Sunday Afternoon Browsing - Movies At Amazon

Today I had planned to write a post about the movie I just watched, Food, Inc. Instead, I thought it might be more interesting to write about some features of Amazon that I had never noticed before. I was checking to see if the movie was available through video on demand, and I noticed some things on the page.

Some DVDs that you buy from Amazon give you the Amazon Video on Demand access for free. It's called Disc+ On Demand. That's a nice service. Just in case you want to watch it right that second (before the DVD gets to you maybe) or away from your DVD player, you can access it.

Also, while I was looking down the page, I stumbled on Amazon's Disc Trade-in system. I was unaware that you could trade-in your DVDs or Blu-ray discs and get an Amazon Gift card and extra credit for the Amazon Blu-ray Store. That's cool, too. I have not yet ventured into the world of Blu-ray, but I have been wondering how that transition was happening. It seems that the folks who are early adopters of Blu-ray would also have huge DVD collections. Most likely, they would want to see some of those movies in Blu-ray. It's nice that they can do this cost effectively.

Another thing I noticed is that these Blu-ray discs often come in a combo disc with Blu-ray on one side and DVD on the other side. That's cool. I had seen ads for this, but didn't understand how it worked. I thought maybe there were two discs in the box. Glad we are getting better at making these transitions. I still have memories of Betamax, VHS and Laserdiscs.

I'm not sure when I'll venture into the world of Blu-ray, but I'm sure it will be a while. First I need one of those fancy new flat 42-inch HD TVs.

Netflix Streams Movies to Your TV with the Wii

I just read on the Netflix website, that this spring you will be able to stream movies to your TV using the Wii. So for those of you contemplating getting a Roku box, you might want to wait, and just use your Wii. I don't have a Wii (yet), but maybe one day I'll get one.

Apparently, you only need the free CD that Netflix provides to install some software on your Wii. No other equipment is required. You do need high speed internet and a Netflix subscription.

I did read something interesting recently about how these streaming devices work with your Netflix subscription. You can watch streaming movies on up to 6 different devices, but not simultaneously unless you have enough DVDs out at a time on your plan. For every DVD out at a time in your plan, you can watch one instant movie simultaneously. That means, if you have two streaming devices, you can only watch two streaming movies at the same time if you have a two at a time DVD plan.

Google Alerts: A Good Tool for Bloggers

I stumbled on a nice tool today that will help me with my blogging research, among other things. It's Google Alerts, and it is a service that will email you links to whatever keyword you put in. You can get links to news, blogs, the web or whatever combination you want.

I'm planning to use it to help me speed up my research for Pug Market. Since the main theme of the site is to highlight products for pugs and people who love pugs, I am frequently doing searches for pug-related items. I set up a Google Alert for the word pug, and the results are delivered right to my inbox.

Now I'm not sure if these are the top results or just a random mix, but it sure mixed things up for me. In one day I have 3 items to check out and write about. That's nice. It's always better to have information delivered to you automatically than to have to search high and low for it.

I also set up an alert for the company I work for. We are going through some difficult times, related directly to the new health care bill. So, I want to keep up with the news and read the articles before I have to read about it in a corporate memo a few days later. It's handy.

I also set up an alert for my home town. Maybe I'll find out something interesting that is going on. You never know. Since it's a college town, I expect a variety of topics to appear on that list.

I'm sure I'll find other keywords to check for things that I like to research, but sometimes lack the time or energy to do manually. We'll see. I highly urge you to check it out if there are things like news items you want to follow, products you need to find or events you need to keep up with.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

Yes, it's been quiet on the blogging front, but it's a new year, and I've already been busy writing. I have a whole list of ideas for blog posts, and they will be showing up here and on my other blogs soon.

I hope everyone had as wonderful a holiday as I had. I had a great Christmas. I had fun with my family and it was awesome to see my little one react to his first Christmas. The day after Christmas was his birthday, and we had a nice little party.

One of the best things about the holiday is the Roku Player that I got. This box is totally awesome! I have already watched Season 5 of Lost through Netflix. I have watched a bunch of movies, too. The other day I explored Pandora and MediaFly. I also checked out the TWiT channel. I don't have much time to talk about it now, but I will devote an entire blog posting to my love for this gadget. If you are a movie buff who uses Netflix, this box is awesome. All of your instant watching movies are available at any time, and the box keeps track of where you are in the movie if you have to stop it. It's great for those of us with many distractions (like a 1 year old). In addition to Netflix, you can use the Roku Player to view Amazon Video On Demand.

Anyway, despite my increased movie watching, I have managed to do quite a bit of writing in the past week. I decided to get over my writing slump and give Textbroker a serious try. I'm glad I did. I wrote a longer article (800 words) and got my first DirectOrder. This means I get paid a higher rate, and I got 10 articles requested specifically for me. I have completed 9 of the 10 articles and the client seems happy. These longer articles pay off, too. I can write one in about a half hour and I make about 12 bucks. If I ever get to write 4 articles a day, that is quite a hefty side income for 2 hours of work. So far, I am just happy I am on a roll again. Hopefully I can continue the trend. I also applied for the Level 5 rating of Professional Writer. It will take weeks to get an answer, but if I can get rated at Level 5, my price per word increases by quite a bit.

So, good things are going on. I am contemplating challenging myself to a Hundred Articles in a Hundred Days on Ezine Articles. This would help me promote my website. It's a nice goal, and the articles only have to be about 500 words long. I can do that. It's possible that maybe I am meant to write after all.

This is the first year that I did not make official resolutions. I of course have goals, but most of them are continuing progress from the past year. More writing, more blogging, more graphic design for Zazzle. Of course a few things for the home life - keeping up with the laundry, cooking wholesome meals and getting enough sleep.

Well, I'm supposed to be writing that 10th article... I gotta run, because my deadline is looming (midnight).