Son of a Biscuit

How's that for a non-profane title? It's all I can do right now to not break out into an incredibly obscene post, since my computer broke down earlier today. Apparently it's the motherboard and apparently it's a fairly common problem for my particular make and model of computer (an HP DV4). Naturally, it's also very expensive to fix. Of course, when we bought it from Office Depot a few years ago, we got the extended warranty, which would have been great if it were still in effect. But just like cops in movies who get shot a week before retirement, we all know that computers take a dump right after their warranties expire, and mine was no exception.

So, I guess I may be in the market for a new computer. Anyone have any suggestions? I'd also like to mention to all my friends who said they may come down this year (For example, Chris, Annie, and cousin Sarah, I'm looking in your direction) that it's about time you came for a visit, and I'd be eternally grateful if any of you could serve as a computer mule for me, since electronics here are a lot more expensive. Plus if you bring me a new computer, I'll let you join me in throwing big rocks at my old computer. Sounds fun, eh?!

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Sitzbook: "Self-Reliance"

It's been a bit over a week since I posted anything, but it's been a busy week full of activity, not the least of which has been reading. I finished a few books this week, so that means it's time for another Sitzbook review! Today we'll quickly look at Emerson's Self-Reliance.

I got this book from Brad when we visited him in Iowa-- Thanks again for all the cool gifts, Brad! It's a short 75 pages, but it's not necessarily a quick read. It's best absorbed bit by bit, taking time to think about each part. In fact, the way the book is physically printed loans itself to doing just that. On every right page you have the actual text, and on the left page are two selected quotes, the first one from Emerson's book, and the second an interpretive or related quote from another person. It's actually quite nice but as I said, with so many "quotables" to deal with, it is indeed best left for a slower, more deliberate reading. In this case, I read the book mainly while eating breakfast over a few months, one or two pages at a time. That seemed pretty ideal.

Emerson's book is more of an essay, but it's got some good ideas, most of which I agree with, with a few qualifications. I do believe that we must be self-reliant, although generally speaking I also think that we are social beings, and that there's nothing wrong with "teaming up" now and then with other people. But I don't think that's something Emerson would have criticized; he seems more focused on not putting up with crap from mooches and other people who bring you down, and that's fine with me.

I selected two quotes that I liked. The first, from page 59, is about travel. It caught my attention because so many people (myself included) almost unconditionally praise traveling as a positive and mind-opening experience. Emerson does mention a few asterisks, if you will:

"I have no churlish objection to the circumnavigation of the globe, for the purposes of art, of study, and benevolence, so that the man is first domesticated, or does not go abroad with the hope of finding somewhat greater than he knows. He who travels to be amused, or to get somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth among old things. […] Traveling is a fool’s paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from."

The second quote, on page 64, addresses so-called "progress" in society, and when coupled with Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I also recently finished (review coming soon), it gave me a lot to think about:

"Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is Christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. […] The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun."

Has anyone else read this book? Have you got any comments (not spam!) to share? If so, feel free to chime in. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

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Meat Loaf Monday: "Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself"

Welcome back to Meat Loaf Monday! It's been a few weeks, so I bet you're suffering from some pretty harsh withdrawal symptoms. But fear not, because Dr. Sitzman's got a hot Meat Loaf Injection for you:

Wow, what a great song! It's not written by Jim Steinman (the guy who wrote many of Meat Loaf's most famous songs), but it is written by Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx, which is also pretty cool. This is from a newer album, Couldn't Have Said It Better, but the song is classic Meat Loaf video eye candy. Just look at his gestures and body language: it's got sweeping arm movements, wagging fingers, closed-eye singing/bellowing, hurled chairs, and even the classic "shush" finger. And you get all that even if you mute the song. If you actually turn on the sound (very loud, hopefully), then you're in for a treat. 

For the first two minutes The Meat goes a bit nuts, as he is prone to doing, but as I said, only a bit. But then around the two-minute mark, Patti Russo jumps in with her Betty Rubble dress and uses her hooker boots to kick your ears in the nuts!!* Couple that with Queen-esque backup singers (wearing capes and gold lamé bikinis!) and Meat Loaf's Black Trench Coat of Power, and you've got yourself the makings of a legendary video, my friend. 

What else can I say? I guess I do indeed have the right to remain silent.


*If you ever wondered what your earlobes were for, now you know.

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February Pictures of the Day

We're already about a third of the way into March, but I realized I'd not put up the Pictures of the Day from February. So, here they are:

Hope there's something in there that you like--have a good weekend!

