th on these Things. I can cram for a test with the best of them.

The email icon generator



Let's see if the "send money to me/you just won a billion click here to claim it" email boneheads find me again with this icon. Just how how smart are those crawler programs, we ask?

Free Password Generator? That is really not smart. But here is the fine one it generated for me "yVeXAg8p". Steal it for yourself if you need to.

The Phonetic Password Generator offers this oh so pronouncable and memorable password for me "soocuiga". Say that five times in a row real fast and it is yours.

PDF Online

This was very quick and slick. I used a text only Word Document and it sent it to my email very quickly. No sign up or anything. Very cool.

Read Poster


Muhahaha my sister :)

Big Huge Labs Movie Poster



Make your own headlines



Wufoo Form Maker



I wish there were more than the three forms for free but I suppose they just want you to see how it works. I found the interface a little difficult and was uninspired to find a form to create so no example here. I can see lots of uses for libraries in having a simple form creator, especially one that might be used for on the web form.

Tag Clouds!

I could not get the Tag Cloud Generator to produce a tag cloud for me at all. All I got was a white box that said "urlaub" in it.

TagCrowd, however, produced a nice cloud with no problems.

added ago author blog books box carbonel children choices collection comments days fiction found free generator group hero hours idea king librarian library links list live lost magic mystery name online page pizza post read reader review salaryn search series sign site stick story things think title together top works

created at TagCrowd.com

Wordle



A cloud from my gardening blog.

TimeToast Timeline Maker



This could be valuable for school kids and genealogists and anyone seeking to make a simple timeline. I've wanted to make one for family history purposes and looked at using Microsoft Excel as the software but this is nicely done and you can add a picture for each timeline item(though I don't see the picture I thought I added). You will definitely want to have your dates in hand before you begin.

Tiny Tags

This makes for a nice little accent sign, doesn't it? Or a topic header.



The Bridge Hand Generator

I include this sample because my husband, aka "The Bridge King" would enjoy it.



Webicon


awwwwww...now that's adorable.

I took a peek at the text to movie. I did not sucessfully become Speilberg.

I've done alot of cartooning and prefer Toonlet, Toondoo and Bitstrips. I'll add a toon here if I am inspired, if not just look through my blog, it is riddled with cartoons.

Me as a Dewey Number (I used my real name this time, to get the result, though I cleverly replaced it in the html)

DOA's Dewey Decimal Section:

761 Relief processes (Block printing)

DOA = 2125445 = 212+544+5 = 761


Class:
700 Arts & Recreation


Contains:
Architecture, drawing, painting, music, sports.



What it says about you:
You're creative and fun, and you're good at motivating the people around you. You're attracted to things that are visually interesting. Other people might not always understand your taste or style, but it's yours.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

The Excuse Maker (very handy) I chose self-loathing. Now there's an excuse!

I am an insect, fit only to be squashed. You've reminded me-- oh, it cuts me to the quick-- that I have never thanked you for the Christmas gift. It would be better than I deserve for you to drop me like a maggotty corpse. Say the word, and I will bite glass in apology.

Blog Prompts

Which of the generators seems most useful to you? Many of these can be put to creative use in signage, or Powerpoint presentations, on web pages.

How have you used generators in your library or elsewhere? I've used them on my blog. Our library is in the middle of a self-defining process and these generators do not yet fit the general image we are looking for, is my guess.

How was your experience with the comic generating sites? Can you see any use for a library comic in your work? I think we could use comics as teaching tools, again in Powerpoints and on our web site.