It has been over five years now, since I joined a local firm that trades your opinion for coupons.  I ended up joining the company by accident, back in the days of looking for free offers online.  Now, I admit, some of these companies that were looking for opinions and reviews were not all they were cracked up to be, but the one I joined locally ended up being okay.

This company would send you a different task each week in exchange for a coupon or voucher at a local restaurant or store of your choice.  These tasks were as simple as rating a local steakhouse on the quality of the food (was it on the mark or not?) to getting your views and opinions on the customer service at a local retailer.

Quite often, you would find yourself rating a place that you already visit anyway.  I can remember rating the staff at the bowling alley that we visited quite frequently - and getting "paid" (in coupons and vouchers) to do it.

So, is it worth sharing your opinions?  You bet.  Whether or not you get paid for it, your feedback may be instrumental in making a product or company better - which in the end will benefit you anyway.

The transit system in my home town has always been very busy.  The city is not that big and the bus service is just as quick as getting into your car.

Recently they have been trying to move away from using money to using smart cards.  There was an article in the paper last week that mentioned a local card encoding plant had won the contract to manufacture the new transit cards.

As a result of this change, there have been some other developments as well.  They mentioned that they were developing some SIM applications that would allow you to use your mobile phone as your "bus pass".  Another interesting piece of technology are the chip card readers that they will be selling - you can put your transit card into the card reader and "load" your card with credits to ride the bus right from home.

It will be interesting to see if my children will ever use money to ride the bus - but with the move to money-free rides, chances are they never will.

For a lot of people entering the housing market in many areas, there are not a lot of opportunities.  For example, in the area that I live in, the housing values have skyrocketed pushing some first time home buyers out of the market.  This is especially true for those people in the lower middle class who cannot afford the expensive mortgage payments.

For these people, they can either rent or try to find something.  One overlooked housing alternative is used mobile homes.  You can find these homes with similar square footage as a traditional home, but at a price that is in reach of most people.  Even though these house trailers could be moved, in most cases they are a permanent fixture of mobile home parks.

One notable difference is the way you finance a mobile home.  You do not get a traditional mortgage like a regular house, but instead there are manufactured home loans available.  They take into account the different construction and there quick depreciation.  If the home owner can find enough to put down a 20% down payment, quite often they can buy their new home without private mortgage insurance.  Talk to your lender to find out if this can apply for you.

Mobile homes fill the gap in the housing requirement for those people who do not have a large income, or live in areas with high home values.  They do have special financing considerations, but they do make affordable starter homes.

For Christmas this year, I got exactly what I wanted. I got an iPod Nano converter. I bought an iPod Nano with the money that I received for my birthday and I have been completely in love with it ever since. I don’t go far without it and it has become a very real part of me.

I wanted to be able to convert DVD to iPod Touch, so that is what I asked my parents for at Christmas time. I was very excited to see that they actually bought it because they think my relationship with my iPod is unhealthy. I used the argument that my brother plays computer Games all the time and I am at least getting out of the house.

I had to exchange the one that I received for Christmas, as they bought the DVD to iPod Classic software and it was the wrong one for what I needed. This was alright though, as it gave me an excuse to go out on Boxing Day and pick up some other wonderful accessories for my iPod. What a great Christmas I had this year!

When I was a senior in high school, our band took a trip to Las Vegas to play in an annual music festival. One of my responsibilities, as head of the trip planning committee was to try and find Las Vegas hotel discounts that would accommodate such a large group of people.

I called the president of our host high school and asked them if they knew of any hotel promotions that would be in effect during the week of the music festival. He informed me of a few, and sent us some Luxor offer codes, and a list of Mandalay Bay discounts.

We called ahead to see if either hotel had the room to accommodate a group of our size. Both were pretty booked up already, but we lucked out finding enough rooms for all of us at the Mandalay Bay. The room rates were less than we budgeted, so we did not need to raise as much money as we had estimated.  The rooms were superb, and we had a great festival.

I was recently looking into Asheville real estate because my daughter will be moving there in the summer.  I always knew that the day would come when she would leave us, but I still feel so unprepared and know that I will have a hard time letting go.

I thought that rather than her having to find a place to rent, I would look for real estate for sale in Asheville.  She plans to attend school there for the next four years at least, and we could always resell if she decided to go elsewhere at that point.

We found that Asheville Condos had suites that were the perfect size and location for her.  We have not closed the deal yet, but are pretty sure that we will be going with the condos.  She like it because it was roomy and we like that it was secure.

We are starting to pack and I can’t help but get nostalgic as we go through all of the things she had as a child.  I guess by summer I will have to finally be able to let her go, but it will be so hard.

From time to time I work at a New York Limousine Rental company.  I work in the office taking reservation for the services we offer.  Traditionally, December has been a slow month, but this year, things have been a little different.

We have been getting a lot of calls lately about reserving Prom Limousines in New York.  Now, typically, we don’t get calls regarding Prom until February, but because of the shortage of NYC Limo rentals last year, I think everyone is paranoid.

What is really shocking is that we are half booked already for the Proms that we know about and the year is not over yet.  I feel really sorry for those people that haven’t thought of it because when February rolls around, we will have few, if any, openings available.  There will be a lot of disappointed parents and students.  Perhaps, we will hire or purchase more limousines - I guess we will just have to wait and see.

My job, or part of my job is to go over and rewrite Medicare policies. If they are getting outdated or changes have been made to certain policies, they need to be changed or reworded, and it is my job to be the creative talent behind that. I guess, in order to write policies, one must sound dull and boring, but I really enjoy what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for any other job.

Recently, I have been working on a whole section of changes to the Medicare Medigap, and I have found the changes to be quite challenging to reword and very time consuming. It does, however, make my week go by very quickly and it is a rewarding feeling when I complete a whole section. I like to reward myself with ice cream. Unfortunately, that goes straight to my hips and there is not much help available for obesity. I should know, I wrote it.

I have been looking into the policy for free diabetes supplies, as my niece has been diagnosed with the disease. I said I would look into it, and hopefully, I will soon be rewriting these, as well. It may sound like a monotonous job, but, like I said, I love what I do.

Anyone out there still own a fax machine?  Well I did until this past week.  You see, I think I bought the fax machine I had back in the 90s back when they were "cool".  It amazes me how much we used to depend on it to send things for our business, apply for loans, and communicate with the outside world.

But that all changed when the Internet became popular.  I used to apply for loans over the fax machine, but now they have payday loans no fax required.  Another good example is the debt consolidation program that I am involved in - I just send the monthly documents that I need to submit via email instead of my fax machine.

I have been thinking of getting one of those home refinance loans, and take some equity that has built up in my house out.  I no longer have to go down to the bank to do it, I can just go online and fill out an application form - that’s it.  It is a lot simpler than it used to be.

Now, that the fax machine is gone, I will have to find something to take its’ place, before my wife puts something there.  I don’t want any "girly" stuff in my office.

I am a Cancer survivor.  I overcame the disease by eating an organic diet and staying away from as many chemicals and pollutants as possible.  At the time when I was diagnosed and decided to forgo the chemotherapy and fight it naturally, my son was ten months old.  I immediately looked into purchasing organic baby clothing for him.

I had never thought much about organic baby clothes, but a brush with death gets a person thinking about things differently.  I thought about the fact that if I was more careful with what I fed him and how we lived our lives, I may be able to prevent him from having to go through this one day.

I was excited to find that my organics supplier has recently received a shipment of organic baby bedding, including the mattress for his crib.  Going organic has been very costly, but I feel like a better mom and I feel like I’ve given him a better life.