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Marijuana, Medical and Otherwise

If this leaf gets you worked up, then you're probably not smoking it. (Image)

I recently got an email from my friend Brian asking me if I was related to Shawn Sitzman. Brian had seen Shawn's name on a National Geographic channel show and wondered if the two of use were related, seeing as there aren't too many Sitzmans lurking about. I am related to Shawn Sitzman; he's my cousin. Here's the picture of him on National Geographic's site. The interesting thing, which I had no idea about, was that the show was all about medical marijuana in Colorado, and it focused a lot on Fort Collins.

I guess this is what happens when you leave the country for 5 or 6 years. It seems like I'd heard that medical marijuana had become legal in Colorado at some point, but I didn't know much more about it than that. Apparently there were legal dispensaries in Fort Collins for several years until last November, when a ballot measure passed to shut them all down. I don't know too much more about what's going on, but evidently patients with a medical marijuana prescription can still get it filled in other places, but not in Fort Collins.

The National Geographic show seems to be part of a larger series that is still in the process of being released, and there are only a few 2- or 3-minute video clips on the site so far. Still, it caused different emotions in me. My first and main reaction was: "What in the world is wrong with the voters who passed the measure to close the dispensaries?" Even if I didn't have a cousin who relied on the drug for pain relief, I would still have been opposed to the idea. I could understand if they had been trying to get rid of methamphetamine, cocaine, or heroin... you know, drugs that are actually dangerous and don't have much legitimate medicinal use, but marijuana? Really?  

Agriculture still isn't based on the honor system. 

Properly stow your crops, numb-nuts! (Image)

The argument of the people who wanted to close the dispensaries seems to have been that they didn't want hippies or junkies coming to town, or some such thing. But the people getting marijuana in the video didn't look like hippies, they seemed like sick patients that were having a pretty crappy go of it. Plus, any town except Singapore is going to have junkies no matter what, but when I think of "people who smoke a lot of pot," I don't think of junkies sleeping and pooping in the street, I think of people in a living room eating cereal, watching TV with the sound turned off. Although the show did present both sides, there were a few parts of the video that make the whole pro-medical marijuana side seem a bit... well, high. Like the guys who had planted the marijuana plants outside their house, next to a public sidewalk. Seriously, what kind of idiot would do that? Of course high school and junior high kids are going to take leaves from your plants, you morons. It's free pot. That's like storing an open safe full of money next to your mailbox. You can do it, but you should only do so if you're exceptionally stupid.

The other reaction that I felt was disbelief that marijuana is still so vilified in so much of the world, yet alcohol gets off with nary a mention. You may know that I drove a university bus at CU-Boulder for about 6 years. From that experience, I can guarantee you that if there was a belligerent passenger who wanted to fight me and/or other passengers, or who threw up on the bus, or who yelled obscenities at other riders, that that passenger was drunk, not high. High passengers were even arguably even better than regular passengers, since they just sat quietly and looked out the window.

And that's the people who aren't using the drug for medicinal purposes, but if we then consider the people who rely on marijuana as a medicine to get through the day without constantly feeling excruciating pain, then it's even harder to reconcile the voters' decision with the reality of the situation. If the people of Fort Collins wanted to get rid of the junkies, they should have closed down the bars and liquor stores (which I also would have opposed... if people want to get high or drunk, I could care less, as long as they don't bother me or anyone else when they do so). It's just a shame that people who actually were benefiting from the availability of medical marijuana will now have to go elsewhere to literally ease their pain.

Any thoughts?

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750 Free United Miles

I recently ran a few posts about frequent flyer miles (here and here), and I mentioned some of the travel and miles blogs that I follow. I won't mention them much more in this blog, since that's not what this blog is about, but I just wanted to call your attention to the types of offers that can be had for very little effort.

The Frugal Travel Guy recently posted that United was offering 750 miles for people who signed up for the MyPoints program. The program basically sends you emails about different offers (so you should use your "special" address for unimportant messages...you do have one, right?), and if you decide to stay in the program, you can eventually exchange MyPoints points for United Mileage Plus points. The actual program isn't terribly amazing in my opinion, but 750 points just for signing up will give you more miles than a Denver-Omaha flight, and it's free. (The Points Guy gives a good explanation of how to effectively do this.) Plus, you can simply cancel later if you want to.

I'm just mentioning this to show that if you invest a bit of time and effort, you can easily get a free trip... or more.

