Lights, Camera, Christmas Presents for Free!

It's December 18th. If you haven't started your Christmas shopping, you're just like me. Maybe you're lazy, maybe you having a problem with procrastination, or maybe like most of the people in the United States, you're broke. Well, don't worry, I've found over 1,220,000 ways to help ("christmas shopping for the poor" returned 1,220,000 results on Google). Now, I've sifted through a few of these ideas and have found all of the traditional suggestions. From making your own hot chocolate or cake mix, to baking cookies and making picture collages and multimedia projects.

Let's be honest. If you're reading this you're probably somewhat tech savvy. You probably have a DVD-burner and a TON of electronic media such as music, pictures and videos, some of which, hopefully, includes your family and friends. Now what is one of the most valuable things that you have an use every single day? You're TIME!

So what can we do with $0, some old JPEGs & MPEGs and your favorite MP3's? Well, if you're really not creative, you can always plug them into some program that will automatically mix them up for you (try Wondershare). Or, you could actually take the time to download some professional software like Sony's Vegas Video or anything by Avid, Adobe, you get the picture. Take all of that media you have and make a STORY. I know, it's tempting to find pictures and stuff them all in chronological order and make a slideshow with your familly's "
song." Well, take it to the next level.

How can I take it to the next level, you ask? Well, it's simple. Have you ever watching the History Channel? Sure you have, you've seen those documentaries. You know how every single one of your favorite snack foods is made and have seen each and every one of them extruded from a gigantic machine. But have you ever watched a show about history on the History Channel? What do they all have in common? They are all a series of images and very short video clips which have been mashed together. The images always have a motion path though. The images that you see on The History Channel are never static, they are always moving across the screen and revealing something.

What else do you see when you watch something on the History channel? Well it's not what you see, it's what you hear. Narration is a huge part of telling a story. Although it may be great to take three minutes worth of pictures of you and your friends and put it to your favorite song, you should make something about your family stand out. Tell a story. Use sound effects, use video clips from the World Wide Web. Take historic events that happened throughout your loved ones lives and include media from those events in your story.

Make a video that you could actually play on the Documentary Channel. Now, I'm not saying you need to be Steven Spielberg to pull this off. You certainly don't need a masters degree in cinema either. You just need enough creativity to show your family that you cared enough to take the time to tell the story about someone you love. And, trust me, having done this for many gifts to my parents, it is always the best of the year. What does it cost? Well, of course whatever equipment you need to aquire the media. If you have a bunch of older photographs, I would recommend investing in a very high resolution flatbed scanner to digitize all of those images. As far as a video camera goes, I would hold off on purchasing a HD camcorder and settle for a point-and-shoot digital camera with HD video capability. The price of HD camcorders will sharply fall once the technology becomes standard and 4:3 aspect ratio becomes a thing of the past.

So grab all of your gear, get your story, write a script and make a special holiday for someone you really love. I'll upload a few examples on my Youtube page at http://www.youtube.com/mindtron later this week to show you what I come up with. What can you expect to spend on this project? Well, it would be nice to produce a DVD with a label. So, assuming you already have the software or are savvy enough to find some free or trial ware online, this project should cost you no more than $5. The perceived value will be higher than a diamond bracelet from Tiffany's...

From Asparagus to Zucchini: How your grocery shopping affects the economy

The generation gap is an interesting thing today. Especially in our economic slump. Those of you my age that have any sense and are already working on your retirement have seen your 401(k) balance take a nose dive. Imagine being 60-some odd years old and having a pension based solely on GM stock. "When GM goes down..."

So after a conversation on the phone with my parents I gained a better understanding of things. I thought I was the only guy in town that was having trouble paying his rent on time. I thought I was the only one being pressured to pay his cellphone bill on time. I thought I was the only guy at the bar that couldn't afford his usual top shelf drink. After talking with lots of people about the taboo subject of money, I have come to learn that EVERYONE is somehow affected by this recession.

