Simple Randomness

Art of the American West

I’m blogging about this because I was actually born in Texas, so I thought this was pretty cool. Now, I can’t fully claim myself as a Texan because I moved when I was 6 and have only been back once (which was to leave on a cruise out of Galveston…so it probably doesn’t count), but I still think this is cool.

In the city of Orange, Texas they have a really cool museum called the Stark Museum of Art. If you’re into art and museums at all, this looks like one that you’ll definitely want to check out. I know for example that my Dad loves museums…maybe I’ll recommend this one to him as well!

Personally I think that museums that have a specific theme can be pretty cool. Some of the themes that are in this particular museum include: Western Art, American Indian Art, Decorative Arts, and Rare Books and Manuscripts. They have a huge selection of different types of artwork as well. So whether you like paintings, sculptures, or anything else they have it.

I was looking over the history of this museum and it’s actually quite interesting. Apparently the founder of the museum, Lutcher Stark, began building his collection of western themed art as an undergraduate at the University of Texas, when he started purchasing works from Texas artists. Then in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he began collecting American Indian objects from New Mexico. So really this collection has been building for quite awhile.

So hey, if you’re looking to make a trip down to Texas anytime soon, this might be a place you want to check out. Orange, Texas is a ways East of Houston, so if you’re down in that area you could take a drive out to Orange and see the Stark Museum of Art and other things in the area as well. Check out their website for more information!

Maybe I’ll Actually Send Photo Cards This Year

I know it’s a little early to be thinking about this, but I came across a site today that does photo cards. My wife and I have never sent one of these out for any reason. I know that they are a very popular thing to do around Christmas, in fact we get several every year from people we know. But we’ve never done one!

The cool thing about these cards is how customizable they are. You can change what the outside of the card says, what the inside says, and use your own image. It’s a great way to send out some Christmas greetings, wedding invitations, and a number of other things, too.

By the way, the site I’m talking about is CardsDirect.com. They have a great selection of designs and styles, and if you don’t like the regular photo card idea you can also just get ones that allow you to slip your photo into a frame card. Personally though, I’d rather go with the full on photo card. I think they look a lot better!

I think the key is to have a cool picture. Too many of the cards I get from other people just have the family smiling at the camera. What if instead it was a picture of the family skiing, or bungee jumping, or something else original. I think that if I was to do a card like this it would have to reflect my family’s unique personality.

The Ultimate Gift Movie Review

Over the weekend my wife and I saw the movie The Ultimate Gift.  I thought it was a really good show and would recommend it to anyone!

Granted, although I might recommend it to everyone I know that not everyone is going to like it.  It’s one of those movies that actually makes you think about what you’re doing with your life and after watching it I felt motivated to make some changes.  Good thing is I’ve been motivated to make changes already and so it mainly just confirmed what I’ve already been thinking.

I really don’t want to give away the plot or anything, but the basic idea is that this wealthy man dies and his family comes to the law firm handling his will to learn about their inheritance.  They are all a bunch of rich snobs/jerks that don’t even care that he died, they just want their money.  And, they are all upset with what he left them.  Then the one lone, most punk looking person there is told that he will be given a special gift.  So the movie goes through what he has to go through to get his ‘gift.’

Anyway, great movie, if you haven’t seen it you should!

Great Summer Vacations

One of the best summer vacations I ever had was my senior family trip to Hawaii. It was just my Mom, Dad, and sister but we had a great time. We spent most of our time on the island of Kauai, and if you’re going to go to Hawaii I highly recommend that island! I still have scars on my knee from that trip…that might be a story for another time…

In the future I hope to have some more great summer trips. These days I’m just doing so much that I don’t always get to have a good vacation. We’ll see what happens in the next couple of years.

One place I’d love to go to in the future is New Zealand. In fact, right now DialAFlight.com has some really good deals on flights to New Zealand. If you’re making a trip sometime soon, check them out to book your next flight/vacation!

Choose a Good Credit Card

Let’s face it - credit cards have become an integrated part of our society. Just about everyone has one and just about everyone uses them. Granted, some use them more responsibly than other…

So if you need a new card, or want to make a transfer to a new card with a better rate, check out Credit Cards Club. They have a lot of cards to choose from and use a credit cards rating system to help you decide what would be best for you.

The one that interests me the most on their list is the type that gives you gas money back. I think we all could use that with prices what they are these days!

Renuzit TriScents Transformation Finalists

I blogged about this contest awhile back, and it looks like they have finally narrowed it down to the top 10 finalists.

Some of the videos and pictures are pretty good, and honestly it would be really hard for me to choose the one that I really like the best, so I think I’ll go with the cute factor. There was one video that had a little girl reading a poem using some big words. But it was totally cute, so for a cuteness factor that one gets my vote.

Or, if you want to go for the sympathy factor there are a couple that fall into that category. Either way, some people got really creative with this thing, so it’s kinda fun to go watch some of the videos and see some of the pictures.

For those of you that don’t know about this contest, Renuzit is offering a $20,000 home makeover to the winner with Tanya Memme. You can do quite the makeover for $20k, so it’s a pretty cool deal.

So here’s what you do: head over to the semi-finalist gallery and take a look at the different entries. Then place your vote! This is a cool idea, so check it out.

The Finer Things in Life, and Home Decor

I think that in one way or another a lot of us would like to have a nicer looking place to live. Just this morning I was looking around at my front room and thought, “Man, this place is a mess!” But have you noticed that when a place is new or you have new things you tend to treat the room better?

Well, what if the rooms in your house always looked nice because you had some good decor in them? I think it would be great, but I hate shelling out the money for it. That’s where companies like Upside Living come in.

These guys have all sorts of cool stuff. They have nice stuff for the home, garden, and even some great ideas for luxury gifts. Maybe I should get my wife her gift from this site. She’s has done some home decor work before and like things like area rugs and they have some pretty cool ones on this site.

So if you need to spruce up the look of your humble abode, this is one site you’ll want to check out if you’re looking for really good looking, quality, upside stuff. Check it out sometime!

Still Trying to Think of Gift Ideas

Ok, so this coming Sunday is Mother’s Day and I’m still not entirely sure of what to get for my wife. I know that she’s not into jewelry, and she likes flowers but my problem with flowers is that they just die.

So I had an idea. What if I got her some new shoes? Don’t all girls/women like shoes? I’ll have to think about this one…

Well, if you think it’s a good idea for you as well, you can always check out Infinity Shoes. They carry a bunch of brands (granted, most of them I’ve never heard of because I don’t buy women’s shoes ever) that are apparently pretty big like tsubo shoes, minnetonka boots, and seychelles shoes. For you women reading this blog right now maybe you can give me an idea of which ones would be the best for my wife.

The other nice thing about Infinity Shoes which made me want to write about them is that they give plenty of good gift ideas. Great selection, great ideas, not a bad combo when you need some gift ideas for a birthday or holiday!

Honestly, if I had to choose a pair for my wife right now I’d go with black Relay Tours. They are more sporty and my wife is a bit of a tom-boy.

Personalized Post-it Notes!

I have to say, I think that VistaPrint is really cool. I remember a couple of years ago I picked up some free business cards from them and was actually quite impressed. I think we might have even done some regular ones through them that my wife designed once upon a time too.

Well, another service that they have is custom sticky notes. Talk about cool! I’d love to have a little stack of sticky notes with my company logo on it. But then again, I guess first I’d have to come up with a cool logo. First things first right?

Anyway, I think that this is a really cool idea for any business. It’s a good, fun way to do some branding. As with anything VistaPrint does they have a lot of pre-designed templates you can choose from or you can design your own.

With all the things that VistaPrint offers, they really are a one stop shop for all your business printing needs. So if you have your own business or are looking to start one, you should definitely consider this company to help you handle things like sticky notes, business cards, door magnets, and anything else you’d need. Try them out!

International Phone Cards are the Way to Go!

If you’ve ever lived outside of the country and had to call home from time to time, you know that the price of each phone call is expensive! And naturally, the more you call the more it adds up. But you have to keep in touch, so what do you do?

Well, I lived in South America for a couple of years and honestly we wanted to keep it cheap when I would call home. So my parents would send me some prepaid phone cards so I could make the calls. And in the end this was definitely the cheaper way to go!

The nice thing about phone cards is that you can set how much you want to spend, and in the long run the rates are usually a lot cheaper than using a standard long distance service. One place where you can get phone cards online is Phone Cards Avenue. They provide cheap international phone cards and allow customers to save 80% or more over regular long distance providers like AT&T and Sprint.

I know that this whole phone card thing doesn’t apply to everyone, because a lot of us probably don’t know people outside of the US. For those of you that do, it’s well worth it.

But for those of you that only know people here in the US, you can also get really good prices on phone cards that call in the country. And still, they prices/rates are usually much better than just using your standard long distance. It may not always be the case, but if you know you’re going to be making a lengthy long distance call you might want to consider it!

Just make sure you don’t run out of time in the middle of a call! So plan ahead, and use a card that will work for you!