Happy travels!

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Temporary Iowegians and Sitzmans Galore

Out of 37 pictures, this was the best one.

Not that the world needed more blogs, but... well, there are now three more blogs in the world.

I started one called "Temporary Iowegian" today. I did it because Brad said that he expected a full blog to come out of our visit to him and his family, and of course I'll be happy to oblige the whim of an old friend. So you can check that out if you want (I'll also likely mention future posts there on this blog).

Also, if you happened to notice the "My Blog List" box in the left column you may have noticed two new Tumblr blogs. Tumblr is basically another blogging format, but more for pictures and videos and stuff that people rip off from other people's sites. I use it to post interesting links, pictures, and videos I come across that don't really have much to do with anything else. 

In any case, I started one ("My Tumblr"), and I also started one with my sister Di and brother Paul ("Sitzman, Sitzman, and Sitzman"). If you are on Tumblr, I think you can follow them, or else you can just check them out whenever you want. The siblings one is cooler, though, not only because it sounds like the name of an inbred law firm, but also because we three take turns writing about stuff. So if you like any of us three Sitzmans (or if you hate any of us... you know what they say about keeping your enemies close), then you should check out that blog.

Thanks for reading this and any of those blogs, and have a great rest of the weekend!

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Sitzbook: "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

This will be a fast review (at least I think... it seems I say that for every Sitzbook review, and then most of them turn out to be huge). But I've not got a lot to say about this book.

I read the first two Harry Potter books in 2001 (yes, 2001, not 2011), but that's as far as I ever got on my first attempt. The second one just wasn't good enough to catapult me to the third one, and eventually I started seeing some of the movies, as well --I think I've seen up to the fourth or fifth one-- but then I just started getting confused. I liked the first book well enough, and the movies I saw were OK, but I still got the feeling that if I had read the books, everything would make more sense.

Last year I found out that Lucy had all the books, and they were in British English, as she was quick and proud to point out. For an Australian, she sure has a puzzling affinity towards British stuff. I think they may call that Stockholm Syndrome, but that's a topic for a future post, I suppose.

In any case, Lucy loaned me the first book, which I quickly read last year. I decided that if needed, at least some of the H.P. books would make for quick reads on my book-a-week itinerary, so I've tried to not get them all at one time, in case I need to pad the list with fast, easy books near the end of the year.

So, how's this one? Meh. It's not as good as the first, that's for sure. It's got the magic and the wizards and the Hagrids and whatnot, but one gets the feeling that J.K. Rowling must have been as surprised as everyone else at the success of the first one, and it doesn't seem as this book was really fleshed out and made part of the "bigger picture." It hints at things that I'm assuming will come in future books, but just barely. 

And I really hate the "house elf" Dobby who visits Harry on a few occasions. For some reason, he just seems horrible and grating, but I guess maybe that's what happens when you read books written for kids? There's also a lot of snake-related crap and as you may know, I don't dig that at all. 

Of course I'll still continue the series because I know that all the books and movies are beloved by a generation that seems to have been born just after me, but after finishing this one, I got a bit of nostalgia for 2001, when I didn't feel terribly compelled to keep reading, and when I told myself I could probably just see the movie versions and be OK.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for reading, and have a great new week!

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Sitzbook: "Tokio Blues - Norwegian Wood"

The Good and The Not-So-Good, Together At Last In One Convenient, Hand-Held Place:

This is the second Murakami book that I've read, and I must say that the people who really get into him may be onto something. A few years ago Lucy loaned me Kafka on the Shore, a book which was engaging, entertaining, and even --with its magical realism-- mystical. I got this book (apparently just called Norwegian Wood in Japanese and English) in 2010 while in Spain (hence the Spanish spelling of "Tokyo" in the title) and had been meaning to read it ever since. It didn't disappoint, but it did take me longer than I imagined it would.

Perhaps it was because for at least the first half of the book, I read it all while on the exercise bike in our house. Or perhaps it was the weird-flavored Spanish vocabulary used in the book to refer to all kinds of everyday nouns (I still prefer Spanish books published in Latin America for that reason). Or maybe I just turned into a slow reader for this particular book. Who knows. What I did notice, though, was that it was hard to define what the book was about.

And that's fine. It's also a testament to Murakami's writing, even in translation, that I can read hundreds and hundreds of pages that just describe how a college guy longs after his dead friend's ex-girlfriend. In fact, the more I think about it, the focus on emotion and mental processes, coupled with the lack of concrete action on every page --which, again, is not a bad thing-- almost made me fear that something completely awful was going to happen to all of the protagonists. The book does deal with depression and suicide in some places, and maybe that just made me afraid that if I kept reading, Murakami would kill off all the characters he'd spend so many pages getting me to sympathize and empathize with.

I won't tell you how the book ends, obviously, but I can say that I really tend to like books that don't let you know how things are going to turn out until the very end. In this book's case, that's almost literally the very last sentence, and I can't think of any other book that kept me hanging on in suspense for so long except Catch-22. It's therefore no coincidence that I've long recommended that book, nor is it a coincidence that I'll also be recommending this book, especially for people who've never read Murakami.

Should I Read It?

What? Seriously? Didn't you just read that last sentence? Thanks a lot, Invisible Questioner. Way to kill the nice, wrapped-up way in which I'd concluded this review!

Have a good weekend.

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Sitzbook: "China Survival Guide" and "The Lovely Bones"

My book haul from the Goodwill. About $4.50 total. Don't underestimate the Goodwill.

I don't have a ton to say about either of these books, so I decided to combine their reviews. You can check out my current reading list, as well as other reviews, on my Sitzbook page.

China Survival Guide by Larry and Qin Herzberg

I bought this on the Kindle because we're planning a trip to China later this year. I also picked up a few guides, but this one seemed to focus more on the practicalities of culture and logistics, which are also important. And the book had some good reviews on Amazon. 

The good: The book is an interesting, quick read, and it does have a lot of detailed information which can be quite useful for a traveler to China. It has a lot of useful tips about itineraries, must-see places, hotels, and even toilet paper (hint: BYOTP). It's also written in a casual style, and it almost seems like the kind of thing I might have written.

The not-so-good: The book goes into a lot of details about what things you should check for at hotels to make sure they're not broken (like A/C, television, drains, and faucets), as well as detailing a lot about how Chinese toilets work (or don't work). That's good, but it also made Angela a bit nervous about going, since that was the first part of the book. They do include information about the highlights of China to make the trip less daunting, but that's near the end of the book. Still, with a title like China Survival Guide, you should probably know that they're not going to just be farting rainbows for a few hundred pages.

Should you read it? If you're going to China, probably. If not, probably not.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I picked up this book and a half-dozen of its friends at the Goodwill in Fort Collins on a recent trip. The Goodwill is indeed good, and I hadn't realized it had such a selection of books. Many of them were near-new, or if not, you could find a near-new copy of popular books (like this one, or the Ken Follet book Pillars of the Earth, which I also picked up in the same haul). Plus, at about 50 cents for a paperback and a dollar for a hardcover, you can't really argue with the price.

The Good: It's a well-written book for the most part, and I was glad I finally got a chance to read it since I'd heard about it for a while. The story has sad, depressing elements mixed with a bit of suspense. Plus, it's set in the 70s, so that's cool although a bit inexplicable. Does Sebold think she's the Tarantino of bestselling books?

The not-so-good: The way Sebold wraps up the story wasn't terribly satisfying, in my opinion. Also, it's kind of creepy to think that dead people can follow us, watch our every move, and read our thoughts. That seems to have been a more interesting direction for this book, but it never quite went there.

Should you read it? I don't know --what am I, some kind of book guru? If you want to read a story about a murdered girl who hangs out for a while to spy on her family and killer, then have at it. Otherwise, I think you can probably find something a bit better.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and have a great Wednesday! 

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

"Travel Hacking": Using Credit Cards to Get More Frequent Flyer Miles

Here's the second part of my two-part series about using frequent flyer miles for free travel. In our first post we looked at some general tips for "travel hacking." Today we'll look at a few ways that you can use credit cards to help you quickly get a lot more miles, allowing you to travel much sooner.

But first, as I mentioned in the last post, there's a big "catch" or at least a caveat with credit cards: You have to use your credit and your credit cards wisely. If you don't pay them off in full at the end of each month, most benefits of having the card will be cancelled out by interest charges and late payment fees. I have a few credit cards, but in my mind I try to think of them as debit cards, that is, I don't spend money on them if I don't actually have the money to pay them off when the statement comes at the end of each month. Just keep that in mind before applying for any credit cards. 

Now, let's look at some questions:

How do I get frequent flyer miles with credit cards?

It depends on the credit card company and the specific card, but if you're approved for a card, you'll generally have to spend a specific amount of money with the card in a specific period of time, before you get the sign-up bonus points. For example, a Chase Sapphire card I recently got required me to spend $3,000 on the card within three months to get 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. I normally wouldn't have spent so much on a card like that, but it was around the holidays and I had some big purchases. Plus, I added my mom to the account, and she was able to put some of her spending on it, and later reimburse me when the bill came. A good point to make here is that you shouldn't find things to spend money on just to meet the minimum requirement, but if you are going to be buying things anyway in your day-to-day life, you may as well get some frequent flyer miles for it.

Taken from the United Lounge in Houston. One credit card I got came with two free lounge passes.

It's not a huge thing, but small bonuses like this can make traveling more pleasant.

What are other "catches" to credit cards?

You should also take a card's annual fee into account. Some cards don't have annual fees, and those are good, although they often have much lower bonus miles, especially for the sign-up bonus. In many cases, a card's annual fee is waived in the first year but once you start your second year, you'll be charged for the card. This fee can be anywhere from $45-95 dollars, usually (although there are cards that have annual fees in the hundreds of dollars, but they usually include things like free access to all airport lounges). In some cases, you can avoid the annual fee starting in the second year simply by calling the customer service line and asking for them to waive the fee or to downgrade the card to a no-fee card. Or, if you're not using it, you can also just cancel the card. You may think this could negatively affect your credit score but that seems to not be the case, generally (check out Chris Guillebeau's explanation and expansion of this topic here).

What if I don't live in the U.S.?

That makes the situation much more difficult, unfortunately. I still have an address in the U.S. and I'm an American citizen, so I can get many of these deals with no problem. But the general consensus among most travelers is that it's much harder if you live outside the U.S., simply because the biggest frequent flyer and mileage communities are based there, and the best credit card offers are usually limited to there. You can still join frequent flyer programs and accumulate miles by flying, of course, but some of these other "tricks of the trade" may be difficult to pull off. It's also the reason that almost all our miles are in my name, and not Angela's. But if we were both living in the U.S., we could theoretically get twice as many miles from credit card sign-ups and the like.

Our hotel room in Buenos Aires. Remember that these programs aren't just for flights; many are connected to hotels.

Does this actually work?

Yes, definitely. As I mentioned in the previous post, we took our trips to South America and Germany using frequent flyer miles, and we'll also be taking a trip to China later this year. The China trip was from British Airways miles, all of which I got from a British Airways credit card; I've never even been on a British Airways flight (but I heard they're a pretty nice airline, relatively speaking).

How can I keep track of my credit cards?

Like I mentioned before, Award Wallet can be useful for at least some points and credit card programs (I know they have Chase on there), but I've also heard good things about Mint.com. I've used that to monitor my checking and savings account, but I've not taken the time to link credit cards to it. Still, it comes recommended by some of the travel and savings blogs I follow, so you may want to check it out.

How do I know which credit cards are the best?

That's probably the most important question here. If you follow some of the blogs I mentioned in the previous post, a lot of them talk about credit cards, since they really are one of the fastest ways to get a lot of miles. Credit card offers change, but these bloggers stay very much on top of what's current. Chris Guillebeau even set up a site called Cards For Travel that gives a lot of tips and even lists the best current credit card offers (click here for his current list of the best cards). 

The general consensus right now seems to be that Chase's Sapphire Preferred card is the best option for many people now (Lucky also talked about it here). It gives you 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3,000 on the card in three months. Ultimate Rewards are good because they aren't linked to any specific points or miles program, and can be transferred to most programs at a 1:1 ratio. That means you're not stuck with having miles in only one program. It also doesn't charge the foreign transaction fees that most credit cards these days charge. This particular offer is going to end soon (I think at the end of February or March?), so if you were thinking of getting this card, now is a good time. I got it when I was in Colorado in December, and it's a good card for me because it doesn't charge foreign transaction fees, which is obviously a big issue for me since I spend most of the year in Costa Rica. Plus it's a surprisingly thick, heavy, and metallic card, and people always think I'm some kind of high roller when I use it, especially here in Costa Rica.  

Also, Mommy Points recently blogged about how she applies for credit cards, and includes information on credit scores and the other things she takes into account when considering a credit card.

Yech! If this was "The Golden Age of Travel," maybe we're better off now!

Any other questions?

Again, the reason I'm writing these posts is because I've been very fortunate to have benefited from these mileage programs and credit card bonuses, and I wanted my friends, family, and readers to be able to benefit from them as well. Travel hacking isn't for everyone, though. If you've not got a lot of time, or if you've simply got a ton of money burning a hole in your pocket, you may be just as well off buying your tickets directly. But if you approach the whole thing as a hobby, even spending a small amount of time on travel hacking can reap big rewards. 

If you have any other questions or comments about any of this, I'm certainly not an authority on these matters, but I can try to help you as much as I can, or at least try to point you in the right direction. 

Thanks for reading! Have a good day, and happy travels!

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Link For Award Wallet Upgrade

The other day I posted some tips related to frequent flyer miles, and I mentioned the service Award Wallet. There are two versions of the program: free and paid. I've been using the free version and it's been very useful for me. I can keep track of frequent flyer miles in 8 programs (although they have many more programs you can add to your "wallet"), as well as in some hotel and other rewards programs (even Best Buy Rewards Zone, for example). The service is great because it tells you in a very clear format how many miles and points you have in different programs, and it even tells you if they're going to expire soon. To get the paid version, you can pay what you want (at least that's how it was about a year ago; they may have set a specific price by now), and although the paid version is nice with more stats, the free version is also very useful. 

If you want to sign up, you can click on this referral link. It seems that if you do that, you'll get the upgraded version for free for 6 months, and eventually I think I may get an upgraded version as well for referring people. If you don't see that you've gotten the upgraded version, send me a note and I can give you a code that should work to do that. Still, no pressure; like I said, the free version is fine for me, and it's definitely a convenient way to keep your miles and points tallies together.

In a little bit I'll put up the post about using credit cards to maximize your miles and points. Thanks for reading!

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Meat Loaf Monday: "Come Back To Sorrento"

Welcome again to Meat Loaf Monday! I have some good and bad news, so I'll start with the bad news. I realized that I probably can't do Meat Loaf Monday every single Monday because if I did, I'd run out of videos and songs eventually. He's obviously got a limited number of songs, and many of his greatest songs were made before music videos got popular, so there are only live concert videos of them. That's OK, but after a while many of them start looking familiar (largish man in a white pirate shirt, waving a red scarf and singing the crap out of a song). So while I may not be able to do Meat Loaf Monday every week, I will be doing it on occasional Mondays, as a kind of treat. That's the bad news.

The good news: Today's Meat Loaf Monday!

I chose this video because it's pretty weird, even for Meat Loaf. It's more focused on Luciano Pavarotti, since it's taken from the concert video of Pavarotti and Friends. Apparently it was to benefit Bosnian children. Well, it will also benefit you, too:

I imagine that before they sang this song, the two singers appeared at a press conference with their respective managers for a weigh-in and a measurement of cumulative hair mass (CHM).

Let's get to the song itself. Pavarotti can certainly belt out aural awesomeness, I'll give him that, but Meat Loaf's definitely giving the bearded guy's lungs a run for their money. I like this because it's not a typical Meat Loaf video or song but still, would it have killed the Loaf to at least wear a frilly shirt with his tux? I suppose he's representing with the skeezy pony-tail, but I've come to expect a bit more flair from Meat Loaf, even if he's singing at a benefit concert. Also, it's hard to understand what Pavarotti's singing on about (the words being in Italian and all), but I have a feeling it's not got to do with Rock and Roll. Also somewhat unfortunately, Meat Loaf doesn't ever really go nuts on this song, increasing the tempo and blasting his vocals like the proverbial bat out of hell.

So why did I choose this song? I'll answer that with a Zen Koan to start your week off right:

The Meat Loaf that can be defined is not the Meat Loaf. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

"Travel Hacking": General Introduction to Earning and Using Frequent Flyer Miles

Yes, be that guy.

A few days ago in my South America trip's "Logistics" post I mentioned that I'd talk more about frequent flyer miles. This post is just an introduction to that whole world, since it is sort of a mini-world. I'll include a few practices that I've picked up, and I'll also include some links to good resources if you want to get more into this. I'll do it in a Question and Answer format, to make it easier to navigate.

What's "Travel Hacking"?

"Travel Hacking" is a semi-serious term for any techniques, practices, or skills that you can use to optimize your travel experiences. These days, some people associate the word "hacking" with people who break into web pages or do things of dubious legality online, but that's not what it means here. Here it just means to alter or fix things so that they work better.  

How do YOU travel hack, Ryan?

When you use it as a verb like that, it sounds kind of dirty, actually. But anyhow, it's not! When I say I've gotten into travel hacking, I just mean that I've been following websites and blogs that are dedicated to improving people's traveling experiences. Many of them also talk about frequent flyer miles and how to use them to your advantage, in order to get free flights, hotel rooms, and other rewards.

But does it work? Or do you spend so much time trying to figure out how to build up frequent flyer miles for a free flight, that it's not worth it? Time is money, man!

Good point, Titan of Industry! I think it's definitely worth it, since I enjoy traveling, blogging, and looking at stuff on a computer screen all (almost) equally! For me and other travel hackers, it's all a fun hobby. It definitely can save you money and time, but it's not like you'll get a free ticket just by reading a blog for a few minutes. Unfortunately, it's not that easy, but once you get into it, travel hacking can be rewarding. For example, we took our trip to South America last year, as well as our trip to Germany in 2010, using only frequent flyer miles (well, we had to pay a $30 per ticket booking fee, but for tickets that are normally around $1,000 per person, that's a huge difference). We'll also be taking a trip to China later this year using 100,000 frequent flyer miles I got from British Airways, and I've never even been on a British Airways flight --but I do have a British Airways credit card from Chase that came with a ridiculously high 100,000 bonus miles offer! So an investment of time and curiosity can pay handsome rewards down the line.

Wait, man! There's a better way to get free flights!

What other kinds of things are travel hackers interested in?

If you start to follow some travel hacking blogs, you'll notice that the majority of them talk about:

-Trip reports (ie, where they've traveled lately, and the logistics of how they got there)

-General travel tips

-Frequent flyer programs and other loyalty programs, like for hotel chains

-General airline services like flight routes, airport lounges, and airline policies

-Using credit cards to maximize miles and points (I'll go into this a bit more in a separate post)

-How to actually redeem all the miles and points that you've been accumulating

Why or how did you get into travel hacking?

I believe it started when my friend Brad referred me to Chris Guillebeau's site, The Art of Non-Conformity. Chris is a guy in his early 30s that's trying to go to every country in the world before he's 35 (he's very close to accomplishing it, with something like 10 or 15 countries remaining out of 193 total). He's a very interesting writer, person, and traveler, and his site is more focused on how to generally improve one's life. Since much of his life is based on traveling at the moment, and since much of his travel is with free reward tickets from frequent flyer programs, he also gets into that subject at times. He even has a few pages dedicated to this topic (here, here and here, for example). 

What other travel writers do you follow?

My other favorite travel sites/blogs include:

-One Mile At A Time by Ben aka "Lucky" - He's a young guy who talks a lot about the "fancier" side of travel (he works as a travel consultant and is frequently able to fly first class and stay in nice hotels).

-View From The Wing by Gary - He talks about similar topics to the first blog, but with different perspectives. He also has a service that helps people book reward tickets, so he knows a lot about how the systems work.

-Frugal Travel Guy and The Points Guy - Two more general travel blogs, but with slightly different topics.

-Mommy Points - I'm not a mommy, but the woman who runs this blog is. She does a really good job of making some of the weird ins and outs of miles and points less complicated, and her blog is very clear and practical.

-If you notice, some of these blogs are connected to "Boarding Area," a forum for frequent travelers. There are many more blogs there to check out, but it may be a bit full-on for people just getting into this. Flyer Talk and Milepoint are other similar forums but to be honest, besides the blogs mentioned above, I don't use any of the forums, since it's simply too much information for a casual hobbyist like me to take in.

That still sounds like a lot of sites to keep track of.

That's not technically a question, but I'll allow it. You're right. If you've not tried Google Reader, I'd highly recommend it. It's a way to keep track of all kinds of blogs and websites that you like (I currently follow over 100 sites, including my own blogs!), while only having to go to one place to read them. Here's what it looks like:

Google Reader, a blog junkie's best friend. This is my "Travel" folder.

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch (like I do), I'd recommend "FeedlerRSS," an app that displays your Google Reader subscriptions in a very convenient and readable format. There are other sites,  programs, and apps to help you organize blogs and sites you visit, but Google is one of the most well-known.

I'd also recommend Award Wallet. It's a site that keeps track of your frequent flyer miles and points in all your programs. It's got a free version, or you can also pay a few dollars to upgrade to get more information (like reminders if your points are going to expire, and more detailed historical tracking). If you're interested, tell me; I think I can send you an email to get a free 6-month premium trial, and it'll also give me a few months for free if you sign up. Here's what the site looks like, more or less:

I covered the account details, but you get the point.
Oh, and the 500 miles on Alaska? Free bonus just for signing up.