For example, the Starbucks in the building where I work was forced to raise their prices. Starbucks announced the closing of hundreds of their stores months ago. A Venti Caramel Macchiato can cost up to $5 including tax in most markets. That's a $5 cup of coffee! I know bars that offer martini specials that match that! What is it with our affinity with these frothy beverages? I'm a prime example, here I am, hardly able to pay the bills, sitting in Dunn Brothers drinking a $3.50 latte. Is it the comfort? The sense of false security? Or is it, really, as Starbucks calls it, the comfort of the third place? Regardless of how poor the economy is, or how many DTSB's (Drive-Thru Starbucks as my friend calls them) get closed, Americans will never lose their love affair with socially iconic corporate products such as these. In fact, the Motley Fool has listed Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) as their Best Stock for 2009!

So here we are, in an economy that sucks. What got us here? Well, leave it to Fox News and the Wall Street Journal to argue over that. I think WE got ourselves here and we are ALL guilty of it. Example: micro-conspicuous consumption. Do you remember that economics class you took in college where you learned about conspicuous consumption and keeping up with the Joneses? Well, we're not buying $60,000 SUV's like we did five years ago, but now we're doing it on a much more dangerous small scale. How many people do you know that shop at Whole Foods that can barely make their mortgage payment? Well, none of course, because your neighbor doesn't want you to know that they're struggling. Human nature is to make it appear you're up when you're really down. Now are your neighbors loading their $300 weekly organic grocery bill onto their American Express and paying it off every month? Are they writing a check at the end of the aisle or paying with cash? You can probably bet not, all of that baby asparagus, Ahi tuna and organic wheat germ cereal is loaded onto their 12.99% APR Visa card.

Why though? Why do we do this to ourselves? Is there something wrong with getting your groceries at Super Target or Kroger? Is there something wrong with the discount grocery store down the street? No, of course not, it's all the same produce that comes from the same farms at gets put in the same box. A box of Ritz Crackers will always taste the same whether you buy it at Fresh Market, Kroger or Food Lion.

Now, after having watched Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices, I wouldn't encourage anyone to shop their. Walmart's affect on the economy is horrible. But, when you think about this micro-conspicuous consumption, it really makes you wonder. Which is worse? Shopping at a store that pays their employees $7/hr and paying cash, or putting twice as much money on your credit card to shop at the "boutique" grocery store in Green Hills (a ritzy shopping area in Nashville).

It's these micro-micro-economics that we have to think about. Its the decisions in the things we buy every day that affect our personal economy more than anything else. Now, if every white-picket fence two and half kid perfect family shopped at Walmart, budgeted out their groceries each week and occasionally purchased the generic brand of a few items, perhaps we wouldn't see the consumer credit crunch like we do now. Obviously choices such as groceries won't keep you out of debt. But, get out your adding machine. How much is a box of Ritz crackers at, let's say, Fresh Market? We'll go with $4.59. Alright, now if you were to buy a box of "buttered cocktail crackers" or whatever the hell they're called at Walmart, Target or some other discount store, I could not see you wanting to pay more than $1.99 for the box. Now, we've saved almost 57% by making that small change.

Now, certainly, $2.60 doesn't seem like a monumental savings. But, we're talking about one item in your grocery cart that we've exchanged for a store brand alternative. Now, imagine doing that with 10-20-30% of your groceries. Imagine how much money you could save if you actually got the store brand orange juice from concentrate instead of the $7 gallon of Tropicana-came-from-the-orange-itself-they-just-squeezed-it-in-the-back-room that you always buy. Now, you might sacrifice a little bit of pulp, but if you look at the nutritional information you're almost not sacrificing anything at all.

It's those small choices we make that can make a huge difference in our own personal economies. So, next time you go out for some bread and milk, think twice before you buy the all-natural brand name product you just saw on a commercial during Desperate Housewives before you left the house. And then, when you rack up $4 or $5 in savings a week, you can go back to Starbucks and indulge in that frothy goodness you always lust.

Better Days

Well, it's been quite a race. Last night I surrounded myself with friends across the political spectrum and visited a local bar full of over 20 37" HDTVs all tuned to CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, the hockey game was on silent on a smaller tv tucked in the corner. While watching the returns and the election results unfold, six Canadians walked into the bar and stood behind me. Immediately they engaged in political discussion.

They were amazed by the patriotism and passion they see in America. They admitted that nothing even close to that exists in Canada. When the results came in and Obama was projected to win, no one cheered louder than they. Silence fell inside as McCain made his concession and Obama his acceptance.

Last night proved to me that this election does not determine the fate of the country over the next four years, but the fate of the world. So let us all unite as one as we move on to better days. So take these words and sing out loud because tonight's the night the world begins again.

Top Ten Ways to Save Money During a Recession

10) Order the house wine instead of the imported French bottle
9) Pay by the bottle not by the glass
8) Go to a restaurant where you can bring your own bottle
7) Order a soft drink instead of worrying about wine
6) Order a tap water instead of paying for a soft drink
5) Instead of going out, have a gourmet home cooked meal
$) Instead of a gourmet home cooked meal, try Hamburger Helper
3) Instead of Hamburger Helper, try Ramen Noodles
2) Really save some money and resort to Saltines and Ketchup
1) Go back to the restaurant and drink so much they have to call you an ambulance due to your alcohol poisoning before you pay your tab, thus saving you all of the money, drinking away your depression sorrows and avoiding a diet of saltines and ketchup all while waking up without a hangover!

NOLA Task Force Revelations

I arrived in New Orleans last night at 7:55pm CT. I was on Southwest flight 333 and was one of the 120 passengers on the last flight into New Orleans. Having worked on Task Force months after Hurricane Katrina, I thought I knew what I was getting into. However, after being the only airplane on the tarmac upon my arrival last night, I was introduced into a huge wake-up call.

Upon arrival to the New Orleans Marriott at the Convention Center, I got to see the staging area for the US Army National Guard. After a whole day here, I have realized that the proportion of Army troops to civilians is unproportionate in favor of the National Guard.

The French Quarter is not the same. After walking around for several hours I found that the only patrons of the numerous bars and clubs were either locals that arrived soon after the curfew ended, and numerous people here to repair power lines and assist with the recovery efforts of the rural areas in Louisiana on the Gulf Coast.

Only having been here for 24 hours I cannot give you a complete picture of the city, although, from what I have seen, most of the residents of the New Orleans parish are waiting for Ike to pass before they return. FEMA has not lived up to its promises and the community members seem to be upset. As an outsider, I cannot comment on their response, however, I fee the evacuation of New Orleans was justified and the costs encurred by those evacuated cannot equate to the lives lost of Gustav had been a direct hit.

Hopefully, if Ike is headed this way, people will heed the warning and very few lives will be lost.

Reporting from the Warehouse District in downtown New Orleans, I'm Peter McDermott...

It's Football Time in Tennessee

Living downtown provides a whole new perspective to professional sports. Having worked for the University of Tennessee Police Department I understand all of the security that goes into a major ball game. But, Nashville takes it to a whole new level with street closures and traffic direction and everything unimaginable.

For instance, right now there are three marked police cars, three horses and about 12 police officers all standing right outside of my building. I understand my proximity to the LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans, but I cannot believe how much of an inconvenience all of this riff raff is to everyone living here.

Sure, I'll walk across the river and see the game. Total cost? Nothing, a friend gave me a ticket, I live right across the river and I know better than to pay $8 for a beer there. What about everyone else? I figure the average cost, between fuel, tickets, parking, refreshments and souveniers must be around $80 per person. That doesn't even take into account how much your time is worth and how much is spent just trying to find a place to park.

So, to all of those die hard fans out there that sit on the backed up interstate and drive around aimlessly looking for any parking spot that costs less than $25 and is within a mile of the venue, I salute you. To those of thus that live downtown, don't have to fight the traffic, and can just walk across the river to see the game: isn't it a bitch that you have to park 3 blocks away just to unload your groceries?

All By Myself

When I was young
I never needed anyone
And makin' love was just for fun
Those days are gone

Livin' alone
I think of all the friends I've known
But when I dial the telephone
Nobody's home

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore

Hard to be sure
Sometimes I feel so insecure
And love so distant and obscure
Remains the cure

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore

When I was young
I never needed anyone
And makin' love was just for fun
Those days are gone

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore