“I regard this novel as a work without redeeming social value, unless it can be recycled as a cardboard box” Ellen Goodman

When I drive through some neighborhoods I am amazed by the amount of items on the curb. TVs and Computer monitors will not be taken by the trash services. The simple reason is that they cost money to dispose of. I have seen these things stay in front of houses for years apparently in hopes the Earth will reclaim it. This is not going to happen. Instead you might as well bring it over to Best Buy and drop it there. Best Buy has a decent recycle program. They say they adhere to strict Consumer Electronics Recycling Standards which means they recycle all of it and do not ship to foreign countries to be disposed of. Now I should say if your computer or monitor works I recommend dropping it off at a thrift center where it can be reused. If is dead bring it on over to Best Buy. It will cost you $10 bucks to get rid of TVs and monitors but you get a $10 dollar gift card in exchange so you break even. Other items like computers and printers can be brought there for free. However you must remove hard drives from them. I am for any recycle program that follows the proper rules and if you end up with a card to buy more stuff in the end I won’t complain. There are more rules to what they will and won’t take so please read through before you head on over. One of the rules is two items per household per day. Below are the links to the info. So to sum up you might as well go green and get something in turn.

Best Buy recycle Program and rules
Best Buy fine print about recycling

“I never saw a Purple Cow; I never hope to See One; But I can Tell you, Anyhow, I'd rather See than Be One” Frank Gelett Burgess

I meant to do a post on this much earlier but I was waiting to use the service before I recommended it. Unfortunately I never got around to it and instead of waiting more I thought I would put it out there and let you decide. The site is called Moo and their tagline is "they love printing."
Many students ask me about business cards and gift cards and whether they should print them at home. The answer is complex. You could use a program like Microsoft Publisher to create paper goods and I can say the program does a decent job. The problem I usually have is that most home printers are not as good as going to a professional place. Now understand if you are doing a small amount of printing at home is fine but 1000 business cards that are double sided can be awful and tedious. The problem I have had with professional printers is they seem to overcharge. Some of them even charge just to open your document and you are limited to the same image all the way through. That is why I was excited about Moo. They allow as many different images as you would like. Let’s say you are making holiday cards and you have ordered 25 but you really only need 20. The other five will be wasted. Instead Moo allows you to put as many images as you would like in one pack. Same thing goes for all their products like business cards and mini business cards. They do gift cards and all sorts of other types of paper goods. This time of the year many people head to parties and people scribble down their information to long lost friends on the nearest napkins. The idea of a nice good looking card with all your basic info like email or website and of course the basics like phone numbers just sounds perfect. Also I like the idea of creating stickers for every photo I have. The green choice of card stock that is environmentally friendly was a nice thing to see. I checked the prices and they seem reasonable but I would like to stress I have not seen a finished product so please keep that in mind. If you need some paper goods take a look at this service and let me know how it goes.

Note:Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley

“We're overpaying him but he's worth it” Samuel Goldwyn

Have you ever purchased something only to have the price drop a week later? This leaves you kicking yourself and wishing for better timing. Many stores now have price protection policies. This means if the item you purchase drops in price you could be in for a refund. There are two problems with this: 1) It is for a limited time (different for each store) and 2) you do not get any reminders. This means if you do not know about a price drop, you do not get a refund. So to help with this situation there is Priceprotector. It is a simple site with one real goal: informing you of a price drop. If you bought something recently look it up on the sellers page. Once you find the item, right-click on the items link and choose copy link location. Then go back to the Priceprotector page and paste it into their lookup area. It will find it and show you the current price. If you paid less for it or it is the wrong thing, you can change it there. Once it is all correct, type in your email and it will send you any info if the price drops. This is a nice free service that I think you should give a try.