There's a lot of jargon and weird terms I don't understand on these blogs. What if I'm confused about some of this stuff?

It can be complicated, but these bloggers are very passionate and dedicated to traveling and travel hacking; in some cases, it's literally their job. Most seem genuinely friendly, to boot. I've exchanged a few emails with both Chris and Lucky, and in addition to being very quick about responding, they were also very friendly and helpful with questions I had. Most of the other people on these sites will also be like that, assuming you put in a little effort on your side, too. If you have problems, though, there's usually someone able and willing to help. There are also general information pages like Chris'.

What are other ways to earn miles? I don't fly that much.

Most of my miles aren't from actual flying, and that's the case with most travel hackers. There are some good ways to use credit cards to your advantage (I'll talk about that in a separate post), and there are weird, random promotions. That's why it's good to follow these blogs: they'll tell you when you can get 250 Starwood Preferred Guest points just by "liking" some hotel in Charlotte on Facebook, or how you can get 100 American Airlines miles for watching a 3 minute video about Bose headphones. They'll also usually mention fare sales, promotions, and other special offers, so it's a good way to keep your bases covered.

Also, if you're in the market for buying almost anything, especially online, then you can also check on the site evreward first. You can put in the name of the website or store (like bestbuy.com or Barnes and Noble), and it'll tell you of any offers related to that site and any rewards program. If you're going to be buying anything, even a $10 book, it's a quick way to know if you could get extra miles--and sometimes some airlines offer up to 10 points per dollar if you start off on their shopping sites. The sites lead you to the same online store (like bestbuy.com, for example), but you get extra miles just by starting at the airline's shopping portal. Pretty nice. 

OK, I'd like to do this. So what do I do?

You should start by setting a goal. If you do that, it'll help you focus your efforts in the right direction. For example, your goal could be to take a trip to Japan, with free flights and hotels. Or maybe you want to go on a round-the-world ticket. Or you may just want to take the whole family to visit granny in Hawaii. This obviously depends entirely on who you are and what you want to do, but when you know what you want, it can motivate you to reach it, and it's also easier for others to help you along the way. My personal goal is to go to one new country for each year of my life. I'm 31 and I've been to 32 countries, so I'm OK so far, but I may have to "load up" on extra countries while I'm still relatively young, so I won't have to work out the logistics of getting to Cambodia when I'm 80. It's your goal, so you might as well make it amazing and ambitious!

Next, you should sign up for some frequent flyer programs, if you haven't already. Big ones to probably consider are American, United/Continental, U.S. Airways, and possibly Delta, although the consensus on the forums seems to be that Delta's miles aren't as useful or valuable. It also depends on what your home airport would be, since you'd eventually be using miles for tickets, presumably. If you get thousands of miles on Hawaiian Airlines and live in Podunk, Nebraska, which is only served by AirTran, then you've not been doing things right. That's why I also have Frontier miles, since they offer the only direct flight from Denver to Costa Rica, a trajectory that's obviously very convenient for us. 

There may be promotions for signing up for some programs (Frontier and American seem to have these bonuses once in a while), so just Google the program's name + "sign up" first. You can also consider some hotel programs like Starwood Preferred Guest (they have a good American Express card), Hilton Honors, Priority Club (which includes hotels like Holiday Inn or Inter Continental), or Best Western. Again, it also depends on your own personal location and needs.

Finally, you'll want to start finding ways to earn miles. Follow some of the blogs above, fly, shop using an airline's shopping portal, or apply for credit cards that have large sign-up bonuses in the form of frequent flyer miles.

Yeah, about that: what's with all the talk about credit cards on these mile and points sites?

Good question. Many of the blogs talk a lot about credit cards because using credit cards is simply one of the fastest and most effective ways of earning lots of miles. You must be careful, though! If you have bad credit, you may not get approved for credit cards anyhow, and if you do get any cards, you should be sure to pay them off in full each month. Otherwise the points benefits will very quickly be cancelled out by late charges or interest fees.

Having said that, though, if you can sign up for a few credit cards to get miles or points, then they can be a great tool. 

That's a whole other topic, so I'll address credit cards specifically in the next post.

With that, I'll end this post. I'll be posting the credit card section in a day or two (maybe Tuesday, since Monday is Meat Loaf Monday). The post is almost done, but including it here would have made this post gigantic!

Thanks for reading, and please comment if you have any questions or if you want to share a thought or a story. Have a great weekend!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook