Jacqueline MoodyJammin’ Jests, Jukin’ Jives, & Jolly Roger Justice

I cannot believe it.  The credit reporting agencies have finally done something that is good for us.  According to Clark Howard, Transunion and Experian now allow you to freeze your credit online in a matter of minutes for all 50 states. He also states that Equifax is joining the crowd and by November 1st, you’ll be able to obtain a credit report freeze for all 50 states with them online.  Today, Equifax allows you to create a security freeze online if you live in Georgia, Iowa, New Jersey, and Wyoming.

If you want to go ahead and freeze your credit, here’s the links:
Equifax: https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp
Experian: https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=FREEZE
TransUnion: https://annualcreditreport.transunion.com/fa/securityFreeze/landing

I decided to give it a try.  Here’s my experience.

Read more…

It is official.  Microsoft and Yahoo are finally done.  When Microsoft first told Yahoo over a year ago that there was  a strong atrraction and they’d like to hook up, Yahoo said no.  Microsoft listened for a while and left Yahoo alone, but still kept an eye on it.  Microsoft was a sucker for Yahoo’s style and they became obsessed.  Earlier this year, they tried to sweet-talk Yahoo into a marriage.  Yahoo just was not interested in even dating Microsoft and basically told them to shove off and slammed the door in their face.  Microsoft didn’t take this well and went into stalker mode, trying every way they could to get what they wanted from Yahoo.  I can just imagine the conversations as .

“I love you, Yahoo.  I cannot live without you. Don’t you love me?” 

Yahoo curtly responded, “I don’t even like you one little bit.  Now leave me alone!”

“But we’re so compatible. So good for each other.”

Microsoft even went to Yahoo’s family members and tried sweet-talking them.  But in the end, family went with family and Microsoft was left like a lost puppy looking in.

You know, most jokes you hear you can see the punch line a mile away.  This one got me:

A man walks into a bar and orders a double scotch.  He drinks a few and the bartender asks him what’s wrong.

“I decided to surprise my wife and came home early from work.”

The bartender, having heard this many times before, said, “Caught her cheating then, did ya?”

The man put his drink down, looked him straight in the eyes and said, “I sure did. I couldn’t believe it.  I caught her in bed with my best friend in the world. My BEST FRIEND!”  He picked his drink up and slammed it back.

“Well, what did you say to him,” prodded the bartender.

“Bad dog. BAD DOG!”

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I must admit it.  I have absolutely fallen in love with my credit card.  I have started using it for just about every purchase I make.  I feel so much safer using a real credit card than using the fake credit card the bank gives out, which puts your own bank account at risk when there’s fraud.  The safety is a huge benefit, but the rewards are super-fantastic!  By using the card for everyday purchases, the rewards add up quick, especially wit the 3% rewards for gas and groceries. I wound up earning $200 in rewards in just a couple of months, and they sent me $250.  Woohoo!!!  The card is definately worth the $30 annual fee to remove the rewards cap they have on the similar card with the ‘plus’ designation.

You can read my last post about my new chase freedom card where I tried to figure out how they determined what was credited. I do wish they had better disclosure on it so I could see exactly how they determined the rewards, but I am one happy camper.

I have considered getting a PenFed card for the higher rebate for gas, but am not sure about it.  I have heard some good things, but you have to pay to join the credit union to get the card and I’m just not sure that it is that much better.

Google has done it again.  Since Yahoo let the free Overture keyword tool go, there hasn’t been a decent way to find mass search stats without paying a lot of money or joining Yahoo’s Search Network.  Enter Google. They have now started providing approximate search volume for every keyword, they also give you related keyword data to help you build your AdWords campaign.  But they didn’t hide it and require that you have an AdWords account to use it. It’s also available as an external tool for anyone to see.  Basically, they just looked at Yahoo and went, pffffffffttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!

Google has posted a keyword tool tutorial showing you ho to use it externally and how to use it from within your AdWords campaign. 

Here’s the quote from the Google Blog announcement:

Keyword Tool updated with search volume data

Based on advertiser feedback, and our commitment to provide useful tools and information for our advertisers, we’ve now added search volume data to the Keyword Tool. Now, when you use the Keyword Tool to search for relevant keywords to include in your keyword list, you’ll be able to see the approximate number of search queries matching your keywords that were performed on Google and the search network. These approximate numbers are intended to provide better insight into keywords’ monthly and average search volumes than previously provided by the tool.

We not only sang this song while growing up, but I also had a tap dancing routine I used to do to it.  It went something like:

Right heel, Left heel. Right, Left, Right, Left
Heel, together. Heel, together. Shuffle, step. Shuffle Step.
Heel, together. Heel, together. Shuffle, step. Shuffle Step.
Right walking turn, clap. Left walking turn, clap.
March, 2, 3, 4. Shuffle ball change, step.
Right walking turn, clap. Left walking turn, salute.